Book review of the biography of Richard Branson titled ‘Losing My Virginity’.

Everyone knows Richard Branson and his brand Virgin. Sure, he’s a billionaire and writing a book when you’re one makes it easy to become a bestseller. What surprised me about this book was its depth about his thoughts and down-to-earth manner which is was written in.

Taking the first 43 years of the life of Richard Branson into one book creates a wonderful journey which makes much of us wonder what it would be like. Growing up in the 50’s and being a teenager during the sexual revolution of the late 60’s and early 70’s Richard Branson is being very open about his private life at that stage. I think it is great for anyone to see that entrepreneurs grow not only their business, but more so themselves as well. Putting forward his experiences building up Student and later Virgin Music this has been a great example to see someone pushing his own boundaries each day again.

Further down the book, business will get the best of the read and not so much the person of Richard Branson himself. This may be due to the fact that he more or less became his business, where in the first part of his life this role was reversed. The writings are nevertheless as exciting and you can actually ‘feel’ the growth of business and figures while reading. Having not disbanded the little facts of thousand dollar loans in the beginning of the book give you a great sense about the scaling-up that has taken place. Virgin Music expands, business troubles and failures are mentioned, but always success remains. There can be no adventure without failure.

The last part of the book focusses on Virgin Atlantic, the airline. Where the book ends around 1993 much of the British Airways lawsuit and ‘dirty tricks’ campaign is being written about. Although these chapters were a great read and blows the mind of any James Bond loving viewer, I think the total chapters are out of proportion. Feelings are noted, but Richard Branson as a person and what it did to his private life are missing out. Sure, the lawsuit was a gruelling experience, as anyone can understand who once had one. It is the wonder of how he could remain doing business in his ‘fun and positive’ way while going through this process what interests me most.

This book has been a great read and could be a valuable experience when you’re in business. Forget about the billionaire, read about the entrepreneur.

For more of my book reviews visit Amazon.com using the link below. Please vote when you like them!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A2HW2Q565EFWZL/ref=cm_cr_pr_auth_rev?ie=UTF8&sort_by=MostRecentReview