Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson

These are my notes from Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson. Each one contains a core idea from the book that stood out. The goal of writing my notes this way is that each could be it's own independent idea with the need for the specific context within the book.

Be a Representation of Challenges

Richard Branson holds 7 world records. Since he was a kid, he loved to take on a challenge and never backed down from it. After his ballooning challenge crash-landed in the Algerian desert, Branson admitted to himself that he would make another attempt. There were only a few great challenges left, and that was one of them. The challenge was irresistible and burned deep inside. Richard Branson attributes his drive to these challenges he’s overcome. He said, “Both the series of balloon flights and the numerous Virgin companies I have set up form a seamless series of challenges which I can date from my childhood. It all built upon each other.”

Branded Small Bets

The collapse of Enron showed Richard Branson how fragile enormous companies are. The 9/11 attacks almost put Virgin Atlantic, their airline, under. Virgin Group decided to build their company differently. It was "branded venture capital." Virgin isn’t one company in one sector, where a breakdown event could have a huge impact on the business. It has been designed to be 200 or 300 separate companies that have their own legs. The link between them all is the brand. A series of small independent bets, insulated from external risks outside of anyone's control.

Driven by Naivety

At 15 years old, Richard Branson started Student. The goal was to create Britain's biggest magazine for young people. Branson was never good at school, but this gave him confidence. He had no money to produce the magazine and needed advertisers to cover the cost. Branson, a 15-year-old schoolboy, found a way to trick the operator into getting free calls. He would send companies letters and then go to the public telephone box and pitch them, "Had I been five or six years older, the sheer absurdity of trying to sell advertising to major companies in a magazine that did not exist and edited by two fifteen-year-old schoolboys, would have prevented me from picking up the phone to do it," Branson said. He was too young, too naive, to contemplate failure. That heated naivety created his success. Student was the only thing Branson felt confident he could excel in.

Make Decisions to Sleep Well at Night

The train Virgin built when starting Virgin Trains was designed for safety. They wanted every innovation of safety built into it. "We want a train that should be able to survive an accident at full speed, regardless of the cause, and the passengers should be able to walk away from it," Richard Branson told the manufacturer. They built exceptionally strong carriages. Their train was much heavier and more expensive to run with unnecessary safety precautions. In February 2007, an accident happened with Virgin's train. Little was known at first, but the press reported it was humiliated how unsafe the train was. Many people called it a miracle. Richard Branson went to the hospital to see passengers. By the time he arrived, only 11 people were still there. 25 passengers were Virgin's, credited because the golden standard for cross management and train safety. They went far beyond the standard to make it safe, doing all that could be done.