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Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way

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Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way Description

Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way: "Oh, screw it, let's do it."

That's the philosophy that has allowed Richard Branson, in slightly more than twenty-five years, to spawn so many successful ventures. From the airline business (Virgin Atlantic Airways), to music (Virgin Records and V2), to cola (Virgin Cola), to retail (Virgin Megastores), and nearly a hundred others, ranging from financial services to bridal wear, Branson has a track record second to none.

Losing My Virginity is the unusual, frequently outrageous autobiography of one of the great business geniuses of our time. When Richard Branson started his first business, he and his friends decided that "since we're complete virgins at business, let's call it just that: Virgin." Since then, Branson has written his own "rules" for success, creating a group of companies with a global presence, but no central headquarters, no management hierarchy, and minimal bureaucracy.

Many of Richard Branson's companies--airlines, retailing, and cola are good examples--were started in the face of entrenched competition. The experts said, "Don't do it." But Branson found golden opportunities in markets in which customers have been ripped off or underserved, where confusion reigns, and the competition is complacent.
And in this stressed-out, overworked age, Richard Branson gives us a new model: a dynamic, hardworking, successful entrepreneur who lives life to the fullest. Family, friends, fun, and adventure are equally important as business in Branson's life. Losing My Virginity is a portrait of a productive, sane, balanced life, filled with rich and colorful stories:

Crash-landing his hot-air balloon in the Algerian desert, yet remaining determined to have another go at being the first to circle the globe

Signing the Sex Pistols, Janet Jackson, the Rolling Stones, Boy George, and Phil Collins

Fighting back when British Airways took on Virgin Atlantic and successfully suing this pillar of the British business establishment

Swimming two miles to safety during a violent storm off the coast of Mexico

Selling Virgin Records to save Virgin Atlantic

Staging a rescue flight into Baghdad before the start of the Gulf War . . .

And much more. Losing My Virginity is the ultimate tale of personal and business survival from a man who combines the business prowess of Bill Gates and the promotional instincts of P. T. Barnum.

Also available in the UK from Virgin Publishing, and in Canada from General Publishing,


From the Hardcover edition.

Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way

Richard is good-looking and very smart, that is horny to start out with. He conjointly makes a billion bucks before breakfast—and still is aware of a way to have fun. Few people in up to date business are as colorful, shrewd, and irreverent, and doubtless no one’s nearly as much fun to be around. . . . Branson embodies America’s cherished mythology of the iconoclastic, swashbuckling entrepreneur. Branson wears his fame and cash exceedingly well: no necktie, no chauffeur, no snooty clubs. . . . What continues to set Branson apart is the distinctive -- and, to some, baffling -- nature of his ambition. . . . He isn’t inquisitive about power in the usual sense of influencing people. . . . Boiled down to its singular essence, Richard Branson simply wants to possess fun. Richard Branson . . . is dressed to the nines: in a $10,000 white silk bridal gown with a standard veil and train and acres of lace. . . . Branson is expected to try to to the unexpected, even the bizarre -- anything to publicize his latest venture. . . . the actual fact is, Branson’s widely reported stunts appear virtually staid compared to the unconventional approach he manages his burgeoning empire.