"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.
Jimmy Nzioki –
Alexiah Mami Mdindi’s book, A Journey To Behold, will definitely be worth your time and dime. The author transports you into her world from where she grew up in Kighalla village in Taita-Taveta County, Kenya.
The author reminisces her early childhood growing up in a traditional setting while accurately contrasting it with modern society. The book is a repository of the author’s own memories and her delivery is simple and engaging.
Jimmy Nzioki –
Ever read a simple but well-written memoir? If not, then Alexiah Mami Mdindi’s book, A Journey To Behold will definitely be worth your time and dime.
The author wastes no time in transporting you into her world from where she grew up in Kighalla village. A place that was redolent with nature’s finest: a beautiful and flourishing land. One would dare imagine it to be a land flowing with milk and honey as the author gives a very vivid description of the scenery of her motherland in Taita-Taveta County, Kenya.
The author reminisces her early childhood growing up in a traditional setting while accurately contrasting it with modern society. She relives what it was like growing up in the post-colonial world of Kenya in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s. At times the author takes a break from her narration of events and muses over how things are not as they once were owing to various socio-economic factors of then and now. She then ropes in the reader back into the present.
Her story is aptly scattered in the book making the reader continue flipping the pages in order to find out what happened. It is non-linear. She honestly takes you through the motions of her joy and sorrows brought about by life’s inevitabilities of gains and losses. Her raw feelings of the loss of her mother are quite apparent as you read through. The three “marriages” of life as she calls them are: birth, marriage, and death. Stages that all of us will have to go through on this side of eternity. Her own near-death experience makes the reader realize the brevity of life and the faith that we need to possess in order to overcome certain trials in our lives.
The book is also a repository of the author’s own memories and her delivery is simple and engaging. Generally, it is a good read for anyone who would want to experience the old and new Kenya in a new way through the author’s point of view.
Jimmy Nzioki –
Ever read a simple but well-written memoir? If not, then Alexiah Mami Mdindi’s book, A Journey To Behold will definitely be worth your time and dime.
The author wastes no time in transporting you into her world from where she grew up in Kighalla village. A place that was redolent with nature’s finest: a beautiful and flourishing land. One would dare imagine it to be a land flowing with milk and honey as the author gives a very vivid description of the scenery of her motherland in Taita-Taveta County, Kenya.
The author reminisces her early childhood growing up in a traditional setting while accurately contrasting it with modern society. She relives what it was like growing up in the post-colonial world of Kenya in the 70’s, 80’s and the 90’s. At times the author takes a break from her narration of events and muses over how things are not as they once were owing to various socio-economic factors of then and now. She then ropes in the reader back into the present.
Her story is aptly scattered in the book making the reader continue flipping the pages in order to find out what happened. It is non-linear. She honestly takes you through the motions of her joy and sorrows brought about by life’s inevitabilities of gains and losses. Her raw feelings of the loss of her mother are quite apparent as you read through. The three “marriages” of life as she calls them are: birth, marriage, and death. Stages that all of us will have to go through on this side of eternity. Her own near-death experience makes the reader realize the brevity of life and the faith that we need to possess in order to overcome certain trials in our lives.
The book is also a repository of the author’s own memories and her delivery is simple and engaging. Generally, it is a good read for anyone who would want to experience the old and new Kenya in a new way through the author’s point of view.