Finding My Virginity

Finding My Virginity is Richard Branson’s follow-up biography, which shares the highlights of his entrepreneurial journey over the past two decades.

What would you find if you broke down business to an atomic level? I think at the core, you’d see this: Each dollar earned is the result of a transaction. People pay money and receive an experience. Therefore, Richard Branson is dealing with fundamentals when he asks: “How can we improve peoples’ experience here?”

It’s the first thing he does whenever he considers competing in an industry. What follows from this is that the shittier peoples’ current experience is, the easier it is for you to improve it. Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Mobile, Virgin Money, Virgin Trains, Virgin Active, no matter which venture you pick, you can always trace it back to this question.

Wherever people are getting screwed over by the current system is an opportunity for you to strike. The worse it is and the longer it’s lasted, the bigger the opportunity. When Branson launched Virgin Atlantic in the 80s, for example, it was mainly because British Airways was giving people bad food, bad entertainment and bad service. Customers were enduring flights, not enjoying them and that was a chance for them to do better.

Look around. Where are you getting screwed? How can you improve this?

At one point, Branson became friends with Nelson Mandela. Later, as he thought about what charity he could start, he couldn’t come up with a clear focus. Instead of waiting for one to spontaneously emerge, he called up Mandela and told him he wanted him on board. Mandela agreed.

From there, Branson made it their goal to just assemble a team of the greatest philanthropists and brightest minds in charity. He told Mandela to pick 12 more people, thus creating “the Elders,” a kind of council like tribes had ages ago in their villages. Together, they recruited Kofi Annan, Muhammad Yunus, Jimmy Carter and others.

Even once the Elders were assembled, Virgin Unite still had no theme but to “make the world a better place.” From there, they eventually went on to advise places where crises happened, traveling the world and spreading ideas in countries like Sudan, Somalia, North Korea and Palestine.

What’s the lesson? You don’t always need a plan for everything. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of getting the right people together and the rest will figure out itself.

When Richard Branson entered the cable, internet and communications sector with Virgin Media, one of their biggest competitors, NTL, wanted to partner with them. There was only one problem: NTL’s customer service sucked, but customer service was the one thing Virgin cared about. However, since NTL already had the infrastructure…