Finding My Virginity

October 1, 2017
A sequel to the business magnate's 1998 bestseller, Losing My Virginity.Branson (The Virgin Way: Everything I Know About Leadership, 2014, etc.) describes his rise in the past two decades as a global entrepreneur whose Virgin Group brand now controls more than 400 companies in sectors ranging from media and entertainment to travel and financial services. His brisk narrative celebrates life as "one big adventure," offering vivid scenes of his personal life, his colorful, often irreverent business practices, and his wide-ranging philanthropy to advance health, help the environment, and stop the exploitation of children. "I do most things on emotion," he writes, allowing that his risks are calculated and managed by carefully selected staff. Much of the book details the deals behind his work in space flight and other areas, where he brings "passion, know-how and determination" to bear on his disruption of existing industries. A man who prizes humor, Branson recounts many of his publicity antics, from dangling from a crane in Times Square to hiding in overhead baggage compartments on Virgin aircraft, lowering himself to ask boarding passengers if he can be of service. He deems entrepreneurship, which he encourages in many forums, to be "our natural state...like playfulness," and his many stories of vetting new business ideas, learning the lay of the land, and acting decisively illustrate how he has been pursuing that life since founding Student magazine at age 16. His work with The Elders, a group of leaders working to solve global conflicts, begun by Branson, Nelson Mandela, and others, underscores his keen interest in humanitarian work. The author also provides revealing anecdotes about Paul Allen, Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Kate Moss, Donald Trump, Al Gore, Rupert Murdoch, and others.A welcome update from an irrepressible iconoclast who prides himself on "effervescence, cheekiness and great service."

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October 1, 2017
Since his prior self-expose, Losing My Virginity (1998), Branson (The Virgin Way: Everything I Know about Leadership, 2014) has rocketed to ever-greater fame. This recollection of his past 20 years only loosely adheres to chronology as Branson flits among a welter of topics: the creation of companies under his Virgin brand, activities at his British Virgin Islands home, forays into philanthropy, publicity stunts gone haywire, fondness for family, and a determination to fly to space to cap the extreme adventures for which he is almost as well-known as for his capitalistic success. His boisterous recounting of business start-ups and personal incidents, from bodily injuries sustained to global celebrities met, is dizzying as Branson descants upon his dislike for detail, constant search for ideas or issues he regards as consequential, and drive to squeeze maximal fun and love out of every moment of his life. But Branson is also more reflective than before, dispensing wisdom about company leadership and happy marriages, which his evidently is. To get a clear sense, however, of the author's daredevil, disruptively gleeful personality, start with what ends his memoir: 75 accidents from which Branson emerged alive. If he lives to his nineties, he vows a third autobiography.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Publicity is second nature to the famed Branson, so interest will rise exponentially with publicity and media appearances.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)