Founders

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

What I learned from reading <a href="https://amzn.to/2qTyCrx">Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way</a>by Richard Branson---<a href="https://foundersdaily.supercast.com/">Subscribe to listen to Founders Premium</a> — Subscribers can listen to Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes and every bonus episode. ---Business is a fluid, changing substance. A mutating, indefinable thing [0:45]I just pick up the phone and get on with it [7:50]smart ways to get initial traction [9:51]to understand the entrepreneur, study the juvenile delinquent [14:19]Richard Branson's early business philosophy [14:49]the beginning of Virgin [19:00]what he learned from going to jail [23:01]the scope of Richard's ambition at 21 [24:44]a model of compatible businesses [27:00]how Richard Branson made his first fortune [29:00]how Richard Branson gets Necker Island and the idea for Virgin Airways [34:45]protecting the downside risk [38:40]Richard Branson's view on public companies [46:12]taking Virgin private, funding secured [52:00]questioning the direction of his life at 40 years old [59:54]

Learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs. Every week I read a biography of an entrepreneur and find ideas you can use in your work. This quote explains why: "There are thousands of years of history in which lots and lots of very smart people worked very hard and ran all types of experiments on how to create new businesses, invent new technology, new ways to manage etc. They ran these experiments throughout their entire lives. At some point, somebody put these lessons down in a book. For very little money and a few hours of time, you can learn from someone’s accumulated experience. There is so much more to learn from the past than we often realize. You could productively spend your time reading experiences of great people who have come before and you learn every time." —Marc Andreessen