Recently, I read the first part of Richard Branson's autobiography Losing My Virginity. It was a fantastic read that gave me a peek into the build-up of a high-growth company in a high-velocity environment. It tell the audience how that brand Virgin - one of the most recognized brands in the world - came to be. With his daredevil habits of balloon flights across Pacific and Atlantic, and his boat trips across Atlantic to break a record, Richard Branson is more like a maverick in the business world. But as is clear from the autobiography, those same qualities of fun and courage seem to have built up Virgin Group.

I had a real good time reading Richard's book because it combines two of my passions: music and entrepreneurship. Actually, make that three: I am a keen watcher of aviation sector too. Talking about music and business, the autobiography is more like the movie Almost Famous, which is about a high-school boy who sees the world of rock and roll while being a 'roadie' with a rock band. Well, in the same sort of way, Richard's biography tells so much about the business of music while narrating incidents such as signing up of Sex Pistols, Boy George, Dire Straits, Pink Floyd etc from a very interesting perspective - a perspective only that only an industry insider can provide. Later, in the second half of the book, the focus shifts to the setting up of Virgin Atlantic and subsequent fight with British Airways for their dirty tricks.

I had so much fun reading the fast-paced biography that here, I am noting down excerpts and general insights from the book. The figures in brackets are page numbers, in case I need to refer the book again

Book details:

Title: Losing My Virginity: How I've Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way.
Author: Richard Branson

Edition: Paperback

Pages: 400

ISBN: 0812932293

Publisher: Times Books; (October 1999)

Available: here at amazon

Excerpts and Insights



Personal

*

Richard's great-uncle Jim Branson was obsessed with eating grass and grew tubs of grass in his bathroom for making into hay. When Jim was invited out to eat, he'd take his nosebag with him and eat grass. But he became famous later for helping out SAS (Special Air Service) during the world war. SAS, set up by David Stirling, was a crack regiment designed to operate behind enemy lines and since SAS had to travel light, Jim was advising David Stirling and his elite troops on how to live off grass and nuts. (17)
*

Eve, Richard's mom, was an air-hostess. But before that, she, in an arrangement with one of her instructors, had to disguise herself as a boy at the RAF gliding club as the pilot jobs were available only to men. (18)
*

As a kid, Richard never liked onions which were grown in their garden and served at meals. He used to hide the onions in a table drawer. The drawer was never cleaned out until they moved house ten years later. The drawer was then opened and the pile of fossilized onions was discovered. (20)
*

At Scaitcliffe Preparatory School boarding, a boy had taken liking to Richard Branson, and got him into his bed to play "feelies". On his first weekend home, Richard told his parents matter-of-factly what had happened under the sheets. His dad calmly said: "It's best not to do that kind of thing." That was the last time such an incident happened. (24)
*

Richard Branson was a dyslexic kid. And he had to suffer a lot throughout his school life due to this. More so because "Dyslexia wasn't even deemed a problem in those days. Since nobody had ever heard of dyslexia, being unable to read, write, or spell just meant to the rest of the class and the teachers that you were either stupid or lazy. And at prep school you were beaten for both." But dyslexia taught Richard to concentrate and made him more intuitive. (25)
*

Scaitcliffe headmaster's eighteen-year-old daughter Charlotte took fancy to Richard. Every night Richard would climb out of his dormitory window and creep over to her bedroom in the headmaster's house. One night, as he climbed back through the window, he was caught by one of his teachers. The next day Richard Branson was expelled from Scaitcliffe Preparatory School. That evening, fearing parents' wrath, Richard wrote a suicide note but gave it to a particularly nosy kid. Just as he was walking towards the cliff, a crowd of teachers and students came and they managed to drag him back from the cliff, and the expulsion was overturned. His parents were surprisingly relaxed about the whole episode and his father even seemed quite impressed that Charlotte was "a very pretty girl."(27)
*

Later at Stowe, a big public school in Buckinghamshire, Richard would take refuge in library and write the most lurid sexual fantasies he could conjure up: "amazing erotic stories all about a young boy who couldn't play sports due to a knee injury, but who was befriended and then gloriously and expertly seduced by the young Scandinavian school matron. In my mind's eye she used to creep up behinf him when he was working in the library... But sadly for me, no matter what incredible sexual encounters I dreamed up, there wasn't a girl, let alone a Scandinavian, within miles of Stowe, and our matron was sixty years old." (28)

Business, Competition, Funny, General, and Everything Else

*

For title, David Tait, who runs the American side of Virgin Atlantic suggested that Richard calls it "Virgin: The Art of Business Strategy and Competitive Analysis". Richard said "I'm not sure it's catchy enough." David replied: "Of course. The subtitle would be: "Oh , Screw, Let's Do It." (13)
*

Richard's aunt Clare was an entrepreneur too. She was obsessed with Welsh mountain sheep, and to protect the sheep, Clare bred a large flock and managed to bring them off the endangered list, and in the process set up The Black Sheep Marketing Company. She worked hard to build up Black Sheep as a trade name, and she succeeded: it's still going strong. Then, in the early days of Virgin Records, Aunt Clare called Richard up and told him the incredible news that one of her sheep has started singing "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep". She wanted to make a recording of the same but said that sheep wouldn't do it in a studio. Hence, Richard sent a bunch of sound engineers to Norfolk with a 24-track mobile studio and they recorded Aunt Clare's singing sheep. They also amasses an entire choir of sheep, ducks, and hens for the chorus, and Virgin released the single "Baa Baa Black Sheep." It reached Number 4 in the Top Twenty. (22-23)
*

Richard Branson on IQ tests: "I once took an IQ test where the questions seemed absurd. I couldn't focus on any of the mathematical problems, and I think that I scored about zero. I worry about all the people who have been classified as stupid by these kind of IQ tests. Little do these people know that often these IQ tests have been dreamed up by academicians who are absolutely useless at dealing with practicalities of the outside world. I loved doing real business plans, even if the rabbits did get the better of me." (30)
*

Richard Branson's first business plan was a magazine named Student that he started while at Stowe. (32)
*

At Stowe, Richard Branson cheated for his ancient history paper as he was too busy running Student magazine to care for his grades: "I had bought some fact file cards on ancient history that contained all the necessary information about Greece and Rome. In preparation for the exam I cut edges off these and put them in various pockets and even slid one under my watch strap. When I looked at the questions in the exam, the most difficult was remembering which pocket the relevant facts were in. Then I pulled them out of the pocket and held them curled in the palm of my left hand as I wrote with my right." (37)
*

When Richard Branson left Stowe in 1967 aged almost seventeen, his headmaster's parting words were: "Congratulations Branson. I predict that you will either go to prison or millionaire." (37)
*

Soon after Stowe, Mick Jagger and John Lennon agreed to be interviewed Branson's Student magazine. Student gave a grandiose introduction to the Jagger interview: "Recently Melody Maker wrote: 'Jagger is rather like Dostoyevsky's brother Karamazov who, when told by his venerable brother that pain must exist so that we might learn of goodness, replied that if it was necessary that one small child should suffer in order that he should be made more aware, he did not deny the existence of God, but merely respectfully returned his ticket of admission to heaven. That is Mick Jagger's kind of rebellion.' I can't imagine what we were thinking of when we quoted that; I certainly didn't understand it." (39)
*

Deal with the Lennons: At around the same time, Richard also interviewed John Lennon for Student. Ironically, the interview with John was almost the end of Student. Apart from interview, John and Yoko agreed to provide the magazine with an original recording, which was to be distributed with Student as a flexidisc. Richard planned for a mega-issue of 100,000 copies. But when no disc arrived from Beatles, Richard got in touch with Derek Taylor, the Beatles' press officer, who assured Richard that he would get something soon. But in fact, Richard could not have chosen a worse time to tax the Lennons' goodwill. Yoko had just lost the baby she was expecting. John had been busted for possession of cannabis, and the couple were lying low at their mansion in Weybridge. But Richard was in trouble himself. His plans for the special issue had put Student on the brink of bankruptcy. He contacted a lawyer Charles Levison for the first time in life, who wrote to Derek threatening to sue Apple (Beatles' company) for breach of promise. A few days later, Derek asked Richard Branson to come to Apple and said that he had got something for him. "That afternoon, I sat in the basement studio at Apple with Charles, Derek, John, and Yoko, listening to the recording they'd provided. The hiss of the tape recorder was followed by a steady, metronomic beat - like the sound of a human heart. 'It's the heartbeat of our baby," said John. No sooner had he spoken than the sound stopped. Yoko burst into flood of tears and hugged John. I didn't understand what was going on, but before I could speak John looked over Yoko's shoulder straight into my eyes. 'The baby died,' he told me. 'That's the silence of our dead baby.' I went back to Student with no idea what I should do. I felt unable to release this private moment as a record. Perhaps I was wrong because, as Derek said, 'It's conceptual art,' and it would have become a collector's piece. We had to scarp the covers and redesign the magazine. I considered taking legal action against the Lennons, but they had enough problems, and, anyway, they'd honored the agreement in their own particular way, even if I couldn't see the value of it at the time. After our dispute, Derek wrote a note apologizing and signed it off with 'All you need is love....'" (39-41)
*

Once, while trying to sell copies of Student on Oxford Street with his sister Lindi, a tramp came up and asked for money. "We had no money - that's exactly what we were looking for too - but in a histrionic fit of idealism, I stripped off most of my clothes and gave to him. I spent the rest of the day walking around in a blanket." (44)
*

Richard Was invited for a public speech along with other well-known speakers. After activist Tariq Ali's speech, when Richard Branson's turn came: " I had barely spoken in public. I felt chronically nervous. Dry-mouthed, I mumbled a few words, gave a sick smile, and realized with a mounting feeling of panic that I could not do it. There was nowhere to hide. I gave a final inarticulate mumble, somewhere between a cough and a vomit, dropped the microphone, leaped off the podium, and disappeared into the safety of the crowd. It had been the most embarrassing moment of my life." (45)
*

It was tough to find a doctor to arrange for an abortion when Debbie, one of Richard's girlfriends, got pregnant. Finally they could find a doctor who would do it for 50 pounds. After the ordeal was over, this gave an idea to Richard that there must be a number of such youth who are looking for help in various personal areas. That was the beginning idea of setting up the Student Advisory Centre. (50)
*

Whenever the house-cum-office on Albion street, from where Richard was running Student and Student Advisory Centre, was visited by the inspectors, the Student staff would shove whole office equipment into the cupboards to avoid litigation as the residential property was not supposed to be used as a office. Once on inspectors' visit, the phone inside the cupboard started ringing and Student team was asked to vacate the house! While hunting for a new place, Reverend Cuthbert Scott allowed them to use the crypt at Saint John's Church for no rent. Richard put an old slab of marble across two tombs to make his desk. They even charmed a policemen to connect phone without having to wait for normal three months. "After a while none of us noticed that we were working in the dim light of the crypt surrounded by marble effigies and tombs." (51-52)
*

Student Advisory Centre was a helpline for teenagers with sexual or psychological problems. One of the things SAC did was to refer people with venereal disease to appropriate doctors. In November 1969, Richard Branson was visited by policemen and told that it was illegal to advertise any kind of help or remedy for venereal disease according to the 1889 Indecent Advertisements Act and the 1917 Venereal Disease Act. For a while SAC replaced Venereal Disease with Social Disease in advertisements but then decided to put the words Venereal Disease back, and with that, in December 1969 Richard Branson was arrested. It generated a lot of media reaction and Richard was fined reluctantly by the judge for 7 pounds, some way short of 2 year's imprisonment he was staring into! The judge also made it clear that he considered the law absurd. Later, Lady Birk's amendment was incorporated into government legislation. Reginald Maudling, the home secretary, sent Richard Branson a personal letter apologizing for the crown prosecution. (52-54)
*

The origin of the name 'Virgin'

While still at the crypt, when the small team of Student was considering a new name for their fledgling mail-order records business, they wanted an eye-catching name, that could stand alone and not just appeal to the students. One favorite suggestion was "Slipped Disc". Then one of the girls suggested:

"What about 'Virgin'? We're complete virgins at business."

"And there aren't many virgins left around here," laughed one of the other girls. "It would be nice to have one here in name if nothing else."

"Great," Richard Branson decided on the spot. "It's Virgin." (56)

*

Setting up of first Virgin Music shop

The mail-order records business was doing pretty well when the post-office workers strike of 1971 happened. The strike meant that people couldn't send checks to Virgin and Virgin couldn't send out records. This strike was the pushing force behind starting of Virgin Shops! After counting the people-traffic on street, it was decided to set up shop at the cheap end of Oxford Street. They struck a deal with a Greek shoe-shop owner Mr. Alachouzos for renting them the first floor in exchange of no rent! The incentive told to shoe-shop owner was that the record shop would attract enough people to the shop and some of them would buy shoes as well (Doc Martens)! On the day of the opening of first Virgin Stores, a huge queue formed outside the shop and some of the customers told Richard : "Funny bloke you've got downstairs. He kept trying to sell me a pair of Doc Martens as I waited in the queue." (58)

*

Richard Branson accidentally found an illegal way to make profit: In the spring of 1971, he had some large order from Belgium. He bought records directly from the publishing companies, less the purchase tax that he had to pay on records sold in the UK. Then hired a van to drive down to Dover to take the ferry across to France and then drive on to Belgium. Papers were stamped at Dover to confirm that so many records had been exported, but when Richard arrived at Clais, he was asked for a carnet that proved that he wasn't going to sell them en route in France. The British and the French tax authorities both charged purchase tax on records, while Belgium charged nothing, so the records in his van were effectively bonded stock! He was forced to return by ferry to Britain with all the records still in van. He realized while driving back, that records in his van had apparently been exported and he had even customs stamp to prove it. The fact that French customs had not allowed him through was unknown. He had paid no purchase tax on these records, so he could still sell them by mail order or virgin shop and make about 5,000 pounds more profit than he could have done legally! "It was a criminal plan, and I was breaking the law. But I had always got away with breaking rules before." Richard Branson made a total of four such trips after which Customs and Excise officials got suspicious. Virgin's shops were raided in mid (or late?) 1971, and Richard Branson was arrested for the second time at the age of twenty-one. He had to spend one night in prison and the next morning, with his mom's help, he reached an agreement with the tax authorities: a 15,000 pounds immediate payment with 45,000 pounds to be paid in three installments over the next 3 years. (67-74)
*

While in prison for one night, Richard Branson vowed to himself that he would never again do anything that would cause him to be imprisoned. And about the settlement installments to be paid over three years: "Incentives come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from a pat on the back to share options, but avoiding prison was the most persuasive incentive I've ever had." (74)
*

Even as Richard Branson and Virgin were struggling post-imprisonment to find ways to keep head above the water, in October 1971 their first fortune was quietly making its way up the graveled drive to the Manor (Virgin's recording studio in countryside) in the form of a van carrying a young composer and his folk-singer sister up from London to act as backing musicians for a band. He was the 3rd reserve guitarist on the musical Hair, and she was a folk singer who sang in pubs. Their names were Mike and Sally Oldfield. (75)
*

Mike would record whenever the studio was free. For one year he was turned down by every record, and was in despair before Virgin signed him in late 1972. Mike asked Richard for some instruments such as Spanish guitar, a Farfisa organ, a Fender precision bass, a Fender amplifier, a glockenspiel, a mandolin, a mellotron, a triangle, a Gibson guitar, and of course the Chimes. Chimes were tubular bells that cost 20 pounds. (83-84) Later Virgin would release Mike's record-breaking smashits album Tubular Bells on May 25, 1973. (89) The album entered the charts on July 14th at number 23 and by August it was Number 1. Tubular Bells eventually sold 13 million copies, making it the 11th best-selling album ever released in Britain.(94)
*

When Virgin Records wanted to expand in 1973, it had 2 options: 1) License Virgin's records to another larger label, or 2) Pay another record label to manufacture and distribute (called press and distribute, P and D). Most small record companies licensed their records since it was easy money: they received 16 percent royalties from the other company and paid out whatever they had agreed to the artist, say 5 percent or 10 percent. But Virgin decided to go for a P and D deal. And succeeded. (94-96)
*

In a bid to sell records overseas, Richard Baranson visited Ahmet Ertegun in New York, the head of Atlantic Records. While trying to strike a deal on Mike Oldfield, the two negotiated throughout the day but couldn't reach a deal. They then decided to goto a nightclub and strike a deal before they went home. Ahmet took two girls with him to the club. Once there, Ahmet said to Richard :" Can I have a word in your ear?" Richard thought that Ahmet was going to offer him the deal that he wanted (a million dollars). Ahmet said: "I'd just like to make one thing clear. I don't mind whether I sign Mike Oldfield or not. But I don't want any misunderstanding: both these girls are for me." (97) Later Ahmet sold Tubular Bells as the sound track for the film Exorcist. (99)
*

On music business: "Music is more international than almost any other business. Some countries such as France and Japan remain quite parochial, but the big stars such as Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, and Fleetwood Mac sell globally in a way that most industrial companies can only dream about. Pushing exports is difficult for any company, but music is one business that soars over most boundaries."
*

Richard Branson lived on houseboats for quite a few years, first on Alberta and then on Duende.
*

Richard had a circumcision at the age of twenty-four to sort of cure the sexual allergy he and his wife Kristen had developed to each other.
*

While trying to patch-up their failing marriage, Richard and Kristen took a vacation at Cozumel off the coast of Mexico. One day, in rough weather, Richard, Kristen, and another couple hired a boat to go deep-sea fishing. When two miles away from the shore, a sever storm struck them. After a while when the wind and rain stopped, there were still indications of another storm coming. Kirsten and Richard decided to swim to the shore. And they somehow made it whole 2 miles! The other couple and the fisherman who had decided to stay on boat were never heard of again. (103-104)
*

Richard tried hard to get Kristen back who was seeing seeing singer Kevin Ayers. When the two moved to Hydra, Richard decided to give his marriage a final try. He flew to Athens and met Kristen at a bar. They both cried so much that the barkeeper refused to take payment for the ouzo they drank. When Kristen told him that she couldn't see how they could live together, Richard finally accepted that he had lost her. As Kirsten walked away, the Greek barkeeper poured him another glass and put his arms around Richard. (105-106)
*

In 1975, Virgin records tried to sign the band 10cc unsuccessfully. 10cc was named after the average amount of sperm in human ejaculation. (106-107)
*

Between 1974 and 1976, Mike Oldfield was the only Virgin's superstar. Virgin also failed to sign the Who and Pink Floyd. But the 350,000 pounds bid for 10cc earlier had made the other artistes take note of Virgin. While Prince Rupert Lowenstein, Rolling Stones' manager agreed to listen to Richard Branson, he said that Virgin wont be able to afford them at the asking price of 3 million dollars. Richard made an offer of four million dollars and then on the weekend managed to get the bank guarantee for that amount. Finally EMI won the auction and signed the Rolling Stones at $5 million as Richard could not go beyond $4 million, but her knew that he had done Stones a good turn by increasing the asking price from $3m to $5m. (108-109)
*

By summer 1976, there was a real crisis brewing at Virgin because they did not have many best-selling artistes. And essentially, Mike Oldfield's success was bankrolling the entire company. "I have always believed that the only way to cope with a cash crisis is not to contract but to try to expand out of it." (110)
*

As a part of handling the crisis, Virgin had to drop a few artistes, amongst whom Dave Bedford was one. Dave wrote a long letter to Richard Branson saying how much he appreciated the decision, and that he bore Virgin no grudges etc, and at the same time he wrote a letter to Mike Oldfield in which he described Richard Branson as a complete shit; an utter bastard; and a vile, tone-deaf, money-grabbing parasite on musical talent. Unfortunately for Dave, he then put the letters in wrong envelops! (111)
*

One day while in bath, Arthur Frolows, who helped Simon Draper - top guy at Virgin Records, and who also happened to be Richard's cousin - with spotting new bands, heard a new band called Dire Straits singing Sultans of Swing on the radio. He leapt out of bath and talked to the radio station. He discovered that the band had not yet recorded their music in a studio, but this song was a love recording specially commissioned by Charlie Gillett, the radio show host. Virgin went after the band and the evening before they were due to sign contracts, Richard and team took Dire Straits to a Greek restaurant to celebrate. At the end of the meal, the Greek owner offered them all marijuana joints. Everyone smoked a joint and the evening wound down. The next day Dire Straits called Virgin up and said they were going to sign with Polygram. No reasons were given. It was only ten years later that Richard read a book about Dire Straits which explained what had happened: "The band did not sign with Virgin since they thought that Virgin had plied them with drugs before the signing to befuddle them." That well-meaning gesture by the Greek manager cost Virgin Records over 500 million pounds!
*

Sex Pistols saga: Somewhere around August 1976, Virgin tried to sign a new punk band called Sex Pistols, who were with EMI at the time. Then on December 1, 1976,Sex Pistols caused national furore by muttering obscenities on an afternoon television show Today hosted by Bill Grundy. Next day, EMI's managing director Leslie Hill called Richard Branson up and asked if Virgin was still interested in signing Sex Pistols. At EMI's office, Malcolm McLaren, Sex Pistols' manager, agreed to come to Richard's office later in the day, but he never showed up. On March 9, 1977, McLaren signed the Sex Pistols to A&M Records. During the signing celebration party hosted by A&M, Sid Vicious, then the band's drummer, excelled himself by wrecking Derek Green's (MD of A&M) office and being sick all over his desk. Hearing this, Richard Branson called up Green an as expected, A&M was dropping Sex Pistols. A&M paid 75,000 pounds to the band. Combined with 50,000 pounds that were given by EMI, Sex Pistols had earned 125,000 pounds for doing nothing more than a bit of swearing and vomiting, and one single! On May 12, 1977 Virgin signed Sex Pistols and from that day on itself, McLaren tried to look for ways to alienate Virgin but Virgin refused to be outraged! And then came God Save the Queen which went on to become number 2. On Queen's Silver Jubilee Day in July 1977, McLaren rented a Thames pleasure cruiser and steamed upriver toward the House of Commons, and once there, the band hit their version of national anthem, God Save the Queen. The police arrested Malcolm McLaren for yelling "Fascist pigs!" and for the spirited fight. Overall, Sex Pistols changed Virgin's image in a very positive way. (114-117)
*

In November 1977, Virgin released Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. Some people were obviously offended by the title. One day the manager of Virgin's Nottingham record shop was arrested under the same Indecent Advertisements Act of 1889 for which Richard Branson was arrested nearly ten years before. Richard contacted Prof James Kingsley, a professor of linguistics at Nottingham University. Prof Kingsley told told Richard:" So one of your staff has been arrested for displaying the word 'bollocks'? What a load of bollocks! Actually, the word bollocks is an 18th century nickname for priests. And then because priests generally seemed to speak such a lot of nonsense in their sermons, bollocks gradually transformed to mean rubbish." With Prof Kingsley's testimony in the court, the case was dismissed by the magistrate. (118-119)
*

About his first meeting with Joan Templeman, his future wife: "Most of my past relationships with women had been based upon a great display of showmanship, but for the first time with Joan I felt there was a woman who didn't want me to get up to my usual antics." (120)
*

Joan used to work in an antiques shop, and in order to meet and woo her, Richard Branson frequented the shop and bought a lot of old hand-painted tin signs. One of his favourite signs was an old picture advertising Danish bacon and eggs, which showed a pig leaning casually against a wall, listening to a chicken singing. The chicken was celebrating her freshly laid egg and the caption to the scene was "Now, that's what I call music!". Richard gave this sign to Simon Draper who hung it over his desk, where it later inspired the title for Virgin's annual Greatest Hits compilation Now That's What I Call Music which reached number one year since. (120-121)
*

In 1978, Virgin Music Publishing signed a schoolteacher from Newcastle called Gordon Sumner, who used the stage name Sting and sang with a band called Last Exit, who were thought to have some promise. (127)
*

Once someone asked Richard Branson if Virgin Records was named after Virgin Islands. The answer was no but Richard decided to take a vacation with Joan at Virgin Islands. Richard didn't have much money to spend but he heard that if you express serious interest in buying an island, then the local estate agent puts you up for nothing in a grand villa and fly you around the Virgin Islands by helicopter. And thats what Richard did. Richard and Joan were treated like royalty and ushered into sumptuous villa at Virgin Islands. Next day, while estate agent was flying them in a helicopter showing the islands, they came across Necker Island and Richard liked it very much. When asked, agent quoted a asking price of 3 million pounds. Richard offered 150,000 pounds and then max 250,000 pounds. And after that they were flown back to villa but obviously, they were not welcome there anymore. Their bags were left at the door and they hauled the same to a local bed-and-breakfast across the village. It was clear that there would be no more helicopter flights over the islands. Yet Joan and Richard were determined to buy Necker. Once back in London, Richard found out that the owner of Necker Island was in a hurry to sell as he needed some urgent 200,000 pounds cash to build a building in Scotland. Richard upped his offer to 175,000 pounds and waited for 3 months. Finally Richard was offered the Necker Island for 180,000 pounds! There was never a hint that 180,000 pounds was only a fraction of 3 million pounds. (128-130)
*

Beginning (of sorts) of Virgin Atlantic

While on the holiday at Virgin Island/ Beef Island, Richard and Joan were trying to catch a flight to Puerto Rico, but the local Puerto Rican scheduled flight was canceled. The airport was full of stranded passengers. Richard made a few calls to charter companies and agreed to charter a plane to Puerto Rico for $2,000. He divided the price by the number of seats, borrowed a blackboard, and wrote: Virgin Airways, $39 single flight to Puerto Rico. Richard then walked around the terminal and soon filled every seat on the charter plane. As they landed at Puerto Rico, one passenger said to Richard: " Virgin Airways isn't too bad. Smarten up the service a little, and you could be in business." Richard laughed "I might just do that." (130)

*

Mike Oldfield married Sarah, daughter of his therapy teacher, four days after he met her. The reason he gave Richard for such a hurry was that Sarah won't sleep with him until they were married! The morning after the marriage day, Mike and Sarah filed for divorce as they found each other incompatible. Mike ended up paying 200,000 pounds in alimony. Richard says "my mind boggles at what went on that night, but whatever happened it must go down as one of the most expensive one-night stands in the history." (131)
*

While trying to penetrate French market with Virgin Records, Richard Branson went to France and met Jacques Kerner, the French head of Polygram. Kerner introduced Richard to a man called Patrick Zelnick, who ran Polygram's record side. Richard ended up poaching Patrick from Polygram and gave him the mandate of setting up Virgin as an independent subsidiary in France. When Patrick resigned from Polygram, Jacques Kerner called Richard up and said reproachingly: "When you're invited for dinner, you're not meant to walk away with the cutlery." (133-134)
*

In November 1979, their houseboat Duende sank. While trying to retrieve stuff, one of the neighbors shifted a box, and to Richard and Joan's embarrassment a large vibrator fell out. When it hit the ground, it turned itself on and started to vibrate. As they all watched, it buzzed around and finally fell into the canal, where it zipped through the water like a torpedo before finally vanishing from the view. (135)
*

Richard and Joan's first baby Clare (named after Richard's aunt) was three-months premature. Joan's labor was triggered by an appendicitis operation. Clare didn't survive for long after birth. (142)
*

When Joan went into labor at the time of the birth of their second child, it was again early by six weeks. Richard had come back that night from a party and was roaring drunk. He managed to drive Joan to hospital and ended up himself on the hospital bed. They named the second child Holly.
*

Richard Branson tried to compete with Time Out, an event-listing magazine, by launching his own magazine called Event. But Event was a complete flop and he had to close it down soon. This disaster however taught him a lesson as to how important it was to separate the various Virgin companies so that if one failed, it would not threaten the rest of the Virgin Group. (144-145)
*

Virgin signed Boy George in 1981 and he changed Virgin's fortunes. "He was a rebel in a very different dimension from the Sex Pistols or a James Dean, but a rebel nevertheless. It was impossible to define why he was so popular - parents wanted to mother him, girls wanted to be as beautiful, boys wanted their girlfriends to be as beautiful. When George announced that he preferred a cup of tea to sex, he became an international icon." Karma Chameleon was the top-selling single of 1983, selling over 1.4 million copies. (145-146)
*

Actual beginning of Virgin Atlantic

In February 1984 an American lawyer called Randolph Fields asked Richard Branson if he would be interested in operating an airline. Randolph was looking for investors to finance a new airline that would use the Gatwick-New York route, which had become vacant following the collapse of Sir Freddie Laker's airline in 1982. Randolph proposed to call the airline British Atlantic but Richard wanted Virgin in the title. (152-155)

*

While setting up Virgin Atlantic, Richard talked to Sir Freddie Laker for his advice, and was quite surprised to see that Freddie was unbowed by his Laker Airlines' experience, and actually saw Richard as his successor, picking up the flag where he had left off. Richard asked Freddie if he could name Virgin Atlantic's first aircraft "Spirit of Sir Freddie," but Sir Freddie laughed it off: "Not the first one. My name's a liability now, and you'd send out the wrong signals. But I'd be honored when you've got a large fleet." (155)
*

David Tait, whom Randolph had employed in America for Virgin had a falling-out with Randolph which would later extend to Richard Branson also. Anyway, while David was trying to advertise the start-up airline without an American license (which would come only before the day Virgin Atlantic took off), he planned to alert New Yorkers by writing "WAIT FOR THE ENGLISH VIRGIN" in the sky above Manhattan. Unfortunately, just as the planes were finishing, a single cloud blew over and obliterated the final letter, so New Yorkers craned their necks and wondered what the cryptic message "WAIT FOR THE ENGLISH VIRGI" meant. (158)
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Origin of Virgin's logo

"The Virgin Scrawl. I remembered way back in the early 1970s, when Simon and I had been to a graphic designer about a change of a logo. Trevor Key had paused for a moment and then scrawled "Virgin" on the back of a napkin. On the way to the loo I had looked over his shoulder and said: 'That'll do.' We didn't begrudge him his 200 pound bill. Some marketing experts once analyzed the scrawl and wrote about the upbeat way it rose from left to right. This of course might have been going through Trevor's head when he was writing it, but I just think the napkin might have been at an angle." (161)

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The first Virgin jumbo was named Maiden Voyager. During the test flight on 19th June 1984, one of the engines exploded after the plane flew into a flock of birds and the engine sucked a few of them. A Financial Times photographer got a shot of the explosion & fire, but returned the film to Richard Branson when the test flight landed. Amidst big financial difficulties (engine replacement cost was 600,000 pounds), Richard and team managed to replace the engine just in time for the inaugural flight. (161-163)
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During inaugural flight, as Maiden Voyager taxied on the runway, "the screen in passenger area flickered into life and showed the backs of pilots and the flight engineer as they sat in the flight deck and manned the controls. Over their shoulders we could see the view through the windscreen. One of them had very long hair beneath his cap, the other was a West Indian. Then as the plane speeded up on the runway, the pilots seemed rather relaxed: rather than staring intently ahead and flying the plane, they started looking sideways at each other and smiling. We were now hurtling down the runway, and these two pilots were doing nothing about it. They were simply paying no attention. Everyone watching the screen held their breath: this was all some mad suicide flight by that lunatic Branson... Then just as the plane's nose rose up and the runway disappeared from the view, the West Indian reached behind his ear, pulled out a joint, and offered it to his copilot. Before anyone was entirely sure that this was a joke, the plane headed upward, and two pilots took off their caps and turned around to face the camera: they were Ian Botham and Viv Richards, two well-known cricketers. The bearded flight engineer was me. The whole plane rocked with laughter - we had filmed the takeoff the previous day on a flight simulator." (163-164)
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When the inaugural flight landed at New Jersey's Newark airport, Richard Branson was almost refused entrance as he had forgotten to bring his passport. And then, he went up to the mayor of Newark and chatted with him thinking for some bizarre reason that he had organized the catering. (164)
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About taking Virgin Group public in 1984: "We were going from the rock market to the stock market." (167)
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Tried to recapture Blue Riband for Britain ("Britain doesn't have that many trophies."). In the Victorian age of steamships, the Blue Riband was awarded to the fastest ship across the Atlantic. They had to break the last record (Hale's Trophy) of 3 days, 10 hours, and 40 minutes set in 1952 by Normandie, a French liner. The new team consisted of Richard Branson, Ted Toleman, who designed the new boat, and Chay Blyth, the round-the-world-yachtsman. The new boat was named Virgin Atlantic Challenger. During the attempt to break the previous record, as the Challenger was approaching Ireland, it was hit by a severe storm. As they approached Scilly Isles with only 60 miles left and Hale's Trophy nearly in their hands, they hit a massive wave and Challenger started sinking. The team had to abandon the ship and they were rescued by RAF. (169-172)
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When Richard Branson went into the City to see the lines of people queuing up to buy Virgin shares, he noticed that photographers were taking pictures of his feet. Then he realized that in the rush to get dressed, he had put on shoes that didn't match. (179)
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Richard got involved in UK2000, a Department of Employment project with an aim to match up a large number of unemployed people with jobs that would benefit the environment. But the project got into an image management problem with Richard Branson branded as the "Litter King". (181-182)
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By mid 1980s things were going very well for Virgin and one day feeling rather self-important, Richard Branson hailed a taxi and asked the driver to take him to Billingsgate. In the taxi, driver looked at Richard quizzically in the mirror as if he half recognized him:

"Give me a clue?"

"You know," I said modestly. "A record company, an airline, Heaven nightclub, record shops."

"No," the taxi driver repeated. "Give me a clue."

"The Atlantic crossing," I went on, "the Sex Pistols, Boy George, Phil Collins..."

"Excuse me, Sir," the driver said, completely nonplussed. "I don't understand what you're rambling on about. Give me a clue as to how to get to Billingsgate."

" (183)

Another time, Richard had to take a taxi to meeting early morning:"

"I know you. You're that Dick Branson. You've got a record label." said the cab driver.

"Yes, that's right," I admitted.

Then driver said that it was lucky day as he was a musician , a drummer in a band and then insisted on playing his demo tape while Richard tried to show his disinterest in his music. Then the driver emotionally talked Richard into paying a visit to his mom, who lived round the corner, for a cup of tea. The driver also put his tape on just as the cab pulled alongside a small house. The tape started with a familiar drumbeat. Over the speaker came the words: "I can feel it coming in the air tonight..." The cabbie jumped out and opened Richard's door. It was Phil Collins. Richard had mentioned in a recent interview that although he was not very good at knowing who rock stars were or remembering their names, he was sure that he would always recognize Phil Collins. (183-184)

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On Richard's cross-Atlantic balloon flight attempt, Maiden Voyager flew in a figure of eight round the balloon. Richard's mother said over radio: "Faster, Richard, faster! We'll race you." (192)
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Once on a free-fall, Richard had pulled the wrong release tag and actually had jettisoned his parachute. Fortunately he had several skydivers around him so they activated his reserve parachute. (195)
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After a stock market crash in 1988, Virgin went private again by conducting a management buyout. (201)
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On Japanese companies: "Japanese companies shared much of the same philosophy as Virgin. Like us, they tended to operate on long-term objectives... I once heard of a Japanese company which was working to a 200-year business plan! It reminds me of the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's remark in the 1980s: when he was asked what he thought the implications were of the French Revolution in 1789, he replied, 'Too early to tell.'" (209-210)
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While making up his mind about a choice between an American and a Japanese firm for a partnership with Virgin Music, Richard decided to go for Japanese media company, Fujisankei after he had this conversation with Mr. Agichi of Fujisankei in the garden of his house: "Mr. Branson," came the quiet question, "would you prefer an American wife or a Japanese wife? American wives very difficult -lots of litigation and alimony. Japanese wives very good and quiet." (210)
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Taking a dig on British Airways: When making a attempt at cross-Pacific balloon flight with Per, Richard said to Per: "So you see it's essential that one of us stays awake during the flight. So rather than using the comfortable Virgin seats, which we used to cross the Atlantic, we've asked British Airways for two of theirs." (213)
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When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, King Hussein of Jordan was one of the few world leaders who refused to condemn him out of hand. King Hussein pointed out that Kuwait had promised Iraq a number of oil wells as part of its contribution toward the long war against Iran. Yet Kuwait had since continually reneged on that promise as well as cheated on its OPEC quotas. Richard had been friends with King Hussein and Queen Noor ("Grace Kelly of Jordan") of Jordan. When Saddam invaded Kuwait, amid all the chaos that followed invasion, a huge number of foreign workers fled from Iraq into Jordan. Richard Branson's Virgin flew 100,000 blankets to Amman in a 747. After that British Airways also became willing to fly supplies. Christian Aid told Richard that they were amazed: over many years they had unsuccessfully appealed to BA to help them, but ever since the Virgin Atlantic flight to Amman, British Airways had been practically suffocating them with offers of help. "Health competition benefits even charities sometimes." (223)
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Camped at Jordan to send a letter to Saddam Hussein via King Hussein of Jordan requesting Saddam to release some hostages. King Hussein translated the letter into Arabic and dispatched it, along with a cover letter, to Saddam by a special courier. Before going to bed, King Hussein quoted something his brother had said: "Why did the sheep bells of the Falkland Islands ring louder than the church bells of Jerusalem?" (226)
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"One of the most magical things about ballooning is that the wind is inaudible because the balloon is traveling at the same speed as the wind. Flying at 150 miles an hour, one can put a tissue paper on the capsule which, in theory, shouldn't blow off. And so although we were in the middle of a snowstorm, it was very quiet." (243)
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On Airlines Business: "The frightening thing about an airline is that it can go bust faster than almost any other business: all it takes is for the telephones to go quiet and for passengers to stop booking flights. Even a large airline can unravel in a matter of days." (250)
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Virgin Atlantic planes' maintenance used to be done by British Caledonian. When British Airways took over British Caledonian, BA promised that they'd honor all existing contracts. But later in September 1988, when Virgin acquired their 3rd and 4th Boeing, British Airways quoted an outrageous price for servicing them: their average charge for labor flipped from 16 pounds to 61 pounds per hour, as BA believed Virgin had no other alternative. But even though it was inconvenient and expensive, Virgin, instead, started flying its planes to Ireland for maintenance by Aer Lingus. (252)
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Due to another maintenance dispute, Richard Branson wanted British Airways to lend them a plane for short-term. When he called up Sir Colin Marshall, CEO of British Airways:"

'Your engineering was so bad that it could have brought an aircraft down.' I told him.

'That's one of the perils of being in the aviation business,' he told me coldly. 'If you'd stuck to popular music, you wouldn't have had this problem. No, we won't lend you a plane.'" (252)

*

When the market for videogames was kind of saturated, Richard sold Sega for 33 million pounds. This was more than 10 times the price he had bought it at. (270)
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Once Sunday Telegraph carried a small piece entitled Verdict on Virgin, which quoted a passenger from an entry in the visitor's book: "No wonder your boss travels around the world in a balloon." Later Margaret Thatcher's daughter Carol read the piece out on the David Frost show on the television. Richard called for the visitor's book and saw that the full entry of the quoted comment had a punch line which the journalist Frank Kane had completely missed: "But seriously, I had a great time" Richard called up Cathy Holland, the passenger who had made the comment in the book and she confirmed that it was a joke. Frank Kane apologized to Richard that he could see only so much over the passenger's shoulder. But the damage had been done. (271)
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On 7th July, 1991 Virgin started flying in and out of Heathrow. To celebrate the occasion, Richard Branson dressed up as a pirate because Lord King (of British Airways) had called him one. Lord King felt that Richard was "robbing" him of air routes and revenue, which somehow rightfully belonged to British Airways. So Richard had decided to take him at him at his word and "hijack" Concorde by putting the Virgin logo over Concorde's tail. (273)
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On Dressing up: "One of the reasons I dress up is to give press photographers a good picture that will make it into the papers and so promote the Virgin brand name. A pleasant by-product is that it makes people smile. (273)
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On July 16th, 1991 Lord King announced in BA annual general meeting that BA would stop making annual donations to the Conservative Party. In doing so he failed to spot that this gave away how they clearly thought that donating money to the Conservatives in the past had helped them secure various privileges. "If an airline in Nigeria gave money and free air tickets to the ruling party in return for being granted a monopoly, it would be scorned in the West as being blatantly corrupt. 'It's impossible to do business in Africa!' people would retort. 'Look at the Nigerians: they're so damned corrupt!'" (273-274)
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When trying to enter into trains business, Richard and team armed with a small business plan and a mock-up of a Virgin train met Chris Green, the director of British Rail's Intercity service, Roger Freeman from the ministry of transport, and John Welsby, the chief executive of British Rail. John Welsby was against any kind of privatization. As he walked out of the meeting he turned to one of his companions and made a comment which was picked up on the intercom and broadcast al over the office. He said: "I'll be in my grave before that fucker gets his logo on my trains." (285)
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Freddie Laker's advice to Richard Branson about British Airways: "Sue the bastards!" (287)
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While doing a TV show with the host Clive Anderson, Clive tried to rip apart Virgin and Richard. "Clive was jabbering away about Virgin as if it was fair play to take piss out of it and pull it to pieces. It's to easy to pull something to pieces, I thought. It's so much more difficult to build it up." When Richard couldn't stand Clive anymore, he stood up, picked up his glass of water, and poured it over Clive Anderson's head and walked out of the studio. "oh well," Clive Anderson said, mopping at his hair and jacket. "I've only got one thing to say to that: Fly British Airways." (289-290)
*

Once Rolling Stones were at the Manor to record and after an all-night session, Keith Richards was still in bed with his Jamaican girlfriend when a tall Jamaican guy with a gun knocked on the door in a frenzy. As he asked about the girl at the door and pointed the gun in Richard's face, Keith Richards and the girl, both naked, ran out of a side door. Only years later at the Virgin's ceremony of signing Stones would Keith tell Richard how he and his girlfriend escaped at the Manor. The Jamaican guy was the girl's partner and always carried gun. Keith told the girl that they had to get out and they had no time to dress. They ran along the river for miles and finally hid by the riverside. Then came a punt full of students all wearing these crazy blazers and floaty dresses. Kieth and the Jamaican girl came out of the bushes and flagged them down. The students lent them clothes and they punted down to Oxford in style. (307-308)
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On 27th February, 1992 Thames Television aired a program about rivalry between British Airways and Virgin Atlantic: Violating Virgin? It did more harm than good to Richard Branson. It said: "Virgin Airways is crying 'Rape!' and Richard Branson claims that British Airways is putting him out of business." It also quoted Peter Fleming (with his identity hidden in the documentary) about the special unit set up at British Airways to discredit Richard Branson. Final voice-over said: "Perhaps its time for Richard Branson to put up or shut up. Or Virgin Atlantic's planes could end up like Laker's in the desert sand." (317-318)
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After the program Violating Virgin? was aired, Virgin hit the jackpot in the form of Yvonne Parsons. She had decided not to fly Virgin sometime back after she had had bad experiences with Virgin: A day before her booked Virgin flight was scheduled, someone from Virgin's office had called up and said since the flight was overbooked, and since she hadn't been issued a ticket would she mind changing to a British Airways flight. She had flown to and fro from the States 4 times in last 8 months and each time there had been a "booking error" with Virgin. And she was always offered seat on British Airways only and not on any other airlines. After watching Violating Virgin? , she wondered if these people who were calling her were British Airways staff impersonating Virgin and she contacted Virgin. (316-319)
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Due to intense competition from British Airways, the Virgin group was getting more and more financially troubled. Finally Richard Branson had to sell Virgin Music for $1 billion to Thorn EMI to save Virgin Atlantic. Simon said "It's like the death of a parent. You think that you've prepared for it, but when it happens you realize that you're totally unable to cope." But for Richard Branson,"I felt it was more like the death of a child." After addressing Virgin's staff, Richard Branson had tears streaming down his face all the way to the home. He wrote in his diary "'Feeling thoroughly depressed,' I wrote in my notebook about my decision to go for cash rather than shares. 'Decided to go for the conservative route for the first time in my life.'" (322-326)
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Tired of BA's tricks and unrepentant ways, Richard Branson called up Freddie Laker on 18th March 1992 and said: "Freddie, I've decided to take your advice. I'm suing the bastards." "Go for it!" said Freddie. (332)
*

"As we embarked upon the court case, I had to keep reminding myself that this was a libel case, not an argument over business practices. I had to clear my name." (332)
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To uncover what British Airways was up to, Richard Branson wore a hidden microphone a number of times to record the evidence of his talks with important links. "When I set up Virgin Atlantic I had no idea that I would have to resort to James Bond-style activities in order to run it!" (336)
*

"Virgin Screws BA" was The Sun's headline on 11 January 1993. That day, Virgin accepted an out of court settlement with British Airways. BA and Lord King were ordered to pay Richard Branson 500,000 pounds damages and to Virgin Atlantic 110,000 pounds damages. Richard Branson saw tears running down his father's cheeks as he listened to the settlement. (338-339)
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On his Business Philosophy: "People ask me 'Why don't you have some fun now?' but they are missing the point. As far as I was concerned, this was fun. Fun is at the core of how I like to do business. More than any other element, fun is the secret of Virgin's success. I am aware that the idea of business being fun and creative goes right against the grain of convention, and it's certainly not how they teach it some of those business schools where business means hard grind and lots of discounted cash flows and net present values. Even though I'm often asked to define my 'business philosophy', I generally won't do so because I don't believe that it can be taught as a recipe." (Epilogue, 343)
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"For anyone who starts without financial backing a very thin line exists between success and failure. Survival is the key priority. Virgin has made money, but I have always invested it in new projects to keep the company growing. As a result we rarely had the luxury of spare cash to use as a cushion. Only in 1993, with the sale of Virgin music and our victory over British Airways, I realized for the first time in my business career that I had climbed the wall and could at least peer into the promised land." (Epilogue, 344)
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"However tight things are, you still need to have big picture at the forefront of your mind." During he recession in 1992, Richard Branson was trying to raise $10 million to install individual seat-back video terminals in all Virgin's aircrafts. But money wasn't coming from anywhere. Then he called up Boeing and asked the CEO, Phil Conduit, if he would throw in individual seat-back videos in economy if Virgin bought ten new Boeing 747-400s. Amazed that anyone was thinking of buying planes during that recession, Phil readily agreed. Richard Branson then called up Jean Pierson at Airbus and asked the same question about the new Airbus, and Jean too agreed. After further inquiries, Richard Branson discovered that it was easier to get $4 billion credit to buy eighteen new aircraft than it was to get $10 million credit for the seat-back video sets! (Epilogue, 345)
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Virgin Direct, Virgin's financial services company, started off with Norwich Union as a 50-50 partner. "After Virgin entered the financial services industry, I can immodestly say it was never to be the same again. We cut out all the commissions, offered good-value products. We set up office in Norwich rather than renting a gleaming tower block in the City of London. We never employed fund managers, some of the world's most highly paid people, since we discovered their best-kept secret - they could never consistently beat the stock market index." (Epilogue, 350)
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On partnerships: "Despite some of our difficulties, I still believe that a fifty-fifty partnership is the best solution to financing. When something goes wrong, as it invariably will at some point, both partners have an equal incentive to put it right." (Epilogue, 351)
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Personal organization: "I have always lived my life by making lists - lists of people to call, lists of ideas, lists of companies to set up, list of people who can make things happen. Each day I work through these lists, and that sequence of calls propels me forward." (Epilogue, 351)
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"As anyone in my office knows when I've lost it, my most essential possession is a standard-sized school notebook. I carry this everywhere and write down comments made to me by Virgin staff and anyone else I meet. I make notes of all telephone conversations and all meetings, and I draft our letters to send and lists of telephone calls to make. Over the years I have worked my way through a bookcase of them, and the discipline of writing everything down ensures that I have to listen to people carefully." (Epilogue, 351)
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Richard's vision for Virgin was summed up by Peter Gabriel, who once said to Richard: "It's outrageous! Virgin is becoming everything. You wake up in the morning to Virgin Radio; you put on your Virgin Jeans; you go to the Virgin Megastore; you drink Virgin Cola; you fly to America on Virgin Atlantic. Soon you'll be offering Virgin births, Virgin marriages, and Virgin funerals. I think you should rename Virgin the 'In and Out Company. Virgin will be there at the beginning and there at the end." (Epilogue, 352)
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"Virgin is not a big company - it's a big brand made up of lots of small companies. Our priorities are the opposite of our large competitors'. Convention dictates that a company look after its shareholders first, its customers next, and last of all worry about its employees. Virgin does the opposite. For us, our employees matter most. It just seems common sense to me that if you start off with a happy, well-motivated workforce, you're far more likely to have happy customers. And in due course the resulting profits will make your shareholders happy." (Epilogue, 353)
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On Virgin Rail: "I am still convinced that by 2002 rail will be seen as one of the best things Virgin ever did with its brand." (Epilogue, 354) (-biography was written in 1998)
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On importance of press: "Once you have a great product, it is essential to protect its reputation with vigilance. As a result, every day I receive a bundle of press cuttings - everything that mentions Virgin. These cuttings - and staff letters - are what I read first in the morning." Epilogue, 354)
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GTECH case: When British government agreed to go ahead with the National Lottery, a lot of commercial consortium showed interest. Richard Branson also wanted to get into lottery but his argument was that "the lottery should be run by a company that would donate all the profits to a charity." GTECH was one of the leading suppliers of lottery equipment. Richard, along with John Jackson, a healthcare industry man, met Guy Snowden of GTECH on 24 September, 1993. During the lunch, Snowden tried to bribe Richard Branson. Snowden said: "How can we help you personally, Richard? Everyone needs something in life." To which Richard said: "Thank you. I'm quite successful. I only need one breakfast, lunch, and dinner a day. The only way you could have helped is by providing services for our bid." Snowden, by attempting to bribe Richard, was trying to get his bid through, which as well as giving less money to charity would simultaneously enrich him and his company. In the case court that ensued, the jury found in Richard's favour against Guy Snowden and GTECH. Richard Branson's reputation was restored. (Epilogue, 355-356)
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About family: "At the moment Holly wants to be a doctor and Sam wants to climb trees and rescue cats. I just want them to be happy. I know that other businessman like Rupert Murdoch and Robert Maxwell had their children reading annual reports and financial accounts before breakfast, but I want none of that." (Epilogue 356)

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