Title: Losing My Virginity
Author(s): Richard Branson
Rating (0-5): 4
Amazon link: Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson
My Notes:
- Always have a checklist (would have prevented problem of locked canisters on the balloon)
- When in trouble, don’t freeze. Develop backup plans and start executing them.
- By the way, have backup plans ready in advance.
- Set up challenges for your children.
- Make them something they can accomplish, yet be a stretch.
- Make sure your children know they’re loved.
- You’ve got one go in life, so make the most of it.
- Let your children form their own opinions.
- Have children try a variety of things and meet a variety of types of people.
- Teach children how to be entrepreneurial at a young age.
- Teach children to care for other people.
- Teach children to be wary of authority.
- Teach children independence and self-reliance.
- People learn in different ways. Find the best technique for your children.
- Expose your children to lots of different possible professions and hobbies.
- Have children do something with selling – to at least become familiar with it.
- Find a partner who has strengths where you have weaknesses.
- Business, but also personal.
- Only build a business if it’s fun and lets you exercise your creative instincts.
- If you are short on a resource, see if you have anything you can leverage to get it from someone who has an excess of that resource.
- Fully leverage the resources you have (name, reputation, etc.)
- To be in demand, make people believe you are already in demand.
- If you customers keep looking for the same thing (which you don’t provide), maybe it’s time to start providing it for them.
- Have a great lawyer.
- If someone shows you they aren’t trustworthy, get them out of a position of trust immediately.
- Sell something people are passionate about.
- An ideal business is one where you get the money before you have to buy the product (or create the service).
- Keep your plans and ideas to yourself.
- Find a business where your competitors are stuck in the old, boring, inefficient ways of doing things.
- Create a business that forms a community of customers
- Find where your market already is and build your business there.
- Improve the customer’s experience.
- If you want something, ask.
- If they say no, find someone else to ask or some other angle of approach.
- All you have is your reputation.
- Hire people who are passionate, and knowledgeable, about the goods or services you sell
- Don’t spend money you don’t have to spend.
- Part of defining what you do is defining what you don’t do.
- When you have a successful business, look for related businesses you can grow – using your resources (brand, customers, knowledge, etc.) from the first business.
- Take big risks, as long as you can protect your downside.
- Give away the smallest percentages of your deals as possible (expenses, commissions, etc.)
- Tie people into long deals. If they perform well, renegotiate (a little bit in their favor) and extend the deal.
- Make sure your business isn’t stuck in a rut. Grow and change with the times.
- Buy under-appreciated assets that can be improved.
- Don’t be afraid to make a low-ball offer.
- Be open to all opportunities that come.
- When you learn a piece of intelligence, take advantage of it quickly.
- Stop negative rumors as quickly as possible.
- When you have free cash, diversify.
- Make sure to spend time doing the things that make you feel alive.
- When a competitor mounts an outrageous defense, it may be a sign of weakness.
- Put your trust in someone who has a lot to lose if they fail.
- Stay private. Don’t take outside investors with plans that are the opposite of yours.
- Have a long-term perspective.
- Locate your retail businesses where your customers will be (lower income near bus/train stops).
- Pay attention to what the people around you are doing (or not doing) to determine what markets and trends may be hot (or not).
- Always be willing to reinvent your business.
- Find the right people, build the brand, protect your downside.
- Find a good partner, instead of putting up huge amounts of cash.
- Give your employees a share of the company, and an incentive to succeed.
- Keep a notebook with you constantly. Record every idea and event.
- Always ask your employees and customers what you can improve.
- Look after your employees, your customers, and then your shareholders (in that order).
- Promote from within.
- Keep your business groups small (50-60 people maximum).
- When someone threatens you, they may actually be in a weak position.
- Don’t do nothing about a problem because you can’t solve everything. Do what you can.
- Build to the highest quality. One day, it may save your customers.
- When you buy something from your providers, have the contract be a “design, build, and maintain” agreement. They’ll build in more quality if they expect to need to maintain it.
- If you have ongoing costs, make a plan to keep them under control.
Actions to take:
- No specific actions from this book