Some more losing ....

Continuing the take aways from Richard Bransons Losing My.. here is one from chapter 21.

"The sky was pitch-dark all around us.I scarcely looked out of the capsule but concentrated on the instruments. As I sat there with Per Lying comatose at the bottom of the Capsule, it seemed clear that we were going to die.With just three fuel tanks we would run out of fuel some thousand miles off the American Coast and have to ditch in the sea.We would have to fly this balloon for another 30 hours if we were going to live.I knew that the only chance of us living was for me to fly the balloon right to in the core of the jet stream.I put all thoughts of death out of my head and for the next 10 hours concentrated intently on the dials.

I do not believe in God, but as I sat there in the damaged capsule, hopelessly vulnerable to the slightest shift in weather or mechanical fault, I could not believe my eyes.It was as if a spirit had entered the capsule and was helping us along. as I watched the instruments and calculated our ground speed, it became clear that we were begining to fly very fast, close to the necessary miles an hour.Before we had dropped the fuel tanks we were flying at 80 miles an hour, which had been very good progress.Now we needed a miracle.
I slapped myself across the face to make sure that I wasn't hallucinating but each fifteen minutes the speeds grew faster: 160mph,180 mph, 200mph and even 240mph. The increase was astounding....

Losing My Virginity - Richard Branson

Take aways from the Book - Loosing my Virginity":

I am currently reading this book and thoroughly enjoying it so I thought why not share the great quotes right away instead of waiting for the book to get over and then do a write up. Since I devote less than a hour each day reading the book this post is likely to be long in content and time frame.

"I just pick up my phone and Get on with it "

" My parents encouraged us to give our views on many things "

" I just wanted to have have enough cash in the bank to print the next issue and pay for the bills"

" At the prison I vowed to myself that I would never again do anything that would cause me to be imprisoned, or indeed do any kind of Business deal that wuld embarass me."

" My parents had drummed into me that all you have in life is your reputation: you may be rich, but if you lose your good name, then you will never be happy.The thought will always lurk in the back of your head that people dont trust you"


" the next 2 years were a crash course on how to manage cash. from being completely relaxed we became obsessively focussed. We used every penny of the cash generated in the shops, knowing every pound we earned was another pound toward opening up another store , which in tun was another pound toward paying off my customs and excise debt."

Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells

Sir Richard Branson

For Long I have wanted to write a post on Richard Branson. Honestly I feel he doesn'nt need a title.

Came across an intersting quote and a great snap with him on center stage as usual - & I thought why not Now? 

He made a very straight forward analysis of the UK economy , which holds quite well for India Also. What is really endearing about him that he doesnt mince words. You can read the full article here.

Coming to the snap above that is Branson Polishing the shoes of Guy Kawasaki - a kind of expert on Social Media. I dont have the details of why he did so. But, hats off to his attitude. A multi Billionaire Businessman who doesnt mind fooling around in Public. He is Different. 

A couple of other links 

1) A Promo of Virgin Galactic

2) Branson talks about Small Businesses Entrepreneur