Started a magazine at 16, a mail-order record business in 1970 and the Virgin Records shops in 1972; built the Virgin brand in the 1980s with Virgin Atlantic and the Virgin Records label.
4 books of their own · 5 biographies about them · 1 article · 76 books they recommend
Recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai, Iman Gadzhi and 1 other
Recommended by: Brett Adcock, Elon Musk
Recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai
Recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai, Iman Gadzhi and 1 other
Recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai
Recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai
A novel of a clerk who rewrites history under a totalitarian state that watches all.
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: David Heinemeier Hansson, Matt Mullenweg and 3 others
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Jordan Hughes
A rhyming send-off for graduates of all ages on the ups and downs ahead.
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai, Fred Wilson
The three Darling children's adventures in Never Land with the boy who won't grow up.
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Kevin Kelly, Whitney Wolfe Herd
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Elon Musk, Naval Ravikant, Sahil Lavingia
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Elon Musk, Paul Graham
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Bill Gates
A lawyer's memoir of fighting wrongful convictions, such as Walter McMillian's.
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Barack Obama, Kathryn Minshew and 1 other
Nelson Mandela's own story, from childhood to prison and the end of apartheid.
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai
Fifteen lessons on life and leadership from Nelson Mandela's example.
Paul Farmer, the doctor who co-founded Partners In Health, treating the poor.
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai, Bill Gates, Daniel Burka and 1 other
Dell's founder on the buyout, the Icahn fight and VMware
Also recommended by: Andrew Wilkinson, Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt and 5 others
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai
Harari's concern — that humans may cede decision-making to opaque systems through preference rather than coercion — reframes the alignment problem as a cultural and political challenge, not only a technical one. Less rigorous than Bostrom or Russell, but more widely read, making it a useful lens for understanding public discourse.
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Andrew Wilkinson, Bill Gates, Nat Eliason and 6 others
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Patrick Collison
How shared fictions such as money, nations and gods let humans cooperate at scale.
Also recommended by: Andrew Wilkinson, Bill Gates, Mohnish Pabrai and 37 others
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Patrick O'Shaughnessy, Elon Musk and 1 other
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Patrick Collison
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Sophie Bakalar
Large-format scenery and fashion photographs of Richard Branson's Caribbean island.
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Austen Allred
Sinek's Golden Circle (Why/How/What) is less empirically grounded than the rest of this list, but its core observation is accurate: people don't follow what you do, they follow why you do it. Useful for understanding how leaders communicate identity externally and why some inspire loyalty while others just manage compliance.
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Tony Hsieh, Alfred Lin, Ann Handley and 3 others
Examples of people who turned their concern for the world into their work.
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Nat Eliason, David Hellmann, Jason Fried and 2 others
How people champion new ideas, and how leaders can encourage originality.
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai, Tony Hsieh, Alfred Lin and 6 others
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai, Nat Eliason, Maria Popova
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Maria Popova
How fast food reshaped farming, meatpacking, food science and low-wage work.
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai, Kevin Rose
Why few women reach senior roles, and what women and firms can do about it.
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai, Catriona Wallace, Julie Zhuo and 1 other
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai
Why aviation learns from every failure while fields like medicine hide theirs.
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Daniel Ek
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Daniel Petre
The case that fast-improving technology will make scarce resources cheap.
Source: 70 must-read books — Richard Branson's blog, Virgin.com
Also recommended by: Bill Gates, Morgan Housel, Steve Jurvetson and 1 other
| The Power of Mini-Grids Paywall | Project Syndicate | 2017-06-02 |
| Richard Branson: Never do anything that discredits the brand | The Observer | 2014 |
| Richard Branson Searches for Virgin's Next Big Thing Paywall | The New York Times Magazine | 2014 |
| The Saturday interview: Richard Branson | The Guardian | 2011 |
| A born-again Virgin | The Observer | 2002 |