Screw It, Let's Do It: Lessons in Life - Sir Richard Branson

I will readily admit that I have never been what you could call a fan of Richard Branson, with his outrageous self publicity and his record attempts I have often found him rather annoying. But then part of me admires him, as anyone who can create such a hugely successful business as Virgin must be doing something right. So when I got the opportunity to read his book "Screw it, Let's do it" I thought why not, maybe I will learn something ...
...just maybe a bit of his drive will rub off on me.

"Screw it, Let's do it" was written by Richard Branson when he was approached to write a book for World Book Day 2006, since then it has become an International best seller and recently been expanded to include a new chapter on environmentally friendly business. The book is not so much an autobiography, although it does touch on many aspects of Richard's personal life, but ... more

I will readily admit that I have never been what you could call a fan of Richard Branson, with his outrageous self publicity and his record attempts I have often found him rather annoying. But then part of me admires him, as anyone who can create such a hugely successful business as Virgin must be doing something right. So when I got the opportunity to read his book "Screw it, Let's do it" I thought why not, maybe I will learn something interesting about the man, what drives him on and maybe just maybe a bit of his drive will rub off on me.

"Screw it, Let's do it" was written by Richard Branson when he was approached to write a book for World Book Day 2006, since then it has become an International best seller and recently been expanded to include a new chapter on environmentally friendly business. The book is not so much an autobiography, although it does touch on many aspects of Richard's personal life, but a look at how Richard goes about his business as well as his life and the lessons he has learnt along the way. I believe the intention of this book was to not only to give an insight into Richard Branson but to encourage people to challenge themselves and live life to the full.

The book is split up into several chapters each with a unique slant on an aspect of Richard's life and also a pretty standard title such as "Challenge Yourself" and "Be Innovative", the sort of title you expect from a self help book. There is no real chronological order to the chapters and each one flicks between his early days, through to starting the Virgin empire and the way it has expanded, right up until the present, although chapter 1 does look at what first inspired Richard to succeed in business. What I found interesting was the way Richard manages to cover so much within each chapter and he usually manages to talk about his days as a child, starting in business, record attempts as well as his business today in every single chapter with so much gusto that it never feels repetitive. As already mentioned each chapter has a different slant, whether it is about being honest, enjoying life or remembering family values, amongst others and each chapter is surprisingly interesting. For me the best parts of each chapter revolved around how he runs his business and the difficulties he has encountered along the way, but also the insights into his record attempts and his childhood really gives you an insight into what drives him on. It is also good that there is a slightly humorous aspect to each chapter, and when he dishes the dirt on one of his rivals and their dirty tricks campaigns you can't but help smile. Saying that, he also has no issues with dealing the dirt on himself and in a very open moment he tells about when setting up the Virgin record stores he fell fowl of the law in a tax dodge scheme.

Part of the reason for writing this book was to give the readers life lessons which Richard has learnt along the way from his exceedingly eventful life, and each chapter delivers the desired message very clearly and for me every time I read a bit more it left me feeling motivated and encouraged. Learning about how he set up his first business, Student magazine, whilst still at school and using a telephone box to make all his calls, really encourages you that despite whatever obstacles are in your way there is usually away around them. The lessons are not all about business and a lot of them are about living life to the full as well as enjoying every moment and it is very clear from this book that Richard does indeed live his life to the full, especially through the highly dangerous record bids. Although I was not overly bothered about his achievements when it came to breaking records, they are surprisingly interesting and when he goes into depth about the dangers they entailed you begin to question his sanity, but then some people live for these sorts of thrills and it is very clear that he is one of them.

Another key element of this book is his concern over environmental issues and he not only touches on this in many of the chapters but also dedicates a whole chapter to environmental issues and how he believes the way forward should be. The majority of his musings on this issue revolve around how to run a business in an environmentally friendly manner in particular how he runs the Virgin Empire. But he also gives his ideas on ways other businesses can improve their carbon footprints such as the airline business in general with aircrafts being towed to the end of the runway instead of burning fuel getting there under their own power. He also discusses how he got into the whole environmental scene and it is interesting to read that even back in the 70s he was heavily involved. Whilst most of his thoughts on environmental issues are high end and focuses mainly on businesses a few of them make sense on a domestic.

There is only one negative I have about "Screw it, Let's do it" and that it is the feeling of 'look at me' you get whilst reading it. I am sure Richard is very pleased with everything he has achieved and takes great satisfaction in knowing that he has made a success of his life, but at times the way he says things in the book is just a little too much. Maybe it is just me, as I previously said that I do find him slightly annoying and his enthusiastic persona definitely transfers to print in the same slightly annoying way.

At just over 256 pages "Screw It, Let's Do It" is not a long book and takes next to no time to read it from cover to cover. But then it is also one of those books you can pick up from time to time and read a chapter again as you learn something knew every time. It is also written in such a way that it is not all facts and boring information on business, but really grabs your attention and manages to engage even those who are not interested in the world of high power business. With a mixture of his life and business there is a nice balance between the two providing enough variation to break any monotony. But as I have mentioned, Branson's persona definitely comes across and whilst his enthusiasm is encouraging his constant 'look at me' attitude does grate, well for me anyway.

►►► Price & Availability

Amazon.co.uk: £4.23
WH Smiths: £7.99

Paperback
Pages: 256
ISBN: 0753511495

© Christianfilmcritic November 2007 

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