Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson

This is the longest book I have read for the last 10 years. Its 624 pages and I have taken about 2 months to finish it. On the Kindle, I must say that it is good in the fact that the size and font type of the words are just good for reading. And that the fact that the kindle is lighter than the actual book and you do not need to hold onto the pages, it has been a good read. The not so good part is that for the 624 pages in the actual book, there are >1000 pages in the kindle to "flip". Overall, it has been a good gadget for reading. I will definitely continue reading my books on the kindle, though I wish there are cheaper ways of getting some books.

In this book, Richard Branson started by describing his life from his childhood. His mother trained him from young to be independent and resourceful. As a young man in the UK, he was daring and experimential. He started his 1st business in school with a student magazine. His profitable business was Virgin Music with hippier stores for customers to browse and chat. Then come Virgin Records where his signing of Mike Oldfield recorded the "Tubular Bells". From there onwards, Virgin Records has signed a number of higher flying music artists. During this period, Virgin group expanded into a network of Virgin businesses, such as Virgin Holidays, Virgin Cars etc.

Richard Branson is now known for his transport business. He sold his music businesses and focused mainly on his airline and rail businesses. He described his ups and downs, including battle with British Airways, and the American government. He has also been the adventurous type. He sailed a boat and flew over the Atlantic in a hot air balloon. The last parts of the book surrounds mainly around 2005-7 where Richard was steering more on space travel, going green and helping Africa in battling health issues.

There are many "never say die" attitude situations in this book. Good for motivation and maybe inspiring some to take some unusual paths to reach greater heights in career and life.

Fish! by Stephen C Lundin, Harry Paul and John Christensen

Of the 3 books in the Fish! series, I started reading the last and latest one, Fish! for Life. Reading just a quarter of that book, I felt a compelling urge to get my hands on the 1st installment before continuing with the book.

I am so glad that I got this book in super quick time and also finished reading it within 3-4 hrs. In fact, if you are a fast reader, I believe you should be able to finish the book in 2 hours. I was engrossed when the story unfolds on the work environment as it was very similar to mine. Plain boring to many of my staff. I was interested to know how Mary Jane, the main character, would be able to motivate her staff to have better output and give better customer service.

The 4 main ingredients are:

1) Choose your Attitude. We have a choice to choose our attitude everyday at work. We can choose to be grumpy and be zombie like or we can be as cheerful as a humble bee.

2) Play. Having fun at work with your colleagues would make your job more interesting and produce happier workers.

3) Make their Day. How do we engage our customers so that we can "make their day"?

4) Be Present. When corresponding with a customer, either external or internal, we are often distracted by our phones and interruptions. Being present with the customer shows your respect and your dedication to that person, which in turn will be reciprocated.

Though it looks difficult to implement in my office, I would try to do something. 1st, I believe I have to get a copy for my line manager. Stay tune for the reviews of the next 2 Fish! books.