Screw It, Let's Do It - Lessons in Life

by Richard Branson Virgin Books, $45

If you've read Losing My Virginity - The Autobiography, then you know what Richard Branson covers in this 'quick read' of 100 or so easy pages. Screw It, Let's Do It is short and simple. Branson doesn't like to waste time. Try to have fun, live life to the fullest, set yourself new challenges, be polite and treat everyone with respect, and try to do good, which is as easy as doing no harm. Two-and-a-bit decades ago, I sat amid children's toys on Branson's lived-in houseboat on one of London's prettier canals to interview him for an Australian newspaper. We'd covered the background - quitting school, starting his own business out of a telephone box, losing his virginity, getting arrested for smuggling. Branson was about to launch Virgin Atlantic. Analysts considered it bold. Brash and foolish, some said. He'd be taking his airline to Australia, too. Was he winding me up? No. I had just met a man who believed in himself. Nothing was impossible. Virgin Atlantic has daily Hong Kong-Sydney flights, connecting with his Australian carrier Virgin Blue.