Review of Pay The Price
Posted: 07 Dec 2022, 04:26
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Pay The Price" by Steven N. Adjei.]
Many of us have day-dreamed about quitting wage-slave employment to start up on our own, but the statistics are daunting: sixty percent of UK small businesses fail in the first three years, ninety percent after ten. Pay The Price is by one of the world’s great success stories, Steven N. Adjei. Look elsewhere for how to fill in tax-returns, control debt and manage cash-flow – this book is a work of sheer passion, giving us the vision to underpin the hard grind of making it all happen. The author has founded and grown many businesses, and has made an enormous impact on the enterprise landscape. Why, then, is he not a household name? It’s because the focus of his vision and passion is in Africa; not the continent of the heart-rending TV charity adverts, but the vibrant and enthusiastic Africa which is discovering its own talent and its role in the world.
From the very first page, Steven stresses the need for a strong ethical foundation in any business. He makes extensive use of the experiences of other successful entrepreneurs, and for him the four keywords are Integrity, Fairness, Decency and Sustainability in all relationships - with staff, with customers, with business partners and with the family behind the boss. He knows, however, that personal failings, hostility and betrayals, adverse circumstances and sheer bad luck can all combine to bring a lot of pain. There’s a whole chapter on this, with the various sources of pain colour-coded in a traffic-light system, an extremely useful forty pages of sound analysis which no sensible start-up should ignore. There’s also good advice on working in a partnership and on being realistic about expectations, and a substantial chapter on four different styles of leadership, with examples opening up the strengths and weaknesses of each.
From my own experience in running small businesses, and in working extensively with West African communities, I can see where Steven’s enthusiasm comes from, but there are a few caveats. First, the author’s strongly African focus is inspirational, but the last five years there, in particular, have been increasingly violent, and Steven’s brilliant achievements in healthcare may well be at considerable risk from the anti-western movement. It would have been instructive and helpful to read his own assessment of the growing problem of ISIS in his chapter on uncontrollable risks.
I also have reservations about Steven’s choice of exemplars for his four entrepreneurial styles, the Philanthropist, the Purist, the Profligate and the Pathfinder. The main problem is that they are all ‘big people’, billionaires and world leaders, not people to whom the small business start-up can easily relate. His points are well-made, but the successes and the personal failures of these leaders are so uncommon that this whole section, while entertaining, is not in my estimation as useful as it might be. It is for this reason alone that I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars, rather than a full score.
The structure of Pay The Price is unusual and particularly effective. Steven uses many one-sentence paragraphs, giving an emphasis which makes the reader pause for thought – much more powerful than solid text. There’s also a huge amount of musical reference; each section begins with appropriate lyrics from popular tracks, backed up with a Spotify playlist for the reader to follow up. Most of the music is of African or Afro-American origin, but this is so popular across all cultures today that this slant will not detract from the appeal. I think, however, that Pay The Price would pack even more punch if it were the basis of a live training session. It would fit superbly into a single day, and the music could then be what the author intends it to be - inspirational as music, not simply as words on a page. The questions for discussion would also carry more weight in small groups than they do for an individual reader, and the rather odd digression on atomic valence might also be more effective in a live presentation - it really doesn’t work here for the non-scientist. It is this unusual format which conveys most effectively Steven Adjei’s passionate commitment both to Africa and to the culture of enterprise. It cannot have been an easy book to edit, but the task has been professionally done, and the editing errors are so few and so trivial that it would be mean-spirited to make an issue of them. All in all, an outstanding, visionary book.
******
Pay The Price
View: on Bookshelves
Many of us have day-dreamed about quitting wage-slave employment to start up on our own, but the statistics are daunting: sixty percent of UK small businesses fail in the first three years, ninety percent after ten. Pay The Price is by one of the world’s great success stories, Steven N. Adjei. Look elsewhere for how to fill in tax-returns, control debt and manage cash-flow – this book is a work of sheer passion, giving us the vision to underpin the hard grind of making it all happen. The author has founded and grown many businesses, and has made an enormous impact on the enterprise landscape. Why, then, is he not a household name? It’s because the focus of his vision and passion is in Africa; not the continent of the heart-rending TV charity adverts, but the vibrant and enthusiastic Africa which is discovering its own talent and its role in the world.
From the very first page, Steven stresses the need for a strong ethical foundation in any business. He makes extensive use of the experiences of other successful entrepreneurs, and for him the four keywords are Integrity, Fairness, Decency and Sustainability in all relationships - with staff, with customers, with business partners and with the family behind the boss. He knows, however, that personal failings, hostility and betrayals, adverse circumstances and sheer bad luck can all combine to bring a lot of pain. There’s a whole chapter on this, with the various sources of pain colour-coded in a traffic-light system, an extremely useful forty pages of sound analysis which no sensible start-up should ignore. There’s also good advice on working in a partnership and on being realistic about expectations, and a substantial chapter on four different styles of leadership, with examples opening up the strengths and weaknesses of each.
From my own experience in running small businesses, and in working extensively with West African communities, I can see where Steven’s enthusiasm comes from, but there are a few caveats. First, the author’s strongly African focus is inspirational, but the last five years there, in particular, have been increasingly violent, and Steven’s brilliant achievements in healthcare may well be at considerable risk from the anti-western movement. It would have been instructive and helpful to read his own assessment of the growing problem of ISIS in his chapter on uncontrollable risks.
I also have reservations about Steven’s choice of exemplars for his four entrepreneurial styles, the Philanthropist, the Purist, the Profligate and the Pathfinder. The main problem is that they are all ‘big people’, billionaires and world leaders, not people to whom the small business start-up can easily relate. His points are well-made, but the successes and the personal failures of these leaders are so uncommon that this whole section, while entertaining, is not in my estimation as useful as it might be. It is for this reason alone that I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars, rather than a full score.
The structure of Pay The Price is unusual and particularly effective. Steven uses many one-sentence paragraphs, giving an emphasis which makes the reader pause for thought – much more powerful than solid text. There’s also a huge amount of musical reference; each section begins with appropriate lyrics from popular tracks, backed up with a Spotify playlist for the reader to follow up. Most of the music is of African or Afro-American origin, but this is so popular across all cultures today that this slant will not detract from the appeal. I think, however, that Pay The Price would pack even more punch if it were the basis of a live training session. It would fit superbly into a single day, and the music could then be what the author intends it to be - inspirational as music, not simply as words on a page. The questions for discussion would also carry more weight in small groups than they do for an individual reader, and the rather odd digression on atomic valence might also be more effective in a live presentation - it really doesn’t work here for the non-scientist. It is this unusual format which conveys most effectively Steven Adjei’s passionate commitment both to Africa and to the culture of enterprise. It cannot have been an easy book to edit, but the task has been professionally done, and the editing errors are so few and so trivial that it would be mean-spirited to make an issue of them. All in all, an outstanding, visionary book.
******
Pay The Price
View: on Bookshelves