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Failing To Win: Hard-Earned Lessons from a Purpose-Driven Startup
In 2009, Canadian entrepreneur Mike Quinn packed his backpack and moved to Lusaka, Zambia on a mission to find African entrepreneurs building scalable, high-impact businesses. There he stumbled across two South African brothers who had founded a business to help unbanked smallholder farmers receive mobile payments in a market where cash was king. After convincing his retired parents to mortgage their house and lend him $100,000, Mike joined as a co-founder of Zoona and became CEO for nine of the next ten years.
With his partners, Mike built a network of more than 3,000 entrepreneur agents across Zambia and Malawi that enabled millions of unbanked consumers to send and receive $2.5-billion in money transfers and remittances. Headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa, Zoona raised over $35-million of venture investment and operated on the leading edge of Africa’s emerging fintech ecosystem.
Mike’s remarkable story gives a rare and honest glimpse into the workings of a pioneering African startup through the lens of a purpose-driven entrepreneur who went “all in”. Zoona faced tremendous adversity along the way: currency crises, investment round collapses, ruthless pushback from the major mobile network operators, and a continuous internal struggle to discover and execute a growth strategy that matched the company’s billion-dollar ambition. It was by failing to win that Mike learned what entrepreneurship is all about, and it was what motivated him to double down and try again.
“This raw, honest account is a must-read for anyone thinking about starting a company and for every entrepreneur who feels alone in the journey.” — Elizabeth Yin, Co-Founder & General Partner of Hustle Fund
“Startups are hard. Most people understand this. However, most people don’t understand why. Mike’s story is a rare glimpse into how challenges present themselves — and ultimately how to overcome.” — Matt Flannery, Co-Founder of Kiva & Branch
“In a rare look behind the scenes, Mike shares a vivid picture of the other side of leadership we don’t talk about enough. As he aptly describes ‘founding, failing and winning’, this book highlights the risk of taking that all-important first step, embracing failure and ensuring you learn the transformative lessons critical to success as an entrepreneurial leader.” — Fred Swaniker, Founder of African Leadership Group
“This story is a gift for entrepreneurs and indeed anyone wanting to learn about the first generation of African fintechs that paved the way for future companies to thrive.” — Katlego Maphai, Co-Founder & CEO of Yoco
“Mike’s humility, resilience and depth of knowledge of how to build a pan-African business are unique, and his testimony of experience is an important short history of the fintech boom on the continent.” — Elizabeth Rossiello, Founder & CEO of AZA
“Failing To Win is a captivating account of an incredibly talented and unusually forthright entrepreneur who built an ambitious purpose-led company that started in Zambia. At Oxford I have taught the Zoona case study to countless MBA students to show how fundamental principles of entrepreneurship can be meaningfully applied in a novel context. It just takes courageous and smart individuals who are not afraid of failing (in order) to win.” — Thomas Hellmann, DP World Professor of Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Oxford’s Saïd Business School
“Innovation has gone global, and is transforming people’s lives around the world. But startups are risky. Sometimes they scale and sometimes they fail. In Failing To Win, Mike shares insightful lessons from his journey at Zoona about what it takes to operate with integrity, impact and inspiration in the new Frontier of Innovation.” — Alex Lazarow, Author of Out-Innovate: How global entrepreneurs – from Delhi to Detroit – are rewriting the rules of Silicon Valley
₵145.00 – ₵160.00Failing To Win: Hard-Earned Lessons from a Purpose-Driven Startup
₵145.00 – ₵160.00 -
29 Days of Leadership
In 29 Days of Leadership Author Prince curates a compact, compelling compendium of leadership insights. It is replete with inspiring stories, instructive scriptures, informative sayings, and incisive slogans all nicely garnished with his original reflections. This book is bound to spark a must-do attitude in minds of emerging leaders and focus the power of established ones
₵35.0029 Days of Leadership
₵35.00 -
Golden Footprints: Memoirs of an African Development Worker
This book is a biography within a biography; it is about the author’s life lived in the northern part of Ghana in the peculiarities of the undocumented socio-cultural uniqueness of the region. It mirrors the hard road the author and many first-generation literates of his generation have travelled in building their lives in significant ways to impact society. A major part of the book is dedicated to a narrative of the experiences of the author while working for the NGO community across the African continent. It documents the challenges these organisations faced in various countries where they facilitated development and outlines how the interventions of NGOs have benefited rural populations. It is fodder for intellectual consumption, literature for academic discourse and more information for development students and practitioners. The book documents indigenous knowledge that has hitherto been left to oral tradition and ignored in the Ghanaian education system. Finally, the book demonstrates the divine hand of the Almighty God in the life of the author as one reads through breath-taking moments of divine interventions that otherwise could have ended his life and career. All these are narrated to provide the suspense normally found in fiction books.
₵150.00 -
Recalling a Life of Service: An Autobiography
Not many people are aware of the academic and administrative activities that go on in making high institutions such as universities work. Lucidly narrated in this valuable book is a true account of how Joseph Atsu Ayee, from humble beginnings in Keta, in the Volta region of Ghana, rose through the University of Ghana as Lecturer and climbed up the academic ladder as Professor, the Head of the Department of Political Science and Dean of the Faculty of Social Studies of the University of Ghana, to the high posts of Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in South Africa and Rector, MountCrest University College, Accra, Ghana. His hard work and perseverance in spite of the odds enabled him to climb up the administrative ladder very fast. His personal account is illuminating and inspiring. This valuable book contains insights into academia – a closed community, which is often shuttered from public view.
University administrators, policy makers, researchers and the curious general reader would find this riveting autobiography very illuminating and invaluable.
₵100.00 -
King Alboury Cooks the Best Jollof (Africa’s Little Kings & Queens)
Age Range: 3 – 8 years
A must-have for every child’s library. Loved by children around the world and teaches them the importance of kindness and community.
King Alboury Cooks the Best Jollof is a fictional story inspired by King Alboury Ndiaye, the last King of the Jollof Kingdom in Senegal. A must-have for every child’s library.
In this story, King Alboury loves to cook and his favourite meal to make is his famous jollof rice. His ancestors invented the recipe, and so he is the only one who knows the secret. However, King Alboury has a problem, his troublesome neighbours, the Chuchus people. Every time the King cooks his special Jollof rice, their tummies start to rumble so loud that they become jealous. Rumour has it that they are plotting against the Jollof Kingdom, but don’t worry, King Alboury has a plan!
₵55.00 -
If We Must THRIVE: A Survival & Growth Guide for the Young African Entrepreneur
THRIVE is for the young African entrepreneur hoping to persevere in the face of failures, setbacks and rejection. Anyone can start a business but not everyone can make a business survive and grow. Familiar success stories may blur the entrepreneurial path making young Africans wish for overnight success without equivalent effort.
This book will guide you to redefine your core personal and entrepreneurial goals in order to avoid duplicating unfeasible business models; to properly define your target market toward optimized sales; and to manage your cashflow without accumulating excessive short-term debts.
Practical reference to the Author’s experiences will shape your perspective towards a thriving state beyond just survival of your business or yourself. The young African entrepreneur must dream bigger and have faith, if, we must THRIVE!
₵60.00 -
Doubtful Minds, Arise!!
Have you paused for a second to consider the power behind the great innovations we see around us these days: the internet, computers, aeroplanes, cell phone technology, drone photography, multimedia stuff, LED ads, etc.? What do all these inventions have in common? Well, these are all products of the human mind. The creator of the universe endowed humans with an exceptional gift which, when well-harnessed, enables us to think and solve problems. How well we use this gift of the mind is the subject matter of this book written by Mawuli Dzitse.
In relatively few pages, the author establishes the important role the mind plays in our lives. Any manipulation of the mind has a telling effect on who we are and what we become. The mind is like an independent variable; the state of the dependent variable revolves around it.
So what happens when the mind is in a doubtful state?
A doubtful mind does not necessarily have to result in negative developments. In fact, doubt generates creativity. When used in moderation, doubt can be a welcoming asset in the society. It is a mover for social change. Nevertheless, doubt can be pathological if it is not managed properly. It is the prevention of negative aspects of doubt that the author focuses in this book.The underlying tone of the book posits that every human being has the capacity to use their mind to produce outcomes that can improve the quality of life than the one they came to meet.
₵28.00Doubtful Minds, Arise!!
₵28.00 -
The Human Weeds: Discovering Double-dealing Personalities
Human Weeds is a magnificent effort to blend nature study, human life, and Scripture to produce a rare wisdom as a guide to life, behaviour and the cultivation of positive attitudes in society.
Weeds do not have a single meaning, and all their various manifestations are defined and classified as they are identified by a range of dictionaries; the features they exhibit in relation to their existence among other plants are outlined. The features are not surprisingly, unwarranted and undesirable. Juxtaposed with human society, the characteristic features of weeds are apparent in certain human individuals and groups of individuals in the manner in which they inhabit society and function to cause obstruction and negativity in all aspects of life.
However, human weeds can still be classified into four main groups distinguished by their typical spheres of operation: social weeds, economic weeds, religious weeds, and political weeds. The implication is that at all levels of society, and in every sphere of society, including the family, school, associations, workplaces, worship centres, health centres, the media, and all other places of human existence and operation, the weeds grow together with the grains and plants. The consequence is that negativity thrives everywhere in various forms.
All of these can throw a person into despair, for if they are not themselves weeds, then they thrive among weeds that engulf them in obstruction and negativity. What hope is there for such a person then? And that is where the author brings HOPE. The knowledge of what weeds are, the conditions that make them thrive, the effects they produce, is already a massive gain for the reader who becomes enlightened and therefore aware of the dangers they face; but above all, they gain the insight that they can overcome human weeds in the same way that natural weeds are overcome. Thus, the insights of the book serve as an instrument of HOPE to counter the darkness evoked by human weeds.
The insights produced by the approach sweeps along all aspects of life, illuminating the activities of human beings and their effects upon human activity, existence and progress through the negative influences cast by human weeds; but the HOPE that emerges through the wisdom of the Scriptures, which at each turn, shine a divine light upon how the activities of human weeds are destined to be overcome, encourage the reader that the journey of life and growth, even if they take place among human weeds can succeed by the knowledge, wisdom and guidance of the Divine.
₵30.00 -
The UT Story: Humble Beginnings – Vol 1 (Hardcover)
How does an Army Captain who failed to obtain a ₵20 million (about $20,000) loan from the banks, set up a successful finance house and cause such a monumental paradigm shift to the lending culture of a country?
Capt. Prince Kofi Amoabeng(Rtd) defied the odds to found Unique Trust Financial Services Limited, which was later rebranded to UT Financial Services Limited and metamorphosed into a Bank (UT Bank) under the UT Holdings Umbrella together with subsidiaries in Germany, South Africa and Nigeria.
In this first instalment of a series of memoirs, PK, as he was affectionately called by his fiercely loyal and dedicated team, shares an inspiring, in-depth, no-holds-barred, behind the scenes, unabashed account of how and what made UT a household name and impacted so many lives.
Written with George Bentum Essiaw, a tenacious, talented writer and filmmaker, The UT Story: Humble Beginnings is replete with profound lessons in entrepreneurship and leadership, employing an effective mixture of orthodox and unorthodox methods grounded firmly in time-tested military principles.
Whatever your background or occupation, this book will fascinate and inspire you to dare.
₵200.00 -
Paying My Debt: An Autobiography
“Every human life is a unique story. Telling my life story is not for vainglory. It is not a story of heroic deeds, but the story of a humble debtor who cannot pay his debts in a lifetime. This is an attempt to look at the trails of my life which would remind me that no matter how far I have come, I am nowhere close to paying all my debts.”
This is the opening paragraph of the autobiography of Mr Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, a Trade Unionist, human and environmental rights activist, Professional Paralegal, poet, human resource development/industrial relations practitioner and an ADR Practitioner.
₵100.00Paying My Debt: An Autobiography
₵100.00 -
Bookset: Biographies of Ghanaian Pioneers and Leaders for Children (5 books)
Age Range: 4 – 12 years
Two amazing books that introduce young people to great Ghanaian leaders and pioneers who contributed to the development of this country. Their roles in shaping the course of Ghana’s history, independence and social life are detailed as examples for study by our youth.
In addition, three early readers biographies of Esther Ocloo (food scientist and industrialist), VCRAC Crabbe (a man of the law) and Ephraim Amu (musician, teacher and inventor).
These five books will introduce your children to some of the important names in Ghana’s history, and even parents will enjoy refreshing their knowledge!
₵170.00₵175.00 -
General Acheampong: The Life and Times of Ghana’s Head of State (Hardcover)
A magnificent book…brilliant in shedding light on some of the most important but little known dark passages in our national history…worth reading by anybody who truly seeks knowledge about our recent past.
₵200.00 -
The Speech by The Prime Minister: Dr Kwame Nkrumah (Motion for Approval of Government’s Revised Constitutional Proposals, November 1956)
The Speech by the Prime Minister, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. Introducing the Motion for the Approval of the Government’s Revised Constitutional Proposals. At the Legislative Assembly, 12 November 1956.
₵40.63 -
Inside Out: Autobiographical Memoirs
The author recounts a journey that starts in a small town in Ghana, through an academic and professional career in finance in Canada and the United States, culminating at the Ministry of Finance in Ghana where he served as Technical Advisor to three different Ministers of Finance from different political parties.
The memoirs depict the complexities of decision-making that combine technical know-how with political reality using several instances of policymaking and financial transactions that he led at the Ministry. For the technical reader, the author recounts a 25-year history of his involvement in many key initiatives of financial market development in Ghana.
The sweetener in Inside Out is an interesting case study of how to navigate political transitions and maintain relevance as a senior advisor to Ministers in a “winner-takes-all” political environment.
₵150.00 -
Reaching Your Expected End
There is surely a future hope for you and your hope will not be cut off.
Proverb 23:18 (indicate which Bible version)
This is a well explained piece of content that looks at the causes of the downfall of man, how the evil one destroys mankind from getting to their desired destination and how man can be made whole again.
In this book, Chris Quinston-Addo states how God has always had mankind on His heart even after the fall
Reaching Your Expected End is good for everyone regardless of their background or religion
₵50.00Reaching Your Expected End
₵50.00