NOTHING VENTURED

A memoir chronicles the life of an American man in business and beyond.

Pease was born in Spokane, Washington, in 1943. Despite some fears of nuclear annihilation during the Cold War, he recalls Spokane as a pleasant place. He went on to earn an undergraduate degree from the University of Washington before pursuing an MBA at Harvard Business School. Harvard solidified his interest in making businesses work. Much of the book covers the nitty-gritty of things, such as trying to see a racquetball court company called Wallbangers through a difficult period. Later in the author’s career, he moved into venture capital, where he helped to fund potentially lucrative companies. As he explains of the venture capital world, “You have to be willing to explore industries and situations in which you have little experience, and you must quickly master what you need to know and do in each unique circumstance to be successful.” He also became interested in Russia. He eventually found his way to the board of the U.S. Russia Investment Fund. Between his personal life and business dealings, Pease traveled to Russia some 50 times. Drawing on this experience, he provides insights into the present-day situation in the country as well as some more general political and personal views. He outlines what it means to be a conservative. Though he is a gentile, he also discusses (and later delineates the points of) his published works on the success of Jewish people.

Pease’s memoir covers all these various topics in a no-nonsense manner. On the specifics of working with Russia, the author asserts: “We pursued ways of restoring significant American expertise about Russia because that kind of knowledge had declined precipitously after the end of the Cold War.” Though definitions are provided for many acronyms, it can be easy at times to get lost in the jargon, as with how “as part of the USAID ‘dual mandate’ for enterprise funds, the Center for Entrepreneurship (CFE) was established in 2002.” Yet it is the book’s willingness to dig into the details that gives it its appeal. Portions on business interactions are telling. For instance, one company’s attempt to use vintage rail cars to transport weekend skiers between San Jose, California, and Reno, Nevada, failed, thanks in part to a recession and a less-than-ideal snow season. The takeaways about what made some companies crumble while others prospered are not abstract theories. They are related by someone who was there. The same is true for the sections on business ideas, like the importance of entrepreneurs in the post-Soviet era. Pease is, after all, someone who has been interacting with Russian concerns for years. Some readers may not be interested in all of the success stories, such as the one about building an excellent home in California. Yet on the whole, readers get not just textbook management cases, but also a well-rounded picture of the business world.

An engrossing and personable look at real-life business decisions and the man behind them.