Eugene Amo-Dadzie, the ultimate numbers man

If you don’t know Eugene Amo-Dadzie yet, you will. We’re pretty sure of that. 

If you’re reading this after the summer of 2024, maybe he will have done the thing that – for most – is barely a passing thought, let alone a sincere aspiration. 

But more on that later.

Let’s start at the beginning. Who is Eugene Amo-Dadzie, and what does he have to do with TaxScouts?

The world’s fastest accountant

If you knew of Eugene pre-summer 2023, you probably know him as the high-achieving senior chartered accountant from St George PLC, a subsidiary of the prestigious Berkeley Group. 

But if you know of Eugene post-summer 2023, the story is different. 

Eugene is an elite runner, the fourth fastest Brit of all time, able to sprint 100m in 9.93 seconds 👀🔥 – but what really sets him apart? He’s still a working accountant. Not only in spirit but in practice, too. And he credits his accounting career as one of the key levers to his success on the track. AND, his switch from swivel chair to running track only happened in 2018 when he was 26. Before that, he’d only done athletics at school. 

We don’t know about you but our mind 👏 is 👏 blown 👏

Introducing TaxScouts x Eugene

We’ll call a spade a spade here: we jumped at the opportunity to support Eugene. 

Aside from the obvious interest in his story, we also really love that Eugene is someone who actively pursued a career in accounting from a young age, taking an aptitude test in school that recommended it as a strong career path for his skills. His genuine interest in the area alone was enough to get us excited. 

(What can we say, folks… we simply love accounting.)

So – drumroll please 🥁 – TaxScouts is now a proud 2024 sponsor of Eugene Amo-Dadzie a.k.a the world’s fastest accountant. Talk about starting the year off with a bang (of the starting gun), right? 

Our sponsorship will help Eugene create an elite training environment while he’s working part-time as an accountant. Training and competing as a professional athlete is, as you can imagine, expensive. So our funding will go towards training costs like coaching fees, medical fees, training camps, equipment, travel, accommodation, and livelihood costs as he takes more time away from work to train. With the goal of qualifying for the Olympics, you have to go all in. 

And Eugene is going all in. 

We can’t wait to see what he achieves, not just in 2024 but over his whole career. It’s a privilege to be part of his journey. 

From Excel to EXCEL 🏆

Eugene is a numbers man; he genuinely does credit his accounting skills and career to being part of his formula for success. 

But what does he mean by this?

In his own words, he told us about two components outside his natural athletic ability that he believes give him an edge that many others don’t have:

1. His analytical mindset

“My accounting background has meant that I’ve been able to pick up and learn new things in training very quickly. For example the number of strides it takes to run a certain distance within a certain time. I also have a good understanding (and appreciation) of the processes and formulas for success that I need to focus on.” 

2. The headspace to love running

“Because I had a full-time job, athletics wasn’t my primary source of income, or even an initial career goal for me and my family’s livelihood. So there was, at times, less pressure versus what you see on the paths of other athletes, given that I’d already built up a career outside of track.”

Combining these things with his supportive family, his faith and his lifelong belief in himself, Eugene has the ingredients for success.

And let’s not forget flexibility 

The accounting industry is traditionally very, well, traditional. It’s a bums-on-seats kind of vibe. Eugene said himself that if it weren’t for his employer being flexible and allowing him to both drop down to part-time and work more flexibly to fit in training, he wouldn’t be where he is today.

At TaxScouts, this was music to our ears. So many of our accountants formerly worked in-house for big traditional firms but left for the flexibility of working for themselves. Then, looking for a solution that combined the freedom of self-employment and being able to bring in enough business to sustain their livelihoods, they found TaxScouts. 

Increasingly post-COVID, flexibility is an expectation for people entering the working world. A 2023 UK survey found that 40% of candidates won’t apply for a job that doesn’t offer their preferred working model. So industries that can’t meet the desired standard of flexible working may well be overshadowed by those that can. 

So perhaps Eugene isn’t just a pioneer in his sport but also in his profession – the exception that may well prompt new, more flexible rules when it comes to ways of working in traditional accounting.

Is Eugene the ultimate side hustler? 

Yes. He is the ELITE side hustler. Pun intended.

So whilst he waits in the wings, training to become an Olympian and hopefully even a medal winner, we’re right there with him, cheering him on. 

So can we get a hip hip hooray for the following aligning stars that enabled it all to take place? 

• Hurray to the data mindset that helped take Eugene from fast to fast ⚡
• To Eugene’s employer, climbing aboard the flexible working train 🚂 
• To side-hustling, and following your passion 
• And finally to accounting – without whom none of us would be here 🫶