Lead from the Outside Book Summary - Lead from the Outside Book explained in key points

Listen to the Intro

00:00

Lead from the Outside summary

Name: Lead from the Outside
Rating: 4.1 (50 reviews)
Author: Stacey Abrams

Stacey Abrams

How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change

4.1 (50 ratings)

25 mins

Table of Contents

Lead from the Outside
summarized in 8 key ideas

Audio & text in the Blinkist app

Key idea 1 of 8

What’s in it for me? Learn how to hack the system, become a leader, and create change.

The traditional narrative of success – work hard and the world will open doors for you – doesn’t apply to everyone. For those starting from the “outside” – that is, women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and anyone else not historically represented in the halls of power – the playing field isn’t level.

As the first Black woman to be nominated by a major party for governor, Stacey Abrams knows what it’s like to be an outsider. But throughout her successful career in politics, entrepreneurship, and the nonprofit world, she’s discovered that differences provide a vital strength.

These blinks offer her hard-won advice on how to find hidden pathways to leadership, how to prevail despite systemic inequality, and how to overcome inner doubt and outside prejudice.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how a spreadsheet gave Abrams lifelong courage;
why you should aim to have a “Work-Life Jenga” not a work-life balance; and
how power mapping can help you reach your goals.

If you’re starting from the outside, the first step on the path to leadership is embracing ambition.

When the Rhodes Scholarship committee in Jackson, Mississippi asked applicant Stacey Abrams how the award would change her life, she froze for a second. Abrams, who’d just graduated from Spelman College, hadn’t actually thought it through. In fact, she almost didn’t apply, despite her professors’ urging. She knew that if she applied for the prestigious award, she didn’t want to lose – and she was sure she wouldn’t win. A Black woman hadn’t ever secured the Mississippi nomination before.

It was the dean of her college who ultimately convinced her to apply, saying she was almost guaranteed to win if she got past Mississippi. And get past Mississippi she did; she was selected to advance to the finals a few weeks later.

Ultimately, she didn’t win the scholarship. But it was a defining moment for Abrams because she summoned the courage to try. She realized that she could widen the scope of her aspirations – leading her to eventually attend Yale Law School, the most exclusive law school in the country, which would set the course of her career.

The key message here is: If you’re starting from the outside, the first step on the path to leadership is embracing ambition.

As Abrams discovered, ambition means permitting yourself to stretch beyond what feels safe. Her advice for women, minorities, and anyone who’s been historically denied power is to locate your ambition. Ask yourself: What do I want?

Abrams first did this during her freshman year of college, reeling from a painful breakup and sitting in the computer lab. In a haze of indignation and introspection, she decided to redirect her energy toward her professional life. Abrams urgently typed her goals for the next 40 years into a spreadsheet. This spreadsheet helped her to visualize success and experience what it was like to want things for herself. And it’s something that Abrams still uses today.

Once you’ve figured out your ambition, consider why you want it and how you’ll get there. Organize your plans around why, not what, and be willing to change course. One of the items on Abrams’s spreadsheet was to be the mayor of Atlanta by the age of 35. But she ultimately realized that she was too focused on the job title and that her vision – to serve communities ravaged by racism and poverty – stretched well beyond Atlanta.

We tend to map our goals based on the likelihood of success rather than our passion. But passion is what helps us go from goal setting to taking action. To identify your ambition, write down five things – and it can be anything – that you would choose to do for the rest of your life.

Minority fear is complex and insidious – but you can confront it and use it to your advantage.

For minorities, one of the greatest obstacles to realizing ambition is the conviction that you’re too “other” to be a leader. When Abrams ran for governor, even many of her closest friends and supporters insisted that Georgia wasn’t ready for a Black woman.

It wasn’t for a lack of qualifications. On the contrary: at 29, she was hired as deputy city attorney for the City of Atlanta, and five years later, she was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives. Just four years after that, she rose to Democratic minority leader. But no Black woman had ever become a major-party gubernatorial nominee before – so it didn’t seem realistic.

Outsiders can navigate their way to power by hacking traditional systems.

In 2014, the Democratic Party had very little power in Georgia. Voters hadn’t elected a Democratic governor in 15 years. They hadn’t voted for a Democratic presidential nominee in 22. As the minority leader of a small assembly of House Democrats, Abrams couldn’t do much to drive change.

Until she got creative. That year, Abrams and Lauren Groh-Wargo founded the New Georgia Project, a nonprofit dedicated to registering 800,000 eligible, unregistered voters of color in the state. Getting them on the rolls would change the political landscape of Georgia – which is projected to be the first majority-minority state in the Deep South by about 2026. In the months leading up to election season in 2014, Abrams fundraised $3.5 million and they submitted 86,000 new voter applications.

Figure out what kind of support you need and build a “board of advisors.

When Abrams became Atlanta’s deputy city attorney, she wasn’t warmly welcomed by her team. They were a tight-knit crew – and one of them had expected to be promoted to the role before Abrams arrived. Abrams was the youngest member of the law department, she’d come from a corporate tax law firm, and she hadn’t had a leadership role since college.

After weeks of trying and failing to gain their support, an unlikely mentor helped her: the law department’s financial manager, Laurette Woods. Trained in human resources, Woods helped Abrams identify what she was doing wrong: she came off as arrogant in her eagerness to prove she belonged there, and she didn’t make an effort to get to know her colleagues personally. For the next few months, Woods taught Abrams how to establish leadership, manage her employees, and work on her personal touch.

Money is one of the biggest obstacles to leadership. Overcome it by gaining financial fluency.

After graduating from Yale Law, Abrams was offered nearly six figures to work at a big corporate law firm. But while her colleagues were buying houses and luxury cars, Abrams was still renting. Sure, her starting salary was impressive – but her credit score wasn’t.

Before beginning her new job, she realized she’d have to submit a personal fitness application as part of the Georgia bar exam – a detailed record of all past missteps, including credit defaults. Throughout her academic career, scholarships had covered her tuition, housing, and fees. But for everything else, Abrams borrowed. Loan money went toward other living costs and helping her family. After all of those expenses, there often wasn’t enough left over to pay her credit card bills.

Prepare for both success and failure, and learn how to be wrong.

In her first year as a tax attorney at a private practice, Abrams volunteered to take on an important line of research. The case involved one of the biggest nonprofits in the country, which was facing a tax audit from the IRS. After many hours of poring over laws and codes, Abrams seemed to have found the solution to its problem.

The senior partner scheduled a conference call with the client to share Abrams’s memo. But at the last minute, Abrams noticed a line that she’d skipped – which reinforced the IRS’s opinion and would put the nonprofit in financial jeopardy.

Embrace a “Work-Life Jenga” by organizing your time honestly and strategically.

Abrams rejects the pursuit of a work-life balance. According to her, this presupposes that every area of our lives should be granted equal time and attention, which is unrealistic and results in self-loathing when it’s not achieved.

Everyone has to manage surprise obligations sometimes. Life interferes with even the most carefully plotted plans. What Abrams suggests is to accept this reality – and then approach managing your time like a game of Jenga, in which you stack equal-size blocks to form a perfect tower and then pull them out, one by one, re-stacking them on top. Make the best possible strategic moves to keep the metaphorical tower from crashing down – and if it does, build it again.

To acquire power and make real change, you must be creative with your resources and challenge yourself.

Creating change is possible even when you lack resources. In fact, the limitations imposed on outsiders and minorities can often help spark creative breakthroughs.

During Abrams’s third year in the Georgia legislature, the Republican majority planned to push a stack of dangerous legislation through on Crossover Day – the day in which bills must pass either the House or the Senate to stay alive during the rest of the legislative season. The Democrats seemed to be out of options. But Abrams had an idea that would obstruct the process, at least a little bit. After checking the rules of the House, she found that every member was allowed to spend 20 minutes questioning each bill. No one usually used all of their time – but if all 75 Democrats spent 20 minutes on all of them, the process would be slowed considerably.

Want to see all full key ideas from Lead from the Outside?

Key ideas in Lead from the Outside

More knowledge in less time

Read or listen

Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.

Find your next read

Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.

Shortcasts ^New

We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.

What is Lead from the Outside about?

Lead from the Outside (2018) is a handbook for outsiders who are seeking a seat at the table. Stacey Abrams outlines how the underrepresented and disenfranchised can harness their ambition and ingenuity to gain power, offering advice on money matters, overcoming fear, and hacking the system.

Best quote from Lead from the Outside

Navigating power is difficult enough without adding the dimensions of otherness into the mix, but thats our reality.

—Stacey Abrams

Who should read Lead from the Outside?

Women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+ folks, and anyone who’s been historically denied leadership roles
People interested in American society and politics
Anyone who wants to make a difference

About the Author

Stacey Abrams is an American politician, voting rights activist, lawyer, and author. She served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017 and was minority leader from 2011 to 2017.

Categories with Lead from the Outside

Management & Leadership

Books like Lead from the Outside

The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety

Timothy R. Clark

Defining the Path to Inclusion and Innovation

The Joy and Transformative Power of Lifelong Learning

21 min

4.6

Own Your Greatness

Lisa Orbé-Austin & Richard Orbé-Austin

Overcome Impostor Syndrome, Beat Self-Doubt, and Succeed in Life

20 min

4.6

Extreme Ownership

Jocko Willink and Leif Babin

How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win

15 min

4.5

Unapologetically Ambitious

Shellye Archambeau

Take Risks, Break Barriers, and Create Success on Your Own Terms

Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

22 min

4.2

Self-Help That Works

John C. Norcross et al.

Resources to Improve Emotional Health and Strengthen Relationships

Brave work. Tough conversations. Whole hearts.

The Science and Secrets Behind 7 Words That Motivate, Engage, and Influence

How 15 Minutes of Neurohacking a Day Can Help You Work Better, Think Faster, and Get More Done

19 min

4.1

The Surprising Science of Meetings

Steven G. Rogelberg

How You Can Lead Your Team to Peak Performance

Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t

19 min

4.3

The Daily Stoic

Ryan Holiday & Stephen Hanselman

366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance and the Art of Living

Healing the Shame-Fueled Relationship Between What You Eat and How You Feel

18 min

4.6

The Gifts of Imperfection

Brené Brown

Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed To Be and Embrace Who You Are

40 Conversations to Have with Yourself

19 min

4.2

The Power of Discipline

Daniel Walter

How to Use Self Control and Mental Toughness to Achieve Your Goals

The Empowered Woman's Guide to Pleasuring a Man

Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time

17 min

4.3

First, Break all the Rules

Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman

What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently

26 min

4.2

Things No One Else Can Teach Us

Humble the Poet

Turning Losses Into Lessons

An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson

What you Thought Was a Diagnosis May Be Your Greatest Strength

Lead like your employees want you to lead

A Practical Guide to Leadership That Matters

An examination of the amoral game and techniques of seducers

How We Meet and Why It Matters

Short Life Advice from the Best in the World

18 min

4.2

13 Things Mentally Strong Parents Don’t Do

Amy Morin

Raising Self-Assured Children and Training Their Brains for a Life of Happiness, Meaning, and Success

23 min

4.6

The Goal

Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox

A Process of Ongoing Improvement

16 min

3.6

The Procrastination Cure

Jeffery Combs

7 Steps to Stop Putting Life Off

Mindful lessons on love

21 min

4.3

The Miracle of Mindfulness

Thich Nhat Hanh

An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation

20 min

4.7

How Will You Measure Your Life?

Clayton M. Christensen

Finding Fulfillment Using Lessons From Some of the World's Greatest Businesses

18 min

4.2

Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It

Kamal Ravikant

How the Simple Act of Self-Love Can Transform Your Life

15 min

4.4

The Universe Has Your Back

Gabrielle Bernstein

Transform Fear to Faith

The Surprising Solution to Overthinking

A master class in strategic thinking

The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ

An Open Letter to the Women Who Will Run the World

16 min

3.6

Mastering Communication at Work

Ethan F. Becker and Jon Wortmann

How to Lead, Manage, and Influence

Elevating Humanity Through Business

How to Harness Change to Make It Work for You

What the Brain Reveals About Our Power To Change Others

17 min

4.3

The Yes Brain

Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson

How to Cultivate Courage, Curiosity and Resilience in Your Child

19 min

4.3

The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective Teenagers

Sean Covey

The International Bestseller Updated for the Digital Age

How Looking Backward Moves us Forward

23 min

4.6

Getting Past Your Breakup

Susan J. Elliott

How to Turn a Devastating Loss into the Best Thing That Ever Happened to You

How Affection Shapes a Baby's Brain

24 min

4.5

People ❤️ Blinkist

Sven O.

It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.

Thi Viet Quynh N.

Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.

Jonathan A.

Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.

Renee D.

Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.