Lead from the Outside: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change

“For those of us on the outside, the quest for power is always rigged. Sometimes it’s because we don’t know how to gain entry, or because the winners get to play by a different set of rules.”

The metaphor of acquiring power as a game runs throughout Abrams’s book. Winners gain the ability to write the rules in their favor to assure further victories. Everyone else on the field competes at a considerable disadvantage, if indeed they are allowed to compete, and must learn how to abide by new rules if they want a fighting chance.

“I was afraid that outside the comfort of my black women’s college, I would prove all those who had looked down on me correct […] Because at twenty, I had fully internalized all the ‘-isms’ that taught me to strive but not exceed my limits.”

In a moment of vulnerability, Abrams admits to a fear of having to compete with people who didn’t look like her and who didn’t believe she belonged. Abrams notes that this fear came from the social conditioning of her environment—racism, sexism, and classism—that became part of her thinking and deterred her from trusting in her power.

“This book is for the outsider looking for the magic decoder ring for how to gain and hold power. But let’s be clear—there isn’t one.”

The use of the word “magic” highlights a potential reader’s desire to find easy avenues to power and instantaneous solutions for obstacles. Abrams says, simply, that there is no such magical remedy, especially not for people outside of established systems who must fight their way in. The book’s tips, examples, and worksheets will help readers help themselves.