Lead from the Outside
How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change
by Stacey Abrams


(Click for Amazon book review)

BOOK REVIEW by OnTheIssues.org:

This book is a guide for activists and outsiders to take action against the political establishment. In her own words:

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. Instead, we have to understand and master the components of power: ambition, fear, money, failure, opportunity, and access. Leadership is hard. Convincing others--and often yourself--that you have the answers to overcome long-standing obstacles takes a combination of confidence, insight, and sheer bravado. Finding ways to prevail, while bringing others along with you, is the core of being a good leader, and the central tenet of "Lead from the Outside." I wrote this book with the experiences and challenges in mind that might hinder ANYONE who exists outside the structure of traditional white male power--women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, those without money, and millennials ready to make a change. -- pp. xxix-xxx

The book is a practical guide -- not about theory but about what to do -- here's excerpts of one task that Abrams suggests you do (from pp. 173-4):

In personal power maps (unlike the social change versions), the issues are directly related to your goals. However, the process is generally the same: Identify your problem or goal: What are you trying to accomplish? Identify the key decision makers related to that goal--by title or position: Who can help you? Who can stop you? Who should be part of the process? Map the relationships: contact the key decision maker. Reach out to the targets: Make contact; discuss your problem and solicit advice or concerns. Make your plan: Collect your feedback and revise your names from step 1. Determine if you can sway anyone opposed. Then set out your action steps for how to move forward.

This book explains Abrams' model of voter organizing -- it was published in April 2018 in the run-up to the November 2018 election. Abrams says, "I wrote this book with the experiences and challenges in mind that might hinder ANYONE who exists outside the structure of traditional white male power…to overcome long-standing obstacles" (p. xxix-xxx). She considers herself an outsider, despite being a House leader, because the power structure in Georgia is all white males, while Abrams is the first African-American female major-party gubernatorial nominee in the U.S., among other firsts.

Abrams also describes her memoir as an "outsider's version of 'The Art of War'" (p. xvii). That's a reference to the the Sun Tzu classic (written 2,500 years ago) which is ostensibly about military strategy, but has become a standard of modern business strategy. Abrams means that politics is a battleground where one must think strategically and plan for the long term.

Abrams writes that her "book is part memoir, part advice, and part alchemy" (p. 209). The "advice" part is expressed in an exercise at the end of each chapter for readers to write and self-analyze -- here are the titles of each:

Ambition Exercise: (fill in the blanks around "What would you do if you had unlimited money?"). Fighting Fear and Otherness SWOT Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats Build and Evaluate your Board of Advisers Money Matters Resources: Personal Finances; Financial Fluency; and Fundraising 101 Trying Again: Making the Most of Mistakes; Know that You Don't Know (and Admit It); Ignorance is Bliss, but Knowledge is Better; Accept Being Wrong and Give Credit for Being Right And ending with "Stacey's Ambition Spreadsheet" to echo her own spreadsheet of life goals initiated in college.

Stacey Abrams is credited with winning the Senate majority for the Democratic Party in 2021. This 2018 autobiography outlines her general philosophy, not the specifics of how she accomplished that two years later -- for that, see Stacey Abrams' 2020 book!

--Jesse Gordon, OnTheIssues editor-in-chief, April 2021

OnTheIssues.org excerpts:  (click on issues for details)

Budget & Economy     White family wealth: $142,000; black family wealth: $11,000.

Civil Rights     Entered politics in 1992 with Rodney King riots.     Inspire running for office:You cannot be what you cannot see.

Corporations     Founded company "Insomnia"; motto "We don't deal with jerks".

Crime     In 1992 riots, police treated all young blacks as guilty.

Education     4-year degree gains white family $55,900 & black only $4,800.

Families & Children     Government can foster change for families like mine.

Government Reform     Elections are rigged when poor communities' voting hindered.     Investigated for registering 86,000 voters in one year.     Register 75,000 out of 800,000 unregistered people of color.

Principles & Values     What do I want, and how do I get there?     First black woman as major party governor nominee.     Yale Law School; tax attorney and romance novelist.     The best ideas & the best policies are collaborative.     Short-sighted leaders have definite opinion about everything.     I author romance novels, but I'm not married.

Click for quotations from other sources by: Stacey Abrams