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

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2018

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Preface-Introduction

Chapters 1-2

Chapters 3-4

Chapters 5-6

Chapters 7-8

Chapter 9

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Chapters 5-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 5 Summary: “Money Matters”

Abrams offers statistics indicating the influence of money on social mobility. On the level of education, zip code determines where a child will attend school and by extension determines the level of access that child has to significant academic resources—what Abrams refers to as “economic cartography.” Redlining, a practice in which banks denied loans mortgages to potential borrowers deemed too great a financial risk was a discriminatory tool wielded against people of color who lived in “unfavorable” neighborhoods. Such practices became “barriers to entry” (146) for people of color. Although Abrams planned to study economics in college, she came to and graduated from Spelman with “poor financial literacy” (145). She mentions the advice often given to people seeking opportunities for advancement, namely that they should reach out to their families for financial assistance and support. She notes the shallowness of this recommendation for people whose families do not have the financial means.

Abrams discusses her finances and the necessity of learning the language and tools of institutions to achieve “financial fluency.” Abrams earned an almost six-figure salary as a new attorney but struggled with poor credit. Credit cards and federal loans helped her pay for expenses not covered by her scholarships. Before taking the Georgia bar exam, she completed a “personal fitness” application in which candidates disclose past legal and financial troubles. It made her realize her dire financial straits. To settle her debts, she borrowed from friends and used a portion of her signing bonus. She was forced to reconcile her large paycheck with her debt. Later, when she started her own business, Abrams again ran into trouble when she delayed her quarterly tax payments to support her parents. Eventually, she was able to pay the back taxes she owed, but along the way learned hard lessons about credit, interest, and debt. She shares these lessons with college students, counseling them about the advantages of government loans over private loans, the relative returns on investments for certain majors over others, and the difference between wealth—savings plus assets minus debt—and income.

Abrams encourages her readers to seek financial knowledge and even credit counseling. She offers Eric Tyson’s Personal Finance for Dummies as a helpful resource and notes the benefit of understanding how to read financial reports, a skill one can hone through service on an audit or finance committee or can learn through making conversation with a CFO or development manager. She urges aspiring leaders, before they ask an investor for funds, to ask themselves why they need the money, research their investors, and cultivate a vision that people can relate to and contribute to. Money mistakes are part of the journey toward power, and with each stumbling block, one should endeavor to learn a better way forward. In place of a worksheet at the end of this chapter, Abrams offers links to reading material about personal finances, financial fluency, and fundraising.

Chapter 6 Summary: “Prepare to Win and Embrace the Fail”

Sometimes, failure comes because people are ill-equipped to win. Abrams recounts her vocal audition at Yale when her enthusiasm to sing her practice piece was overshadowed by her lack of knowledge about how to sing simple scales. To avoid further embarrassment, Abrams gave up the ambition, “a choice [she] continue[s] to regret” (174). The lesson, then, is to strive toward making one’s ambition a reality and to be bold even in the face of failure.

Abrams argues that the difficulty in “act[ing] boldly” is that society encourages meekness in change-makers, especially in women and people of color. Abrams tells the story of her AP English teacher who assigned her a failing grade for a paper that was adequately written. The criticism came because Abrams used too many big words in the paper, and the teacher suggested this made Abrams’s peers feel inadequate. This section of the chapter is subtitled “Let Your Light Shine,” and the lesson here is that even though the world may force one into quiet deference—“Stay in your lane.” “Don’t rock the boat,” “Wait your turn,” “The world’s not ready” (177)—don’t be afraid to shine. For women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ+ community, the message becomes, don’t be afraid to let their difference shine. She says that there are as many ways to practice boldness as there are personalities, so her readers can tailor their brand of boldness to their unique strengths.

Abrams encourages readers to prepare themselves at the outset for others’ reactions and take responsibility for the broad effects of their actions. The fear of making a mistake may make them hesitate to act at all. Still, there is greater potential success in “failing forward” than in treading lightly. Abrams talks about her first year as a tax attorney when she made a mistake in representing a client during an IRS audit. She acted boldly and took initiative in analyzing the tax code and finding, she thought at first, a solution to the query. However, later, just before her meeting with her boss and the IRS, she realized she misread the tax code. She could have kept the error to herself but decided to inform her boss of the mistake even though it might have resulted in her termination. Abrams encourages her readers to prepare as best they can for the task ahead and take responsibility if things don’t go according to plan. She ends the chapter by advocating for the skill of “getting good at being wrong” (190). Following this is a worksheet entitled “Trying Again” which asks readers to reflect on past mistakes and consequences and to consider who might have knowledge that they would need to dispel any ignorance in their personal or professional life.

Chapters 5-6 Analysis

Abrams juxtaposes concrete information about the social circumstances plaguing people of color who seek personal and professional advancement with openness about her debts, her family’s financial situation, and her earlier lack of financial knowledge. The chapter opens with the realities of economic disparity in the classroom to argue that if one cannot access opportunity in childhood, the effects may be lifelong, and the individual will have that much more difficulty improving on the social circumstances in which they were raised. Abrams addresses “those of us from families without means” (146), speaking directly to a “we” who must overcome their upbringing, prejudiced thinking and discrimination, and self-doubt to achieve their goals. Her statistics remind readers that circumstances barring access for women, people of color, and other minority groups are built into institutions such as banks, schools, and governments. People without means and sufficient financial literacy may then seek out resources like private lenders and the deferred settlement of credit cards whose improper use makes people less likely candidates for the jobs of their dreams.

Abrams’s willingness to talk through her money mistakes adds both to her relatability and her credibility. She names the resources she used to educate herself about her situation and discusses ways she pulled herself out of a financial hole. In this way, she again acts out the advice she offers her readers: admitting mistakes, taking responsibility for and learning from them, and moving boldly toward other opportunities. With bold action comes risk, and she doesn’t minimize the potential for adverse consequences. Her anecdote about her brush with the IRS—her elation at finding a way to help her client and her dilemma when she discovered her grave mistake—demonstrates how high the stakes might be when “failing forward.” However, she suggests that this strategy of trying hard, failing, learning, and trying again has the benefit of making people more accountable, honest, and informed leaders.