I deliberately chose this book to hit full cannonball with, because I wanted something optimistic to end the year on and as I think forward to what I want to achieve in 2021. This book is undersold as a guide for how to affect change when you don’t have access to the room where decisions are made. It is that, but it is so much more.
The target audience for this book are people from equity seeking groups, but I think everyone should read it.
If you are a member of an equity seeking group, this book will be equal parts memoir, self help book, and guide to navigating the very real and pervasive obstacles you face on your way to success. It will do so while challenging you to take responsibility of what you *can* do and how you might be helping keep those systemic barriers up by accepting that That Dream isn’t for you, That Goal isn’t achievable for People Like You.
It is. You belong in those rooms, even if not everyone realizes yet.
But unlike generic guides to success, this book centres around systemic barriers. This book does not tell you to work hard because that is how success is achieved, but because you *have* to be faster, smarter, better. And she doesn’t stop there, because she tells you HOW to work smarter, HOW to access rooms where the normal path doesn’t exist for you.
And if you have privilege, it is a very effective guide for the practical ways in which systemic discrimination keeps diversity out of decision-making spaces and how, as a person on the inside, you can move the needle towards parity.
I am a sucker for practical advice that doesn’t ignore my life experiences and this book is definitely going on my keeper shelf, because what Abrams says about self sabotage is the kind of thing we need to remind ourselves of now and again.