Ursula Burns in this book gives a clear idea of her fearles personality coupled with the mentorship and grooming from Paul Allaire and Anne, that helped her reach the heights. In every situation, you see her go into the details of how to manage costs, raise prices if needed and make the business successful. Aspire for great things. She wrote of things like one higher up giving her a list of books to read. Be on the lookout for friendly corners who are willing to champion you.

Ursula is a badass and is the world's first Black female CEO. Her memoir about her 3+ decades at Xerox was an up and down ride, with mostly ups. She doesn't pull any punches with how challenging it is to be a female on the rise in corporate America. And an African American at that!

Ursula earned her coveted seat at Boardroom tables across the world--and even in the Situation Room and on Air Force One. She is to be applauded for her tenacity, grit and her ability to work harder than anyone else in the room. Because when you're a Black female, you have to. Everyone's eyes are on you.

I admire her greatly for speaking the truth about her failures and how she learned from them. At times, she was harsh and abrasive and was called out for it. Even by the CEO whose position she would eventually succeed. But Ursula is an engineer by trade, and she gets things done. She isn't the nurturing type and didn't change who she was (at the heart of herself) to become one of the most powerful women in business.

I'm grateful for the chance to read an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley.

Ursula Burns is the first black female CEO of a fortune 500 company. This is an amazing feat given that there are only four black female CEOs of fortune 500 companies. She led Xerox from 2009 until 2016. In her book, she takes us through the journey of how she became the CEO at Xerox. Her story is very inspirational. The biggest lesson I learnt is that it doesn't matter where you come from, with the right attitude, hard work, training and support, you can succeed.

Ursula came from very humble beginnings. Her family was poor and lived in the projects. She recalls having to walk through dangerous stairwells with drug addicts and urine smells everywhere. She also discusses her mom working multiple jobs to make ends meet.

Here are some key take-aways from her book:

1) STEM and minority programs work. She talks about being a recipient of STEM scholarships. This helped her financially, so she was able to focus on her education. I believe that if our basic needs are taken care of: food, shelter, comfort, then we will have time and energy to work on educating ourselves and growing. Minorities face so many challenges in obtaining the basics, which is why it's so difficult to achieve even more. Personally, I am a beneficiary of several STEM minority programs and I would not be where I am today without the financial support and mentorship.

2) Mentorship and sponsorship. Having the financial means is one thing, understanding what to do and how to navigate situations is an entirely different thing. Ursula mentions having mentors that challenged and guided her. They helped with molding her attitudes and understanding situations from different perspectives, decision making and listening for nuances. We can't know it all, but we can have the right set of people guide and direct us.

3) Family support is necessary. This is so crucial especially for women. It's extremely difficult to balance career obligations with having a family. She discusses having to travel a lot and not being around for her children. Fortunately, her husband stepped up during this time to care for the children.

4) Leadership lessons. Ursula discusses several challenges she faced when leading. For example, having to lay off workers and make key decisions.

She touched on other topics including, gender, race and politics.

I would highly recommend this book to leaders of STEM and other minority programs as it would encourage and let them know that their work is needed and is effective, even though it does take a while to see the fruits. It would also be very useful for any minority who would like to rise to executive levels. It provides an honest assessment of the challenges and sacrifices required. For others who are interested in enhancing the lives of minorities, it provides perspective on the challenges minorities are facing. Currently, there is a big push for more minorities within leadership ranks. Diversity and inclusion leaders should read this book and understand that although "Talent is evenly distributed, opportunity is not."

I’m rating this book 5⭐️ for Minority Women in STEM. This book will inspire you and encourage you to keep pushing.

Many thanks to @netgalley and @amistadbooks for this advanced review copy in exchange for my honest opinion.