- Georgia politician and voter rights activist Stacey Abrams has been using a spreadsheet to document her life goals since the age of 18.
- "I realized that I'd been so focused as a young person on titles," Abrams told Business Insider. "That's one of the reasons I've always gone back to the spreadsheet, because part of it is not just to anchor titles that I want, it is to think about the work I wanted to do."
- Abrams spoke to Business Insider about fighting against voter suppression with her organization Fair Fight, producing a CBS drama based on her novel "Never Tell," and her advice for young black female politicians.
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In college, Georgia politician Stacey Abrams created a spreadsheet to plan her life goals. More than 25 years later, she is still using that same spreadsheet.
"When I was 18, I spent an evening in our college computer lab, the fluorescent lights crackling overhead reflecting off the near-green screen," Stacey Abrams wrote in her memoir "Lead From the Outside." "In the lab that night, I created a spreadsheet. The Lotus 1-2-3 document laid out my life plans for the next 40 years. Seriously."
For Abrams, goal-setting with a spreadsheet - including columns for the year, her age, her desired job, and tasks - helped her envision what she wanted to achieve and begin creating a concrete roadmap to get there.
At age 18, Abrams' goals included writing a best-selling spy novel by age 24, being a millionaire running a corporation by age 30, and becoming the mayor of Atlanta by age 35. Abrams' inspiration for writing a goals spreadsheet was John D. Rockerfeller - who she had read kept detailed lists of his goals - but the impetus was her college boyfriend who had suddenly broken up with her. Instead of wallowing over the breakup, Abrams got serious about plotting her future, and she put it all in a spreadsheet.
Abrams' turn towards introspection and goal-setting has paid off big time. She's even accomplished versions of the very goals she set as a teenager: Abrams has written eight romantic suspense novels (one of which will be turned into a CBS drama), cofounded the financial services company Nowaccount Network Corporation, and served as minority leader in the Georgia House of Representatives.
Abrams was the first black woman to be nominated by any major party to run for governor. She ran for the for position in Georgia in 2018 and lost in an extremely close election in which Abrams says voter suppression played a role.
Business Insider spoke with Stacey Abrams about her thoughts on goal setting, voter suppression, and her advice for young black female politicians.