Rise
Life lessons in speaking out, standing tall and leading the way
Gina Miller
With
Having read it
★★★★★
An amazing woman who has achieved a lot despite having had a few knocks and setbacks herself. Her perspectives and attitudes to dealing with difficult problems are brilliant and the common sense approach she takes to things is great. The last few chapters of her book are really great, even inspiring – all who read it have a chance to rise!
A good passage
Quite early on, I started to ask myself whether the Referendum vote was really going to be about the EU. From the work I had been doing since 2009 through my True and Fair Foundation, aimed at supporting small, dynamic grassroots charities, I had seen first-hand the pathways to deprivation in Britain and met some of the most marginalised people in our society. At numerous Referendum events I had expressed my fear that people might vote Leave as a means of improving their families’ lives, to take a chance. They needed to do something dramatic to alter their own futures.
The problem was that this was not the question the Conservative politicians were asking. The question they wanted an answer to was how to heal their own party, not the country.
A second good passage
...I’ve developed strategies for dealing with arrogance – from both men and women. I’ve learned that if someone is attacking you from the off, without having listened to what you have to say, it means they’re feeling defensive. Often they realise they don’t have a leg to stand on, so, like a dog backed into a corner, they lash out; they bark and bite. If they attack you on a personal level, it’s probably because they’re unable to attack what you’re saying. Now when someone dismisses me like that I remind myself that if they’re targeting me and not my arguments, then I’ve already won. Their aggression is simply a sign that they’ve lost control. The best way to counter it is to stay composed, take a deep breath and continue calmly making your points.
A third good passage
Without being able to tune into that deeper connection and remind ourselves that we are who we are, away from the media pressure to conform to superficial ideals, we risk losing our power. Our own wants have been crowded out by a media narrative of what it is to be a woman or a man. There are social constructs we’re encouraged to follow, comply with and fulfil, without being honest and looking inwardly to who we are, how our uniqueness is strength not weakness. Unless you start by being honest about who you are, I suppose you’re always going to feel a bit of a fraud because you’re living your life according to someone else’s expectations, someone else’s values and rules, rather than your own.