- Our next guest grew up reading the encyclopedia for fun.
Hmm, I read the dictionary.
I think we're gonna be besties.
Oh, but she went on to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Well, that's where we differ.
Knowledge is a very powerful thing.
Please welcome the amazing,
honestly a true game changer, Stacey Abrams.
(audience applauding) (upbeat music)
Oh my God!
- It's an honor.
It's such an honor.
You're so delightful.
- Oh my God.
- Look, I'm sitting in front of "Ever After"
So here we go. - Oh my God!
That's the film that changed my life.
- Mine too, so I can quote the entire film to you,
but we don't have that kind of time today.
- Well, we should make time for that,
and it is so surreal to see you in person
because I've watched you so closely over the years
because I am very passionate about voting,
and that it's necessary to do whatever party you vote for,
whoever you vote for you vote.
Part of my job, and I run for office, yes,
but my first responsibility is to make sure
anyone who wants to vote can, who's eligible.
I want you to vote for me when you get in there,
but protecting democracy is not about a person.
It's about the ideals.
Our democracy is this collective hallucination we have
where we say we're gonna work together to help each other.
And if anyone sort of blinks and comes out of it
like the matrix, it starts to fall apart.
And that's why it's so vital that regardless
of who you vote for, your voice matters
because your silence is also permission.
And we have to remember that the reason
voting was denied to so many for so long,
women, people of color, young people, non-property owners,
every time we advance access to the vote,
we're advancing access to society.
You're advancing access to the policies
that make your life better or worse.
- Well, I-
- [Stacey] And that's why I won't go away.
- Good, and nobody wants you to.
You need to stay around.
You've been such a galvanizer.
Now at the commercial break,
I said something about you have an Excel spreadsheet
that you've been keeping since you were a teenager.
Will you please tell me what that means and what that is?
- So when I was in college,
I fell in love with a boy who was mean to me.
- [Drew] Oh God.
- Yeah. Yeah.
- [Drew] You know what, we've all done that.
- Yeah, well, he broke up with me and he said
that I was too ambitious and wanted too many things,
and I would end up alone and lonely.
And so I got really mad and then I was like,
fine, I'm gonna figure out all the things I'm going to do
to make him rue the day that he was mean to me.
And so this is now I'm old, I'm 49.
- I'm gonna be 48.
We're right next to each other.
- So you'll appreciate this.
This was before Excel, this is when it was Lotus 123.
- Right. Okay.
- And you had to go to the computer lab
because owning a computer meant
that you could buy the world.
I went to the computer lab at Spelman,
and I did a spreadsheet and I laid out
all the things I was going to accomplish,
and all the ways I was going to
just be fantastic and magnificent.
And I don't know if he's ever going to see it,
but I'm doing okay.
I'm doing okay on my spreadsheet.
(audience applauds)
- How many things on that list
do you think you've achieved?
Are there any left?
- Oh yeah.
So the way it worked when I first did it,
they're my three big goals.
I wanted to be a millionaire by 30, did not make it.
Wanted to be mayor of Atlanta, changed my mind.
And I wanted to be a bestselling author, took a minute.
But what was so important was that
by giving myself these goals, I then have to figure out
what are the steps you take to get there?
And what I do is by laying out the goal,
you start to realize how important the steps are.
And what we do so often is we are so fixated on the end,
that we ignore all the pieces.
If you just have a goal, that's called a dream.
If you have steps, that's called a plan.
And we spend so much time dreaming we never plan.
(audience laughs)
And so my mission was to lay out my plan,
and so when my goals change, my plan doesn't
because my plan is always about
what are the foundational pieces I need?
What are the next steps I need?
So yes, I may not win X, but here are all the things
I was able to do, here are the people I touched,
here are the lives I impact,
here's the way I'm a better person.
- So what's next?
Are you gonna run again?
Are you going?
Like, do we get to look forward to this and galvanize again?
- I will likely run again.
- Yes! - I don't know.
(audience cheering)
- Yes!
Yes!
Oh my God, so are you gonna go up against some tough men
who kind of don't always play fair?
- Well, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
And if it doesn't work, you try again.
But the issue is what did you learn?
Did you learn about yourself?
What did you learn about your opponent?
And making sure that you're always remembering
why you're doing it because-
- Can you stay calm?
'Cause I feel like my inner rebel would come out,
like I am fire starter still, you know?
I just feel like I would be on that stage
and I would just be like really!
Funny you should bring that up!
How do you keep it under control?
- So when I debate, when I do debates,
most people think about debates, I'm fighting you.
No, my job is to educate the people watching.
The people who turn into that debate
want to learn something, and so my job is to talk to them.
This person is a foil.
- That's smart.
I really love that.
I think we can all learn from that.
(upbeat bright music)