When We're In Charge
The book that reminded me why I started building and what leadership looks like when it changes hands.
I can still picture the paperback that changed how I thought about my career.
And I can still picture me reading it. Curled up on her parents’ sofa in front of the fire with The Power of Unreasonable People, a highlighter and pen in her hand—the only way I’ve ever read a book since middle school.
It was 2010. I was 23. Fresh off rejection from a soooooooo wanted role in LA and caught between a dream and a reality.
My dream: go back to LA and be ‘part of something’. To live in a city where entrepreneurship was happening—where creativity was enthralling, addictive, being born—and to have a fuck ton of fun while doing it all.
The Power of Unreasonable People had a grip on me. I could taste the desire for power—especially unreasonableness. It ached inside me. I yearned for this kind of career.
As I read, I asked myself: Why not me?
That book emboldened my determination about how I’d spend my days “working”. I didn’t want a job; I wanted to build. I wanted my effort to matter to more than just me.
Fifteen years later, I found another one of those books: Amanda Litman’s When We Are In Charge.
Except Amanda’s book doesn’t wait for you to ask, "Why not me?" She speaks that question straight to you and says—yeah, you can too!
Amanda’s book is a rare combination of conviction and clarity. It pulls you out of cynicism and into motion. The kind of book I hope to see sitting on people’s shelves for the next decade, the way The Power of Unreasonable People sat on mine—dog-eared, full of highlights, scribbles that once felt like genius (though now read like gibberish 😂), underlined within an inch of their lives. A book that stirs the conviction to set a new norm for your life, your career, your legacy.
So—who is Amanda Litman, and why should you care?
Amanda is the co-founder of Run for Something, an organization helping people like us run for office—and WIN. Since 2017, her team has helped nearly 1,500 young people get elected: parents, social workers, union organizers, and students. People who know their communities because they are their communities.
And this past election alone? 110 Run for Something candidates won, 8 are headed to run-offs, and at least 25 flipped their districts from red to *freakin* blue.
My favorite Run for Something candidate stories, though, are the ones about the people who ran, lost, and then ran again—and won. Because that’s the story of so many builders I know. You start. It doesn’t work. You stay determined. And then you win.
That’s the energy Amanda embodies—and the reason I love her book. When We Are In Charge is about what happens when we stop waiting for permission to lead. It’s about saying yes to running, yes to deciding, yes to showing up.
“That’s what this book is: the advice I wish I’d had over the last nearly ten years navigating the choppy waters of changing leadership norms, new demands on those in power, and rapidly shifting expectations of what the workplace can and should provide—all in service of a new understanding of what it will look and feel like when we are in charge.”
— Amanda Litman
This is the heart of the book. What Amanda is talking about—those shifting norms, new demands, the unlearning of what power is supposed to look like. And it’s what I’ve been building toward my entire career, especially with qb.
For eight years, I’ve been building a company—and a culture—around that same idea: that the way we work can change—who gets heard, who gets paid, who gets to decide. That we don’t have to wait for permission to run something differently.
Amanda’s book isn’t just about politics—it’s about power. How we understand it, share it, and use it. And in a world that keeps telling us to make personal change instead of systemic change, she reminds us that regulation and representation are still our best tools for building something better.
That’s why I wanted to share this here. Because Build Something Better isn’t just about my story or the company I’ve built—it’s about the people out there doing the work. People like Amanda who are proving that “better” isn’t abstract. It’s a decision.
So, if you’re looking for something to shake loose the inertia, start here:
📚 When We Are In Charge by Amanda Litman
💙 Follow Run for Something
🎧 Listen to her on the origins of Run for Something
Because when we are in charge—at work, in business, in politics—everything really does start to shift.
Sobbing! Thank you so much for reading and sharing. This is such a beautiful articulation of my intentions. 💕💕