A Promised Land

Lesson 1. More Than Just Politics

We know Barack Obama today as the first African American President of the United States. One of the most popular leaders in the world of all times and a Nobel prize recipient, he is also the person who has more Twitter followers than anyone on the planet. Following his nomination in 2008, we all hear about his life. But what events in his life shaped him into the influential leader he is today? We get a profoundly emotional, riveting biography of the former President in his first memoir.

We watch him on his path from becoming an ordinary boy raised by a single mother in Honolulu, Hawaii, to becoming the president. We recognise him as a charismatic and gifted man, but we are shocked to learn about his hardship, self-doubt, and instability, which led to him almost giving up on politics.

Obama emphasises that his goal in writing this book is to have a proper look at his life, not merely a chronological record of significant events. He tells us about what it is like to be the American president; he wants to pull back the curtain a little to remind us that, with all its influence and prominence, the presidency is only just a job. The government is a human enterprise as any other. The men and women who work in the White House go through the same daily mix of satisfaction, dissatisfaction, and oblivion as anyone else.

Lesson 2. We All Need A Sense Of Belonging

Obama looks back on his childhood, remembering with tender love and regret that while he never lacked in family or friends, he could never really fit in anywhere. Due to reasons ranging from casual racism to his quirky mind, he often felt the longing for a purpose and a place in the world.

One would think that someone willing to run for President has a balanced – or, in some instances, toxic – sense of ego. Still, Obama shows that his political aspirations began in a very different location. Despite some sense of entitlement, he writes of feeling like an outsider for a long time. He states that his career in politics began with a quest for a place to blend in. He wanted to find a way to make sense of his mixed roots and identify himself as someone who went from somewhere and nowhere at the same time. He calls himself a mixture of ill-fitting pieces like a "platypus or some imagined beast."

He talks about how he built connections by cultivating awe, altruism, gratitude, and humility.