With In the Black , T. Dallas Smith identifies the centrality of honest and open relationships to success within the world of high-dollar commercial real estate deals. His advice to “build relationships before you need them” is complemented by personal stories highlighting the importance of identifying one’s advocates. Smith is keen to recognize the people — some of them sense-making and some of them unexpected — who helped lift him up in a field the primary practice of which has been to reject diversity among its practitioners. Smith shows how making one’s way in an industry that has historically rejected Black men and women may be challenging but is in no way impossible. His own story is proof that one can both be a trailblazer and use one’s hard-won position to open doors for others.