Midpoint A Memoir Book Summary

Main Takeaway

Life is full of experiences that include childhood’s fun and mishaps, interactions with family members, marriage and children, health issues and a career journey. Patricia Angeles shares her story at her lifetime midpoint of 38 years old to prove the point that every human can be resilient through it all, finding happiness through family and friends, overcoming hardships and mistakes made, expressing a personal voice at work and in the home and planning to fulfill personal expectations for the remaining years of life. Each person has a destiny and should make a conscious effort to identify and achieve their desired legacy, reaching their destiny by using life’s lessons as signposts for moving forward or making changes.

What You’ll Learn

• How the author’s young years influenced her decision-making as an adult
• Learning to have a voice rather than being submissive is important
• Unhappy life events are not tragic as long as you are healthy
• It is crucial to create your own legacy
• It is important to not remain in a comfort zone because you will not move ahead
• As a woman and a minority, the author had to work twice as hard to advance her career but always using her voice to maintain authenticity led to success
• Friends and family create a critical support system and can provide sound advice if you are willing to listen
• A woman can be a successful career woman and a wife and mother at the same time
• Humans have the capability of being resilient when willing to learn from their life experiences
• Stay motivated through good and bad times to reach your destiny

Featured In This Review

Midpoint A Memoir

$11.99

Life is full of experiences that include childhood’s fun and mishaps, interactions with family members, marriage and children, health issues and a career journey. Patricia Angeles shares her story at her lifetime midpoint of 38 years old to prove the point that every human can be resilient

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Midpoint Book Summary

The book Midpoint by Patricia Angles is divided into two parts. The first part discusses her life from 1985-2005, and the second part discusses her life after moving to Los Angeles in 2005. This book is so interesting because the author shares everything, including failures and unspoken thoughts. As an immigrant, her story holds inspiration and motivation for people who start a new life in the U.S. She blends the joys and the setbacks in her life to encourage others to avoid mediocrity and to find the strength to always move ahead toward fulfilling the legacy a person wants to leave behind. She learns what the book Perfectly Confident offers as advice: to calibrate confidence and decision-making so that it is realistic but life-elevating.

Born in 1984 in Torrance, California, Angeles’s parents decided to raise their daughter in the Philippines, so they returned to the island. While still a young schoolgirl, she came to understand that not every child was as fortunate as her because she had loving parents and a soft bed and street children did not. The realization at an early age of the juxtaposition of human experiences was a sign of Angeles’s mental acuity, analytical perspective, and desire to gain as much knowledge as possible, all characteristics she maintains in adulthood. She is never satisfied with the superficial and constantly analyzes the past and thinks about the future.

The events of Angeles’s childhood remained in her memory, and she used the lessons to guide decision-making in the various positions held throughout her career to date. The forces of childhood experiences helped shape Angeles’s future success as an adult, living up to the claims of the social scientists who say in the book Give and Take that real success is based more on interactions with others more than simply hard work and luck. For example, due to the urging of a friend, she once stole a neighbor’s expensive fish out of his aquarium and was caught. From that experience, she learned a life-changing lesson to not let others lead you into making bad decisions. These stories are told throughout Part One, moving through events as the author grows up. During her childhood and college years, she developed an avid interest in reading a wide range of books, from dystopian science fiction to memoirs and historical fiction, helping her define her life philosophy.

Her childhood was not always easy, but once again, the events had a direct influence on her adulthood. For example, Angeles developed social anxiety, which led to her writing in journals and for school projects, and now she is an author. Her parent’s peaceful relationship taught her that logical discussion was the best way to resolve conflict, but it also taught her that she wanted a voice. She meets people who became strong influences and chooses a college to attend where she specializes in management, knowing she would be going to the U.S. and leaving some family members and friends she most cared about behind.

Having laid the groundwork for her years leading to college graduation, Angeles begins Part Two, which describes her life and career in Los Angeles, California. Her first job had her doing duties she did not expect and believed were beneath her dignity and education, but she learned a lesson about the dignity of work. As the book, It’s Called Work for a Reason! says, people who feel uninspired and, in a rut, should take responsibility for improving their situation, and Angeles does. She moves on to other jobs, makes friends, experiences racism at her first desk job and stands up for herself when wronged.

To pursue her goals, Angeles eventually gets on the path of her successful career in banking by accepting a job at a Fortune 500 financial institution, where she is ultimately mentored and finds her niche in personal banking. Eventually, she gets married and also works on advancing her career. As an achiever, she quickly climbed the ranks through position changes and promotions and went back to school to work on her MBA. She learns to be more assertive during internal job reviews and continues to advance. Angeles is empowered by her goals, using her positivity and desire to succeed as motivators, as the book Big Dreams, Daily Joys suggests people do. After 15 years with the same company, Angeles accepts a job with another company. Along the career path, she has three babies and suffers from challenging medical and mental health issues.

These are stories of self-discovery as she balances work, motherhood and marriage. Angeles describes her experience with a medical condition, getting lured into a pyramid scheme, making more mistakes, struggling to overcome moments of self-doubt, embracing life’s joys and staying personally motivated. Her greatest happiness is her children, and that happiness always helps her stay resilient no matter what life presents as challenges. It also contributes to her success at work because happiness, as the book, The Happiness Advantage, says, fuels success rather than the other way around. She wants her children to be proud of the woman she is at work and home.

This is an autobiography, but it is just as much a motivational book as the book GRIT, which shares how high achievers have a combination of perseverance and passion that keeps them motivated. That describes Patricia Angeles perfectly. The book is straightforward to read, and her descriptions show she is a woman who is humble, courageous, has a sense of humor, is hard-working and perseveres through whatever life throws at her. Just as importantly, her stories show how she never loses sight of what she sees as her destiny. Angeles refuses to accept mediocrity and always remains resilient. Her message to readers is to keep your eye on your legacy through life’s ups and downs because it will help you stay motivated and encourage you to look at life’s events through personal learning and growing.

About The Author

Patricia Angeles was born in Torrance. She graduated in 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Humanities with Professional Certificate in Management at the University of Asia and the Pacific. After graduation, she moved to Southern California in 2005 with her parents. In 2011, she earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in International Business at the University of La Verne.

Angeles has deep expertise in the banking industry. She began her career in 2005 at Wells Fargo Bank as a Personal Banker and worked her way up from there. She held positions that included Treasury Management Implementation Coordinator, Treasury Management Sales Analyst, Business Systems Consultant, Conduct Risk Consultant and Business Initiatives Consultant. While at Wells Fargo Bank, Angeles was awarded the Stellar Club Service Award and Circle of Stars. In September 2021, Angeles accepted a position as RCA Manager at U.S. Bank. She is currently the Vice President, Digital Risk Manager at U.S. Bank.

You can follow Patricia Angeles on LinkedIn and Amazon.