To reduce security on macbook, you have to go to internet recovery.Press Options+Command+R while you power on the macbook at the same time.
Connect to the internet and wait for awhile as it can take sometime but it can be faster if ethernet cable is connected to the macbook.
Once in, you press on the Utilities and press startup security utilities
They will ask you for authentication so you can put the password you use to log into the mac
and press no security and allow booting so you can enter into your external harddrive.