Product Description

Po Bronson tackles the biggest, most threatening, most obvious question that anyone has to face, 'what should I do with my life?' It is a problem that is increasingly encountered not just by the young but by people who have half their lives or more behind them. The modern route to self-discovery is to trade what you have for a completely different way of life, to face the challenges and finally confront our real aims and desires. Bronson's book is a fascinating account of finding and following people who have uprooted their lives and fought with these questions in radical ways. From the investment banker who gave it all up to become a catfish farmer in Mississippi, to the chemical engineer from Walthamstow who decided to become a lawyer in his sixties; these stories of individual dilemma and drama - and sometimes unsuccessful gambles are bound up with Bronson's account of his own search for a calling.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #503696 in Books
• Published on: 2004-01-08
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

From Amazon.com
In What Should I Do with my Life? Po Bronson manages to create a career book that is a page-turner. His 50 vivid profiles of people searching for "their soft spot--their true calling" will engage readers because Bronson is asking himself the same question. He explores his premise, that "nothing is braver than people facing up to their own identity," as an anthropologist and autobiographer. He tackles thorny, nuanced issues about self-determination. Among them: paradoxes of money and meaning, authorship and destiny, brain candy and novelty versus soul food. Bronson’s stories, limited to professional people and complete with photos, are gems. They include a Los Angeles lawyer who became a priest, a Harvard MBA catfish farmer turned biotech executive, and a Silicon Valley real estate agent who opened a leather crafts factory in Costa Rica.

Bronson is a gifted intuitive writer, the bestselling author of The Nudist on the Late Shift, whose thoughtful, vulnerable voice emerges as the book’s greatest strength and challenge. He describes his subject’s lives along with the ways they annoy, puzzle, and worry him. He frets about meddling with his questions, yet once, memorably and appropriately, he offers a talented man a top post in his publishing company. While this creates the juiciness of his portraits, it also can make Bronson the book’s most memorable character and the only one whose story is not resolved. Even so, this remarkable career chronicle sets the gold standard for the worth of the examined life. --Barbara Mackoff

From Publishers Weekly
In this elevated career guide, Bronson (Bombardiers; The Nudist on the Late Shift) poses the titular question to an eclectic mix of "real people in the real world," compiling their experiences and insights about callings, self-acceptance, moral guilt, greed and ambition, and emotional rejuvenation. Bronson crisscrosses the country seeking out remarkable examples of successful and not-so-successful people confronting tough issues, such as differentiating between a curiosity and a passion and deciding whether or not to make money first in order to fund one's dream. Bronson frames the edited responses with witty, down-to-earth commentaries, such as those of John, an engineer whose dream of building an electric car crumbled under his personal weaknesses; and Ashley, a do-gooder burdened by the unlikely combination of self-hatred and a love for humanity. Bronson wants to understand what makes these people-among them a timid college career counselor trapped in his job, a farmer bullish on risk-taking, a financial expert grabbing an opportunity to rebuild her brokerage firm devastated by the World Trade Center tragedy and a scientist who rethinks his lifelong work and becomes a lawyer-tick. He occasionally digresses, musing on his own life too much, and frequently hammers points home longer than necessary, but neither of these drawbacks undercuts the book's potency. The "ultimate question" is a topic always in season, worthy of Bronson's skillful probing and careful anecdote selection. Brimming with stories of sacrifice, courage, commitment and, sometimes, failure, the book will support anyone pondering a major life choice or risk without force-feeding them pat solutions. Photos.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Bronson leaves behind The Nudist on the Late Shift to talk to people with dreams, like the lawyer who opted to become a trucker so that he could spend more time with his son.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Entertaining, but who is this book for?
Po Bronson is certainly a skillful writer, and I found myself breezing through this book within just a few days. However, at the end, I wondered who the author had in mind as a target market. For example, the first chapter is about a young man who has received a calling from the Dalai Lama. While this may be an interesting story in its own right, what does this situation have to do with the career struggles of the typical reader? What is a machine tool salesman or an accountant living in Dayton, Ohio, supposed to take away from this?

The people in this book don't seem to have too many day-to-day financial concerns. Only a few are parents. A significant number of them fall into the category of the educated elite. As a group, they are more interested in spiritual fulfillment projects than in financial success. (About half of them just walk away from a high-paying job to pursue a journey of self-exploration.)

While these sojourners have their place in the world, I don't think that these were the stories that the average reader was expecting. This book could have included a few such dreamy-eyed wanderers and succeeded. However, these should have been balanced by some more conventional success stories.

I wanted to read about the father of three who started his own business to provide a better future for his family. I wanted to read about the secretary who attended evening college for six years in order to achieve a more satisfying job and a better standard of living. Where were the people with more run-of-the-mill professional tracks?

And why couldn't Po have interviewed some of the millions of entrepreneurs who have started superficially mundane, but socially productive and financially rewarding small businesses? Why does everyone in this book have be focused on something like volunteer work, politics, or filmmaking?

While Bronson's selection of subjects is skewed, he does a good job of extracting insights from the material they give him. This would have been an excellent book with a more balanced selection of interviewees.

What I Needed When I Needed It
I was in an airport when I saw it; the question that has been on my mind for the past year, staring back at me from the cover of a book at the airport newstand. It was Po Bronson's book, "What Should I Do With My Life?" I thought about buying it, but didn't at the momement because I had a plane to catch. But I thought about it on the flight home, and downloaded the e-book to read on my PDA.

I actually like that it's not a self help book. I'm not naive enough to think that any one book can tell me what to do with my life, or how to find my purpose or calling. I did find it comforting to know that I'm not the only one struggling with this question, and I was grateful to hear how other people approached this question. I could see some of myself in them, and some of their stories in mine. Until this book, I was beginning to think of myself--a 35 year old gay dad--as a late bloomer. Now I think that I haven't bloomed yet, but I'm not late.

Bottom line, if you're looking for a book to give you the answers, this isn't it, and good luck finding it. But if you're looking for stories about how other people approached this question, I'd recommend this book.

We All Have the Same Questions
If you are seeking your calling, you have plenty of company.

Our circumstances differ, but we all have the same questions. How do you find your calling, what road do you take? This collection of memoirs is not a self-help book-- you will not find an explicit roadmap to follow-- but you may well find comfort that many share your quest for direction. The range of people covered is fascinating-- the subjects include a Buddhist monk, a Harvard MBA turned catfish farmer, a social service worker, and a cake-maker, among many others. Bronson is sympathetic to his subjects, and includes his own profile in the book.

If you are looking for good company on your own life journey, this book is a worthy companion.