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What Should I Do with My Life?: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question |  | Author: Po Bronson
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
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Seller: snowlionbooks
Rating:  326 reviews
Sales Rank: 26397
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Pages: 464
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 4.1 x 1
ISBN: 0345485920
Dewey Decimal Number: 170.44
EAN: 9780345485922
ASIN: 0345485920
Publication Date: November 29, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In What Should I Do with My Life? Po Bronson tells the inspirational true stories of people who have found the most meaningful answers to that great question. With humor, empathy, and insight, Bronson writes of remarkable individualsâfrom young to old, from those just starting out to those in a second careerâwho have overcome fear and confusion to find a larger truth about their lives and, in doing so, have been transformed by the experience. What Should I Do with My Life? struck a powerful, resonant chord on publication, causing a multitude of people to rethink their vocations and priorities and start on the path to finding their true place in the world. For this edition, Bronson has added nine new profiles, to further reflect the range and diversity of those who broke away from the chorus to learn the sound of their own voice.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Amazon.com Review
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. Bronsons 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 books greatest strength and challenge. He describes his subjects 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 books 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
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 326
 Wanted More In-depth Profiles July 26, 2010
petesea (Orlando, FL)
No, I am not having a midlife crisis. This book was on my to read list, but I forget the reason why I added it. Po spoke with 800 some people for this book and it shows as he skims through their experiences - I wish that he had winnowed down the list and did some more in-depth profiles. I did like when he went beyond a page or two with a particular person.
 Great book, but June 3, 2010
David A. Mckenzie (New York City)
Great book, but why is the kindle version missing the nine additional stories from the revised paperback issued in 2003? I feel short-changed.
 One of life's important questions. April 22, 2010
Mary Jane Morris (SF Bay Area)
Read "What Should I Do With My Life?" for a non biased look at one of life's biggest questions.
 Left Frustrated After Reading "Stories" That I Managed to Finish April 10, 2010
Sycamore Houston
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The author Po Bronson claims (stated on back cover)(Also inside if I remember correctly)that he wrote about people of all ages, classes and professions, yet I did not find that to be the case. Reading the stories in this book that I actually managed to finish left me frustrated based on the fact that the vast majority of people he wrote about seemed to have one thing in common-money or connections. This book more so than any I have ever read in it's category provided the worst examples in using people's lifes to inspire others. It profiles the type of person who never seemed to run of of money or connections in order to reach their goals. I am college educated, yet do not feel inspired to read about people that this book deems inspirational. I fault the author in the manner that he portrays their paths. I thought there would be stories about people who over came financial and educational barriers-even poverty along with finding careers that were unique or different to ones that had before, not so much. And Bronson's commentary about his own life seemed shallow and unnecessary. Pathetic excuse of categorizing a book to answer any questions regarding finding meaningful careers/lives. This book could fit more easily under an array of other titles and categories.
Just glad I rented it from the library and didn't waste money. Time wasted reading it was enough.
good selections of stories about how people make changes in their life March 10, 2010
A Zhu (Irvine, CA United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Reading this book is like talking to hundreds of people and asking their advices and experiences.
There are many ways of learning. One good way is to learn from experience, your own experience or other people's experience. Learning other people's experience does speed up the whole learning process. Here is a part excerted from the book.
"
If you are one of these adrenaline seekers who's convinced all you need from life is a series of oversized challenges, good for you. But you should probably put this book down right here. Because where I'm going to take this conversation might make you very uncomfortable.
We've all got that voice in our head, like the voice of Jonathan Greenblatt's father: "You want to find yourself? Go look in the mirror. Now get back to work." Hard work will cure you of your lazy introspection.
But for the person who's never done anything but work hard, working even harder is often the easiest thing to do. It is far more threatening to slow down and listen to needs that have been ignored. ( or to people in your life have been ignored) Labor is only one kind of hard work. This section delves into a different kind of hard work.
The four people whose stories follow are all practical people --- or maybe the better way to say it is they all began as practical people, yet dared to look inward, into the murky terrain of their own psyches.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 326
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