What Should I Do with My Life?: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question

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What Should I Do with My Life?: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question

3.6 of 5 stars 3.60 · rating details · 3,346 ratings · 422 reviews

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 individuals—from young to old, from those just starting out to those in a second career—who have overcome fear and confusion to find a larger truth about...more

Paperback, 436 pages

Published November 29th 2005 by Ballantine Books (first published 2002)

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Jan 12, 2012 Jose rated it 5 of 5 stars

Po Bronson's What Should I Do With My Life? speaks to the almost universal dream of finding one's true, life-affirming passion. An inspirational book that has the power to change lives- and happens to have a really bad title. Make no mistake- this is not a self help book, in the conventional sense.

This book does not offer 12 steps for finding your one true way. It doesn't purport to have empirical answers to all of the existential dilemmas in your life. You won't find any easy-bake recipes guar...more Po Bronson's What Should I Do With My Life? speaks to the almost universal dream of finding one's true, life-affirming passion. An inspirational book that has the power to change lives- and happens to have a really bad title. Make no mistake- this is not a self help book, in the conventional sense.

This book does not offer 12 steps for finding your one true way. It doesn't purport to have empirical answers to all of the existential dilemmas in your life. You won't find any easy-bake recipes guaranteeing self-actualization or happiness- Po Bronson pulls no punches and makes no pretense in that regard.

Instead, this is a collection of vignettes about average normal people from all sorts of walks of life in search of a happier, more meaningful existence. The tough-love moral of all of the stories in this book is that the road to a passion-filled life is not clearly defined, and more often than not it isn't a road at all - more like a faintly defined path obscured on all sides by tall weeds.

Since the author does not purport to answer the question "What Should I Do With My Life?" definitively, he does the next best thing - he offers up dozens of stories about how other people came to answer this question for themselves, in the hope that other peoples experiences might be instructive to the rest of us.

This is an incredibly honest, unvarnished, empathetic book, highly recommended for anyone that has a nagging suspicion that there might be something more meaningful to life than the endless pursuit of those perennial touchstones of the American Dream- class, status, and prestige, along with the shiny material baubles (big houses, German cars, trophy spouses, insert your aspirational obscur objet du désir here) that accompany them. Or, said another way. in the lyrics of 70's honky-tonk musician Tom T Hall: "faster horses, younger women, older whiskey, and more money" (Couldn't have said it better myself).

The first time I came across this book I made the age-old mistake of judging it by it's cover- at first glance the title sounded... shallow, petulant, whiny even. At the time I happened to be a reliable authority on pretty much everything there was to know about everything. One of the recurring ironies of my life is that the older I get, the more I realize I don't know. Some years later I found myself buying my own copy. It didn't take me very long to realize that the Author doesn't have any "magic beans" for sale.

About 1/2 way through this book I realized it actually has the perfect title. In fact I can't imagine calling it anything else. What Should I Do With My Life? succinctly sums up the essence of what this book is all about - The frustrating, hair-raising fact of the matter is that there is no definitive "right" answer to the question... This book provides a noble public service- it's single raison d'etre is to help people of all ages and from all sorts of life experiences come closer to answering that most universal question on their own terms, using the best possible method- sharing the stories of others who have asked the same question, listened carefully for their own answers, and found the courage to take the leap of faith that so very often is mandatory on the faint and weedy path towards a happier life. (less)

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Sep 20, 2008 Judy rated it 3 of 5 stars

in my current state of unemployment - i thought this book would offer some fresh perspectives. it revealed that most people are as clueless as i am about what to devote one's life to. however, it does offer interesting stories and several "truths"...one of which is that a winding path towards one's ultimate goal is not necessarily a bad thing. po bronson unravels his own path to becoming a writer in with the anecdotal chapters. most of the stories were based out of the bay area (where bronson li...more

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Dec 28, 2007 Tommy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: nobody

Shelves: tossed_out_on_the_lawn

So what kind of peyote are you guys smoking? This book escaped the infamous 1-star rating simply by virtue of Bronson's use of real life stories that helped me escape from his own incredibly annoying narration. Was it the truisms he loved to repeat? The lack of helpful guidance? (Be yourself). His incessant need to come off like a soft-spoken preacher who secretly wishes you'll all wind up homeless on the streets of Detroit begging for his next edition? Yuck.

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Mar 10, 2009 Deirdre rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009-reads

Po Bronson's What Should I Do with My Life? aims to answer that question. But rather than give a clean-cut definition to fit the masses, Bronson chooses to deliver his inspiration in the form of motivational stories, stories of people who have tried or are trying to figure out what they should do with their lives. Some people figured it out, some are still working at it, but all gave up societal or familial expectations to go forward with their dreams.

When I graduated with a marketing degree a...more

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Sep 02, 2012 Naomi rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: from-the-library, didnt-finish

I am just getting started but have a few thoughts. This book is comprised of a series of short nonfiction stories about people the author interviewed and how they went about answering this difficult question for themselves. I read another review that said, 'the people in this book are just as confused as I am.' that made me LOL, not unkindly, but what did you expect? Life does not have quick fixes. There is no secret answer that will suddenly clear everything up for you. So far the stories are i...more

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Jan 15, 2009 Mike rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography, jobs-vocations-etc, non-fiction, z-read-in-2009, the-2000s-i-e-2000-2009

This was very disappointing overall. This should have been interesting, given the premise and how extensively the author sought out people with interesting stories about their work lives (he set up a website and heavily marketed it, and even became sort of a job counselor and marriage counselor and life counselor to all kinds of people in the process of meeting these people and compiling these stories--many of the people he interviewed initially got in touch with him to seek his guidance and cou...more This was very disappointing overall. This should have been interesting, given the premise and how extensively the author sought out people with interesting stories about their work lives (he set up a website and heavily marketed it, and even became sort of a job counselor and marriage counselor and life counselor to all kinds of people in the process of meeting these people and compiling these stories--many of the people he interviewed initially got in touch with him to seek his guidance and counseling, apparently, and as you'll see if you read this, he offers lots of counseling to almost everyone he interviews. That was probably the most annoying aspect of this book: all of the author's silly interjections of his own thoughts and his own confusion about what life is all about, etc., not to mention the quoted dialogues that he had with these subjects (or clients, as the case sometimes was). The author doesn't seem to know how tell a life story without interjecting his own life story into it, which I found very annoying.

There are 57 miniature biographies in here, and although a few of them were interesting all the way through, most started out promising and then quickly sank into a morass of the author's feelings about the subject and other kinds of digressions from the story. In most of these stories, it was a chore trying to sift through all the verbiage to extract the interesting part: the subject's own story (which very often *was* an interesting story and could have been very compelling reading if told by a better biographer).

I've never read anything else by this guy (unless I've read magazine articles by him, which is very likely, I guess), but he doesn't seem like a good writer at all. At least not a good biographer. Maybe he's a good fiction writer--I'll certainly check out one of his novels now out of curiosity. He's also apparently a very savvy marketer and book trade expert. I don't know if that has anything to do with the huge commercial success of this book, and all the time it spent on various bestseller lists, etc., but that points out something I like about goodreads--the rating of this book on goodreads is in the low 3-star range if I'm remembering correctly. Hardly a blockbuster among goodreads readers.

Here are the stories that I did like:

--The lottery winner (about a Yale graduate who became a teacher in an entrepreneurial inner-city school, and the best story in the book as far as I was concerned)
--A billion is chump change (the author's own story of how he quit bond sales to become a writer)
--A fragile blow (about a guy who quits a Ph.D. program in English while paralyzed with grief over his brother's suicide and becomes a cook)
--A college man
--Getting oily, then even
--The magical thing
--The lockbox fantasy
--My new start-up
--The mechanic gives 100 percent
--Contribution X

(less)

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Apr 28, 2013 Tamlynem rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book isn't exactly self-help, although the author sometimes appears to be making the leap into that vein. And the Library of Congress part categorizes it as "self-actualization psychology."
There are some cringe-worthy parts of it, but I did enjoy reading most of it and it is hard not to empathize with at least one or two people he profiles (and the author himself in some parts). I think what is interesting is looking at it now, ten-odd years and one huge global recession later. If he wrote...more

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Apr 21, 2013 Farnoosh Brock rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: business-spirit

A life with purpose will beckon all of us at some point to answer these questions.

Are we doing something worthwhile with life?

Is our work meaningful?

Are we wasting it away at a keyboard or in an office or in the air on business travel?

Is this what we imagined ourselves to be doing in not just our adult years but also the very best years of our lives, realizing that working full time takes up at least a third of our waking hours?

Then if we keep prodding, we may hear the imploring of the heart as...more

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Mar 01, 2013 Darryn rated it 1 of 5 stars

Only read a couple chapters of this book but it was enough to make me want to put it down and stop reading (which I rarely do). What really blew me away was the extent to which his narrative and commentary overrides the stories he claims to be presenting.

In Chapter two, he tells a story of a woman who chooses to remain unemployed in the hopes of holding out for her dream career. He discusses his frustration with this conversation, pointing out his "male need to fix things and the female need to...more

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Jan 12, 2013 Natalia Toronchuk rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you just lost your job or something and need to figure out what to do, this book is not for you. If you are a college undergrad wanting to answer the question "what major should I choose?" then this book is also not for you.

This book is for someone who is willing to accept that there isn't an easy answer for a career, since choosing a career, like choosing the person to marry, can have a lot of positives from a number of options. It doesn't offer straightforward, simplistic career advice, it...more

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Nov 15, 2011 Gini rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really like Po Bronson and his writing style and his “journey” through this book. I admire above all the way that he organized and synthesized this book, without turning complicated life stories into cutesy vignettes or anecdotes used to prove a point, though sometimes he slipped towards that, though in the legitimate way that we all do when we are trying to re-write a psycho-history.

The biggest things I took away from this book was the idea that I have an inner circle and this is how i judge...more I really like Po Bronson and his writing style and his “journey” through this book. I admire above all the way that he organized and synthesized this book, without turning complicated life stories into cutesy vignettes or anecdotes used to prove a point, though sometimes he slipped towards that, though in the legitimate way that we all do when we are trying to re-write a psycho-history.

The biggest things I took away from this book was the idea that I have an inner circle and this is how i judge my actions and their value. I am pretty sure I know who is in that inner circle and it is kind of disappointing/scary and I don’t know what to do, exactly.

Also, I love being re-assured that everyone struggles, hates their jobs, and doesn’t have a life plan. That we are all just trying to do our best and get through this and maybe end up at what we want, but we don’t always, or it takes an interesting turn.

Many of the more philosophical questions/issues associated with the question “what should I do with my life” are things I have been struggling with a lot over the last two years, so i already knew things like “this is really important, don’t feel guilty for thinking about it,” but again, it is nice to hear those re-iterated. Also nice to realize once again that we all have problems, doubts, struggles, and questions about our jobs, careers, decisions, and places in life. It doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter if the Dalai Lama himself tells you want you should do with your life. You are still going to struggle a lot, because we all do.

Also, shout out to Gen X! This is their book, really. It doesn’t have anything to do with us Millennials. Which is nice, because like I was saying in my Fear and Loathing review, reading about historical things as if they were happening today gives a great perspective. So we just had all our hopes and assumptions about working life in America dashed because of a recession. So What?! That’s happened before, that happened just 10 years ago. It was a big deal and so was this, but it’s not totally hopeless and it’s not the end of the world. So That was healthy too.

I feel like I should read this again in another 5 years, though, because some of the lessons were a little too above my head. Maybe I will get them next time.

Overall, good book, liked it and the message. Helped with mental processes, but I am still left without any ideas for what I should do with my OWN life.(less)

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Aug 25, 2010 Kathy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio

I'll be forced to sign up for Medicare on my birthday next week and I still don't have an answer to this question. There weren't any stories in the book that changed the direction of my life. It's too late for me to be a professional ice skater or tennis player, though I did give the Senior tour a one time shot and ran player services this year for a US Open Olympus Series tournament, sat at the computer with the Radwanska sisters helping them make plane reservations to the next tournament, held...more

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Aug 02, 2010 Marcos rated it 2 of 5 stars

The good thing about this book is its sustained focus on an extremely important topic. The bad thing about this book is nearly everything else. Po Bronson writes in a clunky, Journalism 101 style, with wooden introductions of his subjects fumbled into the text. He digresses often, judges his subjects too harshly for my tastes, and generally spends more time holding forth on his own ideas than he does relaying the opinions and experiences of the people he interviews. Once or twice, while I read t...more

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Mar 22, 2010 Maura rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fic

I'd like to think this is better as a book than as an audiobook, for the following reasons:

1. you wouldn't have to listen to Po Bronson's voice which comes across to me as very condescending. i don't always think that's really how he's feeling all the time (tho sometimes i do), but i find it very hard to get past

2. you wouldn't have to listen to Po Bronson imitate accents so you can tell the difference between the author's voice & that of the people he's interviewing. some people should do a...more

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Jul 13, 2009 Walter rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is actually a meaningful read in the end, but there are certainly some rough patches along the way. This being noted, I urge others to read on, as the early uneveness of the book gives way to far more consistently insightful passages in its second half. Simply put, some of the early stories are not particularly revealing (or, even more acutely put, do not evidence clearly why Bronson chose to include them), but by the end they are a tiny minority of many riveting, important narratives....more This book is actually a meaningful read in the end, but there are certainly some rough patches along the way. This being noted, I urge others to read on, as the early uneveness of the book gives way to far more consistently insightful passages in its second half. Simply put, some of the early stories are not particularly revealing (or, even more acutely put, do not evidence clearly why Bronson chose to include them), but by the end they are a tiny minority of many riveting, important narratives. So, slog through the first half of the book and you will be rewarded richly by its conclusion.

The style of the book is to share vignettes about particular individuals (or, in a few cases, couples) who have effectively asked and answered what the author describes as the ultimate question (which is the title of the book). Along the way, we learn a good deal about what lead them to ask themselves the question in the first place, how they have gone about answering it and what the results have been. A parallel and similarly important narrative theme is the author's own journey, which he chronciles alongside the other subjects'. We also learn some other important things like that our expectation of experiencing a eureka moment when we discover our purpose is mistaken (it turns out that it's typically a far more faint feeling or realization), that the journey is usually long and hard (so keep looking), that you have to have the courage to find out who you really are and then live the life that this suggests (despite what trusted others and your circumstances or background may compel), etc. Not to spoil it for others, but this is not a tome with dozens of get-rich-quick secrets; in most scenarios, the protagonists actually walk away from the gilded life to find something much more meaningful (and usually less materially remunerative). In fact, the author is the poster boy for this trend (though he does, in the end, experience material abundance in additon to greater fulfillment by having the guts to pursue his passion - writing - professionally).

In summary, this is a very worthwhile read, as most of the vignettes feature protagonists whose stories are compelling, insightful and transferable. It will not likely give you an answer to its titular question, but it will point you in the right direction to discover your own.(less)

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Feb 05, 2010 Mariah rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was really liking this book early on, the first half, but as I continued further the predominance of people in business and politics just didn't sit well with me. I also continually wondered how the people who didn't start in high dollar careers (i.e. didn't have a bankroll to start something knew) afforded to go back to school and get a new degree, or whatever it is they decided to do.
I'm ending (layoff) a job that has been a career and I have no desire to look for another job in this field,...more

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Feb 09, 2010 Aneel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Got this from the library. I was worried that it would be nonstop "I gave up my job as a lawyer to save orphans, and now I'm totally fulfilled!" stories. There were some of those, but not that many. In fact, most of the people in the book don't actually have it figured out. They're grappling with the question, and might see a path that could get them there, but it's not clear that the path they see is the right one, or that they're capable of taking it. As the book goes on, Bronson seems to inse...more

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Mar 31, 2012 Jeff rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dropped

After finding this book on some tech blog's must read list I decided to give it a shot. I now find myself regretting this course of action. What Should I Do with My Life is full of short stories of a bunch of people that Mr. Po Bronson interviewed, and then proceeded to tell them how to fix their life or how much their decisions sucked. The interviews are much more a platform for Bronson to present his own thoughts and views on how life should be, and he disagrees very strongly with anyone that...more

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Jul 10, 2010 Denise rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone thinking they may need a career/life change

07/10/10 - this is a tough one to review:
- listened to it maybe 6 years ago
- i was in a much different place in my life then

i don't think i would like this book now as much as I did then. i had a lot less direction in my career when i read this book than I do now. so at the time, it was encouraging - comforting! - to read about people making u-turns in life and starting things that were completely different. i'm pretty sure i was listening to this when i was working 2 jobs (b/c i remember having...more

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Mar 11, 2010 Lynn rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Career direction enthusiasts, Vicarious explorers

Recommended to Lynn by: Becky on her page

Shelves: bestsellers, self-help, spiritual, inspirational

There are hits and there are misses for me in this book. The hits connected me on a spiritual communion that makes me absorbed and elated. The misses were like chewing on dry cardboard - wondering if I have given this book too much of my time and credit.

I spent alot of time on this book - sort of like a self directed read. I read them all through only once, however; not much time for re reading; there are much more literature to be engaged in.

I have to say I enjoyed Bronson's structure. He plac...more There are hits and there are misses for me in this book. The hits connected me on a spiritual communion that makes me absorbed and elated. The misses were like chewing on dry cardboard - wondering if I have given this book too much of my time and credit.

I spent alot of time on this book - sort of like a self directed read. I read them all through only once, however; not much time for re reading; there are much more literature to be engaged in.

I have to say I enjoyed Bronson's structure. He placed the first story as the absorber - I loved that. I also like 'The Lottery Winner'.

I guess for this book, some chapters just speak to me, and some don't. That's life, and that's this book.

I enjoyed Bronson's commentaries, actually. It gives the book direction. But I didn't like the way some of his stories ended up chipped off at the end - like a taper into nothingness. Lost is the word.

Some places, I get a sense of direction. Others, I feel lost. I guess this book is like a survivor edition. Bronson could have edited it to make every story inspiring.. because alot of the stories are just below par in the storytelling arena - I need a moral of the story summed at the end instead of trying to read between the lines for an epiphanic splint.

Okay, I finished the book and I thought it such an accomplishment. TBH, I felt the heaviness of the author's mind when he plodded through this. The ending was supposed to be superlative, but it was like a bad GP essay written because the time was up, or someone was hurrying to go home.

Overall, its hard to judge this book. If a story makes me feel inspired, I'll give it 4 stars or more. If it drags me through the mud, I'll give it a one star. Usually, the rating will depend alot on how the closing is like. Po did not necessarily impress with his closing.

But I gave it 4 stars, because, while I wasnt particularly impressed with the narrative style, interview group (which was kinda narrow), pickings from Ivy leagues and higher executives, I rate based on how much this stuff will linger within me, inspire me insiduously, and how much I have learnt vicariously from it. I would think that the content of this book is darn helpful to me in the long run (or 'Big Picture'). And it will help shape some of my choices, which I will be grateful for.(less)

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Nov 07, 2010 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

I generally like reading compilations of stories about people’s lives – especially if I think I might find some insight for my own life, but this book was a disappointment. “What should I do with my life?” is a great question – but it makes no sense to include stories of people who didn’t figure it out. A lot of the people in the book had just recently “figured it out” …in time for the book. Sometimes this was a little too convenient, especially when the author’s prodding was involved in their f...more

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Jun 24, 2010 Monika rated it 3 of 5 stars

I expected a book full of uplifting stories about people who had left their office-drone existence in pursuit of their dreams... knitting sweaters for penguins, opening a tea-shop/yarn store in Park Slope, selling cupcakes to lepers with AIDS...

Instead, this is a book with SOME of those stories, interspersed with stories about people who left one crappy-sounding job for another, about people who couldn't pay their bills but had a fun hobby, people who never actually changed their lives. Um, thi...more

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Jul 21, 2010 Kyle rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was suggested to me by a recent employer, since I've jumped from a few different jobs in my short career. He told me he reads this every year to sort of reinspire himself to keep pushing toward the thing that gives him his passion for his job.
I'd like to say that I found passion, but Bronson's book felt so much like a time-capsule of five to 10 years ago. Many of the stories are inspired looks at how people reacted to their wants and needs in response to what we learned and did in the 1990...more This was suggested to me by a recent employer, since I've jumped from a few different jobs in my short career. He told me he reads this every year to sort of reinspire himself to keep pushing toward the thing that gives him his passion for his job.
I'd like to say that I found passion, but Bronson's book felt so much like a time-capsule of five to 10 years ago. Many of the stories are inspired looks at how people reacted to their wants and needs in response to what we learned and did in the 1990s, but in a recession like ours, rules change.
I'm not saying the book is bad, and I'm not saying that we can't still do what he suggests; he offers guidelines to follow our heart and be giving and connected to people not in a Tony Robbins way but in a way that uses your head as well as your heart. One of the most telling portions of the book to me was his observation about the work culture of the 90s and how we've evolved. Rather than forcing ourselves into being an adult quickly and then reaching back to lost youth like Baby Boomers, kids from my generation could see opportunity everywhere all the while refusing to change out of jeans and not bring a skateboard to work. For some then and now, work is less a thing that can bring some satisfaction to a facet of a person's life and more something to be put off, to struggle with between texts and feed updates. I feel like he's probably pretty close to accurate here.
What the book is missing now that it had even five years ago was opportunity. I feel like I know my passion, and I'm always taking steps toward trying to make that a reality; I want to be a socially responsible person as much as anybody. But our economy and our society isn't in a position that has lots of open space to allow people to move around and try new things. Time and again I would read stories about people who just decide to change careers or go back to school or do some other thing that requires time, money and resources. I'm not saying only people with huge resources can really do this, but it makes a huge difference as to what someone can really do to change.
All this said, I still mostly agree with his points. Follow where your life and your interests seem to guide you. Don't wait. Make difficult choices and talk to people you don't know. Have at least one meaningful conversation each day. Try things you think you might fail at. Especially in a tough economy like ours right now, these ring true, even if they sound a little bit truist now and again.
Beyond that, Bronson is definitely no journalist. He pitches this book as a biographical glimpse into all of these lives, and fails more often than not to actually give us observation of life beyond a physical description. His dialogue, especially, fell flat on its face for me. There's no way the conversations he quotes went they way he says; moreover, no one's voice but his own comes through. In almost every case, he sounds as if he's just talking aloud to himself, which in fact, I wonder if he is at a few points.
He also promises in the foreword that he tried very hard not to actually give these people advice or interfere in their lives. In almost every single story following, he outright gives people advice and inserts his own observations as the correct way the subject should be proceeding. What he writes in confidence to the reader is usually even more directive than what he actually "says" to the person, which just left me annoyed that the person I'm so interested is not getting a chance to speak for themselves. What must this man's notepad look like? It feels so blank, for a guy who interviewed so many people.(less)

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Jul 30, 2011 Jennifer rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, self-help

I started out liking this book and relating to some of the things the people were saying, but towards the middle I just lost interest. They all were the same to me.
I did relate to one chapter about the author. “I never thought I had a story. Other people’s lives were interesting, and I admired them for overcoming difficult prejudices and beating long odds. By comparison, my life was bland and fairly privileged. My parents loved me and told me so all the time, I attended good schools and earned...more

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Jun 15, 2010 Bucket rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bio-auto-bio, identity, non-fiction, reviewed

Po Bronson decided to tackle this question by soliciting stories from everyone he could and spreading his contact information around. When stories spoke to him, he got to know the person through emails, phone calls, and visits. Each chapter in the book respresents someone's story and the stories are all ordinary people who (intentionally or not) offered Bronson nuggets of wisdom as they searched for and (sometimes) ultimately found the answer to what they should do with their life.

I love that th...more

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Feb 15, 2009 Meg rated it 4 of 5 stars

Just because I am teetering on the brink of life/anti-life doesn't affect how much I enjoyed this book, right? Ha!

I found Po Bronson's writings to be insightful and touching, inspiring and a catalyst for change, motivating and approachable. BUT I didn't find it very realistic. BUT who needs realism when you just need a little pick me up?! Did I say little? There is nothing little about how fantastic this book made me feel. I was able to read a story here, a story there. I didn't skip around, an...more

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Sep 25, 2011 Patrick McCoy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

A friend recommended What Should I Do with My Life? by Po Bronson to me. It is something that I've spent a lot of time thinking about. I'd say that I'm pretty at home with what I'm doing now, but I often think I ought to be teaching kids in public schools in America, because they need it more than the spoiled, pampered, uninterested Japanese college students. Or perhaps, working for some non-profit organization in Washington DC. I think Bronson hit on something when he states this need to find o...more

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May 09, 2009 Jacob rated it 2 of 5 stars

I gave up on this one roughly halfway through it, mostly because of its lack of direction. These people haven't answered the "ultimate" question of life; they simply either stumbled onto something they enjoy doing for a living after decades of soul-searching, or have ultimately become complacent.
Sure, there are those that absolutely LOVE where their path took them, but it offers no condolences to the rest of us. Am I supposed to wander through life until a mid-life crisis opens my eyes to someth...more

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Jul 16, 2007 Irwan rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: finished

Despite the enticing title - people tend to search for clues about what to do with their life - this book did put me off. No depth, simply a series of snapshot of people's life written rather dryly and bluntly.

It is like watching Oprah without the "ooohh, aaah..." :-)

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Jan 01, 2013 Gabriel Figueroa rated it 5 of 5 stars

Everyone should read this book. Whether or not you are considering a career or life change, the stories in this book offer a window into the lives of people who made shifts in their lives to try to answer the question of what they should do. Many already had successful careers but realized that they wanted something different from their lives or that something was missing or wrong for them. The question remains elusive to a few and the answers are radically different depending on who is asking....more Everyone should read this book. Whether or not you are considering a career or life change, the stories in this book offer a window into the lives of people who made shifts in their lives to try to answer the question of what they should do. Many already had successful careers but realized that they wanted something different from their lives or that something was missing or wrong for them. The question remains elusive to a few and the answers are radically different depending on who is asking. Some people move into jobs they are passionate about, whereas others consciously choose less involved careers to spend more time on other pursuits in life.

Bronson pieces together the stories in a meaningful order and recommends that the book be read from start to finish. I read a few stories out of order at first, but then I decided to read as recommended. I now see how the stories build on one another, imparting lessons that require some context, and recommend that others read it in the same fashion. I took about three weeks to read this, reading a few stories a day and digesting them slowly.

This book doesn't give explicit instructions on what to do or say that you should model your life based on what anyone else does. It admits that this question is a difficult one and explores it through the context of the lives of other people who attempted to answer it in their own way. If there is a message in this book, it is to listen to yourself first and foremost, to try to be open to living life in way that matters to you, to contribute your gifts to the world.

I read this book as I transition in my own life, and it really spoke to me. I have a plan that makes sense to me, but I am also open to adjustments along the way. I gained a lot of insight from the people and their stories and from the author's own conclusions. It's a book that I am sure I will look at again because this is a question that needs to be asked often.

If we all lived our lives in a way that was meaningful to us, this world would be a better place for everyone. Read this book and be willing to ask yourself what you should do with your life, whether what you are doing is really the best way to spend your very limited time in the world.(less)

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About Po Bronson

Po Bronson has built a career both as a successful novelist and as a prominent writer of narrative nonfiction. He has published five books, and he has written for television, magazines, and newspapers, including Time, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and for National Public Radio's Morning Edition. Currently he is writing regularly for New York magazine in the United States and for...more

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“But I'd rather help than watch. I'd rather have a heart than a mind. I'd rather expose too much than too little. I'd rather say hello to strangers than be afraid of them. I would rather know all this about myself than have more money than I need. I'd rather have something to love than a way to impress you.” — 16 people liked it

“Interests evolve into hobbies or volunteer work, which grow into passions. It takes time, more time than anyone imagines.” — 13 people liked it

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