50bookchallenge #11/50: What Should I Do With My Life?, Po Bronson

My moth­er sent me this book months ago, long before my dis­sat­is­fac­tion at work result­ed in the loss of my job. It’s a col­lec­tion of true sto­ries of peo­ple who have wres­tled with the Big Question.

This is per­son­al and authen­tic jour­nal­ism. Bron­son does not pre­tend that he does­n’t exist and tells us when he thinks that just talk­ing to him might have influ­enced the peo­ple he inter­viewed. The book con­tains a wide vari­ety of per­son­al his­to­ries that he uses to explore how peo­ple fig­ure out what right liveli­hood means to them. Some sto­ries seem like suc­cess sto­ries, but most are nuanced and real. It’s impos­si­ble to take away a sim­ple for­mu­la, but the expe­ri­ences of these fifty-six peo­ple bring a depth to the ques­tion that would be impos­si­ble with an answer.

Some of the sto­ries inspired me to damn the tor­pe­dos and oth­ers to find a safe, con­ser­v­a­tive path. But what is clear are three impor­tant ideas:

1) One per­son­’s answer won’t work for some­one else
2) Each per­son­’s path is unique and personal
3) This takes integri­ty, which often means courage.

Food for a lot of thought. A good read, as well. I rec­om­mend it heartily.