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Summary: You are not the only person who is asking this question
Review: Po Bronson has chosen an excellent cross section of people who have reached a serious crossroad in their career and life. I enjoyed reading about people like me who have successfully made a change in mid-life. I was bogged down for a long time before I made a necessary career change. Because Mr. Bronson doesn't offer advice, this book can be most constructively supplemented with books like Optimal Thinking: How to Be Your Best Self (where you can find your highest purpose and be your best along the way) and What Color is My Parachute (which adds steps to take along the way). This book is inspirational!
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Summary: LOOKING FOR INSPIRATION!!
Review: This book, along with Jay Singh's THE Butterfly and Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist, is a must for anyone teetering on the tightrope of authenticity. It will give you the push you need to dive into yourself and be who you came here to be! But forget under a whole pile of "could haves" and "Should haves". If you or anyone you know needs a little push this is definitely the book to do it!
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Summary: An interesting idea
Review: "What should I do with my life" is an interesting and very well timed book that made me think a lot about my own futur. The concept of collecting stories is quite interesting although I enjoyed some stories a lot more than others. The only downside is that the writer seems to think he has the answers to everyone's questions although he is trying to convince for the opposite.
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Summary: This Is Definitely A Page Turner But...
Review: the amazon review is spot on about that. it's easy to breeze through this book. say what you will, po has a great ability to write the kind of proze you can easily drink down.and there is definitely something to be said about that kind of book. characters are drawn just well enough, are just interesting enough that 3-8 pages in his style work very well. but i think this book is flawed, like a reviewer said before, on a number of different levels. first, while the books is separated into different sections, they all seem to blur together. unless you sit down with a pen and paper, like i did, and really pay attention to major themes and details, the entire books just floats away. i don't think any of the stories, as compelling as many of them are, are written in a way that is indellible. second, po uses a tiny bit too much of himself. i understand that these people and their futures are linked to him, that he is the context where all their stories make sesne, but he goes on a tiny bit too much about himself. i think he feels he has to justify why he's doing this undertaking. he doesn't! but by inserting himself a little too much in the book, you feel his pull even on pages where he intentionally tries to step back. third, there are not nearly enough inner city or poor rural stories or even failures profiled. i understand, as he strangely, candidly admits, that his editors are gunning for gen x/y ers like me, but it's very unbalanced for him to focus so much on middle class or affluent white people. maybe these are the people he has been in contact with that are dealing with guilt, indecision and praxis, but come on. the best way for him to really convince me that this is a worthy question is to show how people have, in all classes of society, grappled with this issue. important note: this IS an important issue. i hate the reviewers here who are like "get a grip." people blow this book off because they immediatly reject this issue. that is sad, because life doesn't simply appear at your door, no matter whether you're an ex-dot commer or nurse like my mother. po's book has some insights, and if you can pick it up used, give yourself two hours to read it, and deal with his issues, it may provide you with some interesting things to think about...
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Summary: Reader from California
Review: After seeing the author and several of his subjects on Oprah, I bought the book. Unfortunately, the Oprah show made the book seem much more interesting than it really is. I found it boring, and the author's analysis of his subjects seemed forced and simply did not ring true to me. Overall, a disappointment.
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Summary: Incredibly boring...
Review: I got through about 15 chapters and was very dissapointed. This book should not have been written.
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Summary: Asks this question of the privileged only
Review: I didn't like this book too much because Bronson only seemed to include Gen X uber-yuppie types who have trouble deciding whether to drive the Lexus or the Benz to work in the morning. Why couldn't he just profile a more realistic group of career thinkers who don't have to stand out in such an eccentric or stylish way? The profiles are still quite interesting, though I found the book to be somewhat shallow in the end. Bronson appears to take on a deeply philosophical subject but then fails to ask the right, probing questions of his subjects, and also fails to more fully develop these characters. Overall, I was quite disappointed. Avery Z. Conner, author of "Fevers of the Mind".
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Summary: Change is good!
Review: As someone who recently left a somewhat lucrative but unfulfilling job, I thought this was a great book. Coming to a 'crossroads' is a difficult & scary time for most people. It's interesting to read how others faced with similar situations acted. If you're at that point in life, definitely get this.
Other interesting books about people reaching a career crossroads & what they did - "No One's Even Bleeding" & "Delano"
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Summary: Life Is Change
Review: People have complained about the book's sloppiness, but I think that the author has broken new ground and not known how to shape it: a sobering book about people following dreams and risking changes without earth shaking results. This book isn't pessimistic; it's realistic. Even bright, talented, materially comfortable people grow bored, long for change, or can't hack a profession for which they have skill. Life doubles back on you. This book is a great counterpoint to the many that promise nirvana and self-fulfillment in five easy steps, cleverly mixing ideals of American self-making with Zen aphorisms and a few quotations by Jung. But readers can take comfort in this book's honesty: life is change with no guarantees; making changes requires compromise and sacrifice. And yes, 'miracles' can happen: you can meet the right person and a door might open. But just as likely, nothing special happens. The key is to keep looking, or hang on to a decent, not too stressful job and pursue your passions at night and on the weekends. But isn't this in many ways preferable to the false promises of the keys to happiness & self-actualization books that prey on people's gullibility and longing? Thanks to those books, the title of Mr. Bronson's book seems deliberately deceptive, as if cashing in on a trend. But it's not. He just doesn't know where to fit himself in this distillation of interviews of people who, like him, don't have the answers.
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Summary: what I'd do if I had the time
Review: Po Bronson has done what I wish I could have done. He has interviewed a ton of people on their career choice decisions and how they have changed their lives. Don't expect this book to be a self-help book. It's not. This book is partly the story of how Bronson investigated his own internal dilemma, and is therefore interspersed with his own personal commentary and self-realizations.
This book has helped me realize something that I've always said: that each of us has our own road to take and there is no right or wrong way about it. There is no dress rehearsal, and there is no training you can do before you begin your life.
My only complaint with the book is not on its information or the writing style. It's that Bronson is not a trained therapist, but frequently gives advise to those he interviews, and intervenes in their lives. Hasn't he heard of the prime directive? Okay, maybe 2 complaints. The second is that there are no examples of people that followed their bliss and failed miserably. Is it because he has a biased sample (only people who did well wanted to talk to him), or is it that EVERYONE who does what they love succeed terrifically?
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