Rating: 
Summary: What Should You Do? Exactly What You Want To Do
Review: This is not a self-help book and shouldn't be. It's simply a book for people (not me) who have been doing the same job or living the same lifestyle in the same environment for a while to take an assessment. An assessment to make sure it's in the person's best interest to live the way we are living. This book describes a common feeling that many people feel to varying degrees. More or less, most of us ask ourselves at times: what am I doing with my life? Where am I headed? Is this my passion, or am I missing out on what I really should be doing in life? In addition to career, these questions can be about our relationships with family and friends, significant others, or if we simply living geographically where we want to be living. The author Po Bronson, appears to place high emphasis on career and "career success" in particular. The people he writes about as examples may seem to some to be on the so-called upper-crust of society but that's entirely irrelevant. These are examples of people who made changes because they wanted to: that is success in itself. If you're doing exactly what you want to do in life, and you're living your life exactly how you want to, you are a bona-fide success. And no one can take that away from you. No one. I believe if a person does what they truly enjoy then they are doing the right things in their life. If a person feels that there is "more out-there" to achieve or experience in career, living, life, education etcetera, then they should do some careful consideration, accept the consequences of calculated risk, and then: DO IT! Last time I checked, we only live once. 90% or more of people are averse to change. Once people get into a "routine" it brings about the "comfort zone." This can bring financial, social, and psychological "security." There is nothing wrong with that, but the comfort zone can lead a person to forget the many alternatives and choices that they have in all areas life. I believe that when we are at the end of our lives' we should focus on only one meter to gauge whether we've benn a success. To have as few regrets as possible. Another good book for people who want to do what they truly want to do in their lives are 1. "Self Matters" by Phil McGraw and 2. "Rich Dad, Poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is so devoid of insight it¿s creepy.
Review: Mr. Bronson brags that he didn't "go to the library" to learn anything about his chosen subject. At the end he says he didn't learn much elsewhere either, only he's nicer, deeper, wiser etc. for the experience. He traveled. He interviewed. He hugged. Result? 50 short, disconnected portraits of People in Transition-- portraits that begin at points random, lead nowhere, and dissipate in clouds of whole-grain Happy Talk. Then on to the next short portrait. Don't ask the author to display some organizing intelligence. Don't expect the meandering episodes to bear any relation to each other. And it's all served up in lifeless, padded prose. 'But he lets his subjects speak for themselves', you say, 'That should at least be interesting!' They speak for themselves, but, surprisingly, mirror back to the author the 'issues' that obsess rich, not very bright, Californians. Very different people with very different lives end up flattened to sameness by his pen. I'm not accusing him of cynically writing a bad book to make money. He seems nice enough, if self-serious and shallow. He scours the world for trite middle-class revelation. Some of the vignettes are so inane as to be darkly comic. Don't expect anything deeper than your average fortune cookie from this book.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting
Review: As a person who has changed careers several times now (hopefully for the last time), I was curious about others who have made drastic changes in their vocational lives. I found "What Should I Do With My Life?" by Po Bronson insightful and thought-provoking. The people he chose to focus on were interesting. Thinking about changing careers? It's scary, but also can be the best thing you ever did. I know it has been for me. This book might help with the transition.
Rating:
Summary: A letdown. The author reveals his confusion, not answers
Review: With a title like "What Should I Do With My Life?" I was expecting clarity, not confusion. This was a waste of word. A bookstore manager recommended that I read "The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth am I here for?" instead. So I picked up Rick Warren's book and found the clarity I was looking for.
Rating:
Summary: An extraordinary book for those who are searching...
Review: Why give this book 5 stars? Because the message you receive is worth the read. There are some flaws, but not in the bottom line. On a lark, I picked this book up to see how this psychologist was going to answer such a huge question with their "12 steps to love, riches, and happiness", thinking of how sad it is to see people trivialize a question like Bronson's into a bumper-sticker philosophy. What a surprise NOT to find a psychologist with an agenda, but a writer with pluck that addresses a monstrous question. I have reservations about the term, "research", and as other reviewers have done, noted that much of the author's own life was used for example, or intruded on the telling of another's tale in the book - but in the end, I didn't feel that it lessened the bottom line of the book's missive. It will not give you answers, just tell you how others have faced this question and handled the results. Bronson's reflections on their stories and organization of the "lessons learned" were in my opinion apt and insightful. He is an intelligent author, and is deliberate in his conclusions. The value I received was that it gave me different ways of approaching the question that most career guidance books and programs fail to reach. I am in a transition in my life, and have been giving serious time and energy to what I want in my life. You can find answers in many places, but I have not found anything that has given me as much genuine counsel as this book has. It's cliché to say all the answers are inside yourself - and in the end they are - but seeing how others brought their answers out, can help you with yours. Notice that I said in my first paragraph that it is the message you receive, not the message Bronson is sending. If you're looking for what you should do with your life, this book is extraordinarily valuable.
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing
Review: To put it mildly this book awakened me in a way that has been dogmatic for over a decade. This book is not only the best inspirational guide out there, but it rivals being one of the best books I've read. A complementary book to this is Dreams gateway to the self by Ryan Belcher. It supports the view that all humans can achieve their lives' goals by conscious acknowledgement of their inner selves. In so doing, they become the person they've always wanted to be.
Rating: 
Summary: Why bother?
Review: Because it's "about the journey." Ok, that's rather trite, but Po seems very clear in telling you up front that not all of the people he interviewed have figured everything out. He's trying to provide a framework for *how* people solve this problem of what they want to do, he's not telling you how to specifically answer this yourself. Some reviewers seem unsatisfied that the book doesn't come to a strong conclusion...that's the point. Your life is different from my life, but there's wisdom in seeing how other people deal with these issues, the path they take, the questions they ask. More importantly, there's value in knowing that even if you don't change your life today, there are people out there struggling with the same issues you may face and I think Po's hope is that someday, somehow, you'll find a way to face these issues. The fact that many of the people he interviewed were white or semi-wealthy does wear a bit and perhaps that's why it's not a 5-star book, it'd be nice to hear a broader spectrum of voices.
Rating: 
Summary: Weak, watered down platitudes and navel-gazing...
Review: Having picked up the "First $20M is the Easiest" a few years ago, I thought Po had some talent, and it sure was fun (okay, sickening) reading about all those teenagers making gobs and gobs of money. At the time, I thought I too had a shot at zillions, so the book was a fun enough ride. I bought Bombardiers after that, and sure enough, this guy has a decent ear to the ground for fictionalizing the younger generation's quest for fame and riches. Mind you, Po is no Michael Lewis and he is definitely no Tom Wolfe - but he does a reasonably good job of tinging the actual reality of these eras with an entertaining, populist bent. However, this latest entry from Po shows that maybe he drank a little too much of his own Kool-Aid, in the dotcom parlance. In the book, Po chronicles a series of 30 and 40 something ex-dotcom managers, engineers, and other ex-technology industry folk and throws in a token minority or two so as not to come across as demographist. Then we proceed to get led through a series of short vignettes about their pre-tech lives, their post-tech lives, their innermost thoughts, their angst over avoiding death on 9/11 to not making millions from their stock options, blah, blah. Are you yawning, yet? Worse, between these vignettes, Po weaves little bits of dull ennui from his own life including his string of weird jobs before becoming the wealthy Silicon Valley, high-flying, caviar eating bon-vivant that we read about it in the glossy monthlies. He falls all over himself to assure us that he has real empathy with the people he chronicles, including weepy sessions. This book could have been a lot better if Po just let the people tell their own stories. Name each chapter after the person and let's hear their thoughts, their struggles. Also, widen your demographic; very few people in the world have the comfortability to fret over what industry or socially valuable career they will choose next. Po's at his best when he's riding the zeitgeist wave and can share the (irrational?) exuberance of whatever boomlet he happens to be following at the time. I would recommend to him that he avoid these gushy, puerile journal entries in the future. Much more accomplished writers have attempted the "Who am I?" schtick for many centuries with much more aplomb. Stick with what you do best, amigo.
Rating: 
Summary: Ummmmm, uh, ummmmm.... I Still Don't Know
Review: After slugging through all 400 pages of this Tome To Confusion and the 50 people's lives described in this book, I have come to the conclusion that my boring, overweight life in Smalltown, America ain't so bad. Beavis is beginning to look like a genius.
Rating:
Summary: deep and subtle disucssion of life purpose
Review: I found this book very insightful, subtle and deep. Highly recogmend it to anyone reflecting on their rightlivilyhood.
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