Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Flawed but important
Questioning his own life, author Po Bronson set out to learn how others made tough career decisions -- and lived with them.
He says he talked to nine hundred people, seventy or so in detail, and he includes the stories of fifty or so career-changers in his book.Bronson does not offer a systematic study or a self-help book. That's important to get out of the way. As other reviewers have observed, you won't find plans or guidance for your own career move. Instead, Bronson offers a jumble of anecdotes, unsystematic and uneven -- just the sort of stories I hear every day as a career coach. People seek new adventures. They weigh the cost (and there always is a cost). Sometimes they decide the cost is too high and they back down. Sometimes they leap and experience disappointment. And sometimes they leap and find themselves soaring. Career-changers are hungry for guidance. Bronson's interviewees often sought his approval -- and his advice. He insists that he's not a career counselor but they asked anyway. This quest for help is typical during any life transition and underscores the need to be cautious about seeking help from whoever happens to show up. And of course this overlap of roles can be viewed as a flaw in the book. Bronson admits lapsing from the journalist role. He gets so involved with his interviewees that the story becomes a quest, a journey-across-the-country story rather than an analysis of career choices. Bronson includes his own story, told in pieces throughout the book. This feature seemed to interrupt the flow: if the author tells his own story, we should be led to anticipate autobiography. Despite these flaws, Bronson comes up with some sound insights into career change. He observes that people avoid change because of the accompanying loss of identity. They hang back "because they don't want to be the kind of person who abandons friends and takes up with a new crowd," precisely what you have to do following a life transition. And he follows up with a warning of solitude that also accompanies any life change. "Get used to being alone," he advises, yet many people fear being alone more than they fear being stuck in a job they hate. WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH MY LIFE offers questions, not answers. It's like attending a giant networking event. You have to sort through the stories on your own. Despite these flaws, I will recommend this book to my clients and to other career coaches. Career change, like any change, is messy. You rarely get to move in a straight line and you always experience pain and loss. And every move is a roll of the dice: a coach can help, but there are no guarantees.
Each story in this book is unique and your own will be too. You, the career changer, must put together your own mosaic and find pattern and meaning on your own.
Rating: - what I'd do if I had the time
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?
Rating: - The answers to your questions can only come from with-in.
I find it interesting that many of the people who posted negative reviews of this book did so because they claim the book failed to give them the "answers" and/or "inspiration" that they were looking for. What they fail to consider is that they may have misunderstood the purpose of this book from the get-go. The book, in my opinion, is meant to be a sociological study of how random individuals struggle with the question of "What should I do with my life." I don't believe it was meant to be a self-help instruction manual or a "Chicken Soup for the Soul" type compilation of motivational memoirs.
Mr. Bronson quite clearly states that the purpose of his book is "to raise our awareness of the process by which some people have struggled with the choice and figured out their life" and "to tune our ears to the nuances, and recognize shades of ourselves in the stories, so we can be more aware on our own journey." I believe the author has succeeded on both points.
There are plenty of books out there that are meant to inspire through the telling of success stories - this book was not meant to be one of them.
Sometimes it's much more helpful to recognize the mistakes that we make in our own lives when we see those same mistakes being made by others.
The point that this book is trying to make is the very point that most of the negative posters here have failed to grasp; namely that you will not find the answers you're searching for in a book, and you won't find them by attempting to emulate the success of others. The answer to the question "What should I do with my life" can only be found within yourself.
By sharing the stories of others who struggle with that same question, Po Bronson has succeeded in removing some of the feelings of isolation that those of us "in flux" feel.
That in itself is makes this book a worthwhile read despite the so-so writing that others have mentioned.
If you're looking for answers, look in the mirror.
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