What Should I Do With My Life?

Bronson, Po

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099437996 ISBN 13: 9780099437994

Publisher: Vintage, 2004

Are you lost? Feeling aimless? Not sure which path you should be taking? This book tackles the terrifying question that most of us face at some point in our lives: 'what should I do with my life?', and provides illuminating answers.

Bronson's book is a fascinating account of finding and following the people who have taken the ultimate challenge of self-discovery by uprooting their lives and starting all over again. From the investment banker who gave it all up to become a catfish farmer in Mississippi, to the chemical engineer from Walthamstow who decided to become a lawyer in his sixties. These stories of individual dilemmas and dramatic - sometimes unsuccessful - gambles are bound up with Bronson's account of his own search for a calling.

'Inspirational... This book fascinates because of the broad spectrum of testimonies' Financial Times

'Something more than the usual self-help guff. What Should I Do with My Life? is closer to the oral histories of Studs Terkel or This American Life than to Tony Robbins' Times

Review:

Po Bronson wanted to find out what to do with his life so he started interviewing people who were asking the same question. He wound up writing an excellent self-help book, called, naturally enough, What Should I Do With My Life?, consisting almost entirely of questions instead of slick answers. Here are over 50 short real-life stories of people who woke up and realised that "this is not a dress rehearsal". They took the trouble to ask what life is for, where their real gifts lie and what they really want to do with their lives.

The result is as fascinating and messy as life itself. Some of the people come out on top. They chuck out the routine grind with its dead-end expectations and find out what they are good at, follow their dream and find happiness. Others continue the struggle. They wade through days of confusion. They fight against society's shallow solutions. They battle with their doubts and fears. They kick against the trite expectations of family, friends, employers and lovers to keep up the search for their Holy Grail. Bronson has written up the stories with compassion, insight and sensitivity. But the tales avoid the usual sentimental feel-good factor that seems to be a requisite for self-help books. Instead we're shown the truth that following the impossible dream always has a price. Bronson mixes his sensitivity with a certain gritty reality and ironically this realism inspires other questing heroes much more than yet more syrupy positive thinking. This is a fresh, spiky book; an excellent kick start for anyone who wants to confront life's big questions. --Dwight Longenecker

Review:

"Inspirational... This book fascinates because of the broad spectrum of testimonies" (Financial Times)

"Something more than the usual self-help guff. What Should I Do with My Life? is closer to the oral histories of Studs Terkel or This American Life than to Tony Robbins" (Time)

"The 'ultimate question' is a topic always in season, worthy of Bronson's skillful probing and careful anecdote selection. Brimming with stories of sacrifice, courage, commitment and, sometimes, failure, the book will support anyone pondering a major life choice or risk without force-feeding them pat solutions" (Publishers Weekly)

"A remarkable social document, raised to the level of literature by Bronson's own deep level of involvement, his candour and compassion-as a work of research, the book is wide-ranging and impressive" (Evening Standard)

"A superior self-help book... Very readable" (Guardian)