Executive Reading: January

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'What Should I Do With My Life'
by Po Bronson

Reviewed by Margaret Teichart and Oleg Kaganovich

January is the time for new resolutions and overdue reflections, so it seemed especially appropriate to read Po Bronson’s latest work, “What Should I Do With My Life?” A meaty question, to be sure.
    This book — part autobiography, part anthropology, and hopelessly misplaced in the “careers” section — is full of beautifully written stories of sacrifice, courage, commitment and, sometimes, failure. Ultimately, however, it left us with mixed feelings.
    Bronson is best known for his international best seller, “The Nudist on the Late Shift,” a chronicle of the strange but fascinating characters who inhabited the Silicon Valley in the 1990s.
    As those stories lost their nuance, Bronson asked himself the great question that became the title for this book, as well as some others, including the following: Is a career supposed to feel like a destiny? How do I tell the difference between a curiosity and a passion? Should I make money first, to fund my dream? If I have a child, will my frustration over my work go away? Should I accept my lot, make peace with my ambition and stop stressing out? Why do I feel guilty for thinking about this?
    This book isn’t about finding a job. It’s about 55 people (including the author) who have gone in search of greater meaning in their careers and arrived at wildly different conclusions. There’s a high-powered lawyer who decided to become a minister (initially rejected by the seminary for his “anger issues”). There’s a Harvard MBA who became a catfish farmer. There’s even a guy who received a letter from the Dalai Lama at age 17, informing him that he is “Za Rinpoche” — the Dharma King (though he currently lives in Phoenix, drives a beat-up truck and wears Hawaiian shirts). Then of course, there’s Bronson’s own story: He has been a busboy, cook, janitor, sports-medicine intern, bus-lift assembly-line technician, aerobics instructor, litigation consultant, greeting-card designer, bond salesman, political-newsletter editor, high school teacher, and of course, a writer.
Continued...

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