What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20 by Tina Seelig

In April, we discussed Lisa's bookclub pick, What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20: A Crash Course on Making Your Place in the World by Tina Seelig.  Seelig is a professor at Stanford, which is how Lisa knew of her.  The book covered topics such as how to train your eye to see opportunity, how to choose an occupation (yes, do something that you are passionate about, but don't forget that you have to support yourself), and how to embrace and learn from failure including the idea of creating a failure resume (and many other topics).

We enjoyed reading the book and generally agreed that the advice was sound. For example, the person sitting next to you on an airplane might just be the next great contact for your career and/or personal life, so don't be shy. However, some had to admit that the perspective of the book was one of privilege. For example, Seelig taught a course at Stanford and gave students an assignment to make as much money has they could in a few days. The assignment was intended to encourage students to think like an entrepreneur. Some kids simply held up a sign at a mall that advertised Stanford students for hire. The students received an overwhelmingly positive response, but it's hard to imagine a similar response had the students NOT been from Stanford. Also, some questioned whether or not someone who was actually 20 would want to read the book and take the advice - we seemed to recall not wanting to be lectured at that age and needing to find our own way and make our own mistakes. This led to an interesting discussion of early decisions and what influenced us to make them (for example how peers affected choices).

Lisa presented us with a delicious spread of food. As you can see from the picture, Liz joined us virtually.  But wait ... who is not in this picture? What? Can it be that Cathy Pearl missed a bookclub?  Why yes, she was out having a delightful time with her family in DC.  We missed you, Cathy.