The Element

When I was a kid in school, the only "career" advice I ever got (from anybody who bothered to give it) was to be practical. Well, if I had a time machine and could go back twenty years to meet my younger self, I would give her a copy of this book and hope she would have enough trust in herself to find her element. (Chances are she wouldn't listen to me.) Too bad I didn't get to meet the older, wiser me, so now I have to do the damage control by finding my element twenty years late! At least I have learned something from the past twenty years: it's better late than never.

P.S. you will read many interesting stories in this book, but this one particularly struck me: to prevent their son from becoming a writer, Paulo Coelho's parents had him committed to a psychiatric institution repeatedly and subjected to electroshock therapy. Ain't I glad my mom hasn't heard of that story!