Leap ISBN: 9780804140768
Length: 7 hours 12 minutes
by
Tess Vigeland Format: Audio Published by Potter/Ten Speed/Harmony/Rodale on August 25, 2015
Genres: Business & Economics,
Motivational,
Self-Help,
Personal Growth,
Success,
Careers,
Job Hunting Pages: 256
Source: library Goodreads 
Until recently, Tess Vigeland was a longtime host with Public Radio's Marketplace; it was a rewarding, high-status job, and Tess was very good at it—but she'd begun to feel restless. Without any definite, clear sense of what she wanted to do next (but an absolute certainty that what she'd been doing was no longer truly satisfying), she walked away from her dream job and into a vast unknown. Suddenly she was no longer “Marketplace’s Tess Vigeland,” she was just Tess Vigeland.
For the multitude of Americans who change jobs mid-career (by choice or circumstance), the growing legions of freelance workers, and the entrepreneurially-minded who see self-employment as an increasingly more appealing and viable option, Tess Vigeland has created a personal and well-researched account of leaping without a net. With her signature humor, she writes honestly about the fear, uncertainty, and risk involved in leaving the traditional workforce—but also the excitement, resources, and possibilities that are on the other side. Part memoir and part field guide, this book offers a funny, thoughtful, and provocative look at how to find happiness, satisfaction, and success when pursuing a career less ordinary.
I have to be honest..the whole time that I was reading this I kept thinking to myself “wow this lady is FULL of white privilege”. The whole reason that I wanted to read this book was that the title led me to believe how to get back up on your feet after you lost your job. I was not looking for a memoir that day but alas… I was hoping to find some tips on dealing with me Schizoaffective disorder that would allow me to feel that I am not behind in life but rather I can still embrace this life and be happy! That was NOT what the book was about at all.
The story would have felt more authentic if Tess Vigeland had not been…so privileged. I mean sure there are plenty of poor white people who would LOVE to quit their jobs but kids are expensive. Then there are single mothers. I could name all off a whole category of women who would do anything to quit their job. I live in
Hillbilly Elegy country so I have seen what effects wretched poverty brings. I even though I was born and raised here I will be the first to tell you that I have a lot of privileges. For example, many people would love to go to college but they lack the appropriate amount of funds and to be honest, so did I but I received a full scholarship so in the fall of 1998 I left the area not to return here to live until 2 years ago. I am also privileged in the fact that my family HAD truck/car to put all my stuff in and there were able to help me move. Suppose I had not had that advantage?? I may have ended up pregnant and/or worse. I know this for sure, I couldn’t figure why people my age looked so worn down then it hit me that poverty, true poverty is a hard master. It will grind you down until you are begging for a way out. And if you have no money no car and only a trailer that has been condemned then the only way out is death. Poor people often do not HAVE the luxury of saying fuck this shit, fuck this job I quit! And Tess Vigeland did just that and she had a man to catch her ( don’t look at me like that she DID)so now she piddles around trying to figure out what the fuck to do now.
I was telling some of my friends about the book and how the whole oh I hate my job imma gonna quit and then I will figure something out” and how Tess Vigeland just up and because of all the privileges she COULD.
to be honest by the time my turn came up for the library audiobook I had forgotten that I had placed this audiobook on hold. You may judge me but by the title and the look of the book, it brought to mind quitting a dream job to lead a more fulfilled and authentic life.
Don’t get me wrong. I am sure that Tess Veigland and other women in the same boat feel as if their world is coming apart and it is. It would just have been more authentic had Tess Veigland had recognized and admitted that she was privileged enough to “leap” from a nice steady job into the vast unknown.
