Four alumni authors consider, then dismantle, the myths that govern how we choose our careers and that keep us stuck in unhealthy patterns from childhood to retirement.

Rajiv Shah M’02 GrW’05 heads the Rockefeller Foundation and has worked for the Gates Foundation and in government on critical issues in public health and international development. In his new book, Big Bets, he shows how embracing smart criticism—from Bill Gates, for one—and never settling for merely incremental change can pay off.