Physicist and Washington native Douglas Osherhoff never really had much self-confidence, but his work earned him a Nobel Prize anyway.

Habitat for Humanity founder Millard Fuller was once obsessed with being rich but found his true mission after he decided to give away his fortune.

And former Clinton cabinet member Donna Shalala originally wanted to be on the other side of the table, reporting the news rather than making it.

If these great achievers can find their career groove and realize their calling in life, surely there's hope for the rest of us. That's the underlying message of Peter Han's new book, "Nobodies to Somebodies: How 100 Great Careers Got Their Start" (Portfolio, $22.95).

The book distills interviews Han conducted with 100 leaders from Fortune 500 companies, politics, science, the arts and letters, as well as nonprofits. Among them are local dignitaries such as former Gov. Gary Locke, former U.S. Rep. Jennifer Dunn and former Sen. Slade Gorton.

Han, a 31-year-old Microsoft licensing and pricing supervisor who lives in Seattle, said he wrote his first book in response to his growing sense that there was more to life than finding a good job, making money and sitting pretty, and that even those common markers of success required certain traits and habits.

"I definitely wrote it for all of my friends looking around for the meaning of life," Han says. "I was really interested in what people who've made that journey have to share with young people."

Interestingly, many of the subjects Han interviewed endured the self-doubt, rejection and false starts that can litter anyone's rise to the top. Random encounters, risky career switches and physically changing your environment can be just as pivotal as having good mentors, handing out business cards and following a strict life plan.

Actor John Lithgow couldn't find work as an actor in New York City when he started out, so he accepted an associate art director position in Baltimore. Then two weeks after taking the job, he got an acting offer from a New York theater company and guiltily decided to scrap his Baltimore plans. Less than a year later, Lithgow won a Tony Award for "The Changing Room," just three weeks into his Broadway debut.

As Nobel-winning physiologist John Sulston put it: "Science is a random walk, and I guess most things that are worth doing are the same — the point is that the future is unpredictable, and should be approached with passion rather than career-minded worry."

Gorton, for example, picked Seattle out of an atlas when the Illinois native and Columbia Law grad decided to practice law in the city.

Sometimes, the book suggests, your values — not just your job or your home base — need to change.

Fuller, of Habitat for Humanity, had been so obsessed with money that he used to estimate how much he made each minute of the day in his diary. But he told Han that his spirituality and his marriage suffered because of that fixation. As he thought about how to save his marriage, Fuller had an epiphany.

"The decision was made one night in a taxicab. I just had this revelation to give our money away," Fuller says in the book.

In the past three decades, Fuller has donated much of his fortune to charity and his organization has built homes for more than 180,000 people.

"I think some people do miss their calling!" Fuller tells Han. "And as a consequence, they go through their lives like Thoreau said, 'leading lives of quiet desperation.' Because if you miss your calling in life, you're never really totally happy."

Early life experiences shaped other subjects in the book. Sierra Club President Larry Fahn remembers witnessing oil spills on the coastline around Santa Barbara, Calif., as a kid, and he knew even then he'd work in conservation.

Former Health and Human Services Secretary Shalala finished two years in the Peace Corps and wanted to get a job as a journalist. "I couldn't get a job," she says. "The New York Times wasn't hiring. ... So I started out being an academic."

But the diversity and unpredictability of the subjects' experiences in Han's book beg the question: How do these great achievers know they're currently doing their life's most meaningful work?

Seattle native and Delta Airlines CEO Gerald Grinstein, for example, is presently struggling to steer his airline clear of potential bankruptcy. Was he better suited to his previous incarnation as a big-time Seattle attorney?

Two of Han's role models are maverick CNN founder Ted Turner and former president George H.W. Bush, whose diverse background as a Navy pilot, businessman, diplomat, sportsman and leader of the free world has inspired Han.

"The independence of spirit, the well-roundedness, those are things I look up to," Han says.

Han, who grew up in Houston, describes himself as a Type-A personality ("I was president or vice president of six clubs!") who earned straight-As in high school and attended a Grade-A college, Harvard.

In short, Han was very likely to succeed. And he did.

Han was helping start high-tech ventures in Seattle while still in his 20s.

Since moving to Seattle seven years ago, he also has become fascinated with triathletes. Han's wife, Meredith FitzGerald Han, is an experienced long-distance runner and has competed in triathlons herself.

Han is currently at work on a documentary profiling four triathletes as they compete around the world, called "What It Takes," which is due out early next year.

He considers both the book and documentary projects "portraits of excellence," excellence being a pursuit unto itself in his world.

"It's a curiosity about what makes these people tick," Han says. Han's wife said he barely sleeps, and she's given up trying to figure out what makes him tick, how he manages to coordinate a day job at Microsoft and all the outside work.

Han says he isn't sure either, but he knows where he stands on the path to becoming a big shot.

"I'm a long way from the people in my book," Han says with a laugh. "I'm an eager nobody trying to become somebody."

Tyrone Beason: 206-464-2251 or tbeason@seattletimes.com