The Adventures of Johnny Bunko by Daniel Pink
09 May 2010
Billed as the last career guide you'll ever need, I picked this up mostly because it was written by the scarily insightful Daniel Pink, whose weightier tome, Drive I'm currently devouring for its insights into how we've been incentivizing motivation so incorrectly since the end of the industrial era.
First off, it's kinda great. It's written as a manga comic for its target audience (whom I'm assuming are either high school or college leavers) and about what you really need to do to be happy in what people have always traditionally called their career.
I really like it, because basically I think it tells a truism all of us have come to realize is true but that few people will fill you in on when you're actually trying to figure out things like what school you should do Uni at or which job you should be aiming at after you're done.
It breaks down to 6 principles, which I think are actually pretty astute. And good to keep top of mind at any point in your worklife, just not when you're starting out :
- There is no plan
- Think strengths, not weaknesses
- It's not about you
- Persistence trumps talent
- Make excellent mistakes
- Leave an imprint
They certainly ring true from my experience (and from me sort of where I am in that whole following my bliss ideal).
Definitely worth the pittance it'll take you to buy it and the hour it'll take to browse through and if you are unhappy at work, perhaps a really valuable thing for you to be reading.
And, of course, perhaps an interesting read for me to be looking at since I do feel a bit directionless (or perhaps just indecisive would be a better description) about what to do post-Amnesty.
Anyhow, along with O The Places You Will Go by Dr. Seuss, I think these are now my two main books to give to high school and college grads as they strike out into the world.