Career and Job Advice in a Manga! Thanks Dan!

When I was a kid, I loved reading comic books like Spiderman and the Xmen. In fact, my dream was to one day move to New York City to create and illustrate stories for Marvel Comics. That hasn't happened yet but my point is that I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the medium.

So imagine my surprise, and delight, when I came across Dan Pink's The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, a Japanese manga, which builds on some of the concepts espoused in his earlier book, A Whole New Mind, and which manages to proffer some very useful and pithy career advice.



Here's the premise: Johnny Bunko is a pretty good (albeit somewhat dense) kid fresh out of school who is now suffering in his cubicle at the Boggs Corporation. He works on endless reports and excel spreadsheets for a depostic and clueless boss.

Johnny is desperate, and in pain, because he's toiling for long hours working on things he doesn't particularly like or isn't particularly good at. What ensues is a playful tale involving magical chopsticks, a genie slash career counselor, and 6 valuable lessons no one ever bothered to teach Johnny (or any of us, for that matter).

Cool stuff indeed!

I believe that Dan Pink has become a must-read author like Seth Godin and Chris Anderson. When these thought-leaders have something to say, you better believe that I'm ALL ears. I buy everything they produce, no questions asked.

And I love that Pink seems to be fully incorporating the ideas that he explored in a Whole New Mind (which I will tackle in a forthcoming post). He's tapping into his creative and artistic side and has produced a unique work in the vein of past books like Eliyahu Goldratt's The Goal and Kenneth Blanchard's Who Moved My Cheese. These books not only tackled meaty business issues but did so with creativity and panache.

I recommend you read Johnny Bunko for yourself and then pass it on to a high schooler near you.

And on a related note, we should all try to be a little more creative and artistic at work. We're all born artists afterall, and while we can't all work at Marvel Comics, you have creativity and art in you that can enhance your place of work or your business.

Dan Pink's teaching us not to be afraid to work with the right side of our brain. It's a lesson worth taking to heart.