Career Advice Courtesy of Johnny Bunko

Daniel Pink (he of the remarkable RSA video on motivation) has written a manga career guide with art by Rob Ten Pas, and it’s very good. The protagonist, Johnny Bunko, is a creative type stuck in an accounting job he’s terrible at. Enter magic chopsticks and a kind of tough love career genie (to be played by Angelina Jolie in the film I bet). Johnny gets six work and life lessons. Good advice, engagingly delivered:

1. There is no plan.
2. Think strengths, not weaknesses.
3. It’s not about you.
4. Persistence trumps talent.
5. Make excellent mistakes.
6. Leave an imprint.

#5, an echo of Samuel Beckett’s line,

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.”