Johnny Bunko: The Last Career

In today’s society, college students are often told that we need to focus on pursuing careers that offer financial security rather than pursuing a career the we love. In the graphic novel “Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need”, author Daniel Pink challenges this idea. Rather than trying to pursue a career because it makes money, the author uses characters such as Johnny’s coach, Dianne to tell us otherwise, providing six elements that will ensure you great success.
Upon graduating high school, several parents, professors, and advisors tell students they need to “stick to the plan.” The whole concept of the plan focuses on selecting majors that provide a wide range of career options instead of choosing majors that sound interesting and have potential to makes us feel passionate about our work. In the novel, however, Diane puts this

idea to bed by saying “there is no plan.” The unpredictability of life makes developing a plan difficult because you never know what variable might change your future. Instead of developing a plan, Diane suggests focusing on your interests. Next, Diane addresses the second concept: focus on your strengths, not your weaknesses. The reason some people succeed over others, is based on the idea of utilizing their strengths rather than attempting to develop their weaknesses.

By capitalizing on your strengths, you shift your focus on what makes you good at a certain skill and can use these to further yourself in success. Following this lesson, the third idea presented introduces the idea that “It’s not about you.” When you first think about this, it appears contradictory. If we focus on making our own plan and mastering our strengths to achieve success, shouldn’t success be for an individual? While the notion does appear odd, the idea becomes more clear once explained. Your purpose on the Earth is to make a difference and to better the people around you. We achieve success by improving the chance of opportunity to others. While it first appears as though success is individual, it actually dives deeper. The fourth lesson presented “persistence trumps talent” is essential for college students. We might not be as good at our passions as another individual in our field who is born with the talent. However, through persistence, we achieve success because we focus more on what we want to do to make ourselves successful. The fifth idea is

“make excellent mistakes.” Sometimes our ideas do not quite measure up to another’s standards, however that does not mean we failed. The novel suggests that mistakes occur, but if you accept that quickly and attempt to see where you messed up, they become successful. The final piece of advice in the novel relates closely with the third lesson it being “make an imprint.” Similar to the third by recognizing you work for something greater than yourself, you will quickly achieve success.