Categories: Articles

Dan Pink Shifts From Business Books To Manga

Daniel H. Pink is no stranger to the Six Pixels of Separation – The Twist Image Blog space. As the author of two best-selling business books, Free Agent Nation and A Whole New Mind, Pink’s books always look at future trends with a very current perspective. Leave it to Dan to change it up for his latest book, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko – The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need. In 2007, Dan won a Japan Society Media Fellowship and headed to Tokyo to study the comic book craze that is Manga. The result was not only an excellent cover story for Wired Magazine a few issues back, but the first-ever American business book done in the Japanese comic format of manga… and it’s pretty cool.

Just yesterday, I was strolling through Indigo to grab a copy of the well-talked about book, The Big Switch – Rewiring The World, From Edison To Google, by Nicholas Carr (the dude who wrote, Does IT Matter?) when Pink’s latest, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, caught my eye. I flipped through it, looked at the fifteen dollar price tag and said, "I owe it to Dan to check this out." On top of that, I can’t tell you how many times I rifled through the comic book store (warning: nerd alert) eyeing the stacks and rows of manga and wondering, "even if I wanted to start reading manga, where should I begin?"

Dan provides the solution.

I love books. I podcast about books (Foreword Thinking – The Business And Motivational Book Review Podcast). I’m a fan of comic books. I’m a fan of Dan Pink’s.

On top of all of that, here’s how Dan’s Blog describes the book:

"The 6 career secrets no one ever told you.

Meet Johnny Bunko. He’s probably a lot like you. He did what everybody – parents, teachers, counselors — told him to do. But now, stuck at a dead-end job, he’s begun to suspect that what he thought he knew is just plain wrong. One bizarre night, Johnny meets Diana, the unlikeliest career advisor he’s ever seen. Part Cameron Diaz, part Barbara Eden, she reveals to Johnny the six essential lessons for thriving in the world of work

The Adventures of Johnny Bunko is America’s first business book in the Japanese comic format known as manga – and the last career guide you’ll ever need."

They even made a YouTube trailer for the book: YouTube – Johnny Bunko Trailer.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.