Johnny Bunko Breakfast

UPDATE: We got mentioned on the Johnny Bunko AND Dan Pink Blogs.

Charlie introduced me to the amazing book Whole New Mind by Dan Pink last year; I regularly give a lecture about it in my Intro to Account Planning class. When I learned that Dan Pink was creating a career-advice manga, I got pretty excited (being into this manga thing.) I pre-ordered Johnny Bunko and read it within hours of getting it. I really loved it and found that I very much agreed with its message. I shared it to Sam, who read it in the back of the car one drive to a hiking destination. Imagine that ... an 11 year old enjoying a career guide.



Anyway, I became a fan on Facebook and that eventually led to me being asked to host a Johnny Bunko Breakfast. So, I turned one of my Account Planning 2 classes into a Johnny Bunko Breakfast (but at noon and with chips). I handed out the chopsticks to the class. Each one had one of the 6 lessons on it. I encouraged the students to come back the following week and tell a personal story related to the lessons. We would vote on the best stories from each lesson and award the winners a copy of the book (winners are bolded.)

The results were wonderful! We shared for the full 3 hours.
Lesson 1 - "There is no plan" was most popular
1. Megan told us about the fallibility of planning to sneak lollipops with her brother.
2. Cecilia related the impulse to join the wrestling team as the only girl.
3. Jin explained how he came to and explored California with no plan beyond "where to next?"
4. Susanne explained her shifting life plan to getting to AAU.
5. Evgenia took us from a math school in Russia through a girls school in middle of nowhere Australia to Academy of Art in San Francisco.
6. Cassie explained how hot guys at a snow shop led to San Francisco.

Lesson 2 - "Think strengths, not weaknesses" had two stories.
1. Rachel - used her rambling not as a weaknesses, but a chance to avoid a random act of violence and crime.
2. Megi - gave a heart-wrenching story of spoiled discipline in Singapore that led to wandering into San Francisco.

Lesson 3 - "It's not about you." One and only.
1. Crystal - Her selfishly picture-perfect planned anniversary party shifted with the perfect picture of her darling grandparents' eternal love.

Lesson 4 - "Persistence trumps talent." 4 people did 4.
1. Wona - came from Korea and was going to learn this language and culture, even if it was Oklahoma!
2. Phoebe - made cream puffs, twice for her basketball star ... turns out there is nothing "cream puff" about making cream puffs.
3. Ilma - related how her fashion designer cousin "made it."
4. Sung Joon - unstoppable swimming to unstoppable water polo to Art School?

Lesson 5 - "Make excellent mistakes." A tie! (Similar theme, completely different stories though.)
1. Rob - Problems at school leads to a realization of true inner path (Steamy pool time.)
2. Paris - Problems at school leads to a realization of true inner path (I thought I said Photography?)

Lesson 6 - "Leave an imprint." One and only again.
1. Virginia - Her scar is a reminder of the unique personal imprint she can add to the world.



The stories were amazing and showed that as guiding principles in life and career, they can lead to significant understanding and personal success. We are going to try and practice these lessons more often. I hope to be able to run this exercise every semester, it was a wonderful experience.



Now, can I/we come up with the 7th lesson? Thanks Dan and Jeremy for the books and chopsticks.