The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need

The Adventures of Johnny Bunko

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Lesson 1: There is No Plan

• It’s nice to believe that you can map out every step ahead of time and end up where you want, but that’s a fantasy. The world changes. Ten years from now your industry might not even exist.
• You do something for Instrumental (investment banking pays the bill) or Fundamental (comic artist is so cool) reason.

Lesson 2: Think strengths, not weaknesses

• Successful people don’t try too hard to improve what they’re bad at, they capitalize on what they’re good at.

Lesson 3: It’s not about you

• The most successful people improve their own lives by improving others’ lives.
• The most valuable people in any job bring out the best in others. They make their boss look good. They help their teammates succeed. They help their customer solve its problem.

Lesson 4: Persistence trumps talent 

• What do Musicians and Atheletes do that others don't? They show up, they practice and practice and some more.
• What's the most powerful force in the universe? Compound Interest - it builds on itself.
• The more intrisic motivation (doing things not for reward, but because you simply like doing it) you have, the more you persist, the more likely you succeed.

Lesson 5: Make excellent mistakes

• Too many people spend their time avoiding mistakes. They’re so concerned about being wrong that they never try anything.  Their focus is avoiding failure. The most successful people make spectacular mistakes. They’re trying to do something big. But each time they make a mistake, they get a little better and move a little closer to excellence.
• Make mistakes seems , but it's more risky not to.
• It's about excellent mistakes (try something no one else had done before), not stupid one (barge into something unprepared)
• bunko - to make a mistake from which the benifits of what you've learned exceed the costs of the screw-up

Lesson 6: Leave an imprint

• Did I make a difference? Did I contribute something? Did my being here matter? Many people get towards the end of their lives and don't like their answers, and by then it's almost too late.
• Think about your purpose, to recognize that your life isn't infinite, and that you should use our limited time here to do something that matters
• Those other five lessons are crucial, but truly successful people deploy them in service of something larger than themselves: they leave their companies, their communities, their families a little better than before.