I cannot believe I am reading the words, "I'll miss Mr. Drucker."
I'm speechless. Google News confirms that one of my heroes has passed away at age 95. (I've been outside the news loop again.)
I am supposed to be hosting the Third Age Carnival today. And I still am, but I may be a tad late even by Pacific Standard Time standards.
I'd like to offer a few hours in its stead for us to contemplate Peter Drucker and the lessons his life offers for us all.
Among many things, this is a man that defied the notion of aging and didn't much advocate re-tiring, oh I mean retiring:
Over the three-quarters-of-a-century long career, much of which he echoes through his life - he says executives should be ready for a career spanning three or four decades or that the career of individuals is getting to be longer than those of the companies they work for - he’s written 39 books, each a masterpiece. - "Drucker Can't Die", The Indian Express, November 14, 2005
Drucker was truly a generative leader (ala Erik Erikson's stages of life: "Generativity is an extension of love into the future. It is a concern for the next generation and all future generations.") The stunned obituary writer says, "But then, Drucker was so young, so vibrant, so full of new ideas. How could he age, leave alone die? ... I can say without batting an eyelid that even at 95, Drucker was the youngest business, management, societal and economic thinker alive. And the youngest futurist, even though he claimed not to be one."
Three out of four of my grandparents lived until their 90s. The last to go, my abuelita Yeya as we called her because her infant grandkids couldn't pronounce abuelita, was 92 years old. I guess that technically means that 'third age' may start at 60 for me. But not likely.
I don't know that Drucker knew a priori he'd make it to eight days shy of 96. A sense of can-get-run-over-by-bus-or-killer-wave mortality also keeps me from dawdling too much.
Besides urgency, a joie de vivre (yes, about business) seeps through Drucker's writing through and through. One of Drucker's secret for vitality? Curiosity. Passion.
“Every three or four years I pick a new subject. It may be Japanese art; it may be economics. Three years of study are by no means enough to master a subject, but they are enough to understand it. So for more than 60 years I have kept on studying one subject at a time. That not only has given me a substantial fund of knowledge, it has also forced me to be open to new disciplines and new approaches and new methods - for every one of the subjects I have studied makes different assumptions and employs a different methodology.” - Peter Drucker
When I wrote the essay for the More Space book the editor was going to cut out the Drucker quote buried in the prose. (She was right on just about everything else.) That's when I realized that Drucker's quote wasn't only not dispensible - it was in fact the framing quote. The one that catalyzes and kicks off the rest of Marketing: What's Love Got to Do With It.
The one that encompassed the essence of it all.
That's Drucker for you. Pure essence.
Yes, he will be missed.
p.s. This doesn't do Drucker justice, yet I wanted to write something now. This is the Drucker quote I start off the essay with:
Society needs a return to spiritual values—not to offset the material but to make it fully productive... Mankind needs the return to spiritual values, for it needs compassion. It needs the deep experience that the Thou and the I are one, which all higher religions share. - Peter Drucker
I open my journal and in the shock of this news, it consoles me to be reminded:
"I" and "you" focus light like decorative holes cut in a lampshade.
But there is only One Light. - Shabistari
Sir,
I need help as an MPhill student(pune univ., india). I am writing an essay of around 2500 words on Peter Druker.
Can you provide/email me some info for the sake of the knowledge goddess 'saraswati'?
Thankyou for your concern
Prof. Yogesh Wagh
Posted by: Yogesh Wagh | Oct 15, 2006 at 03:07 AM