CHAPTER | FIVE
Three Principles for Developing Yourself
Once a serious musician, Peter Drucker studied music composition under Austrian composer Anton Webern. Drucker knew he was progressing pretty well, but he got carried away with his success and wanted to compose what are known as “variations” at the same level as his instructor. His teacher chided him. “Peter, it took a genius like Joseph Haydn thirty years to attain the skill level to try what you propose. You will never be a Haydn, yet you want to do this though you have been at it less than thirty days.”
After a year of work, Webern allowed Drucker to try a single, simple variation, cautioning him to be careful. Drucker proudly presented the product of his work. After examining the composition, Webern announced, “I was wrong…you aren't ready yet.”
“He was right,” remarked Drucker.1 However, he was good enough, even after this failure, to continue toward becoming a professional musician. As we know, though, Drucker took another track. It, too, involved failure at first.
Principle One: Expect Some Failure, but Keep at It
Drucker accurately predicted many of the major developments that took place over the course of his lifetime. These included the rise of healthcare management, the future of online education for executives, Japan's rise as an economic world power, the decisive importance of marketing and innovation for any business, the emergence of the knowledge worker, the financial challenges resulting from a major recession, and much more. Yet Drucker failed in his first major public prediction. And, boy, was it a big mistake! Two weeks before “Black Tuesday,” when the stock market plunged and the Great Depression began (October 29, 1929), Drucker wrote a newspaper column in which he predicted continual expansion of the stock market for the next decade.
Many Fail and Quit; A Few Try Again and Succeed
A would-be entrepreneur by the name of Rowland Macy tried valiantly to master the intricacies of founding and developing a retail store. He failed. He tried three more times, and each time he failed. It was not until his fifth attempt that he found success—great success. Today, Macy's and its affiliated stores have something like 180,000 employees and 800 stores in the United States alone.
Many others have experienced failures as they developed themselves into leaders:
- As a junior engineer at GE, Jack Welch, later named “Manager of the Century” by Fortune magazine, was almost fired. He had failed by mismanaging a project that blew the roof off a building.
- General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, the second Chief of Staff of the Air Force and one of its most outstanding World War II leaders, was almost dismissed from West Point for lack of leadership aptitude after his first year as a cadet.
- Warren Buffett is a wildly successful investor and industrialist who is consistently ranked as one of the wealthiest men in the world. His first independent investment was a Sinclair Texaco gas station. It went bankrupt.
Our Two Greatest Presidents Had Initial Failures
Ask people who our two greatest presidents were, and they will probably name our first and sixteenth presidents: George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Yet both were failures early on. George Washington began his military career as a young military officer by surrendering his first command during the French and Indian War. Twenty-five years later, he went on to win American independence as general-in-chief of the Continental Army, fighting for independence against the well-trained army of the major superpower of the day, Great Britain.
As a young man, Abraham Lincoln decided to get into politics. He ran for the Illinois General Assembly, with a number of advantages. He was a war hero, having served as a captain in the Blackhawk War; he was an amateur wrestler; and with an imposing stature of 6 feet 4 inches, it was said that he was tall and “strong enough to intimidate any rival.” His townspeople liked and respected him. Also, Lincoln thought he had a good chance because, in the Illinois system, the top four people on the ballot were all sent to the assembly. Despite all of this, when the votes were counted Lincoln ranked eighth out of fifteen candidates. This didn't stop him from eventually being elected president, saving the Union, and abolishing slavery.
These are just a few examples that verify Principle One. A failure does not necessarily mean the end of the road if you are seeking to develop yourself into anything, and certainly it's not the end of the road if you intend to become a leader.
Principle Two: Volunteer, Make Mistakes, and Learn
Drucker had a strong belief about what could be learned from volunteering. He even recommended that all paid employees in corporations be treated as if they were unpaid volunteers, who could leave whenever they wished. Although this is less true during a recession, the Los Angeles Times reported recently that some employees were voluntarily leaving their jobs owing to dissatisfaction, despite an unemployment rate (in California) exceeding 10 percent at the time.
The fact that there are so many unpaid, volunteer jobs available means that anyone who wants one of these experiences can find one. These can be leadership positions in which to gain experience and develop yourself as a leader. And such opportunities exist not just in volunteer organizations but also in almost every company. I've told the following story many times. I do it because it is important—and true.
Example: The Power of Persuasion
There was a company that conducted savings bond drives every year. No one wanted the job of persuading other employees to sign up for additional deductions from their paychecks, even though the goal was to build savings. Most “volunteers” accepted the job only under pressure, and none did very well convincing others to make the investments. Yet as any successful manager will tell you, persuasion is an important part of achieving success; no one can become successful without the help of others.
One year, things changed dramatically in the engineering department. Somebody must have forgotten to tell the young engineer who volunteered, because he tried really hard to find investors. He was inexperienced as a leader and he made lots of mistakes, but he convinced many engineers and managers in his department to buy or increase their investments in savings bonds.
Because of the new volunteer's efforts, this department did better in the bond drive than any other department in the company. The president of the company took note and asked who had run the bond drive. He remembered this young engineer's name, and began a series of promotions that eventually resulted in the young engineer becoming a vice president.
Principle Three: Never Stop Learning
A proponent of lifelong education, Drucker never stopped learning. Continuous learning began as a concept in the German military in the early nineteenth century, when technology was advancing so rapidly that its strategy and tactics could no longer keep pace. A onetime mastery of the basics of the military profession was no longer acceptable, so the Germans institutionalized continuing, constant learning. From Europe, this concept spread to the U.S. military; in the early twentieth century, it began to be adopted by U.S. corporations as well. Some individuals saw it as a personal responsibility.
Drucker promoted lifelong learning for both individuals and organizations. He was an outstanding example, maintaining a program of reading and mastery of various subjects, following a highly organized method of development. His commitment to this self-development program is reflected in his ability to both write and speak with authority on a number of subjects and to apply this broad knowledge to whatever project he chose to focus on.
Example: Learning to Lead
It doesn't take much imagination to outline for yourself a development plan of leadership using this methodology of lifelong learning. For example, you can develop a reading list of books on leadership and apply the concepts laid out in each. I established such a list, read the books, and implemented just such a plan when I was barely a teenager. This helped me develop at a time when I had met failure earlier, owing to bad health.
Reoccurring rheumatic fever curtailed all athletic development for me for several critical years, beginning when I was seven. I say “critical” because, for young boys, athletic abilities are prime selectors, as well as advantages, for peer leadership positions. Suddenly thrust into the unwanted job of leading a Boy Scout patrol of a dozen other boys when I was thirteen, I lacked confidence and had no idea how to proceed. So, I was determined not to fail again as I had in the past. I found a book entitled Handbook for Patrol Leaders, published by the Boy Scouts of America. I read and followed its advice. To my surprise, although I had encountered setbacks, the advice worked. Not only was I able to lead, but my “Flaming Arrow” patrol soon excelled and won a number of awards. A year later, I was picked to be the Senior Patrol Leader, supervising three patrols. A year or so after that, I was made Junior Assistant Scoutmaster, the highest position a Boy Scout who was still a teenager could hold.
I learned Drucker's management principles from his writings and from being his student. But my own experience taught me that, no matter where you are in your personal development, the learning never ends.
For success, follow these three Drucker principles:
- Expect some failure, but keep at it.
- Volunteer, make mistakes, and learn.
- Never stop learning.