A Class with Drucker - Headway | Work on yourself

70 ■ A CLASS WITH DRUCKER
over. Two young women, one brandishing a rifle, were still arguing loudly,
but both were in the process of leaving the store. I followed. Outside, I saw
a police vehicle screech to a stop and an officer approach the women. The
one <strong>with</strong> the rifle put the weapon down in the driveway. I watched only
long enough to see another police vehicle arrive and the women were hustled
off. It was all over.
However, my distraction meant that now my time was short. I ran back
in, grabbed a candy bar, paid for it, and left the store. I arrived in the classroom
a little out of breath, <strong>with</strong>out a minute to spare, still munching on the
candy. I was just enough on time to claim my preferred front row seat, next
to a classmate, Giff Miller. Giff, then in his mid-fifties, was the oldest student
in the executive doctoral program. In “real life,” Giff was the much
respected City Manager of the City of Orange, California, a town of approximately
100,000 about thirty miles southeast of Los Angeles.
I told Giff about the incident <strong>with</strong> the two women. “I thought Claremont
was supposed to be a quiet, laid-back college town,” I said.
“Well, Orange has a low crime rate like Claremont, but still these things
happen. You really don’t want to get involved in confrontations like that,”
he added. “You need to stay out of it and let the professionals do their job.”
“Well, I might have been needed,” I said, unwilling to admit I had perhaps
acted rashly, even stupidly, by rushing into something about which I
knew nothing.
Enter Peter <strong>Drucker</strong>
At that point, Peter entered the room. Contrary to his usual procedure, he
was carrying a large stack of papers. It wasn’t a test. Peter never gave tests.
It was some kind of handout. Giff and I rushed over to help him. I guess
he heard the tail end of our conversation. Because he said, “Bill, unless you
have previously prepared yourself to handle situations which have the
potential for danger, you should leave their resolution to the experts,
except if there is absolutely no alternative.”
I didn’t respond, but I wanted to say, “Hey, I’m a military guy, I’ve been
in combat.” However, I knew that saying anything would demonstrate a
further lack of judgment, so I wisely, and perhaps uncharacteristically,
kept quiet.
Peter, <strong>with</strong> help from Giff, myself, and a couple of other students, distributed
his handouts. They were in packets of six. Each was titled “Case 1,”