A Class with Drucker - Headway | Work on yourself

80 ■ A CLASS WITH DRUCKER
totally new. Just remember why you are doing this. Don’t expect to start at
the same level of expertise you hold in the area of your profession.
READ DAILY
The first supporting element for becoming a strategic thinker is based on
extensive reading outside the general area of your primary expertise. I
would recommend that you develop the habit of daily reading. I’ll have
more to say about what Peter did along these lines in a later chapter on
self-development.
Of course, the big problem for most of us is to find the time to read
each day. It doesn’t have to be a very long time period. Thirty minutes is
sufficient. If you set aside only thirty minutes for this special type of reading
and do it every day, say, first thing when you first wake up in the morning,
or the last thing right before you go to sleep in the evening, that’s
182.5 hours a year. Or bump it up to an hour and take the hour away from
watching television. Either 182.5 or 365 hours a year is impressive. That’s
a lot of reading.
If you do this already, keep it up. However, this should not only be
reading general management and professional books in business outside of
your specialty. Also read general-interest books in history, politics, economics,
social issues, etc., and even fiction. Don’t just read words, but
engage <strong>with</strong> the author actively. If you disagree <strong>with</strong> the author’s “facts” or
reasoning, that is so much the better. Think it through and refute the
author as if he or she were right there <strong>with</strong> you.
There was a time when professionals completed their basic education,
and then bragged about not having read a book since. That time has long
passed. Today, you not only must read extensively in your own field to
reach the top and to be successful, but you also need to read extensively
in other fields as well.
START WRITING
For the final element, become a writer. Writing may be challenging to
some at first. But short of face-to-face interaction <strong>with</strong> others on these
issues, it is the only way I know to really engage in the complex problems
<strong>with</strong> which the strategic leaders will be faced.
What are you going to write about? Anything you want. Take as a
subject material from one of the books you have read. You already
thought about the issue when you read the material and engaged <strong>with</strong> the