The Daily Drucker: 366 Days of Insight and Motivation for Getting the Right Things Done

by Peter F. Drucker

The person with the most responsibility for an individual’s development is the person himself—not the boss. The first priority for one’s own development is to strive for excellence. Workmanship counts, not just because it makes such a difference in the quality of the job done, but because it makes such a difference in the person doing the job. Expect the job to provide stimulus only if you work on your own self-renewal, only if you create the excitement, the challenge, the transformation that makes an old job enriching over and over again. The most effective road to self-renewal is to look for the unexpected success and run with it. The critical factor for success is accountability—holding yourself accountable. Everything else flows from that. The important thing is not that you have rank, but that you have responsibility. To be accountable, you must take the job seriously enough to recognize: I’ve got to grow up to the job. By focusing on accountability, people take a bigger view of themselves.