The last couple of days, I have been reading a magnificent book, namely “Adventures of a bystander” by Peter F. Drucker (amazon) (publisher). The fame of Mr. Drucker is by no means unknown in the realm of management science but what is interesting in this work of art ,as I see it, is the meaning it brings to a quote from another scholar, Soren Kierkegaard.

Kierkegaard said “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

The problem with that sentence is that it is often too late to live when you finally understand life. Being an optimist I think most people understand what life “means” much sooner than their days of old but even then the lost time is lost forever. Let’s face it you are never 19 twice.

That is exactly my rationale in designating Drucker’s book as magnificent. Drucker was an influential man and much of his “influentiality”, he owed to knowing many many key figures from government officials to university professors to SS officers. Reading his book gives insight in how choosing one path in life over another affects the fate of that person. How it makes some thrive and others fail. That, in my opinion, is a must have but expensive knowledge.