Nick Lowe, interviewed on the PBS News Hour last night:
“Johnny Cash once said to me, incredibly disappointingly, I thought at the time, ‘Nick, what you have got to do is figure out how to be yourself.’A related post
“I didn’t really know what he meant. I thought, ‘Is that the best you can do, John?’ But actually, now I do. Because when you’re young, you’re trying to sort of cop an act, you’re trying to be — always trying to be somebody that you’re not. And you’ve got to sort of welcome in the things that you don’t really like about yourself, you know, but welcome it in. Because if you can figure out how to be yourself, it makes things so much easier.”
W.H. Auden on discovering who we are (With special guest Mr. Peabody) : Peter Drucker on where one belongs (With special guest Norman Spencer)
[My transcription. I had “what you ought to do,” but now I think “what you have got to do,” spoken very quickly, is right.]
comments: 3
As you say in the link, Drucker was a teacher. William Cohen wrote "A Class With Drucker" about how Drucker taught. In his lectures, not his books, Drucker wouldn't start with the thesis, exactly; I believe he started with a question, talked at length, got around to the question again, and by then and his talk by then had answered it.
Merely to get his academic credentials, Drucker got a degree in law—but he never practised for a single day.
I get a kick out of reading Drucker because his clear writing clears my head. I have his memoirs, that I won't lend to anyone, "Confessions of a Bystander," that is largely about the other famous people that Drucker knew. Hence "bystander."
The other day, I was talking to some much younger folks about Tooter Turtle. Mr. Wizard ended every episode with this advice, "Be just what you is, not what you is not. Folks who what is have the happiest lot". Tooter can be found on YouTube these days.
Drucker’s well worth reading. His 20:1 ratio for highest and lowest pay in an organization should embarrass every American college and corporation.
I don’t recognize the name Tooter Turtle, but I recognize his appearance and voice. I must have seen him on TV in my very early youth. Here are versions of the opening and closing bits:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feOcMNOo4YU
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