“What do you want to be remembered for?”
When I was thirteen I had an inspiring teacher of religion who one day went right through the class of boys asking each one, “What do you want to be remembered for?” None of us, of course, could give an answer. So, he chuckled and said, “I didn’t expect you to be able to answer it. But if you still can’t answer it by the time you’re fifty, you will have wasted your life.”
I’m always asking that question: “What do you want to be remembered for?” is question that induces you to renew yourself, because it pushes you to see yourself as different person – the person you can become. If you are fortunate, someone with moral authority will ask you that question early enough in your life so that you will continue to ask it as you go through life. It is question that induces you to renew yourself, because it pushes you to see yourself as different person – the person you can become.
ACTION POINT: What do you want to be remembered for?
Managing the Non-Profit Organisation
Extracted from Peter Drucker’s book The Daily Drucker.