A Message to Garcia

I first read this book as a young Marine and I must admit that it took a few years for this seed to take root. Fast forward to me being the father of a teenage son and this book is priceless. A perfect gift for that young person in your life that is approaching young adulthood and needs to understand the importance of being reliable and being viewed as reliable.

The father of a close friend suggested I read this book before I went into the Army. Glad I did - helped me through boot camp. Teaches you to understand how orders and individuality can come together to accomplish your mission. If you know of someone going into the military this would be a great book for them to read before going in.

Hubbard did a fantastic job of succinctly describing the two opposite views of work. Those who make it happen, and those who use excuses and questions to drag their feet to not work or try.

 

A great view into late 1800s and how people don't really change. There are those who want to work, and those who don't in every era. It's so easy to make excuses for not succeeding, the easiest being shifting the blame onto others, usually their previous or current boss. Sometimes the boss is at fault, but oftentimes it's the person themselves. Laziness, Netflix, no goals, inability to focus, no work ethic and assumption that money just comes easier for other people all come together to ruin performance at work. Success isn't always a huge amount of money, and your name plastered everywhere. It can be just being smart with money, taking all opportunities that come your way, making goals and listening to those you work for.

 

A message to Garcia should be seen as a jolt to it's reader. It causes the reader to look at themselves and see which category they fit in; those who work and succeed, and those who can't get out of their own way to move forward.

Read this because my second Naval Academy son had a detailer who bombarded their company with this message this summer. It is a fun little story about not asking too many questions of your superiors but simply figuring it out once you are given a task to do. "Message to Garcia" is code for 'figure' it out for yourself. The story is about a soldier Rowan in the Cuban war, who needs to get a message to General Garcia on Cuba. Yet, the story is less about how he actually does so, and more an early 20th century moralizing op ed about how few enough people have the initiative to figure things out on their own. As a curiosity piece, it is priceless.

This little pamphlet is supposed to teach character. In this short essay, a courier is sent to deliver a message to General Garcia, and he just does, without experiencing any moral qualms or personality conflicts, overcoming any and all obstacles in the way. It tells its story in only a couple of pages and spends the rest of its short length explaining virtues and messages that are unjustly ignored in this modern age.

 

There are many ways to critique this volume. It perhaps chose the wrong war, the wrong time in history, and it might be an excuse to say that management is more important than employees. However, I greatly appreciate this pamphlet for its historical significance and its greater message, which is still relevant today. It is less inspirational self-help than a shock to some poisonous views my modern mind had internalized. This piece of flash fiction deserves to be remembered more than it is.

A must-read. Interesting to learn that this pamphlet was circulated amongst soldiers on the front lines in the Russian military, and later the Japanese military, around the Russo-Japanese War.

 

The underlying message is that men need a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to "be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies; do things," using Officer Andrew Rowan as the exemplar. This is unfortunately not the average man, who has "the inability or unwillingness to concentrate on a thing and do it... [an] incapacity for independent action." A man who does what they are told—no more and no less—is hard to find. A Message to Garcia says as much, while also calling readers to become that man.

Having worked for minimum wage, I have gotten to know pretty well the mentality of many stuck in such occupations. Everything is always someone's fault, whether it be management or other coworkers, and heaven and earth are moved to justify their own mediocrity. A comment that I heard frequently was "why should we do X when we are only paid X dollars?" But, thinking about the situation from a managerial perspective, why should anyone promote somebody that does subpar work, or even work that just barely makes the cutoff?

 

A Message to Garcia is a 22 page pamphlet challenging us to think about what it must be like from the side of the employer, something that we are often not keen to do. It really must be difficult to find people that have a strong work ethic, who will do more than what is asked, or even do what is asked competently. Many are simply not willing to go the extra distance (e.g. in figuring out who Garcia is, where he is, etc.).

This book is a classic recommendation within medicine. Often medical students and residents are taught to be like the man who brought the message to Garcia, without fuss, without asking questions.

Great read. This book is not so much about anything military as to about the work place and what kind of worker succeeds. Its amazing how something written so very long ago is so very relevant today.

 

Where our technology evolves at such a quick speed, how does humankind not evolve as quickly? How can the worker type that Hubbard writes about still be here 100 years later? But, devils advocate, who's to say that human kind has not evolved since then. Perhaps in the direction opposite to what we think it should? For example - look at how older generations view Millenials, and keeping in mind that millenials are creatures of their upbringing what does that say about the older generations?

 

I wonder what Hubbard would say about the world today in relation to what he wrote in this interesting essay...