致加西亚的信
100多年前的一个傍晚，出版家艾尔伯特・哈伯德与家人喝茶时受儿子的启发，创作了一篇名为《致加西亚的信》的文章，刊登在《菲士利人》的杂志上，杂志很快就告罄。到1915年作者逝世为止，《致加西亚的信》的印数高达40，000，000册。创造了一个作家的有生之年一本图书销售量的历史记录。其后的80余年，该书被翻译成所有的文字，许多政府、军队和企业都将此书赠送给士兵和职员，作为培养士兵、职员敬业守则的必读书。
In all this Cuban business there is one man stands out on the horizon of my memory like Mars at perihelion. When war broke out between Spain and the United States, it was very necessary to communicate quickly with the leader of the Insurgents. Garcia was somewhere in the mountain vastness of Cuba ―― no one knew where. No mail nor telegraph message could reach him. The President must secure his cooperation, and quickly.
What to do
Someone said to the President, “There's a fellow by the name of Rowan will find Garcia for you, if anybody can.”
Rowan was sent for and given a letter to be delivered to Garcia. How “the fellow by the name of Rowan” took the letter, sealed it up in an oil-skin pouch, strapped it over his heart, in four days landed by night off the coast of Cuba from an open boat, disappeared into the jungle, and in three weeks came out on the other side of the Island, having traversed a hostile country on foot, and delivered his letter to Garcia, are things I have no special desire now to tell in detail.
The point I wish to make is this: McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, “Where is he at ”
There is a man whose form should be cast in deathless bronze and the statue placed in every college of the land. It is not book-learning young men need, nor instruction about this and that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies: do the thing ―― “Carry a message to Garcia!”
General Garcia is dead now, but there are other Garcias.
No man, who has endeavored to carry out an enterprise where many hands were needed, but has been appalled at times by the imbecility of the average man ―― the inability or unwillingness to concentrate on a thing and do it. You, reader, put this matter to a test: You are sitting now in your office ―― six clerks are within call.
Summon any one and make this request: “Please look in the encyclopedia and make a brief memorandum for me concerning the life of Correggio”.
Will the clerk quietly say, “Yes, sir,” and go do the task
On your life, he will not. He will look at you out of a fishy eye and ask one or more of the following questions:
Who was he
Which encyclopedia
Where is the encyclopedia
Was I hired for that
Don't you mean Bismarck
What's the matter with Charlie doing it
Is he dead
Is there any hurry
Shan't I bring you the book and let you look it up yourself
What do you want to know for
And I will lay you ten to one that after you have answered the questions, and explained how to find the information, and why you want it, the clerk will go off and get one of the other clerks to help him try to find Garcia ―― and then come back and tell you there is no such man. Of course I may lose my bet, but according to the Law of Averages, I will not.
My heart goes out to the man who does his work when the “boss” is away, as well as when he is at home. And the man who, when given a letter for Garcia, quietly take the missive, without asking any idiotic questions, and with no lurking intention of chucking it into the nearest sewer, or of doing aught else but deliver it, never gets “laid off,” nor has to go on a strike for higher wages. Civilization is one long anxious search for just such individuals. Anything such a man asks shall be granted, his kind is so rare that no employer can afford to let him go. He is wanted in every city, town and village ―― in every office, shop, store and factory. The world cries out for such: the man who can carry a message to Garcia.
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