A Message To Garcia ? 6400 Personal Finance

Time to be honest people.

Think back to the last time your boss gave you a task to accomplish, what was the first thing out of your mouth?

Did you ask for clarification?

Did you ask for someone else to assist you?

Do you ask for an extended deadline?

Or did you simply respond ?Yes,boss/sir/ma?am? or ?No problem? and set about completing the task?

Back in 1899 a guy by the name of Elbert Hubbard wrote a short essay on this theme that was titled simply ?A Message To Garcia.? ?The short version (of a short essay) is that prior to the Spanish-American War breaking out President McKinley decided he wanted to make contact with the leader of the Cuban insurgents, a general by the name of Garcia. ?He asked around as to who he should send to make contact with the general and was told that Captain Andrew Summers Rowan, United States Army, was his man. ?I?ll let Hubbard?s words tell the rest of the story:

The point that 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??

Here is how the Army would describe what transpired in that sentence: the President gave the officer a mission that contained a clear intent and desired endstate: go to Cuba, deliver this letter to Garcia, and establish a positive relationship with the insurgents. ?In short he told the officer the ?what? and the ?why? and left it up to his subordinate to figure out the ?how.? ?That is the type of leadership that breeds creativity and allows star performers to excel. ?That said Hubbard was a much more talented writer than I was so I?ll let his own words make the point:

It is not book-learning young man 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.?

If you?ve read more than a handful of the posts that I have been putting up here over the last few months you have probably noticed that I am a strong proponent of discipline in all things, whether it be a matter of health, attitude, behavior, or personal finance. ?It is easy for me to speak of discipline because I have been trained to live it, for others it is a more foreign concept. ?For them, and for you if you are one of them, I strongly recommend that you get a copy of ?A Message To Garcia.? ?At the beginning of the 20th century it was distributed and translated worldwide to the tune of more than 40 million copies and was issued to every soldier in multiple armies of major nations (including Russia and Japan when they went to war with each other). ?It can be had today on Amazon for $0.99.

Or you could just take that $0.99 and buy a burger from a fast food joint. ?It is a free country after all.

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Source: http://6400personalfinance.com/2012/08/22/a-message-to-garcia/

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