把信送给加西亚 英文版

1899

A Message to Garcia

By Elbert Hubbard

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 & 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!

Some one 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, & 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? By the Eternal! 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 well nigh appalled at times by the imbecility of the average man- the inability or unwillingness to concentrate on a thing and do it. Slip-shod assistance, foolish inattention, dowdy indifference, & half-hearted work seem the rule; and no man succeeds, unless by hook or crook, or threat, he forces or bribes other men to assist him; or mayhap, God in His goodness performs a miracle, & sends him an Angel of Light for an assistant. 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 Average, I will not.

Now if you are wise you will not bother to explain to your assistant that Correggio is indexed under the C’s, not in the K’s, but you will smile sweetly and say, Never mind, and go look it up yourself.

And this incapacity for independent action, this moral stupidity, this infirmity of the will, this unwillingness to cheerfully catch hold and lift, are the things that put pure Socialism so far into the future. If men will not act for themselves, what will they do when the benefit of their effort is for all? A first-mate with knotted club seems necessary; and the dread of getting the bounce Saturday night, holds many a worker to his place.

Advertise for a stenographer, and nine out of ten who apply, can neither spell nor punctuate- and do not think it necessary to.

Can such a one write a letter to Garcia?

You see that bookkeeper, said the foreman to me in a large factory.

Yes, what about him?

Well he’s a fine accountant, but if I’d send him up town on an errand, he might accomplish the errand all right, and on the other hand, might stop at four saloons on the way, and when he got to Main Street, would forget what he had been sent for.

Can such a man be entrusted to carry a message to Garcia?

We have recently been hearing much maudlin sympathy expressed for the downtrodden denizen of the sweat-shop and the homeless wanderer searching for honest employment, & with it all often go many hard words for the men in power.

Nothing is said about the employer who grows old before his time in a vain attempt to get frowsy ne’er-do-wells to do intelligent work; and his long patient striving with help that does nothing but loaf when his back is turned. In every store and factory there is a constant weeding-out process going on. The employer is constantly sending away help that have shown their incapacity to further the interests of the business, and others are being taken on. No matter how good times are, this sorting continues, only if times are hard and work is scarce, the sorting is done finer- but out and forever out, the incompetent and unworthy go.

It is the survival of the fittest. Self-interest prompts every employer to keep the best- those who can carry a message to Garcia.

I know one man of really brilliant parts who has not the ability to manage a business of his own, and yet who is absolutely worthless to any one else, because he carries with him constantly the insane suspicion that his employer is oppressing, or intending to oppress him. He cannot give orders; and he will not receive them. Should a message be given him to take to Garcia, his answer would probably be, Take it yourself.

Tonight this man walks the streets looking for work, the wind whistling through his threadbare coat. No one who knows him dare employ him, for he is a regular fire-brand of discontent. He is impervious to reason, and the only thing that can impress him is the toe of a thick-soled No. 9 boot.

Of course I know that one so morally deformed is no less to be pitied than a physical cripple; but in our pitying, let us drop a tear, too, for the men who are striving to carry on a great enterprise, whose working hours are not limited by the whistle, and whose hair is fast turning white through the struggle to hold in line dowdy indifference, slip-shod imbecility, and the heartless ingratitude, which, but for their enterprise, would be both hungry & homeless.

Have I put the matter too strongly? Possibly I have; but when all the world has gone a-slumming I wish to speak a word of sympathy for the man who succeeds- the man who, against great odds has directed the efforts of others, and having succeeded, finds there’s nothing in it: nothing but bare board and clothes.

I have carried a dinner pail & worked for day’s wages, and I have also been an employer of labor, and I know there is something to be said on both sides. There is no excellence, per se, in poverty; rags are no recommendation; & all employers are not rapacious and high-handed, any more than all poor men are virtuous.

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: he is needed, & needed badly- the man who can carry a message to Garcia.

THE END-
读《把信送给加西亚》有感

早在几年前，我就读了《把信送给加西亚》这本书，时至今天、事隔数年，期间我看过很多很多的书，但好些书的内容随着时间的流逝，已被逐渐淡忘了。唯有《把信送给加西亚》让我记忆犹新，每次读它都能带给我新的体验。

记得刚看这本书时，看到一半我就不想再看下去了，觉得这本书有点小题大做，有哗众取宠之嫌。让我产生的第一个想法就是：这只不过是管理者用来教化职员服从他们管理的一本书而已，我相信很多人初看这书都会有这种感觉。

既然是畅销书，我按下性子还是把书看完了。把书合上后，没能给我大多的收益，书中人物罗文的形象在我的脑海也很是模糊，但有个潜在意识让我觉得：罗文好象有点傻，有点盲从。为什么连加西亚在那都不知道，也不询问就轻意地接受了任务，我是不怎么认可这种不定性的工作目标的。

再次捧起《把信送给加西亚》，是基于一次原公司月度工作的总结会。公司营销、研发与生产部的工作目标未能达成，而且相互找借口推脱责任。老总不悦地说：“我想知道，在我们公司谁能把信送给加西亚？我需要这样的员工。”

这次我读了《把信送给加西亚》，还读了《谁能把信送给加西亚》，这次的阅读让我的视野豁然开阔，也让我的思维提高到了一个更高的境界。以前觉得“小题大作、罗文的傻、管理者用来教化职员服从”的观点，让我有点无地自容。

这次阅读中让我觉得，一个普通的军人，在给加西亚将军送信的任务中，罗文所做的确是件很普通的事。但正是从这普通的平凡中，孕育出了伟大的服从精神，因为服从，才使他圆满地完成了任务。也正因为他那种服从、敬业的精神，才使得他成为人们心目中的英雄广为传颂。

可在我们的工作中，时常会听到：“这事怎么办？有什么支持和帮助？”或者是：“这工作有一定的难度，我可能完成不了任务，另派别人吧”。大家在接受任务时，想得最多的是我会得到什么帮助，从而讨价还价要资源。这种对自己缺乏信心的疑问，很自然给自己无形中就设置了一道障碍，把自己困扰了起来。

看书中主人翁罗文，他接受任务时，根本没问加西亚在那里，该怎么找到他，难道罗文不知道工作的难度？我想他比谁都清楚自己所承担的责任。可是他坚定的信念和自信告诉他一定能完成任务，所以他什么也不问。如果他当初在接受任务时，他什么都问清楚了，知道加西亚在那里，也就没有他今天的辉煌了。

所以说最艰巨的任务，方能显现英雄本色。如果我们在熟悉的环境中从事熟悉的工作，就无法领略一路的惊险，也没有机会突破自我。罗文送信的任务是挑战也是机遇，危险与机会其实是一对孪生兄弟，就看我们怎么去驾驭。

职业生涯中，忠诚和敬业并不仅仅有益与公司和老板，最大的受益是我们自己，是整个社会。 忠于职守，敬业爱岗，履行承诺，这些看似俗套的话语，并不仅仅是一个优秀员工的标准，而是每一个热爱事业、热爱生活、有责任心、渴望成功人的标准。因为忠诚使人赢得尊敬，因为敬业使人得到充实、获得成功，忠诚和敬业能使人感到踏实和值得信赖。

古人云：“人无信则不立”。上级命令的结果是下级的坚决服从，背后却是上级的绝对信任，他们的信任来自于对他品质的肯定也是对他能力的间接认可。是他平素的品行为他“赢”得了这次机会，罗文凭这坚强的意志，历尽艰险，不负众望地完成了任务，这正是他的所立之处。

古人又云：“人而无信，不知其可”。一个人如果不讲信用，就不知道他能做些什么了。事实证明，不守诚信的人，很难赢得别人的信任和尊重。日常生活中，诚信能为我们赢得友谊；工作中，诚信给我们带来事业上的发展和机遇。诚信守用是为人处世的基本素养，也是人际交往的根本。

对《把信送给加西亚》第二次的回顾，让我明白了很多事理，好似也教会了我为人和处世。我再次合上书时，罗文的形象在我眼前忽然高大起来，他是我心中的英雄，而且书中的场境很是让我热血沸腾。

漫漫职场路，罗文再次从我记忆深处挖掘出来，同样是缘于一次公司员工大会，同样是老总呼吁发扬罗文精神，这次是老总要送每位员工一本《把信送给加西亚》，老总的良苦用心是：希望我们能领悟这本书，并通透去诠释。

温故而知新，同样一本书放在不同时间段看，其领悟到的东西就是不一样。此一时，彼一时，很多事不能一概而论。我们在津津乐道赞扬罗文的同时，有个问题不得不去考量。现在是知识经济年代，要求开拓创新，提倡的是工作的积极主动性，如果所有员工都在那坐等指派任务，那将是件可怕的事。

我们通常说：“做对的事比把事做对更重要”，罗文把信送给了加西亚，他只是把事做对了，因为他是在不断摸索中完成任务的。“对的事”应该有明确的方向和目标，有清晰的路线和工具等，再配以周祥的计划与布署，才能确保万无一失。“对的事”――就是说任务一下来，就知道完成的概率了。

现在的企业竞争非常激烈，核心竞争力与企业的战略是成败的关键。很多企业领导在做决策时未能把目标达成“对的事”，只是想让“罗文精神”的员工去摸索达成，从而浪费了时间和精力。

事事变迁，时代在变，人们的世界观、价值观也在变。虽说：“忠诚、敬业、勤奋”的职业道德观不应变，但作为企业领导,你得给“送信者”以温饱，你得称赞他、感激他、支持他的立场，让送信者无后顾之忧。如果“送信者”得不到最基本的生存需求，他送信的动机就会大打折扣了。

作为企业领导，应深刻理解“送信人”和“送信人精神”对企业是何等的重要与需要，但更应清楚地知道：天上不会掉馅饼。“送信人”和“送信人精神”必须靠企业自己去教育、去培养、去发现、去激励、去吸纳、去保留。

现今企业管理中，科学精神才是企业发展的根本。“科学管理、民主决策、创新理念、求实精神”应当是创业和守业的基本原则，这个原则相当于“送信人”的智慧和“送信派遣人”的责任。有了这个智慧与责任结合，我们就不会糊涂和盲目。就能够促使企业稳定持续地发展、长足地进步。

前后三次读同样的一本书，但每次的观点和看法都不相同，这次的感受趋于平淡。谨以此文写出我的不同感受与大家分享，互相探讨希望能共同进步！