The Book: a Message to Garcia

A Message To Garcia The book, A Message To Garcia, was written by Elbert Hubbard in 1899. It is a story about a lieutenant in the army, during the Spanish-American war, that was given a difficult task. When given this task, the lieutenant, did not question it, but too the information that was given to him and completed it. The book then goes on to talk about how in society now, if a worker was given a task, it would be highly unlikely that the worker would not complete it without questions. In this book there are two things that one can learn from, and apply to their life. In the following paragraphs these two things will be discussed. The first point that we can learn from this book is when given a task, simply do it without question. The lieutenant in this story did not ask questions when he was given the task. He simply took his mission given to him and completed it. He did not complain or ask for assistance, Doing that showed his leaders that he was reliable and no matter what the circumstances are mission accomplishment has the upmost importance to him. If this same thought process that the lieutenant had was applied to ones job today, this could lead to early promotions or raises in pay. Your boss would see that you are a hard worker and reliable, which in turn would then lead to more responsibility and trust. The second point that one can learn from this book is that if you do not take initiative and go above and beyond what is asked of you, you are less likely to succeed. The book talks about a man that walks the streets looking for work, but when he is hired he is unwilling to do what is asked of him. This results to people not hiring him because his lack of initiative. If you expect to succeed with that type of attitude in this society, then you are in the wrong. Businesses now are looking to hire or promote those that are like the lieutenant. This book gives a good example of how a marine should act towards his chain of command. If you are given