Message to Garcia - Story

Title: Message to Garcia

Author: Elbert Hubbard

Published: 1899

A Message to Garcia is a story that covers and focuses on an individual being told to get something done and not asking questions or giving excuses on why he can’t do it. He takes the information that he was given and gets the job done.

During the war between Spain and the United States, President McKinley needed a message delivered. Not knowing who was capable of delivering that letter at first, the decision was made to send the message with a man named Rowan. This message needed to reach a man named Garcia. The point that the author wants the reader to understand, is the action taken by Rowan.

Rowan was given a task. He didn’t ask questions in regards to how to accomplish it. He just took the letter and left. The book is trying to get the point a cross that you don’t have to ask a hundred questions every time you are told to do something. That is true to a certain extent, if you are given a job to do or a mission to accomplish you would not just go blindly try to do it without the information needed to accomplish the task. I do agree with people taking the initiative and getting the job done without having to be babysat the entire time. But if you need more information to get the job done then ask whatever questions that are necessary.

The book got the point a cross that it was trying to make. Get the job done but as I was saying you should never go blindly do something if it is possible to get more details and information on the job. However, it is a problem in the military and civilian side alike that people never take the initiative in day to day life they always have to be told what to do. I would recommend people to read this book just to understand that you can do tasks on your own without being watched over all the time