The Message to Garcia

Today I received an email from a great client and friend forwarding to me an email from another person basically blaming an issue on me.  Unfortunately, that style of professionalism is common place in my line of work (my full-time profession is as a business attorney).  The “Not It” generation of attorneys and business partners is not so much sad any more but exhausting and disappointing. I strive for a day of courtesy, even to those you do not know well.  I strive for the day when each of us can accept responsibility and be strong enough in our convictions to “own issues” and not delegate fault. Owning an issue and taking responsibility is a key trait in a leader and a good follower.  A great essay discussing these points is  “The Message to Garcia” by Elbert Hubbard. The Message to Garcia was written in 1899 to plead for a person to simply do the task without question or complaint. A great passage from the book is:

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.

We should all strive to “Carry the Message to Garcia”.  A link to the essay can be found here on Project Gutenberg.