Elbert Hubbard’s “A Message to Garcia” has recently been posted to the Integrated Success Program web-site.  Although it is a short work (our version totals only 9 pages), it captures a very strong and surprisingly pertinent message!

Originally released in 1914, it struck a chord across multiple societies, with large publication releases in America, Russia and Japan. Shortly after it’s release, Hubbard stated “This is said to be a larger circulation than any other literary venture has ever attained during the lifetime of the author, in all history – thanks to a series of lucky accidents!”

The message is, simply stated, that if you take employment, you owe an obligation to your employer to work your best ability. As Hubbard states in the Preface (entitled “Apologia – Horse Sense”):

If you work for a man, in Heaven’s name work for him. If he pays wages that supply you your bread and butter, work for him, speak well of him, think well of him, and stand by him, and stand by the institution he represents. I think if I worked for a man, I would work for him. I would not work for him a part of his time, but all of his time. I would give an undivided service or none. If put to the pinch, an ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness. If you must vilify, condemn, and eternally disparage, why, resign your position, and when you are outside, damn to your heart’s content. But, I pray you, so long as you are a part of an institution, do not condemn it. Not that you will injure the institution – not that – but when you disparage the concern of which you are a part, you disparage yourself. And don’t forget – “I forgot” won’t do in business”.

This is, indeed, “Horse Sense”, as it should be universal common sense, however, in an “Era of Entitlement”, it is woefully lacking in many who believe life “owes” them, presumeably for their mere presence. I believe that although “A Message to Garcia” is a short text, it is a compelling cry for a philosphical change in work ethic, then as now.

A copy can be found on my Squidoo page for “A Message to Garcia“. 

This and many other classic books in the “Personal Development” genre are available on the Integrated Success Program web-site.

Click on pen to