給加西亞的信英文節選
《致加西亞的信》講述了一個信使的故事,羅文的事蹟通過這本書傳遍了全世界,併成為敬業、服從、勤奮的象徵。下面是小編跟大家分享的給加西亞的信,歡迎大家來閱讀學習~
給加西亞的信節選
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 and the United States, it was very necessary to communicate quickly with the leader of the Insurgents. Garcia was somewhere in the mountain fastnesses of Cuba—no one know where. No mail or telegraph message could reach him. The president must secure his cooperation, and quickly. What to do!
Some said to the President, “There’s a fellow by the name of Rowan who 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 name of Rowan” took the letter, sealed it up in an oilskin 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, and 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 that 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 and 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.
Slipshod assistance, foolish inattention, dowdy indifference, and half-hearted work seem the role; and no man succeeds, unless by hook or crook or threat he forces or brides other men to assist him; or mayhap, God in His goodness performs a miracle, and seeds 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 where 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 very 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—these 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 forger 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 denizens of the sweat-shop” and the “homeless wanderer searching for honest employment”, and 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 after “help” that does nothing but loaf when his back 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 massage a business of his own, and yet who is absolutely worthless to anyone 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 firebrand of discontent. He is impervious to reasons, and the only thing that can impress him is the toe of a thick-soled Number Nine 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, slipshod imbecility, and the heartless ingratitude which, but for their enterprise, would be both hungry and 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 succeed, finds there’s nothing in it: nothing but bare board and clothes. I have carried a dinner—pail and 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, perse, in poverty; rags are no recommendation; and 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 takes 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. 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 and needed badly—the man who can “Carry a Message to Garcia.”
So who will send a letter to Garcia?
給加西亞的信讀後感
在人生的書櫃中,仍可以找到這樣一本被奉為經典的書籍——《致加西亞的信》。這本書以其獨特的視角揭示了人性中必不可少的能力——加西亞精神***又叫做加西亞精神***。
故事的背景設定在美西戰爭中,美國總統通過一個叫羅文的人與反抗軍司令加西亞將軍取得聯絡——在根本不知道方位的情況下。故事中最受作者親睞與出彩的地方,便是羅文接受任務後並未問:“他在那裡?”
“年輕人所需要的不僅僅是學習書本上的知識,也不僅僅是聆聽他人的種種教誨,而是更需要一種敬業精神。對上級的託付,立即採取行動,全心全意的去完成任務——‘把信送給加西亞’。”這是作者給我們的忠告與啟示。
這本書並非僅僅適用於管理,實際上其中的核心理念貫穿生活的每一個部分。充分的體現了書籍的生活的影響。一個人可以從書籍中獲得難以想象的財富,隨著持之以恆的發展,這份財富也會積澱。當書籍完全成為生活中不可缺少的一部分時,人生也會因此大放光彩。堅持不懈,也正是《致加西亞的信》中一個很樸素卻很實用的理念。在這個日新月異的時代,浮躁漸漸在人性中佔據上風,這個時候正是需要加西亞精神。
態度決定一切,這句話在不同的文章裡甚至是老師的講課裡都會出現。那麼什麼樣的態度是加西亞精神所提倡的呢?責任!天下興亡匹夫有責,自古的責任傳承在現代依然有用。唯有有責任心的人才能有所承擔。一個人如果不能對自己負責,整日懶散又怎麼能讓他對社會有所貢獻呢?這樣的人不配而且也不能把信送給加西亞。所以說負責對於一個人是必不可少的能力。而培養責任感,從內心深處萌發出的對社會生活的責任感則是加西亞精神想要告訴我們的。
做你該做的事情,做你可以做的事情,做你必須做的事情。這是非常簡單而又實用的勸告。一個思想不健全的人不值得同情。如果一個人不能完成其分內的工作,又怎麼可以心安理得的享受呢?想起來杜魯門總統的一句名言:責任到此不能再推。生活中也有許多需要我們去完成的事情,比如學業、勞動和交流等,如果不能付諸於行動則不能使我們的生活有著本質的改善。《致加西亞的信》從某個意義上引導著我們向健康和諧的生活前進。
雖然這本書很短,僅僅是一個小冊子,但在它出版後便風靡全世界——那還是在上個世紀沒有網際網路的時代。然而真正需要它的人卻遠遠不止購買者,每一代人都需要加西亞精神來指導自己的生活。而現在我遇到了它,可以說是我的榮幸。
誰可以把信送給加西亞?誰又能把信送給加西亞?誰有這個勇氣把信送給加西亞?這樣的人才能真正完成社會與生活給他的囑託,這樣的人才是時代的勝利者。