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A Message To Garcia《致加西亚的信》

作者:Leon 日期:2006-04-30

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一百年来，有一本推崇敬业、忠诚、主动和勤奋的小册子在全世界广泛流传。它是美国西点军校和海军学院学生的必修课本；美国总统布什家族深受其影响，小布什还把有自己亲笔签名的这本小硬皮书赠给自己的助手。这本书，就是被美国有关机构评为有史以来世界最畅销图书第六名的《致加西亚的信》。

In all this Cuban business there is one man who 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 vastness of Cuba—no one knew where. No mail nor telegraph message could reach him. The President must secure his cooperation, and quickly.

What to do!

Some one said to the President, “there is a fellow by the name of Rowan; he 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 the 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 to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies: do the thing—“Carry a message to Garcia!”

General Garcia is dead now, but there are other Garcia’s. Some people have endeavored to carry out an enterprise where many hands were needed, but have 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 rule; and no man succeeds, unless by hook or crook or threat he force or bribes other men to assist him; or mayhap, God in His goodness performs a miracle, and sends him an Angle 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 to 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 there any hurry? What do you want to know for?

And I will lay you ten to one that after you have answered the questions, and how 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 there 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.

“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 night, and on the other hand, might stop at four saloons on the way, and when he got to Main Street would forget 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 sweatshop” and the “homeless wanderer searching for the 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 never-do-wells to do intelligent work; and his long, patient string after “help” that does nothing but loaf when his back is turned.

In every store and factory there is a constant wedding-out process going on. The employer is constantly sending away “help” that has shown their incapacity to further the interests of the business, and other 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 manage a business of his own, and yet who is absolutely worthless to any one 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!”

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.

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 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.”

在一切有关古巴的故事中，有一个最让我难以忘怀。

美西战争爆发后，美国必须马上与西班牙的反抗军首领加西亚将军取得联系。加西亚将军隐藏在古巴辽阔的山区中—没有人知道确切的地点，所以无法送信给他。然而，美国总统必须尽快得到他的合作。

怎么办呢？

有人对总统说：“有一个名叫罗文的人，如果有人能找到加西亚将军，那个人一定就是他。”

他们把罗文找来，交给他一封写给加西亚的信。那个名叫罗文的人，如何接过信，把它装进一个油纸袋里，封好，吊在胸口，四天后在一个暮色笼罩的夜晚，他弃扁舟上岸，消失在古巴的热带丛林中；三个星期之后，他成功徒步穿越了一个危机四伏的国家，把信送到了加西亚手上—这些细节无意赘言。我要强调的重点是：美国总统把一封写给加西亚的信交给罗文，而罗文接过信之后，并没有问：“他在哪里？”

哦！我们应该为他雕造不朽的铜像，放在每一所大学里。年轻人更需要的不是书本上的知识，也不是他人的种种教诲，而是敬业精神，忠诚于上级的托付，迅速采取行动，全心全意去完成任务—把信交给加西亚。

加西亚将军已经不在人间，但还有其他的“加西亚”。有的人苦苦经营着人数众多的大企业，但有时候令人吃惊的是，部分员工碌碌无为，他们要么没有能力，要么根本没用心。

懒懒散散、漠不关心、马马虎虎、敷衍了事的工作态度，似乎已经成为许多人的常态，除非苦口婆心或威逼利诱使劲浑身解数叫下属帮忙，又或者除非奇迹出现，上帝仁慈地赐给他一名得力助手，否则，它只能空叹无能为力。

不妨做个试验：你此刻坐在办公室里，有六个职员在等候安排任务。把其中一个叫来，对他说：“请帮我查一查百科全书，把克里季奥的生平做成一篇摘录。”那个职员会轻声说“好的，先生”，然后就去执行吗？

我敢说他绝对不会，反而会满脸狐疑地提出一个或数个问题，譬如:他是谁啊？那本百科全书？百科全书放在哪？这是我的工作吗？你原本不是要俾斯麦做的吗？为什么不叫查理去做呢？急不急？你想知道这方面的信息干吗？

我敢以一赔十的赔率跟你打赌，在你回答了他所提出的问题，解释了怎样去查以及为什么查后，那位职员会走开，去找另外一位职员帮他的忙，然后，会再回来跟你说，根本查不到这个人。当然，也许我会输掉赌注，但是根据平均率法则，我相信自己不会输。

真的，如果你是聪明的人，就不必对你的“助手”解释，克里季奥是C字头的，而不是K字头的，你会满面笑容地说“算了”，然后自己去查。这种被动的行为，道德的愚行，意志的脆弱，姑息的作风，有可能会把社会带到三个和尚没水喝的危险境界。

在一家大公司里，领班对我说：“你看那簿记员。”“我看到了，他怎么样？”“他是个不错的会计。如果我派他到城里去办个小差事。”这种人你能派他送信给加西亚吗？

近来我们听到很多人，对那些“工资低廉保守压榨”以及“为求温饱而工作的无家可归”的人表示同情，同时那些雇主成了千夫所指的对象。

但从没有人提到，那些老板直到年老，都无法使那些不求上进的懒虫勤奋起来，也没有人提到，那些老板长久而耐心地努力感动那些他一转身就投机取巧、敷衍了事的员工，尽管结果常常是徒劳的。

每个商店和工厂都有一个持续的人事变动过程。公司负责人辞退那些无法对公司有所贡献的员工，同时也吸收新的进来。不管公司的业绩有多好，这种人事变动从不会停止。只有当公司不景气，就业机会不多，变动才会出现较佳的成绩—那些不能胜任、没有才能的人，都被摈弃在就业的大门之外，只有最能干的人，才会被留下来。为了自己的利益，每个老板只保留那些最佳的职员—那些能把信送给加西亚的人。

我认识一位极为聪明的人，他自己没有创业的能力，而对别人来说也没有一丝一毫的价值，因为他老是疯狂地怀疑雇主在压榨他，或存心压迫他。他不能下命令，也不会接受命令。如果你要他把封信送给加西亚，他极可能回答：“你自己去吧。”

当然，我知道这种道德不健全的人，所得到的同情不会比生理有缺陷的人少。但是，我们也应该对那些用毕生精力去经营一家大企业的人表示同情，他们不会因为下班的铃声而放下工作。他们因为努力去改变那些漫不经心、懒散被动、不知感恩的员工而日增白发。如果没有这份努力和心血，那些员工将挨饿和无家可归。

我钦佩的是那些不论老板是否在办公室都会努力的工作的人，我也敬佩那些能够把信交给加西亚的人。静静地把信手下，不会提出任何愚笨问题，也不会把信随手丢进水沟里，而是不顾一切地把信送到。这种人永远不会被解雇，也永远不会为了要求加薪而罢工。

文明，是热切寻找这种人的漫长的过程。这种人有什么愿望就会实现。每个城市、村庄、乡镇、以及每个办公室、商店、工厂，都会非常欢迎这种人。世界上极其需要这种人才，这种能够把信送给加西亚的人。