“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!'”
— “Management Delegation, Staff Initiative: A Message to Garcia, By Elbert Hubbard,” quoted by JackYoest
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“A Message to Garcia” is (or was) standard plebe reading at Annapolis. But I don’t know if it still applies to today’s Navy.
[…] other day Stacy alluded to that famous military archetype, Andrew Rowan, known for delivering A Message to Garcia. In today’s Army, of course, it would be A FRAGO to Garcia, if we were dealing more directly […]
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:….
Obviously, you’ve never worked for the anal-retentive control freaks that I have. Because if you HAD, you’d find that no matter WHAT encyclopedia you used, it was the WRONG one. No matter HOW long your monograph, it was 1) too short or 2) too long.