“Take a Message to Garcia…”
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As you’ve probably guessed, proper time management is a big issue for me. But even beyond not wasting time, is the ability to ensure I don’t waste the time of others.
If you give an employee a task, you need it done as effectively and quickly as possible. If they come back to you with 100 questions, it’s going to take just as long as it would have for you to do it yourself.
Likewise if your supervisor gives you a task, they don’t want you to come back and ask, “Well where do I find that? Where do I go? What do you mean?”
The ability to take initiative is a very desirable trait, and one that employers put a high price on.
Think of it this way, imagine you’re sitting at your computer, next to a co-worker at work and they asked, “Hey how do I spell ______?”
You’d laugh and tell them, “G-O-O-G-L-E.”
It would be silly for them to ask you a question they can find out on their own in five seconds from their computer.
A Message to Garcia
The writer Elbert Hubbard once wrote an essay entitled, “A Message to Garcia.”
For years this short essay became a popular slogan about taking initiative when it came to projects and workload.
In short, if I gave you a letter and said, “Take this Message to Garcia, he’s located somewhere in Cuba,” gave no further instructions, and then shut the door, how would you respond?
“Find some guy named Garcia somewhere in the entire country?” you’d ask yourself.
Some would give up immediately on what would seem an impossible task, while others might ask around a bit before calling it a day. But a few, seeing the importance of the goal and taking pride they were entrusted with such an important task, would do everything within their power to achieve it.
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When I was 22 or 23 I was working for political non-profit in Virginia and my boss at the time gave me a print out of this story. Maybe a few weeks or month later I had asked for follow up on a project he’d given me. Later that day his assistant came in and she relayed his message, “He wants you to take a Message to Garcia….” and she left.
“Wow what a $*&$,” I exclaimed to myself. Give me a break, I’m asking for help, just tell me what you want me to do.” I wasn’t too happy with my boss. I was annoyed and didn’t want to play games with him. How hard could it be to relay more details and information?
Looking back on it now, I’m glad he shared this story and put the thought in my head about what it means to take initiative. I like to think if he didn’t think I was capable of accomplishing the task, then he’d have told me exactly what to do. Perhaps he thought it a better teaching lesson for it. Either way, it was a good lesson and it’s a great story that helped me grow in my drive and ambition.
While I’ve never been asked to “Take a Message to Garcia,” since reading Hubbard’s essay and experiencing my own chiding of pushing myself to be better, I’ve always placed a premium on taking initiative and ensuring those who have entrusted me with tasks, feel confident I’ll do everything within my power to complete them.
The next time you’re given an assignment, practice this initiative. It will put you well ahead of those around you in school, work, or life as a whole.
You can grab a paperback copy of the essay for only a few dollars, or if read it online and click here to read the full essay, “A Message to Garcia,” it’s definitely worth your time.
