Message to Garcia: And Other Classic Success Writings

This tale of a soldier’s self-reliance during the Spanish American War is history’s greatest motivational lesson, now collected with Elbert Hubbard’s most treasured inspirational works.

A Message to Garcia touched so profound a chord in readers that, after its publication in 1899, it became one of the most widely read works in human history. A Message to Garcia tells the story of an American soldier charged with delivering a critical message to a leader of Cuban rebel forces during the Spanish American War. In Hubbard’s account, he delivered the urgent missive with no questions asked, no complaining, and no hedging. The enduring and almost unbelievably simple message of the essay is this: When asked to perform a task, don’t ask How...? or Why...? or Wouldn’t it be better if,/I . . . ? Just do it—and you will become more valued and respected than you ever imagined possible.

Elbert Hubbard was an American artist, publisher, writer, and philosopher. Today he is known as the founder of the Roycroft artisan community in East Aurora, New York, and as an influential exponent of the Arts and Crafts Movement. Hubbard described himself as an anarchist and a socialist. He died aboard the torpedoed RMS Lusitania.