测试用文:致加西亚的信(Elbert Hubbard)——有史以来全球最畅销图书第6名~
测试完毕~英文:297字符/分钟 中文:79字/分钟 HoHo~还没退化~
在所有与古巴有关的事情中,有一个人常常令我无法忘怀。
美西战争爆发以后,美国必须马上与西班牙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
的崇山峻岭中——没有人知道确切的地点,因而无法送信给他。但是,美国总统必须尽快地与他建立合作关系。
怎么办呢?
有人对总统推荐说:“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。”
于是,他们将罗文招来,交给他一封信——写给加西亚的信。关于那个名叫罗文的人,如何拿了信,将它
装进一个油纸袋里,打封,吊在胸口藏好,如何在3个星期之后,徒步穿越一个危机四伏的国家,将信交到加西
亚手上——这些细节都不是我想说明的,我要强调的重点是:
美国总统将一封写给加西亚的信交给了罗文,罗文接过信后,并没有问:“他在哪里?”
像罗文这样的人,我们应该为他塑造一座不朽的雕像,放在每一所大学里。年轻人所需要的不仅仅是学习
书本上的知识,也不仅仅是聆听他人的种种教诲,而是更需要一种敬业精神,对上级的托付,立即采取行动,全
心全意去完成任务——“把信送给加西亚”。
加西亚将军已不在人世,但现在还有其他的“加西亚”。没有人能经营好这样的企业——虽然需要众多人
手,但是令人吃惊的是,其中大部分人碌碌无为,他们要么没有能力,要么根本不用心。
懒懒散散、漠不关心、马马虎虎的工作态度,对于许多人来说似乎已经变成常态。除非苦口婆心、威逼利
诱地强迫他们做事,或者,请上帝创造奇迹,派一名天使相助,否则,这些人什么也做不了。
不信的话我们来做个试验:
此刻你正坐在办公室里——有6名职员在等待安排任务。你将其中一位叫过来,吩咐他说:“请帮我查一下
百科全书,把克里吉奥的生平做成一篇摘要。”
他会静静地回答:“好的,先生。”然后立即去执行。
我敢说他绝对不会,他会用满脸狐疑的神色盯着你,提出一个或数个问题:
他是谁呀?
他去世了吗?
哪套百科全书?
百科全书放在哪儿?
这是我的工作吗?
为什么不叫乔治去做呢?
急不急?
你为什么要查他?
我敢以十比一的赌注跟你打赌,在你回答了他所提出的问题,解释了如何去查那些资料,以及为什么要查的
理由之后,那个职员会走开,去吩咐另外一个职员帮助他查某某的资料,然后回来告诉你,根本就没有这个人。
当然,我也许会输掉赌注,但是根据平均率法则,我相信自己不会输。
真的,如果你很聪明,就不应该对你的“助理”解释,克里吉奥编在什么类,而不是什么类,你会面带笑
容地说:“算啦。”然后自己去查。
这种被动的行为,这种道德的愚行,这种意志的脆弱,这种姑息的作风,有可能将这个社会带到“三个和
尚没水喝”的危险境地。
如果人们都不能为了自己而自动自发,你又怎么能期待他们为别人服务呢?
乍看起来,任何一家公司都有可以分担工作的人选,但事实上真的如此吗?你登广告征求一名速记员,应
征者中,十有八九不会拼也不会写,他们甚至认为这些都无所谓。
这种人能把信带给加西亚吗?
“你看那个职员。”一家大公司的总经理对我说。
“看到了,怎么样?”
“他是个不错的会计,但是,如果我派他到城里去办个小差事,他也许能够完成任务,但也可能中途走进
一家酒吧。而到了闹市区,他甚至可能完全忘记自己来干什么的。”
这种人你能派他送信给加西亚吗?
最近,我们经常听到许多人对那些“收入甚微而毫无出头之日”以及“但求温饱却无家可归”的人表示同
情,同时将那些雇主骂得体无完肤。
但是,从没有人提到,有些老板如何一直到白发苍苍,都无法使那些不求上进的懒虫勤奋起来;也没有人
谈及,有些雇主如何持久而耐心地希望感动那些当他一转身就投机取巧、敷衍了事的员工,使他们能振作起来。
在每家商店和工厂,都有一些常规性的调整过程。公司负责人经常送走那些无法对公司有所贡献的员工,
同时也吸纳新的成员。无论业务如何繁忙,这种整顿一直在进行着。只有当经济不景气、就业机会不多的时候,
这种整顿才会有明显的效果——那些无法胜任工作、缺乏才干的人,都被摈弃在工厂的大门之外,只有那些最能
干的人才会被留下来。为了自己的利益,每个老板只会留住那些最优秀的职员——那些能“把信送给加西亚”
的人。
我认识一个十分聪明的人,但是却缺乏自己独立创业的能力,对他人来说也没有丝毫价值,因为他总是偏
执地怀疑自己的老板在压榨他,或者有压榨他的意图。他既没有能力指挥他人,也没有勇气接受他人的智慧。如
果你让他“送封信给加西亚”,他的回答极有可能是:“你自己去吧."
我知道,与那些四肢残缺的人相比,这种思想不健全的人是不值得同情的。相反,我们应该对那些用毕生
精力去经营一家大企业的人表示同情和敬意:他们不会因为下班的铃声而放下工作。他们因为努力去使那些漫不
经心、拖拖拉拉、被动偷懒、不知感恩的员工有一份工作而日增白发。许多员工不愿意想一想,如果没有老板们
付出的努力和心血,他们将挨饿和无家可归。
我是否说得太严重了?不过,即使整个世界变成一座贫民窟,我也要为成功者说几句公道话——他们承受
了巨大的压力,导引众人的力量,终于取得了成功。但是他们从成功中又得到了什么呢?一片空虚,除了食物和
衣服以外,一无所有。
我曾为了一日三餐而为他人工作,也曾当过老板,我深知两方面的种种酸甜苦辣。贫穷是不好的,贫苦是
不值得赞美的,衣衫褴褛更不值得骄傲;但并非所有的老板都是贪婪者、专横者,就像并非所有的人都是善良者
一样。
我钦佩那些无论老板是否在办公室都努力工作的人,我敬佩那些能够把信交给加西亚的人。他们静静地把
信拿去,不会提任何愚笨的问题,更不会随手把信丢进水沟里,而是全力以赴地将信送到。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,就是孜孜不倦地寻找这种人才的一段长久过程。
这种人无论有什么样的愿望都能实现。在每个城市、村庄、乡镇,以及每个办公室、商店、工厂,他们都
会受到欢迎。世界上极需这种人才,这种能够把信送给加西亚的人。
谁将把信送给加西亚~
英文原文:
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 knew where. No mail or telegraph message could reach him. The
President must secure his coperation, 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 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 yound 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 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 rule; and no man succeeds, unless by hook or crook or threat he forces or bribes
other men to assist him; or mayhap, God in His goodness performs a miracle, and sends 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 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.
If men will not act for themselves, what will whey do when the benefit of their effort
is for all?
A firstmate 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 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 sweat-shop" 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-dowells to do intelligent work; and his long, patient striving after
"help" that does nothing but loaf when his back is 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 manage 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 reason, 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 succeeded, 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, quitely
take 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?
posted on 2009-11-26 08:24
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