A Message to Garcia

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A Message to Garcia A story on Initiative Commitment to taking initiative is simpler than people make it out to be. Success is up to you and anyone else who wants it. All you have to do is commit to taking the initiative for your own success. I am the only one who can make me a success. You are the only one who can make you a success. Taking initiative means recognizing that you are responsible for your life and the choices you make. It means that you realize that while other people and events have an impact on your life, these people and events don’t shape your life. When you accept personal responsibility, you own up to the fact that how you react to people and events is what’s important. And you can choose how to react to every person you meet and everything that happens to you. A Message to Garcia is a story about an incident in the Spanish American War in 1898. Garcia had been fighting the Spanish for Cuban independence and wanted American help. An American officer by the name of Andrew Rowan was chosen to hand deliver “a message to Garcia”. He asked no questions and requested no help – and he accomplished his mission. The story asks the reader to apply this attitude to his or her own life as a gateway to success. Its “don’t ask questions, get the job done” message was often used by business leaders as a motivational message to their employees in the early part of the 20th Century. It was given to soldiers in both world wars, and often memorized by school children. I find A Message to Garcia to be a great story on the importance of committing to taking personal responsibility for your life and career. I can definitely apply this story to my college career. In high school I was a so-so student and never really applied myself. When I started my first semester of college, reality truly hit. I realized that after failing a class that I really

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