Review: A Message to Garcia and other essential writings on success.

This is a short read, barely more than a pamphlet really and proclaims itself as a candidate for the most widely distributed piece of literature within the author's lifetime.

"Fear is the rock on which we split"

Elbert Hubbard

Viewed more than a century on, the message of quiet initiative remains relevant - even if the central story, that of a soldier in the Spanish-American war entrusted with a mission to deliver a message to someone of unknown location, has long disappeared into historical exaggeration.

"We are gods in the chrysalis". 

Elbert Hubbard

His other essays continue the theme, and it's clear Hubbard has no time for idleness among the rich or poor.

"If the concern where you are employed is all wrong, and the Old Man a curmudgeon, it may be well for you to go to the Old Man and confidentially, quietly and kindly tell him that he is a curmudgeon. Explain to him that his policy is absurd and preposterous. Then show him how to reform his ways, and you might offer to take charge of the concern and cleanse it of its secret faults. Do this, or if for any reason you should prefer not, then take your choice of these: Get Out, or Get in Line."

Elbert Hubbard

With its extortions to be radio-active(!) and avoid attacks of cerebral elephantiasis (big headedness), I'm left with the impression that the author would have been amusing and eccentric company by today's standards.

Verdict: Humour and poetic turn of phrase lifts this early self-help pamphlet.