Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Can You Carry a Message to Garcia?

Episode Date: November 28, 2019

How often do you hear sympathies these days for the “downtrodden, exploited, and underpaid” common folk, along with harsh, condemning words for those people with any measure of financial success? Well, it’s very true that there are criminals operating in the largest corporations, the highest levels of Wall Street, and our government that make the robber barons of the past look like noble saviors, and I hope to see them put in prison one day, where they belong. Crony capitalism is a travesty of free market capitalism and is to blame for much of the inequity we see in today's society. That said, that condemnation doesn't apply to the average rich person, who is simply a small business owner that worked his or her ass off to build a team of people that sell and deliver valuable products and services that others need and want. Only a small fraction of the "1%" are the problem. Many of the "downtrodden" avoid this reality and instead try to place the responsibility of their failures at the feet of the generalized "rich," but there's a cold, hard fact they don't want to face: They are unsuccessful because they can’t carry a message to Garcia. What the hell am I talking about? I’m talking about Elbert Hubbard’s famous short story, A Message to Garcia—a story that contains one of the most fundamental principles of success that I know. People who can carry a message to Garcia are a special breed. They're invaluable not only as workers, but as friends and, indeed, members of society. I guarantee you this: If you can simply carry a message to Garcia, you will always make money, always accomplish goals, and always be in demand. Think I’m overstating the issue? Listen to the short story in this podcast episode, and let me know what you think. It's short but powerful. Enjoy. --- Mentioned on The Show: Click Here to Shop Legion’s Black Friday Sale and Save Up to 30%! --- Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter! Click here: https://www.legionathletics.com/signup/

If you like what I'm doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, and if you want to help me do more of it, if you want to help me help more people get into the best shape of their lives too, please do consider supporting my sports nutrition company, Legion Athletics, which is currently holding its biggest sale of the year for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Now that means that for the next few days, you can save up to 30% on everything in our store over at www.legionathletics.com. That's L-E-G-I-O-N athletics.com, including our protein powders and our protein bars, our famous pre-workout supplement pulse, and our post-workout supplement recharge, our fat burners, our multivitamins, joint support fish oil, and more. And as you'll see when you head over to the website, everything in the store is currently marked down 5% to 15%. And when you enter the code BRIDAY19, numerals 19, at checkout, you'll save another 15%. And even better, if you're in the United States, your order is going to ship free.

And if you're not in the United States, your order is going to ship free if it is over $99. So again, if you appreciate my work and if you want to see more of it, please do support me so I can keep doing what I love, like producing more podcasts like this. To shop and save now, head over to www.LegionAthletics.com and use the code FRIDAY19 at checkout and you'll save up to 30% on your entire order. Hello and welcome to another episode of Muscle for Life. I'm Mike Matthews, and this episode is a chapter from a different audiobook of mine. People really liked the Weight Loss Plateau's chapter episode that I posted a few days ago. And so I thought I would share a different chapter from a different book. Now, this is a chapter called Can You Carry a Message to Garcia? And it is from a book that I published last year called The Little Black Book

of Workout Motivation, which has done very well. It's sold about 50,000 copies in its first year, which I'm excited about. That's definitely a good start considering that's kind of a niche book, something I did just for fun really because I found it interesting. I wasn't quite sure how it was going to be received, but it has been received quite well. It has sold well. It has gotten a lot of good reviews. And I wanted to share this chapter because I think it really captures the essence of what sets successful people apart from unsuccessful people. And I don't just mean that in terms of finances. I mean that in terms of being able to envision goals or desired outcomes in any area of life and then systematically go

about producing them, setting your mind on those things and persisting through whatever it takes to make those things happen. Those people are people you could say who know how to carry a message to Garcia. And that's what this chapter and what this episode is all about. I hope you like it. And if you do, you definitely are going to like the rest of the book, the little black book of workout motivation. And you can find it anywhere online where you buy books. You can also find it in, I think, 600 Barnes and Noble stores. Now my books are being carried in. And if you want the audio book in particular, you can find that over at Audible or iTunes, or of course, Amazon. Amazon is Audible, but some people buy their audiobooks on Amazon proper and some of them buy them on Audible.

All right. Well, here's the episode. I hope you like it. Chapter 8. Can you carry a message to Garcia? Today is victory over yourself of yesterday. Tomorrow is your victory over lesser men. Miyamoto Musashi. On February 22, 1899,

a businessman named Albert Hubbard sat down after a long trying day at work and in an hour scribbled an essay to vent his frustrations. The essay relates the quest of a lieutenant named Rowan, whom his son believed was the real hero of the Spanish-American War. If Rowan hadn't delivered a message to a general named Garcia, the son claimed, Teddy Roosevelt may never have charged his Rough Riders up the San Juan Hill and achieved fame and victory, and Cuba may never have achieved independence from Spain. Hubbard's article recounted Lieutenant Rowan's story and passionately argued that it's people like him who keep the motor of the world running. At the time, Hubbard published a small magazine called The Philistine,

and he thought so little of his Rowan commentary that he ran it without a heading. Soon after the edition went out, orders for more copies began to come in. And then more, larger orders began to come in. And then the American News Corporation requested 1,000 copies. Hubbard was flabbergasted at the unprecedented demand for his publication and asked his team which article had stirred the cosmic dust. It's the stuff about Garcia, one of his employees told him. The very next day, a telegram arrived at Hubbard's desk from an officer at the New York Central Railroad, asking for the price of 100,000 pamphlets of the Rowan article and how quickly they could be shipped. This turned into multiple editions of over 500,000 copies each,

and by 1913, millions of copies of what came to be known as a message to Garcia had been printed, and it had appeared in hundreds of magazines and newspapers, and been translated into scores of other languages. And it continues to sell to this very day. I want to share this 1,474 word article with you because I believe all of us should aspire to be the type of person who can carry a message to Garcia. A Message to Garcia by Albert Hubbard. 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 fastness of Cuba. No one knew where. No mail or telegraph could reach him. The president must secure his cooperation and quickly. What to do? Someone said to the president, there's a fellow by the name of Rowan. We'll find Garcia for you if anybody can. Rowan was sent for and given a letter to be delivered to Garcia. How the fellow by 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 having delivered his letter to Garcia, are things I have no special desire now to tell in detail. The point 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 in the land. It is not book learning young men need, nor instruction about this or that, but a stiffening of the vertebra, 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. Slipshot 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 your call. Summon anyone 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?

Shant I bring you the book and let you look it up yourself? What do you want to know for? And I will lay you 10 to 1 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 two other clerks to help him 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 sweetly and say, nevermind, and go look it up yourself. Hey, before we continue, if you like what I'm doing here on the podcast and elsewhere,

and if you want to help me help more people get into the best shape of their lives, please consider checking out my VIP one-on-one coaching service. Now, my team and I have helped thousands of people of all ages, circumstances, and needs. So no matter how complicated or maybe even hopeless you might think your situation is, we will figure out how to get you the results you want. Every diet and training program we create is 100% custom. We provide daily workout logs and we do weekly accountability calls. Our clients get priority email service as well as discounts on supplements and the list goes on and on. To learn more, just head over to legionathletics.com slash coaching. And if you like what you see, schedule your free consultation call. Now there's

normally a wait list to work with our coaches and new slots do fill up very quickly. So if this sounds even remotely interesting to you, head over to legionathletics.com slash coaching now and schedule your free consultation call. And let's see if our program is a good fit for you. And this incapacity for independent action, this moral stupidity, this infirmity of the will, this unwillingness to cheerfully catch hold and lift, are the things that put pure socialism so far into the future. If men will not act for themselves, what will they do when the benefit of their effort is for all? A first mate with knotted club seems necessary, and the dread of getting the bounce Saturday night holds many a worker in his place.

Advertise for a stenographer, and nine times 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? 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 to 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, 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 denizen of the sweatshop and the homeless wanderer searching for honest employment, 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-do-wells to do intelligent work, and his long patient striving with 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, this 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 to 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 No. 9 boot. Of course I know that one so morally deformed

is no less to be pitied than a physical cripple. But in your pitying, let us drop a tier or two 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 the line in 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 a day's wages, and I've also been an employer of labor, and I know there is something to be said on both sides. There is no excellence per se 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 home, and the man who, when given a letter for Garcia, quietly takes 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 strike for higher wages. Civilization is one long anxious search for just such individuals. Anything such a man asks will be granted. His kind is so rare that no employer can afford to let him go.

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. Something tells me this commentary wouldn't get many claps on Medium or retweets on Twitter. You might find it objectionable yourself, instinctively pushing back against its stark language and harsh tone. If that feels like you, I challenge you to not dismiss it just yet. First, consider this.

If you can carry a message to Garcia like Lieutenant Rowan did, you'll never want for work, praise, or achievement. If you can just do the thing, whatever it is, and whatever may come, employers will beg for you, peers will marvel at you, and posterity will remember you as someone cut from a different cloth. If you can carry a message to Garcia, you'll be the type of person who's reliable, responsible, and resolute. noise, but who can do the hard thinking and work required to, as Buckminster Fuller famously said, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. The type of person who has earned the right to be respected. Hubbard's essay also alludes to the fact that, like its delivery, the most effective people are very often rough around the edges, a little savage even. Not savage in the sense of evil or bullying, but in the sense of intense and aggressive. The influential psychologist William James once said that we are all ready to be savage in some

cause. The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause. Working out allows us to tap into this animalistic side. You have to be a little savage to push, pull, and squat crushing amounts of weight. You have to be a little fierce to go in for a wad that might leave your lunch on the floor. You have to be a little relentless to run until your lungs and legs are ablaze. It takes more than inspiration, motivation, and positivity to push our bodies to their limits. It takes ferocity. And that's also what it takes to carry a message to Garcia. This is why I often think about my relationship with savagery. I think about it when I'm waking up at 5.30am to train and then start my 10 plus hour workday. I think about it when I'm

doing bicycle sprints later that night, gasping for air. I think about it when I'm showering in ice cold water, when I'm crunched on a deadline, running on fumes, and even when I'm taking a breather, recovering for the next blitz. I think about savagery because in many competitions, you don't have to be the best to win. You just have to be harder to destroy. Do you know why bulldogs were such formidable opponents in 19th century dog fighting? It's not because they were the strongest or most agile or hostile of breeds, but because the extra fat and skin around their necks made it harder to rip their throats out. Other dogs had to work overtime to kill them. That's savage and illustrative. When you're indefatigable, when you can absorb a tremendous

number of blows to get into the pole position, and when you can learn to embrace and even crave that process, you're a savage. And while you may not win every tilt, you're going to bat a lot better than average. If you like what I'm doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, and if you want to help me do more of it, if you want to help me help more people get into the best shape of their lives too, please do consider supporting my sports nutrition company, Legion Athletics, which is currently holding its biggest sale of the year for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Now that means that for the next few days, you can save up to 30% on everything in our store over at www.legionathletics.com. That's L-E-G-I-O-N athletics.com, including our protein powders and our protein bars, our famous pre-workout supplement pulse, and our post-workout supplement recharge, our fat burners, our multivitamins, joint support, fish oil, and more. And as you'll see when you head over to the website, everything in the store is currently marked down 5% to 15%. And when you enter the code BRIDAY19, numerals 1-9, at checkout, you'll save another 15%. And even better,

if you're in the United States, your order is going to ship free. And if you're not in the United States, your order is going to ship free if it is over $99. So again, if you appreciate my work and if you want to see more of it, please do support me so I can keep doing what I love, like producing more podcasts like this. To shop and save now, head over to www.legionathletics.com, L-E-G-I-O-N athletics.com, and use the code FRIDAY19, numerals one nine at checkout, and you'll save up to 30% on your entire order. All right, well, that's it for today's episode. I hope you found it interesting and helpful. And if you did, and you don't mind

doing me a favor, could you please leave a quick review for the podcast on iTunes or wherever you are listening from? Because those reviews not only convince people that they should check out the show, they also increase the search visibility and help more people find their way to me and to the podcast and learn how to build their best body ever as well. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then simply subscribe to the podcast and whatever app you're using to listen. And you will not miss out on any of the new stuff that I have coming. And last, if you didn't like something about the show, then definitely shoot me an email at mike at muscle for life.com and share your thoughts. Let me know how you think I could do this better. I read every email myself and I'm always looking for

constructive feedback. All right. Thanks again for listening to this episode and I hope to hear from you soon.