Only Three Feet From The Gold…

“One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat. Every person is guilty of this mistake at one time or another. An uncle of R. U. Darby was caught by the “gold fever” in the gold-rush days, and went west to DIG AND GROW RICH. He had never heard that more gold has been mined from the brains of men than has ever been taken from the earth. He staked a claim and went to work with pick and shovel. The going was hard, but his lust for gold was definite.

After weeks of labor, he was rewarded by the discovery of the shining ore. He needed machinery to bring the ore to the surface. Quietly, he covered up the mine, retraced his footsteps to his home in Williamsburg, Maryland, told his relatives and a few neighbors of the “strike.” They got together money for the needed machinery, had it shipped. The uncle and Darby went back to work the mine.

The first car of ore was mined, and shipped to a smelter. The returns proved they had one of the richest mines in Colorado! A few more cars of that ore would clear the debts. Then would come the big killing in profits.

Down went the drills! Up went the hopes of Darby and Uncle! Then something happened! The vein of gold ore disappeared! They had come to the end of the rainbow, and the pot of gold was no longer there! They drilled on, desperately trying to pick up the vein again-all to no avail.

Finally, they decided to QUIT. They sold the machinery to a junk man for a few hundred dollars, and took the train back home. Some “junk” men are dumb, but not this one! He called in a mining engineer to look at the mine and do a little calculating. The engineer advised that the project had failed, because the owners were not familiar with “fault lines.” His calculations showed that the vein would be found JUST THREE FEET FROM WHERE THE DARBYS HAD STOPPED DRILLING! That is exactly where it was found!

The “Junk” man took millions of dollars in ore from the mine, because he knew enough to seek expert counsel before giving up. Most of the money which went into the machinery was procured through the efforts of R. U. Darby, who was then a very young man. The money came from his relatives and neighbors, because of their faith in him. He paid back every dollar of it, although he was years in doing.

Long afterward, Mr. Darby recouped his loss many times over, when he made the discovery that DESIRE can be transmuted into gold. The discovery came after he went into the business of selling life insurance.

Remembering that he lost a huge fortune, because he STOPPED three feet from gold, Darby profited by the experience in his chosen work, by the simple method of saying to himself, “I stopped three feet from gold, but I will never stop because men say `no’ when I ask them to buy insurance.”

Darby is one of a small group of fewer than fifty men who sell more than a million dollars in life insurance annually. He owes his “stickability” to the lesson he learned from his “quitability” in the gold mining business.”

Successful people meet with a lot of temporary failure and defeat before they reach success. The easiest thing to do when you feel defeated is to quit and the majority of people do.

Mr Carnegie interviewed over 500 of this country’s most successful men in the course of 32 years to write his book. He said that their greatest success came just a step after they had experienced complete defeat.

Failure is a consistent enemy that does not give up; he discourages and tricks and badgers a person until they either give in or get their second wind and go on to victory.

The difference in those who succeed and those who fail is that those who succeed never give up or never quit until they reach their goals.The road to success is filled with failure.  Those who realize success bear the battle scars of defeat, failure and rejection but they have the determination to forge on, and it is that kind of fortitude that finally brings them to where they want to be.

The reason why most struggle their entire life hopping from one thing to another is because they have a weak determination and give up the first hint of defeat. Many of the divorces today are because people give up the first time a problem appears. Good marriages are built on overcoming problem after problem until there is an everlasting bond between the couple.

If you would like to read more of Napoleon Hill’s book “Think and grow rich” you can get your own free electronic copy without opting in. Click Here (Think and Grow Rich is now in public domain)


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Who Is Jimmie Burroughs? Jimmie Burroughs has been involved in teaching Personal Development off and on for more than 30 years. He is a dedicated believer in Jesus Christ and considers helping others his calling in life.

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