Are You Just Three Feet From Your Gold?

 

Many people know of the parable of the junk man that struck gold from "Think and Grow Rich", by Napoleon Hill. If you don’t, it is recounted below in the call out. Even though Hill’s book is decades old, this business mindset is timeless. You can have all of the drive, skills, funding, and know-how, but there is always someone who knows more than you in specific areas. When you encounter roadblocks take the time to consult an expert.

So many soloprenuers fall into this trap, just like the novice miner. At one point in time you were finding success doing everything on your own. But, there comes a tipping point when you no longer able to scale yourself in order to be able to serve your clients and customers in the manner you (and they) are accustomed to – not to mention suffering relationships with family and friends.  So please don’t give up as the miner did. Continue down the planned path after consulting with an expert or authority in the area that is giving you trouble.

It is my hope that you follow the way of the junk man. He knew enough to know what he didn’t know. He added an engineer to his team and was able to break through to success with minimal headache and effort.   I’m ready to work with more innovative junk men and women that need an administrative expert to move to the next level.

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.