THREE FEET FROM GOLD
Pic.: Bhushan Thakkar
“Never make a major decision in a valley.”
From the book ‘Three Feet from Gold’ by Sharon L. Lachter
and Greg S. Reid with Napoleon Hill Foundation.
When our chips are down – when we stand and
stare from the bottom of our valleys -
everything around us looks gloomy and insurmountable to us…
The time when we
are overwhelmed by fear or grief is the worst time to take any major decision
for our lives… We need to stand there, mustering all the courage we can, and
allow the time to heal us… the fear to dissolve, the grief to pass… Yes, we
should wait for the Sun to emerge from the dark clouds…
And, no one knew
this truth better than Napoleon Hill did. The time was during ‘The Great
Depression’. People, all over the world, particularly in America, had
hit the rock bottom of their lives… They had lost every penny they possessed,
and they were throwing themselves out to their building windows with no hope of
a future… It was during this time, that Napoleon Hill came out with his famous philosophy
of power of human mind – of desire, faith, decision, persistence, imagination
and Master Mind Alliance – and, inspired millions of people not to give up
hope, not to take major decisions of their lives when they stood at the pits of
their lives…
Yes, the time
when we find ourselves in our deep valleys is the time to cool off, to hold on
there and see things in fresh perspectives… Hope, always, hides itself
behind the dark clouds – despair, frustration, fear and grief. It rewards every
soul who waits… yes, a little longer… Yes, most often, we are just ‘three feet from
the gold’ we seek… And, quitting from there can be one of life’s greatest
tragedies and regrets!
Teaching us the
priceless lesson on ‘Persistence’, Napoleon Hill shares in ‘Think & Grow
Rich’ the story of U.R. Darby, who made millions in selling insurance in America. But,
the stupendous success of Darby had come from one of the hardest lessons he had
learnt while he was still young.
During the ‘Gold
Rush’ in California, Darby’s uncle, too, was
caught by the great gold fever, and, accompanied by his young nephew, had gone
to ‘dig’ gold in California.
His uncle borrowed huge sums of money for equipment and machinery needed to
mine gold. They were happy to find gold and, with that, they paid off their
debt. And, suddenly, the gold disappeared! They dug more and more and more, but
in vain. It seemed, it was all over… and, the mine had gone dry. Frustrated and
crestfallen, Darby’s uncle took the major decision: to sell off the equipment
and machinery to a junk-man and return home!
The junk-man,
who happened to be a smart-man, hired an expert to study the mine. The expert
pointed that, just three feet from where Darby’s uncle had stopped lay gold worth
billions of dollars!
So, the legend
has it that the junk-man took home those billions just by digging out three feet
from the quitting point of Darbys!
For young Darby,
it was a lesson worth far more than that billion-dollar-worth gold. For, later,
as he went into the business of selling insurance, he would never stop when he
heard 'No' from a client… He would refuse to believe that the mine was dry. Yes,
he knew that the gold lay just three feet from ‘No’!
Let me conclude
with another gem from the great treasure of Napoleon Hill:
More
gold has been mined from the thoughts of men
than has ever been taken from the earth.
Let’s not quit, dear friends… No, not when we are
at the pit of our valleys!
GERALD D’CUNHA
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