Michael K Houser's Blog

During the California gold rush R. U. Darby, a gold prospector, helped his uncle mine a vein of gold that his relative had discovered. It appeared at first that they had a prosperous find. Yet the vein soon disappeared, and Darby and his uncle searched frantically for the spot where it continued. Finally, they concluded their prospects were hopeless and sold their equipment to a junk dealer for a couple of hundred bucks.

The junk dealer consulted an engineer, who looked at the mine and did a little calculating. The engineer advised that the project failed because Darby and his Uncle were not familiar with “fault lines” in the earth’s core. The junk dealer quickly discovered the vein of gold just three feet from where Darby and his uncle had stopped digging and went on to make millions from the ore.

This story (which is illustrated in the classic Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill) points out how important battles in life are often won by persistence. It reminds us that we can give up on a goal too easily and are sometimes much closer to hitting our mark than we realize.

Recently Greg Reid and Sharon Lechter released a book named “Three Feet From Gold” and held a seminar in Anaheim last weekend at The Grove. The event was fantastic and feature several speakers who had overcame similar events as R.U Darby in their life.