Three Feet From Gold.

There is a story told by Napoleon Hill of an uncle of R. U. Darby who was caught by the “gold rush” in the gold rush days, and went west to dig and grow riche had never heard that more gold has been mined from the thoughts of men than has ever been taken from the earth. He staked a claim and went to work with pick and shovel.

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, and had it shipped. The uncle and Darby went back to the mine.

The first car of ore was mined and shipped to the 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 killings 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 vain again – all to no again.

Finally, they decided to Quit.

They sold the machinery to a junk man for a few hundred dollars, and took the train back home. The junk man 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 vain would be found just "Three Feet" from where the Darbys had stopped drilling! That is exactly where it was found.

This junk man took millions of dollars in ore from the mine because he knew enough to seek expert counsel before giving up. Never stop because some people say “No.” Profit by the experience but never stop because of circumstances.
Before success comes in any person’s life, he is sure to meet some obstacles or temporary defeats and perhaps some failures.

One of the most universal causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat. Every one of us is guilty of this mistake at one time or another.

When defeat overtakes man, the easiest and most logical thing to do is to quit. That is what the majority of us do.
But success comes just one step beyond the point at which defeat had overtaken you. Sometimes failure takes great delight in tripping one when success is almost with in reach.

Do not quit! You are just three feet away from your break-through.