The Acres of Diamonds story ”a true one” is told of an African farmer
who heard tales about other farmers who had made millions by
discovering diamond mines. These tales so excited the farmer that he
could hardly wait to sell his farm and go prospecting for diamonds
himself. He sold the farm and spent the rest of his life wandering the
African continent searching unsuccessfully for the gleaming gems that
brought such high prices on the markets of the world. Finally, worn out
and in a fit of despondency, he threw himself into a river and drowned.
Meanwhile, the man who had bought his farm happened to be crossing
the small stream on the property one day, when suddenly there was a
bright flash of blue and red light from the stream bottom. He bent down
and picked up a stone. It was a good-sized stone, and admiring it, he
brought it home and put it on his fireplace mantel as an interesting
curiosity.
Several weeks later a visitor picked up the stone, looked closely at
it, hefted it in his hand, and nearly fainted. He asked the farmer if he
knew what he’d found. When the farmer said, no, that he thought it was a
piece of crystal, the visitor told him he had found one of the largest
diamonds ever discovered. The farmer had trouble believing that. He told
the man that his creek was full of such stones, not all as large as the
one on the mantel, but sprinkled generously throughout the creek
bottom.
The farm the first farmer had sold, so that he might find a diamond
mine, turned out to be one of the most productive diamond mines on the
entire African continent.The first farmer had owned, free and clear …
acres of diamonds. But he had sold them for practically nothing, in
order to look for them elsewhere. The moral is clear: If the first
farmer had only taken the time to study and prepare himself to learn
what diamonds looked like in their rough state, and to thoroughly
explore the property he had before looking elsewhere, all of his wildest
dreams would have come true.
The thing about this story that has so profoundly affected millions
of people is the idea that each of us is, at this very moment, standing
in the middle of our own acres of diamonds. If we had only had the
wisdom and patience to intelligently and effectively explore the work in
which we’re now engaged, to explore ourselves, we would most likely
find the riches we seek, whether they be financial or intangible or
both.
Before you go running off to what you think are greener pastures,
make sure that your own is not just as green or perhaps even greener.
It
has been said that if the other guy’s pasture appears to be greener
than ours, it’s quite possible that it’s getting better care. Besides, while you’re looking at other pastures, other people are looking at yours.
A man I knew in Arizona began with a small gas station. One day,
while one of his young attendants filled a man’s gas tank, he watched
the customer while he stood about waiting for the job to be finished. It
dawned upon him that the man had money in his pockets and there were
things he needed or wanted that he would pay for if they were
conveniently displayed where he could see them.
So he began adding things. Fishing tackle, then fishing licenses,
hunting and camping equipment, rifles, shot guns, ammunition, hunting
licenses. He found an excellent line of aluminum fishing boats and
trailers. He began buying up the contiguous property around him. Then he
added an auto parts department. He always sold cold soft drinks and
candy, but now he added an excellent line of chocolates in a
refrigerated case. Before long, he sold more chocolates than anyone else
in the state. He carried thousands of things his customers could buy
while waiting for their cars to be serviced.
All the products he sold also guaranteed that most of the gas
customers in town would come to his station. He sold more gas. He began
cashing checks on Friday, and his sales grew. It all started with a man
with a human brain watching a customer standing around with money in his
pockets and nothing to spend it on. Others would have lived and died
with the small service station, and they do. My friend saw the diamonds.
Many service station operators, upon seeing a wealthy customer drive in, might say to themselves,
I ought to be in his business.
Not so. There’s just as much opportunity in one business as another, if
we’ll only stop playing copycat and begin to think creatively, in new
directions. It’s there, believe me. And it’s your job to find it.
Take the time to stand off and look at your work as a stranger might and ask,
Why does he do it that way? Has he noticed how what he’s doing might be capitalized upon or multiplied?
If you’re happy with things as they are, then by all means, keep them
that way. But there’s great fun in finding diamonds hiding in ourselves
and in our work. We never get bored or blasé or find ourselves in a
rut. A rut, remember, is really nothing more than a grave with the ends
kicked out. Some of the most interesting businesses in the world grew
out of what was originally a very small idea in a very small area. If
something is needed in one town, then the chances are it’s also needed
in all towns and cities all over the country.
You might also ask yourself,
How good am I at what I’m presently doing?
Do you know all there is to know about your work? Would you call
yourself a first-class professional at your work? How would your work
stand up against the work of others in your line?
The first thing we need to do to become a “diamond miner” is to break
away from the crowd and quit assuming that because people in the
millions are living that way, it must be the best way. It is not the
best way. It’s the average way. The people going the best way are way
out in front. They’re so far ahead of the crowd you can’t even see their
dust anymore. These are the people who live and work on the leading
edge, the cutting edge, and they mark the way for all the rest.
It takes imagination, curious imagination, to know that diamonds
don’t look like cut and polished gemstones in their rough state, nor
does a pile of iron ore look like stainless steel. To prospect your own
acres of diamonds, develop a faculty we might call “intelligent
objectivity.” The faculty to stand off and look at your work as a person
from Mars might look at it. Within the framework of what industry or
profession does your job fall? Isn’t it time for a refreshing change of
some kind? How can the customer be given more value? Each morning ask
yourself,
How can I increase my service today? There are rare and
very marketable diamonds lurking all around me. Have I been looking for
them? Have I examined every facet of my work and of the industry or
profession in which it has its life?
There are better ways to do what you are presently doing. What are
they? How will your work be performed 20 years from now? Everything in
the world is in a state of evolution and improvement. How could you do
today what would eventually be done anyway?
Sure there’s risk involved; there’s no growth of any kind without
risk. We start running risks when we get out of bed in the morning.
Risks are good for us. They bring out the best that’s in us. They
brighten the eye and get the mind cooking. They quicken the step and put
a new shining look on our days. Human beings should never be settled.
It’s okay for chickens and cows and cats, but it’s wrong for human
beings. People start to die when they become settled. We need to keep
things stirred up.
Back in 1931, Lloyd C. Douglas, the world-famous novelist who wrote
The Robe, Magnificent Obsession,
and other bestselling books, wrote a magazine article titled “Escape.”
In that article Douglas asked, “Who of us has not at some time toyed
briefly with the temptation to run away? If all the people who have
given that idea the temporary hospitality of their imagination were to
have acted upon it, few would be living at their present addresses. And
of the small minority who did carry the impulse into effect, it’s
doubtful if many ever disengaged themselves as completely as they had
hoped from the problems that hurled them forth. More often than
otherwise, it may be surmised, they packed up their troubles in their
old kit bags and took them along.”
The point of the article was simply, don’t try to run away from your
troubles. Overcome them. Prevail right where you are. What we’re really
after is not escape from our complexities and frustrations, but a
triumph over them. And one of the best ways to accomplish that is to get
on course and stay there. Restate and reaffirm your goal, the thing you
want most to do, the place in life you want most to reach. See it
clearly in your mind’s eye just as you can envision the airport in Los
Angeles when you board your plane in New York. Like a great ship in a
storm, just keep your heading and your engines running. The storm will
pass, although sometimes it seems that it never will. One bright morning
you’ll find yourself passing the harbor light. Then you can give a big
sigh of relief and rest a while, and almost before you know it, you’ll
find your eyes turning seaward again. You’ll think of a new harbor you’d
like to visit, a new voyage upon which to embark. And once again,
you’ll set out.
That’s just the way this funny-looking, two-legged, curious,
imaginative, tinkering, fiddling dreamer called a human being operates.
He escapes from problems not by running away from them, but by
overcoming them. And no sooner does he overcome one set of problems, but
he starts looking around for new and more difficult pickles to get into
and out of.
If you feel like running away from it all once in a while, you’re
perfectly normal. If you stay and get rid of your problems by working
your way through them, you’re a success. Start taking an hour a day with
a legal pad and dissect your work. Take it apart and look at its
constituent parts. There’s opportunity there. That’s your acre of
diamonds.
DIAMOND MINING
To prospect your own acres of diamonds and unearth the
opportunities that exist in your life right now, regularly challenge
yourself with some key questions:
- How good am I at what I’m presently doing?
- Can I call myself a first-class professional at my work?
- How would my work stand up against the work of others in my field?
- Do I know all I can about my industry or profession?
- How can the customer be given a better break?
- How can I increase my service?
- There are rare and very marketable diamonds lurking all
around me. Have I been looking for them? Have I examined every facet of
my work and of the industry or profession in which it has its life?
- There are better ways to do what I’m presently doing. What are they?
- How will my work be performed 20 years from now?
- Everything in the world is in a state of evolution and improvement. How can I do now what will eventually be done anyway?
