Back in the year 1843, a man was born who, during his
lifetime was to have a profound effect on literally millions of people. His
name was Russell Herman Conwell. He became a lawyer, then a newspaper editor,
and finally a clergyman in 1881. It was during this latter period that an
incident occurred which was to change his life and the lives of countless
others. One day a group of boys came to Dr. Conwell and his church and asked
him if he would be willing to instruct them in college courses. They wanted a
college education but lacked the money to attend. He told them he’d do all he
could and as the boys left, a thought, an idea began forming in Dr. Conwell’s
mind. He asked himself, “Why couldn’t there be a fine college for poor but
deserving young men?” It was a great idea and he went on to work on it at once.
Almost singlehandedly, Dr. Conwell raised between six and eight million dollars
with which he found with the now well- known Temple University of Philadelphia.
It was how he raised this money that I want to tell you about. He raised the money
by giving lectures all over the country, more than 6 thousand of them. And in
each he told a story called, “Acres of Diamonds”. This was a true story which
have affected him very deeply just as it affected his audiences.
It was a story of a farmer who had settled in Africa. This
farmer had heard the exciting stories about the African settlers who had made
millions by discovering diamond mines. Realizing the African continent was rich
in diamonds, the farmer could hardly wait to sell his farm and search for
diamonds himself. He spent the rest of his life wandering the vast African
continent searching for the gleaming gems which brought such high prices on the
markets of the world, but without success. Finally, in the sudden pit of
despondency, broke and desperate as I remember the story, he threw himself into
a river and drowned. During this time, the man who had bought his farm, one day
found a large and unusual stone in the stream which cut through the property.
It turned out to be a great diamond of enormous value. And then he discovered
that his farm was covered with them. It has become one of the world’s richest
diamond mines. Now the first farmer had owned literally acres of diamonds but
had sold them for practically nothing in order to look for them elsewhere. If he
had only taken the time and studied to know what diamonds looked like in their
rough state and at first thoroughly explored the land he had owned, he would
have had the millions he sought, right on the land he had been living upon.
What so profoundly affected Dr. Conwell and subsequently
thousands of others was the obvious fact that each of us is at this moment is
standing in the middle of his own acres of diamonds. If we will only have the
wisdom and patience to intelligently and effectively explore the work in which
we are now engaged, we will usually find that it contains the riches we seek
whether they be financial or intangible or both. Before we go running off to
what we think are “greener pastures” let’s make sure that our own is not just
as green or perhaps even greener. While we’re looking at other pastures, other
people are looking at ours.
There’s nothing more pitiful to my mind than a person who
wastes his life running from one thing to another like the first farmer - forever
looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and never staying with
one thing long enough to find it. For no matter what your goal may be, the road
to it can be found somewhere in the work in which you now find yourself. It was
not until he was completely paralyzed, for example, and was forced to reach
into the resources of his mind, that a Wisconsin farmer got the idea of
producing exceptionally good meat products on his farm and one of the country’s
largest meat packing companies was born. His farm contained acres of diamonds
too he had just never seen them before. A paper salesman found a dirty drinking
glass in his hotel room and gave his company the idea of manufacturing paper
cups, an idea that solved his financial problems for life. An insurance man got
the idea of going back to all the people in his files and really “working” with
them, serving them the way they should be served. That year, he wrote an
additional 700 thousand dollars of insurance, made the million dollar
roundtable, and found he no longer had to approach cold prospects, that by
working with the people he had already sold and on their referrals, he had acres
of diamonds right in his filing cabinet. A man out west amassed a fortune with
a single small gas station. In the beginning when things were tough, he would
ask himself each morning, “What can I do to increase my service to my
customers?”, he still asks that question of himself each morning when he gets
up and when he could have retired years ago, a wealthy man, he continues to
dominate the business in his area by thinking of new and better ways to be of
service. You know what the so- called average man would have done in this last
case? He would have been worried about how bad business was because at the
beginning my friend had a hard time just feeding his family. When one day a man
would have driven in his station with a big shiny car, this average man seeing
the wealthy customer would have said to himself “I want to be in his business
instead of mine.” You see the average man believes some businesses are better
than others instead of realizing the truth that there are no bad businesses,
there are just those people who do not know enough to see the opportunities in
the work they are in. Jobs don’t have futures, people do. No matter what our
work happens to be it is our business, we are it’s manager, if we can see no
future or opportunity in it, it isn’t because it is not there but only because
we can’t see it. One time another farmer poked a tiny pumpkin into an empty one
gallon jug. The pumpkin grew until it completely filled the jug and it could
grow no more. When it was ripe, the
farmer broke the glass jug and had a pumpkin which he assumed the jug’s exact
shape. In life, each of us does the similar thing, we poke ourselves into jugs
of our own deciding and we can grow no larger. But let’s be mature enough to
realize, that it is “we” who do the poking. Not the job, nor the company, nor
the territory, nor the economy, nor the times. We do it. We should dispense with
limitations and realize there is virtually no limit to our growth and
development on the land on which we now find ourselves. Above all, keep this
thought in mind as often as you can on and off the job. Somewhere within the
work you are now doing, there are lurks and opportunities that will bring you
everything that you could possibly want for yourself and your family.
In
closing, here are 12 points to remember:
1.
If we will develop the wisdom and patience to
intelligently and effectively explore the work in which we are now engaged we
will find it contains the riches tangible and intangible we seek.
2.
Before we go running off to what we think are
greener pastures, let’s realize our own pasture is unlimited.
3.
That there are no bad jobs but it is in the way
in which we go about our work which makes it good or bad.
4.
That we poke ourselves into jugs beyond which we
cannot grow. Let’s remove the limitations we have set upon ourselves.
5.
That only preparation can ensure our taking
advantage of the opportunities which will present themselves in the future.
Opportunities which are around us now.
6.
Put your
imagination to work on the many ways and means of improving in what you are now
doing.
7.
Learn all you can about your job, your company,
and your industry.
8.
Since there is no limit to the growth of your
industry, it must follow that there is similarly no limit in your growth potential
within that industry.
9.
Our dynamic and growing economy needs and will
well reward the uncommon man who seeks a place in this growth.
10.
Begin to build your library of reference
material pertaining to your company, industry, job, and on how to better serve
and get along with people.
11.
Set aside an hour a day for this study and
research.
12.
Remember the story of, “Acres of Diamonds”.
Sir Earl Nightingale, thank you.
