DURING THE GOLD rush days in Colorado, a man named R.U. Darby and his uncle went west in search of gold…
With only a pick and a shovel, they dug and dug until they finally struck the shiny gold ore. But they needed specialized machinery to bring the gold to the surface. They quietly buried their small mine and went back east to Williamsburg, Maryland and told a few relatives and neighbors of their find. They convinced them to invest and loan them the money they needed to buy the equipment and have it shipped to the mine.
They brought up the first car of ore and shipped it to the smelter. The results showed that they had one of the richest mines ever found in Colorado. A few more cars of this gold would pay their debts and then they could start reaping enormous profits. But then tragedy struck. The vein of gold disappeared. They searched and searched — desperate to pick up the vein of gold again. But no luck. They continued drilling in vain and after a few more weeks of frustration, they gave up. They sold the machinery to a junk man for a few hundred dollars and took the train back home.
In the meantime, the junk man called a mining engineer to look at the mine. The engineer took some calculations and concluded that the project had failed because the owners were not familiar with “fault lines.” The junk man took over drilling and found the vein of gold within three feet of where the Darbys had stopped drilling. The mine turned out to be one of the biggest gold mines ever discovered in Colorado.
Thomas Edison wrote, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” When you quit, you create a permanent solution to a temporary problem. When you quit, you guarantee the result you fear most — that you won’t succeed. The fact is, success makes all your suffering count for something. Turn your pain into a purpose. Daniel R. Castro, “Heroes Focus on the Purpose on the Other Side of Pain,” Critical Choices, 87-88
“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” Galatians 6:9
Mike Benson