Three Feet from Gold

The fable, Three Feet from Gold , reiterates the timeless lessons
taught by Napoleon Hill. Its title, Three Feet from Gold, comes from a
story told in the first chapter of Hill's classic. As Hill tells the
story, "An uncle of my friend R. U. Darby was caught by 'gold fever'
and he went west to Colorado to dig and grow rich. He had never heard
that more gold has been mined from the thoughts of men than has ever
been taken from the earth."

The uncle did find gold. He rushed home to tell about his good
fortune. After gathering funds and assistance from his family,
friends, and neighbors, he returned to his claim to mine the fortunes
that lay beneath the surface.

"Down went the drills. Up went the hopes. . ." Unfortunately, the gold
disappeared. Darby and his uncle continued, desperately, to dig,
attempting to pick up the vein again, but to no avail. The uncle was
soon overwhelmed with frustration and quit working the claim.

Defeated, they sold the machinery to a local junk man for a few
hundred dollars and took the next train heading east.

Realizing the mine had once produced treasure, the junk man sought the
counsel of a local engineer. The engineer explained how the fault line
can separate a vein of gold. He suggested that if the junk man
returned to the mine and dug a mere three feet from where the first
discovery was made, he would find more precious ore.

With pick in hand, the junk man followed the expert's advice and hit
one of the greatest gold stores the nation has ever seen.

In Hill's words, "The junkman took millions of dollars in ore from the
mine because he knew enough to seek expert counsel before giving up."

Darby eventually recovered from his own losses from the mine bust, but
he did not forget about the huge fortune he and his uncle had missed
simply because they gave up too soon and didn't seek expert advice.
Darby said, "I stopped three feet from gold, but I will never stop
because men say no when I ask them to buy insurance."

Darby ended up selling over a million dollars in life insurance each
year for most of his career. He realized that before one can succeed,
he or she will face defeat, even failure. Most people quit, but the
truly successful push past defeat to realize their dreams.

Taking to heart the lesson that "more gold has been mined from the
thoughts of men than has ever been take from the earth,"