According to Napoleon Hill’s classic Think and Grow Rich, a man named R. U. Darby and his uncle were caught up in the gold rush’s “gold fever.”.
As soon as they shipped their first car of ore to the smelter, they realized they had found one of Colorado’s richest gold deposits. Excitedly, they continued digging, but the ore vein disappeared.
After repeatedly digging, they failed to find the vein again, so they gave up and sold their equipment.
The man who bought the machinery realized random digging was not the best way to find the vein. He called in a mining engineer and had him make some calculations.
What contributed to Darby and his uncle’s failure was their lack of knowledge about “fault lines” and their neglect to consider alternatives. With his expert knowledge, the engineer was able to predict that the vein of gold could be found three feet from where the Darbys quit digging, and that’s exactly where it was.
Millions of dollars worth of gold were pulled from the mine by the man who decided to not accept easy defeat and to bring in someone else who had specialized knowledge he didn’t.
In this case, success is often just beyond what seems to be your greatest obstacle.
Welcome failure and use it as a measuring stick.
When you’ve been defeated, look for a lesson to learn. What do you need to change in your approach, your mindset, and your environment?
Using a modern day example, I’ve been working with a personal trainer for several months. During our first few sessions, he asked me to do what I thought was completely unrealistic.
I would have allowed temporary defeat and a limited mindset to keep me at the level I had set for myself. he thought bigger and taught me techniques that allowed me to push harder.
I translated this lesson into my business thinking and ask that you consider it as well.
The only limits are those you create in your mind. Defeat is merely a produced result. Measure the result, change your approach and continue in your efforts.
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