There is a famous story about a man by the name of R.U. Darby. Mr. Darby got caught up in gold rush fever back during the famous gold rush of the mid 19th century. He borrowed money from friends and relatives to purchase mining equipment to take his haul of gold in Colorado. His promise was that he would pay back every penny with interest. Sure enough, he began mining gold and was really killing it, until he wasn’t any longer. Inextricably, the gold just stopped. After several tries, he finally gave up surmising that there was no more gold in them there hills. He sold his equipment to a junk man for $100 and went back home with his tail between his legs telling of his failure (the good news is he ultimately paid everyone back as he promised, due to a successful career as an insurance salesman).
The junk man realized his own limitations in mining and hired an engineer to figure out why Darby’s haul suddenly stopped. The engineer discovered that Darby hit a fault line and that he should go around the three-foot wide gap. He promised there would be more gold to be mined. Sure enough, the engineer was right and the junk man brought forth one of the biggest hauls in Colorado mining history! You can read the full account of this story in Napoleon Hill’s classic work Think and Grow Rich.
The question is how many times have you stopped three feet short of your gold mine? How many times have you given up just before your breakthrough was about to manifest? I know it’s difficult—it’s supposed to be! I know you can’t see it working like you expect it to work—that doesn’t mean it’s not working! Give that flywheel enough time to gain the proper momentum so that it spins furiously without your effort any longer.
Do not quit three feet short of your goal.