This story takes place during the Colorado Gold Rush. The story is about a guy called Darcy who lived in Williamsburg in Maryland. And Darcy’s uncle went off to the Colorado gold rush and staked his claim. His uncle was a really hard worker, with a pick and a shovel he toiled for weeks and weeks and weeks and eventually he started to find a bit of gold. He dug a bit more and found that there was quite a bit of gold so he figured that he was on a very rich seam of gold. So, he carefully covered up what he’d done and he trekked back to Williamsburg in Maryland and he told a few relatives and very close friends that he’d found the big one. And on the basis of his assurances they raised a significant amount of money. They bought a bunch of mining equipment and shipped it out to Colorado and set it up and they started drilling and mining and they filled a cart of iron ore, with gold. So, in the first few weeks they found an enormous amount of gold and they’d hit it big but there was nowhere enough to pay off the money they’d borrowed. But they realised with a lot of hard work they would soon pay off their debts then huge profits would follow. But then after a few weeks the gold completely dried up. There was no more gold coming out of that mine at all but they were convinced there was gold still there so they kept digging, they kept mining, they kept drilling. They kept going and they kept pouring more and more money in to keep the mine going and to continue to pay of the equipment they’d bought. And they probably got to the stage where they probably should have given up but they did not give up. They couldn’t give up, because they’d gone to their friends and relatives to raise the money and they had to go back and face these people so they kept going. They were hard workers and they kept digging and they kept drilling until eventually they just had to admit defeat. There was no more gold. Imagine the heart-wrenching decision they had to make so they were able to sell a whole bunch of the equipment to an old junk dealer and they got back on the train, tails between their legs and went back to Williamsburg. Now the junk dealer was actually very smart and he thought, ‘what if I get some expert help?’ So, he went and got a mining engineer and asked the mining engineer to do an assessment of the lease. The mining engineer said, “These guys didn’t fail because of their lack of hard work or anything; they failed because they just didn’t understand fault lines and how gold seams operate. The gold will be less than three feet from where they are currently digging”. And so, the junk guy started up the machinery, just changed the direction a little bit, dug for three feet and struck one of the richest seams of the Colorado gold rush. He made millions. Such an enriching story! Business Points ( Tags ) #nevergiveup #Persevere #persist #smartwork #hardwork
