Acres of Diamonds

An excerpt from the bestseller
“How to Completely Change Your Life in 30 Seconds”
By Robert C. Worstell - edited from the talks of
Earl Nightingale
Listen Now: http://livesensical.com/go/23cyl-ss/

Acres of Diamonds - 1
Every kind of work has enormous opportunity lurking
within it. The opportunities are there now, clamoring to be
noticed. But they cannot speak or print signs for us to read.
Our part of the bargain is to look at our work with
“intelligent objectivity”. If we have the wisdom and patience
to intelligently, effectively explore the work in which we're
now engaged, to explore ourselves, we would most likely
find the riches we seek.
The story - a true one - is told of an African farmer who
heard tales about other farmers who had made millions by
discovering diamond mines. These tales so excited the
farmer that he could hardly wait to sell his farm and go
prospecting for diamonds himself. He sold the farm and
spent the rest of his life wandering the African continent
searching unsuccessfully for the gleaming gems that
brought such high prices on the markets of the world.
Finally, worn out and in a fit of despondency, he threw
himself into a river and drowned.
Meanwhile, the man who had bought his farm happened to
be crossing the small stream on the property one day, when
suddenly there was a bright flash of blue and red light from
the stream bottom. He bent down and picked up a stone. It
was a good-sized stone, and admiring it, he brought it home
and put it on his fireplace mantel as an interesting curiosity.
Several weeks later a visitor picked up the stone, looked
closely at it, hefted it in his hand, and nearly fainted. He
asked the farmer if he knew what he'd found. When the
farmer said, no, that he thought it was a piece of crystal, the
visitor told him he had found one of the largest diamonds
ever discovered. The farmer had trouble believing that. He
told the man that his creek was full of such stones, not all as
large as the one on the mantel, but sprinkled generously
throughout the creek bottom.

The farm the first farmer had sold, so that he might find a
diamond mine, turned out to be one of the most productive
diamond mines on the entire African continent. The first
farmer had owned, free and clear … acres of diamonds. But
he had sold them for practically nothing, in order to look for
them elsewhere. The moral is clear: If the first farmer had
only taken the time to study and prepare himself to learn
what diamonds looked like in their rough state, and to
thoroughly explore the property he had before looking
elsewhere, all of his wildest dreams would have come true.
The thing about this story that has so profoundly affected
millions of people is the idea that each of us is, at this very
moment, standing in the middle of our own acres of
diamonds. If we had only had the wisdom and patience to
intelligently and effectively explore the work in which
we're now engaged, to explore ourselves, we would most
likely find the riches we seek, whether they be financial or
intangible or both.
Before you go running off to what you think are greener
pastures, make sure that your own is not just as green or
perhaps even greener. It has been said that if the other guy's
pasture appears to be greener than ours, it's quite possible
that it's getting better care. Besides, while you're looking at
other pastures, other people are looking at yours.
A man I knew in Arizona began with a small gas station.
One day, while one of his young attendants filled a man's
gas tank, he watched the customer while he stood about
waiting for the job to be finished. It dawned upon him that
the man had money in his pockets and there were things he
needed or wanted that he would pay for if they were
conveniently displayed where he could see them.
Report excerpted from How to Completely Change
Your Life in 30 Seconds

So he began adding things. Fishing tackle, then fishing
licenses, hunting and camping equipment, rifles, shot guns,
ammunition, hunting licenses. He found an excellent line of
aluminum fishing boats and trailers. He began buying up
the contiguous property around him. Then he added an
auto parts department. He always sold cold soft drinks and
candy, but now he added an excellent line of chocolates in a
refrigerated case. Before long, he sold more chocolates than
anyone else in the state. He carried thousands of things his
customers could buy while waiting for their cars to be
serviced.
All the products he sold also guaranteed that most of the gas
customers in town would come to his station. He sold more
gas. He began cashing checks on Friday, and his sales grew.
It all started with a man with a human brain watching a
customer standing around with money in his pockets and
nothing to spend it on. Others would have lived and died
with the small service station, and they do. My friend saw
the diamonds.
Many service station operators, upon seeing a wealthy
customer drive in, might say to themselves, I ought to be in
his business. Not so. There's just as much opportunity in
one business as another, if we'll only stop playing copycat
and begin to think creatively, in new directions. It's there,
believe me. And it's your job to find it.
Take the time to stand off and look at your work as a
stranger might and ask, Why does he do it that way? Has he
noticed how what he's doing might be capitalized upon or
multiplied? If you're happy with things as they are, then by
all means, keep them that way. But there's great fun in
finding diamonds hiding in ourselves and in our work. We
never get bored or blasé or find ourselves in a rut. A rut,

remember, is really nothing more than a grave with the
ends kicked out. Some of the most interesting businesses in
the world grew out of what was originally a very small
idea in a very small area. If something is needed in one
town, then the chances are it's also needed in all towns and
cities all over the country.
You might also ask yourself, How good am I at what I'm
presently doing? Do you know all there is to know about
your work? Would you call yourself a first-class professional
at your work? How would your work stand up against the
work of others in your line?
The first thing we need to do to become a “diamond miner”
is to break away from the crowd and quit assuming that
because people in the millions are living that way, it must be
the best way. It is not the best way. It's the average way. The
people going the best way are way out in front. They're so
far ahead of the crowd you can't even see their dust
anymore. These are the people who live and work on the
leading edge, the cutting edge, and they mark the way for all
the rest.
It takes imagination, curious imagination, to know that
diamonds don't look like cut and polished gemstones in
their rough state, nor does a pile of iron ore look like
stainless steel. To prospect your own acres of diamonds,
develop a faculty we might call “intelligent objectivity.”
The faculty to stand off and look at your work as a person
from Mars might look at it. Within the framework of what
industry or profession does your job fall? Isn't it time for a
refreshing change of some kind? How can the customer be
given more value? Each morning ask yourself, How can I
increase my service today? There are rare and very

marketable diamonds lurking all around me. Have I been
looking for them? Have I examined every facet of my work
and of the industry or profession in which it has its life?
There are better ways to do what you are presently doing.
What are they? How will your work be performed 20 years
from now? Everything in the world is in a state of evolution
and improvement. How could you do today what would
eventually be done anyway?
Sure there's risk involved; there's no growth of any kind
without risk. We start running risks when we get out of bed
in the morning. Risks are good for us. They bring out the
best that's in us. They brighten the eye and get the mind
cooking. They quicken the step and put a new shining look
on our days. Human beings should never be settled. It's
okay for chickens and cows and cats, but it's wrong for
human beings. People start to die when they become
settled. We need to keep things stirred up.
Back in 1931, Lloyd C. Douglas, the world-famous novelist
who wrote The Robe, Magnificent Obsession, and other
best-selling books, wrote a magazine article titled “Escape.”
In that article Douglas asked, “Who of us has not at some
time toyed briefly with the temptation to run away? If all
the people who have given that idea the temporary
hospitality of their imagination were to have acted upon it,
few would be living at their present addresses. And of the
small minority who did carry the impulse into effect, it's
doubtful if many ever disengaged themselves as completely
as they had hoped from the problems that hurled them
forth. More often than otherwise, it may be surmised, they
packed up their troubles in their old kit bags and took them
along.”
The point of the article was simply, don't try to run away
from your troubles. Overcome them. Prevail right where

you are. What we're really after is not escape from our
complexities and frustrations, but a triumph over them.
And one of the best ways to accomplish that is to get on
course and stay there. Restate and reaffirm your goal, the
thing you want most to do, the place in life you want most to
reach. See it clearly in your mind's eye just as you can
envision the airport in Los Angeles when you board your
plane in New York. Like a great ship in a storm, just keep
your heading and your engines running. The storm will
pass, although sometimes it seems that it never will. One
bright morning you'll find yourself passing the harbor light.
Then you can give a big sigh of relief and rest a while, and
almost before you know it, you'll find your eyes turning
seaward again. You'll think of a new harbor you'd like to
visit, a new voyage upon which to embark. And once again,
you'll set out.
That's just the way this funny-looking, two-legged, curious,
imaginative, tinkering, fiddling dreamer called a human
being operates. He escapes from problems not by running
away from them, but by overcoming them. And no sooner
does he overcome one set of problems, but he starts looking
around for new and more difficult pickles to get into and
out of.
If you feel like running away from it all once in a while,
you're perfectly normal. If you stay and get rid of your
problems by working your way through them, you're a
success. Start taking an hour a day with a legal pad and
dissect your work. Take it apart and look at its constituent
parts. There's opportunity there. That's your acre of
diamonds.

DIAMOND MINING
To prospect your own acres of diamonds and unearth the
opportunities that exist in your life right now, regularly
challenge yourself with some key questions:
• How good am I at what I'm presently doing?
• Can I call myself a first-class professional at my
work?
• How would my work stand up against the work of
others in my field?
• Do I know all I can about my industry or profession?
• How can the customer be given a better break?
• How can I increase my service?
• There are rare and very marketable diamonds
lurking all around me. Have I been looking for them?
• Have I examined every facet of my work and of the
industry or profession in which it has its life?
• There are better ways to do what I'm presently doing.
What are they?
• How will my work be performed 20 years from now?

• Everything in the world is in a state of evolution and
improvement. How can I do now what will eventually
be done anyway?

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