Prophetic words, those. In his book, Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill tells a tale of Mr. Darby who tried to start a gold mine and gave up just three feet short of the gold! He gave up on his dream just three feet away from a rich gold mine. Just three feet.
I ran into trouble myself a couple of times in getting my online business up and running. Last summer, I started off with running an ad campaign that bombed! Sure, anyone who’s done any marketing has had that happen. No big deal, right? Not so for me, that campaign cost me the last of my start-up money. Now I had a business and no money to promote it. Many would have no doubt given up right there. I didn’t. I knew I would make it eventually, in spite of this temporary setback.
I persisted. Then I came into a new source of financing, and a scam artist who took half that money from me. Many would have quite there. Not me. I persisted. Then, just 3 weeks after severing all ties with the scamer, I got a paying client. If I’d quit with that scam, I’d have had my own 3 feet short of gold sob story. In my case three weeks short of gold. Instead I persisted. Now I’m now getting clients starting to show up, getting my own sales system on the eve of release and that client? He wants me to do more work for him.
That’s what following Henry Ward Beecher’s advice will get you. The last three feet, the last three weeks (in my case), or the last disappointment before the successes start to roll in.
So no matter what you’re doing, as long as you believe you will succeed, have that burning desire to succeed and have the persistence to keep going despite the bitter disappointments and setbacks, you will achieve what you seek to achieve.
Oh, and about Mr. Darby? He learned his lesson and went on to become one of the most successful insurance salesmen of his time. Ne never again made the mistake of stopping three feet short of gold again.
