The lessons from ‘acres of diamonds’
The classic ‘Acres of diamonds’
The classic book ‘Aces of diamonds is a wonderful book that teaches great lessons. Russell H Conwell was born in 1843 in Worthington, USA and died in 1925, but his books continues to inspires us, even today. He was a lawyer and a church minister. He would be remembered for his speech that was later turned into a book titled ‘The Acres of Diamonds’.
The book was about being rich and knowing where to look for our wealth or at least knowing what our wealth is. Most of us search everywhere in search of wealth, we travel wide and far looking for our golden nuggets when in fact, we could literally be sitting on our own pot of gold.
The lesson
This was the story of a farmer who was happy, rich and contented until he was told that if only he could find diamonds he would be rich enough to own a country. After that he became disgruntled. He wanted to have enough money to buy a whole country. So, he sold his farm and began his search for diamonds. On his journey looking for diamonds, he travelled across the world. he never found the diamond, he became broke, unhappy, disillusioned and finally killed himself.
In the meantime, the buyer of his farm later found diamonds on the same farm that he sold, worth millions of dollars. If only he looked hard in his own backyard. He did not need to travel to find the diamonds, he had diamonds within his grasps all the while. The lesson is to look for our diamonds closer home.
The Brilliant man
The next story in the book was that of a brilliant man who sold his farm and took his mother in his quest to find gold. An expert in soil science, he never thought of exploring his own farm for the gold he desperately wanted. He never found the gold he travelled far and wide to find. The new buyer of the farm though found gold on the same land. This is the irony of life. We sometimes have talents that we overlook in search of things outside of our reach. We should look deeper and focus on the things that are second nature to us.
Life can be about playing to our strengths and being contented with what we have rather than the fruitless search for what others believe to be the real gold.
The love of diamonds
Gold or diamonds are completely useless on their own, except people are willing to buy them. Oil has been underground for hundreds of years until the invention of machines and vehicles.
Wealth itself is useless unless it provides a service for others. We need to find out what people want and serve them. We can get wealthy anywhere, any age and anytime, by satisfying people’s needs. In some cases, by observing them and what brings them discomfort. We are the great inventors of our lives.
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