There was once a wealthy man named Ali Hafed who lived not far from the River Indus. “He was contented because he was wealthy, and wealthy because he was contented.” One day a priest visited Ali Hafed and told him about diamonds.
Ali Hafed heard all about Diamonds, how much they were worth, and went to his bed that night a poor man. He had not lost anything, but he was poor because he was discontented, and discontented because he feared he was poor.
Ali Hafed sold his farm, left his family, and traveled to Palestine and then to Europe searching for diamonds. He did not find them. His health and his wealth failed him. Dejected, he cast himself into the sea.
One day, the man who had purchased Ali Hafed’s farm found a curious sparkling stone in a stream that cut through his land. It was a diamond. Digging produced more diamonds — acres of diamonds, in fact. This, according to the parable, was the discovery of the famed diamonds of “Golconda”.
Ali Hafed had owned literally acres of diamonds but had sold them for practically nothing in order to look them for elsewhere. If he had only taken the time to study and prepare himself to learn what diamond looks like in their rough state and at first thoroughly explored the land he owned he would have found the millions he sought right on his own property.
The point of the story is that “each of us is at this moment standing in the middle of his own acres of diamonds”.
If we will only have the wisdom and patience to intelligently and effectively explore the work in which now we engaged we’ll usually find that it contains the riches we seek. Whether they be financial or intangible or both. There’s nothing more pitiful than the person who wastes his life running from one thing to another forever looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and never staying with one thing long enough to find it.
No matter what your goal may be perhaps the road to it can be found in the very thing in which you’re now engaged. The average man believes some businesses are better than others instead of realizing the truth that there are no bad businesses there are just those people who don’t know enough to see the opportunities in the work they’re in.
No matter what our work happens to be it’s our business, we’re the manager if there seems to be no future or opportunity in it, it isn’t always because it’s not there but perhaps only because we can’t see it. Great opportunities are available in every day of our work in which we now find ourselves.
In order to begin prospecting your acres of diamonds develop a skill called “intelligent objectivity – the ability to stand off and look at your job as a stranger might”.
Over a century ago, Russell Conwell was famous for his traveling lecture in which he encouraged listeners to find the “acres of diamonds” in their own backyards. For more such inspiring stories, do recommend reading his book “Acres of Diamonds”.
