Real Deal REInvestor Network

Dr. Russell Conwell’s Acres of Diamonds is a thought provoking book—full of valuable gems.  The story for which this book has become known is about a man that sells everything and travels the world in search of diamonds only to come up empty handed and eventually commit suicide.  While all along, the land that he sold and left to go on this search was full of some of the most valuable diamonds ever discovered.  There are “acres of diamonds” or opportunities all around each one of us.  The question is, “Do you see them?”  Are you even looking for them or have you convinced yourself that they are not there?

Or how about a more fundamental question, do you believe that it’s wrong to pursue wealth and opportunity?  Do you believe that only dishonest or greedy people are wealthy?  Dr. Conwell points out that ninety-eight percent of the rich in America are honest, and that is why they are rich.  That is why they can be trusted with money.  That is why they are able to build great businesses and have people lining up to work with them.  It is because they are honest.  

This statement by Dr. Conwell jumped out at me concerning honesty, “The man who goes home with the sense that he has stolen a dollar that day, that he has robbed a man of what was his honest due, is not going to sweet rest.  He arises tired in the morning, and goes with an unclean conscience to his work the next day.  He is not a successful man at all, although he may have laid up millions.  But the man who has gone through life dividing always with his fellow-men, making and demanding his own rights and his own profits, and giving to every other man his rights and profits, lives every day, and not only that, but it is the royal road to great wealth.  The history of the thousands of millionaires shows that to be the case.”

In a time where it’s considered taboo to discuss religion while conducting business, Dr. Conwell had this to say, “The man who says, ‘I cannot carry my religion into business’ advertises himself either as being an imbecile in business, or on the road to bankruptcy, or a thief, one of the three, sure.  He will fail within a very few years.”  He also discussed how some people attempting to be super spiritual believe that it is wrong to make any profit.  I liked his response to that line of thinking.  He said, “You cannot trust a man with money who cannot take care of his own.”  

Many people are convinced that if they just had some capital to start with that they would be able to seize opportunity.  Dr. Conwell warned that, “The moment a young man or woman gets more money than he or she has grown to by practical experience, that moment he has gotten a curse.  It is no help to a young man or woman to inherit money.  It is no help to your children to leave them money, but if you leave them education, if you leave them Christian and noble character, if you leave them a wide circle of friends, if you leave them an honorable name, it is far better than that they should have money.  It would be worse for them, worse for the nation, that they should have any money at all.  Oh, young man, if you have inherited money, don’t regard it as a help.  It will curse you through your years, and deprive you of the very best things of human life.  There is no class of people to be pitied so much as the inexperienced sons and daughters of the rich of our generation.  I pity the rich man’s son.  He can never know the best things in life…As a rule the rich men will not let their sons do the very thing that made them great.  As a rule, the rich man will not allow his son to work—and his mother!  Why, she would think it was a social disgrace if her poor, weak, little lily-fingered, sissy sort of a boy had to earn his living with honest toil.  I have no pity for such rich men’s sons.”  

What we all really need is common sense.  There truly are “acres of diamonds” available to each of us.  They key to finding them is to first find out what people need, and then find a way to meet that need.  Dr. Conwell shares the story of A.T. Stewart, a poor boy in New York with $1.50 to his name.  He lost 87.5 cents of that on his very first venture trying to sell things that people did not want.  He made up his mind not to do that again, so he decided to go door to door and ask people what they did want.  Then he took his findings and invested the remaining 62.5 cents in what was in demand.  This one principle allowed A.T. Stewart to grow his worth from $1.50 to $40 million.  If you know what people need, you are much closer to fortune than any amount of capital alone can bring you. 

To sum up the message of Acres of Diamonds, “If you wish to be great at all, you must begin where you are and what you are…He who would be great anywhere must first be great in his own town.”

Download and enjoy a free copy “Acres of Diamonds” here:

http://hisrealestatenetwork.com/Dr.-Russell-Conwell-Acres-of-Diamonds-Free-Ebook.pdf