Three Feet From Gold
R. U. Darby's uncle struck gold, borrowed heavily for machinery, then hit barren rock. They sold the equipment to a junk man and went home.
The junk man hired an engineer. The engineer calculated that the vein resumed three feet from where the Darbys had stopped drilling. He was right, and made millions from their hole.
“Before success comes in any man's life, he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat, and, perhaps, some failure.”
The cruelty of the story is that the Darbys were not lazy or foolish. They worked hard, invested real money, and quit on evidence — barren rock is evidence. They just quit on the wrong evidence, one step early.
Darby later said the lesson made him a fortune in insurance: he stopped taking the first no as the final answer.
Move the quitting line
Decide the stopping rule before you start
Set the condition for quitting in advance — a date, a number of attempts, a specific disproof. Then discouragement can't set it for you mid-dig.
- What would genuinely disprove this?
- How many attempts have I actually made?
Get an expert before you sell the machinery
The Darbys had no one to ask. When you hit rock, buy one hour of someone who has drilled this seam before — the cheapest three feet you'll ever pay for.
Go three feet further than feels reasonable
When you decide to stop, make one more attempt past the decision. Do it deliberately, as policy, on everything that matters.
One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when overtaken by temporary defeat.