Keep Going for the Gold

"Failure is often that early morning hour of darkness
which precedes the dawning of the day of success.”
–Leigh Mitchell Hodges

In Issue #193

Editor’s Note: A while back, we shared with you that our weekly discourses on our lessons, challenges, and successes have taught us as much as what we have passed on to our readers. Based on the responses we have gotten from you, we know that you also learn a lot from other CP readers.

So, first of all, we want to take a moment to thank all of you who have taken the time—and, in some cases, summoned the courage—to share your experiences with us. We really do appreciate it. Second, we’re ready for more of your stories, so please keep your submissions coming to admin@copyprotege.com. (Remember, there’s no pay available upon publication, but there is lots of glory—including a link to your website and/or your email address! So start writing!)

Keep Going for the Gold
by Krista Jones

As I was doing research for a project I’m currently working on, I came across the following story in Think and Grow Rich:

Back in the 1800s, a man got caught up in "gold fever" and went west to search for his fortune. He staked a claim in Colorado, and went to work with a pick and shovel. The going was hard, but his lust for gold was strong.

After weeks of back-breaking labor, he discovered what he was looking for—shining ore! He knew his pick and shovel was no longer going to cut it; he needed machinery to bring the ore to the surface.

He covered up the mine, and returned to his home in Williamsburg, Maryland, to tell his relatives and a few neighbors of the strike. They came up with enough money for the needed machinery, had it shipped, and the man and his nephew went back to work the mine.

The first car of ore was mined, and shipped to a smelter. The returns proved they had one of the richest mines in Colorado! A few more cars of that ore would clear their debts and then they’d make a big killing in profits.

Down went the drills; up went the hopes of the man and his nephew. And then something horrible happened: The vein of gold ore disappeared!

No! Both men were frantic and they drilled on, desperately trying to pick up the vein again. They came up empty; the vein had dried up.

Finally, they decided to quit. They sold the machinery to a junk man for a few hundred dollars, and took the train back home.

Interestingly, the junk man didn’t give up. He called in a mining engineer to look at the mine and whip up some calculations. The engineer concluded that the project had failed because the original “owners” were not familiar with fault lines. His calculations showed that the vein would be found only three feet from where the others had stopped drilling!

That is exactly where the junk man found the vein of gold. And he took millions of dollars in ore from the mine.

Wow…this story made me wonder how many times I’ve quit when success was so close.

Maybe it was the time I gave up on a pet-sitting business that my partner and I had grown to over 125 clients in a matter of months. The business was growing steadily, but we were tired. So we quit instead of figuring out how to build and manage the business successfully.

Or perhaps it was the time I bailed out of an environmental consulting business I had started with four other partners a month before the company landed a big government contract we had been pursuing.

Of course, it could have been when I turned down an “A List” direct marketing client that offered me a second, juicier assignment after I had done  really well on my first project with them. I told them that I was too busy to accept the assignment, but the truth is, I didn’t know how to grow into the opportunity.

Here’s one thing you can be sure of: Anyone who sets out to achieve anything worthwhile in life will face some sort of a challenge when they are only “three feet from the gold.” Unaware of how close they are to success – most will abandon all hope and quit, just before reaching their goal.

Maybe you’re at this point right now.

Whether you’re at it now or you reach it at some point down the road, I hope you’ll keep this in mind…

500 of the wealthiest people in America told Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich) their biggest success and achievements in life came right after they were completely overwhelmed by failure.

Most people shrink from failure; some grow because of it. Which will you do?

Resource Referral: One Way to Beat Failure

One way to keep failure at bay is to do your homework before you take action. Instead of accepting that there was no more gold in the vein, the “junk” man in the story above did a very wise thing. He consulted an expert who did some research. That research led to the junk man making millions of dollars!

You already know that doing research and coming up with great ideas is critical for breakthrough copywriting, marketing concepts, and business ideas. Of course, there are people out there who specialize in doing research, but now you don’t have to hire one of them to find breakthrough ideas for you.

Maybe I’m biased, but I believe Copy Protégé’s e-book Finding the World’s Best Ideas: How to Access More Than $100,000 Worth of Intelligence for as Little as 55 Cents a Day! will help you do incredible research come up with one breakthrough idea after another.

Written by professional researcher Richard Conero, Finding the World’s Best Ideas teaches you to…

Monica and I have both learned an incredible amount from Richard and are indebted to him for letting us all in on his powerful secrets. We hope you feel the same way.

Click here to download Finding the World’s Best Ideas: How to Access More Than $100,000 Worth of Intelligence for as Little as 55 Cents a Day!

We’ll send you two bonus reports as well:

We’ve already collected several great testimonials, but we would love to know what you think—the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Of course, the program comes with a guarantee. If you’re not convinced it will help you find powerful big ideas, return it any time in the next 30 days and we’ll graciously return your money.

We think this is the advanced guidance you need to take your research to a new level. We hope you agree.

Reader Feedback: Ideas for Where You Can Find a Timer

Thanks for all of the feedback last week about finding and using a timer to track the hours you spent on projects. You’ll be glad to know that Tina, an Australian-based CP reader, did some research and came up with a few companies that might be able to help you if you’re looking for a timer.

Here’s Tina’s note:

I was very interested in your timer / logger. I thought that surely there must be something out there that could be used just as well so I did an online search & came up with these possibilities;

Even though I clicked "search the web", most of these companies seem to be Australian based but maybe you could find ones based in the USA.

Thanks so much, Tina!