Mining for Gold
By Chad Hufford from Mindset Matters blog;
used with permission
According to a
Barrick Gold publication in which they looked at production values for several
different mines, anywhere from 2 to 90 tons of rock was excavated for every
ounce of gold produced. Some mines had better production efficiency than
others, but if we just take an average there, we are looking at over 45 tons of
rock dug out for a single ounce of the shiny stuff. That means out of
everything harvested, less than one ten-thousandths of a percent was actually
what they were targeting. Over 99.9999% of what they mined was worthless.
Yet, all over the world, billions of dollars are spent each year in the mining
and exploration of gold. Why? Because the payoff is worth it and sometimes you have to
dig through a lot of junk to find the gold.
These
companies understand the numbers and realize the only way to find more gold is
to dig through more useless rock. The more gravel, dirt and stone they
excavate, the closer they are to the next ounce of precious metal. As
individuals though, we miss this. We want to hit gold every time. If we have a
few shovels full of dirt and rocks and no treasure, we want to quit and dig
somewhere else. Or we complain our shovel is too small. Or give up all
together.
A miner
accepts the fact huge amounts of rubble come with every tiny bit of gold. We
need to take this lesson and apply it to life. We must be okay with digging through tons
of failure for every ounce of success because that precious nugget
far outweighs what we dug through to get it. We must realize the only way to
come up with a great idea is to wade through mounds of bad ones. This picture
doesn’t work as well anymore with the implementation of computers, but remember
seeing renditions of a writer or poet sitting at a desk with a mountain of
crumpled up papers in the corner and a small manuscript in her hand? All those
discarded attempts were the rocks and rubble she had to excavate to produce the
gold she now holds.
Every
advancement, new concept or breakthrough lies within layers of dirt and dross.
Most attempts will not strike gold, but you must believe every shovel full of rocks brings you
just a little bit closer to success. The
more dirt you move, the more gold you’ll find. So just keep digging.
…
We must realize the only way to come up with a great
idea is to wade through mounds of bad ones.
…
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