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Here’s an extract from Napoleon Hill’s famous classic “Think and Grow Rich.” A common cause of failure is the habit of quitting, when one faces defeat. An uncle of R. U. Darby was caught by the gold-rush. After weeks of labor in his gold mine, he found gold! He would not just clear his debt but would make a killing in profits. Down went the drills! Up went the hopes! Then something happened! The vein of gold ore (narrow gold lines in the rock) disappeared! They kept drilling to pick the vein again but to no avail. Finally, they QUIT, sold the machinery to a junk man and went home. The junk man was smart. He called an engineer who said the vein is just 3 feet from where they had stopped drilling! That’s exactly where it was found! The junk man made his millions. When defeat overtakes, the easiest thing to do is to quit. The most successful men told the author that their greatest success came just one step from the point where defeat had overtaken them. Failure is a trickster with a keen sense of irony. It takes great delight in tripping when success is within reach.

 We have heard several stock market success stories as well as several failures. The stock market gave each one the same opportunity but the key difference between the two is this- ‘Winners never quit and quitters never win.’ Many of these quitters were just ‘3 feet away from gold.’ Investing is closely connected to greed and fear and many succumb to these emotions. Here is a nice proverb to sum up, ‘Life is like a grindstone: whether it grinds you down or polishes you up depends on what you are made of.’