Acres of Diamonds on the Soles of My Shoes

There is a famous speech and book by a man named Russell Conwell called "Acres of Diamonds."

Read it here.

Seriously.

Gary North has been recommending it to his readers for years. Many times over the past months I've gone to the page with the text of the speech and printed it even but had never previously read it. Today I did. Thank goodness.

You should read it too.

Here is my favorite paragraph (emphasis mine):

• Are you poor? It is because you are not wanted and are left on your own hands. There was the great lesson. Apply it whichever way you will it comes to every single person's life, young or old. He did not know what people needed, and consequently bought something they didn't want, and had the goods left on his hands a dead loss. A. T. Stewart learned there the great lesson of his mercantile life and said "I will never buy anything more until I first learn what the people want; then I'll make the purchase." He went around to the doors and asked them what they did want, and when he found out what they wanted, he invested his sixty-two and a half cents and began to supply a "known demand." I care not what your profession or occupation in life may be; I care not whether you are a lawyer, a doctor, a housekeeper, teacher or whatever else, the principle is precisely the same. We must know what the world needs first and then invest ourselves to supply that need, and success is almost certain.

That is the truth.

Live your life according to that principle and you can achieve Holy Crikey Bonkers Mania.