Acres of Diamonds

In the book Acres of Diamonds, author Russell Conwell tells one of the most famous stories in the world. You can hear and read Conwell’s speech here.

If you’re not familiar with this book, it tells the story of Ali Hafed, a wealthy Persian farmer. Ali Hafed was living his dream life on his own farm until he was visited by a Buddhist priest. The priest told him that with a handful of diamonds, instead of a farm, he could own his very own country.

That night Al Hafed went to bed restless. Despite his wealth, he suddenly felt poor. The next day, Ali hurried back to the priest who told him about these diamonds and asked him where he could find them. The priest told Ali if he could find a river that runs through white sands, between high mountains, in those white sands he would always find diamonds.

With these instructions in mind, Ali sold his farm and all of his possessions and went in search of diamonds. His search lasted four years. He found nothing. Penniless, ragged, and wretched, Ali couldn’t take it anymore and threw himself into the ocean off the coast of Spain…and committed suicide.

But that’s not the end of the story.

The man who purchased Ali’s farm had a life-changing experience of his own. One day, while leading his camel out for a drink, he noticed a flash of light from the white sands of the stream on his property. Investigating further, that flash of light turned out to be a diamond barely visible above the dirt. When he got his plow and started to dig further, he discovered an entire acre of diamonds – all right in Al Hafed’s backyard! He later turned the farm into the Kimberly Diamond Mine, one of the richest mines in the world.

The obvious tragedy of this story is that the original farmer, Ali was literally standing on his own “acres of diamonds” until he sold his farm.

Are you standing on your own acres of diamonds?