Acres of Diamonds - An Abridged Motivational Classic

Russell Conwell was a Baptist minister, lawyer, writer, and outstanding orator. He is best remembered as the founder and first president of Temple University in Philadelphia PA, and for his lecture and book Acres of Diamonds. Acres of Diamonds originated as a speech which Conwell delivered over 6,000 times around the world; it was eventually published as delivered in Conwell's home town, Philadelphia. Conwell's was able to establish Temple University and fund his other civic projects largely derived from the income that he earned from this speech. Before movies, radio and TV, people would spend good money to be entertained for a few hours by a great orator or storyteller like Dickens or Twain or Conwell. He tells a story of taking a trip to Bagdad, where…

The old guide told me that there once lived not far from the River Indus an ancient Persian by the name of Ali Hafed. He said that Ali Hafed owned a very large farm, that he had orchards, grain-fields, and gardens; that he had money at interest, and was a wealthy and contented man. He was contented because he was wealthy, and wealthy because he was contented. One day there visited that old Persian farmer one of these ancient Buddhist priests, one of the wise men of the East… The old priest told Ali Hafed that if he had one diamond the size of his thumb he could purchase the county, and if he had a mine of diamonds he could place his children upon thrones through the influence of their great wealth. Ali Hafed heard all about diamonds, how much they were worth, and went to his bed that night a poor man. He had not lost anything, but he was poor because he was discontented, and discontented because he feared he was poor. He said, "I want a mine of diamonds," and he lay awake all night…

So he sold his farm, collected his money, left his family in charge of a neighbor, and away he went in search of diamonds… and at last when his money was all spent and he was in rags, wretchedness, and poverty, he stood on the shore of that bay… and the poor, afflicted, suffering, dying man could not resist the awful temptation to cast himself into that incoming tide, and he sank beneath its foaming crest, never to rise in this life again.

…A few days later this same old priest came in to visit Ali Hafed's successor, and the moment he opened that drawing-room door he saw that flash of light on the mantel, and he rushed up to it, and shouted: "Here is a diamond! Has Ali Hafed returned?" "Oh no, Ali Hafed has not returned, and that is not a diamond. That is nothing but a stone we found right out here in our own garden." "But," said the priest, "I tell you I know a diamond when I see it. I know positively that is a diamond."

…"Had Ali Hafed remained at home and dug in his own cellar, or underneath his own wheat-fields, or in his own garden, instead of wretchedness, starvation, and death by suicide in a strange land, he would have had 'acres of diamonds.' For every acre of that old farm, yes, every shovelful, afterward revealed gems which since have decorated the crowns of monarchs."

Now, I was born in Philly, moved to Jersey, got married and moved back to Philly, moved back to Jersey, worked (taught) in Philly and ended up back in Jersey. So I know Philly can be a tough town, famous for its “attytude” and for being hard on itself. So it interested me when Conwell, himself a converted “Philly Guy,” said:

…I say to you that you have "acres of diamonds" in Philadelphia right where you now live. "Oh," but you will say, "you cannot know much about your city if you think there are any 'acres of diamonds' here."

…I have come now to the apex of my thought. I have come now to the heart of the whole matter and to the center of my struggle: Why isn't Philadelphia a greater city in its greater wealth? Why does New York excel Philadelphia? People say, "Because of her harbor." Why do many other cities of the United States get ahead of Philadelphia now? There is only one answer, and that is because our own people talk down their own city. If there ever was a community on earth that has to be forced ahead, it is the city of Philadelphia. If we are to have a boulevard, talk it down; if we are going to have better schools, talk them down; if you wish to have wise legislation, talk it down; talk all the proposed improvements down. That is the only great wrong that I can lay at the feet of the magnificent Philadelphia that has been so universally kind to me. I say it is time we turn around in our city and begin to talk up the things that are in our city, and begin to set them before the world as the people of Chicago, New York, St. Louis, and San Francisco do. Oh, if we only could get that spirit out among our people, that we can do things in Philadelphia and do them well!

Conwell gave this speech all over the country and adapted it to the various cities in which he spoke. But what he said was probably never truer than in Philadelphia. But, like any great orator or writer or entertainer, he saved his greatest truth for the end:

…Greatness consists not in the holding of some future office, but really consists in doing great deeds with little means and the accomplishment of vast purposes from the private ranks of life. To be great at all one must be great here, now, in Philadelphia. He who can give to this city better streets and better sidewalks, better schools and more colleges, more happiness and more civilization, more of God, he will be great anywhere. Let every man or woman here, if you never hear me again, remember this, that if you wish to be great at all, you must begin where you are and what you are, in Philadelphia, now. He that can give to his city any blessing, he who can be a good citizen while he lives here, he that can make better homes, he that can be a blessing whether he works in the shop or sits behind the counter or keeps house, whatever be his life, he who would be great anywhere must first be great in his own Philadelphia.

…or Trenton, or Newark, or even Nutley! Everywhere there are “Acres of Diamonds!”

And as Buckaroo Banzai told us, “Wherever you go, there you are.”