Acres of Diamonds...

By: Tom Allinder
June 6, 2008

I am often told that I am too upbeat, too positive and in a good mood too often by some of the people I work with. I trade stocks on the OTCBB and Pink Sheets and I provide services for companies that are publicly traded as well. The market environment has been tough for many months now. Many people have told me that things are so difficult that they are going to go and find something else to do. Sometimes I have agreed with them and have had my own doubts. But, for the most part I am positive on the market because no matter what, there are always stocks that are performing well in spite of all that is said.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to look for some inspiration. I had become so busy over the last few months that I didn’t take time to work on myself. I believe that working on some sort of personal development for an hour a day is absolutely the best investment I can make in myself. It is the best way to ward off negativity by far! So, late at night for these last two weeks, I have spent an hour or more working on inspirational and idea provoking personal development material. It helps to keep my personal awareness level for ideas high; It makes me more aware of the signs of something new that might work.


Where are The Diamonds?

On two occasions during the previous two weeks, I have run across references to Russell Herman Conwell’s book Acres of Diamonds. Mr. Conwell was an American Baptist minister, lawyer, writer, and outstanding orator. He is best remembered as the founder and first president of Temple University in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. He is equally remembered for his lectures and of course, his book Acres of Diamonds. I am not going to re-write the whole book for the sake of making a point but, I am going to paraphrase, truncate and condense the story for the reader:

Once in a land far away, there was a man with a ranch. He made a decent living for himself and his family but was by no means wealthy. One day, he heard that people were getting rich finding diamonds. He got an idea; he would look for diamonds! He would become fantastically wealthy! He decided that he would go look for diamonds. He sold his ranch quickly for something less than the full market value and left his family under the care of a neighbor and embarked on his journey to find diamonds.

Sometime later, the new owner of the ranch was crossing a stream on the property and saw an odd looking stone. He picked it up and brought it back to the house and put it on the fireplace mantle. A few weeks later a visitor spotted the stone and picked it up. The visitor’s eyes grew wide; he asked the owner where he had found this stone. The new owner said “There are lots of them in the stream on the property.” The visitor’s eyes grew even bigger. “Do you know what this is?” The new ranch owner said no. “It is one of the biggest diamonds I have ever seen!” his visitor said enthusiastically. The rancher said “But it looks like just a stone with some quartz in it to me.” His visitor agreed but said that to the untrained eye, a diamond in its natural state looks ordinary.

Long story short: The new owner became incredibly wealthy because of the diamonds on the property that he had purchased from the man that had sold the ranch to him and hurried off to look for diamonds elsewhere. The previous owner never found the diamonds he was seeking and was so despondent that he eventually threw himself into a river and drowned.

Many of The Answers Lie Within

Acres of Diamonds is more than just a neat story; the point of the story applies everywhere. Many company officials that I speak to are looking for the answers to their problems in the marketplace everywhere except within themselves. They often tell me that they need help; they need an external influence to help them realize the value that they have; they need an outside entity to fix everything. Many CEOs and other company officials are racing around every day working very hard. Many of them are frustrated because they don’t see the results they expect in the market.

If you continue to do what you have always done you will continue to get what you always got.

Every week I talk to CEOs that are miffed with the fact that no one seems to know about their company no matter what they do; no one will buy the stock. They can’t raise any money because the stock has no volume on it. They often say it’s because the market is bad or people don’t understand their business or a combination of the two with a few more reasons thrown in for good measure.
Then why not try something new? How about starting from within? Why not start looking for the diamonds within the company? Look and take stock of what products and/or services that the company provides. Is there a better way to increase production and sales? Is there a better way to communicate with the investment community?

But there is more to it than that. Many company officials are very close to their own business; they understand their business completely and are passionate about it. But, a company’s management only sees from the inside out; from their own perspective. Often times a company’s management will get together and puzzle over why their products and services are not being received well. They will puzzle as to why their news releases and other forms of communication create no excitement in the marketplace.

Several things that beg attention are: Looking inside the company and finding ways that things can get done better, faster and more profitably. Would the company benefit from improved communication from within? How is the company perceived in the investment community?

I asked one individual earlier this week that has been in the business of taking companies public as well as running publicly traded companies if there was any sort of corporate coaching or development going on anywhere in the OTCBB and Pink Sheets. He thought for a minute and said no. Bigger companies are improving their results in a big way through corporate coaching and development. They are getting also getting better results by engaging professionals in shareholder communications. If this is the case, and it is, then why are OTCBB and Pink Sheet companies not using this resource? There is a huge demand for this and no one seems to know about it.

I believe success in the marketplace is more of a function of the company improving from the inside out through corporate coaching and development. This will improve communications within the company, break down barriers and result in real teamwork. At the same time, partnering with professionals that understand the market well will enable the company to communicate their message clearly to the investment community.

Tom Allinder
NewRiverFinGrp.com
tom@newriverfingrp.com

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