Ward E Wilson

2023

There’s a tale of two brothers. Mark lived in a big city back east, his day job was as a computer scientist, his vocation and passion, languages. Matt lived on a sprawling ranch in Montana. His day job was mending fences and reclaiming riverbeds, his vocation and passion, rock hounding and prospecting for gold and precious gems.   

Once while visiting his brother in Montana Mark asked to go looking for sapphires, he’d never seen a raw gem before and thought it might be fun. So, the two made the long drive to the Ruby Mountains to try their luck. After hours of fruitlessly sifting through mounds of heavy earth, the two found themselves walking side by side down a rough and rocky road from one quarry to the next.   

Looking down, Mark saw it, a fantastically insignificant rock. It was much like the others, just a bit longer than most, semi smooth with several soft corners. It was the perfect rock for kicking. With a swift boot it bounded down the gravel road scattering the smaller pebbles while bouncing off bigger rocks until it slowly rolled to rest. Out of habit, he kicked again and again. He often kicked rocks while walking from one place to the next, it was something done his entire life.    

Sometime around the 4th or 5th kick Matt turned and asked, “Why are you kicking that ruby down the road?” 

“Ruby? What ruby?” 

“That’s a ruby you’re kicking. Do you have any plans for it? Well, other than kicking it?” Matt asked with a smile. 

Confused Mark stammered, “N, no.” 

“You mind if I pick it up?” Together they admired the insignificant looking stone. Upon closer examination Mark could see those soft corners were uniform, almost geometric in shape, almost crystal in form. “I don’t have the tools to handle anything this big, but I know a guy. Do you want to see if it’s worth anything?” Matt suggested.   

An hour later the two were at the rock shop in Virginia City. The scruffy old man with the bushy gray beard hefted the rock in his hand, then held it up to the sky for better examination. Finally, he turned to Matt and spoke, “I’ll give you $700 for it.”  

“But you haven’t tested it, you haven’t cut it, you don’t know what’s inside.” 

“You let me worry about that, I’ll give you $700, right now,” he said pulling a wad of cash from the front pocket of his dusty blue jeans. The offer far exceeded their wildest expectations, so with smiles on their faces and bellies full of the finest grass-fed Montana Angus stakes, they moseyed back to the ranch, having tripled their investment.   

A few months later Matt asked the scruffy old man with the bushy gray beard, “Hey, what ever happened with that $700 ruby?”  

“That was a great find, I cut three gem quality stones out of that single rock. I’ve tripled my investment.”   

“Cool,” Matt said with a smile.   

Full disclosure: this is a true story. As for Mark and Matt, they are my two oldest brothers. Two things I take away from this tale. First, what we do for a day job does not define us. Second, opportunity is all around us. But most of the time we don’t recognize it because we don’t know what we’re looking for.    

Solution: Find your vocation, or passion, and become good at it, and truly become, it. Who knows, it may become your day job, but probably not. What you will find is opportunity will present itself more often than you’d think. And rather than mindlessly kicking it down the path, you’ll recognize it for what it is, pick it up, shape and polish it and triple your investment.    

What is your vocation, or passion? How have you tripled your investment? Another disclosure, joy counts as a ROI (Return On Investment) because it’s an investment in you.