The Touchstone

When the great library of Alexandria burned, the story goes, one book
was saved. But it was not a valuable book; and so a poor man, who
could read a little, bought it for a few coppers.

The book wasn't very interesting, but between its pages there was
something very interesting indeed. It was a thin strip of vellum on
which was written the secret of the "Touchstone"!

The touchstone was a small pebble that could turn any common metal
into pure gold. The writing explained that it was lying among
thousands and thousands of other pebbles that looked exactly like it.
But the secret was this: The real stone would feel warm, while
ordinary pebbles are cold.

So the man sold his few belongings, bought some simple supplies,
camped on the seashore, and began testing pebbles.

He knew that if he picked up ordinary pebbles and threw them down
again because they were cold, he might pick up the same pebble
hundreds of times. So, when he felt one that was cold, he threw it
into the sea. He spent a whole day doing this but none of them was the
touchstone. Yet he went on and on this way. Pick up a pebble. Cold -
throw it into the sea. Pick up another. Throw it into the sea.

The days stretched into weeks and the weeks into months. One day,
however, about mid afternoon, he picked up a pebble and it was warm. He
threw it into the sea before he realized what he had done. He had
formed such a strong habit of throwing each pebble into the sea that
when the one he wanted came along, he still threw it away.

So it is with opportunity. Unless we are vigilant, it's asy to fail to
recognize an opportunity when it is in hand and it's just as easy to throw it away.