{"id":214,"date":"2011-02-18T15:19:47","date_gmt":"2011-02-18T15:19:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joe-mangum.com\/?p=214"},"modified":"2011-03-11T00:34:42","modified_gmt":"2011-03-11T00:34:42","slug":"mining-for-gold-in-a-third-world-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/joe-mangum.com\/2011\/02\/mining-for-gold-in-a-third-world-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Mining for Gold in a Third World Country"},"content":{"rendered":"<script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script> <fb:like href=\"http%3A%2F%2Fjoe-mangum.com%2F2011%2F02%2Fmining-for-gold-in-a-third-world-country%2F\" show_faces=\"false\" style=\"margin:0px 0px 15px 0px; clear:both;\"><\/fb:like><p><a href=\"http:\/\/joe-mangum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/Guiana-Mapa.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-215\" title=\"Guiana Mapa\" src=\"http:\/\/joe-mangum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/Guiana-Mapa-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Guiana Mapa\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/joe-mangum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/Guiana-Mapa-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/joe-mangum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/Guiana-Mapa.jpg 466w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>My brother Willie called me yesterday with the inevitable news that he had put in his resignation for work. He&#8217;s quitting his job as a warehouse manager for Swire Coca Cola to take his wife and two kids (one newborn) down to Guiana, a tiny country off the NorthEastern tip of South America, to mine gold. WHAT!!!! I know, you think he&#8217;s crazy right?! And yes, I think it IS a little crazy. However, I can think of a few other people that were this so called crazy that changed the world for the better because of it (Columbus, Copernicus&#8230;etc).<\/p>\n<p>So let&#8217;s look at all of the downsides to this decision.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The economy is in shambles. Not necessarily the best time to quit a well paying job<\/li>\n<li>Two really young kids in a third world country might not be the safest thing healthwise<\/li>\n<li>Both him and his wife are thousands of miles from their families<\/li>\n<li>It&#8217;s a risky operation that could fail and leave them broke to start over anew in a few years<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"line-height: 24px;\">I think we could all go on with additional drawbacks to forging the path they&#8217;ve chosen. But, let&#8217;s now take a look at some of the good reasons for doing this. A few of these only make sense if you actually know my brother Willie and how he operates. He&#8217;s probably the hardest worker I know and I would even venture to say he&#8217;s never done anything bad in his entire life. The guy is straight as an arrow and I look up to him as an example of everything that is good. So let&#8217;s see here:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Though the economy is in shambles, the price of gold is $1383.15 as of today and hovering around it&#8217;s highest prices ever.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">He&#8217;s lived in Guiana 2 different times in his life. The first was for 2 years serving a mission for his church. The 2nd was for an additional 2-3 years doing what he is going to be doing&#8230; mining gold!<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Thus, he <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">has experience<\/span> doing what he&#8217;s going to be doing.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">His wife is on board and totally supports him. They made the decision together as a family.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">He&#8217;s refused to give up on a dream of doing what he loves to do. HE ACTUALLY ENJOYS IT which means it&#8217;s not just for the money.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">If it happens to not work out, he has a CDL and several years of managerial experience. Finding a job might be difficult but not impossible even in this economy.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: small;\">&#8230;and finally, he&#8217;s doing something that 99% of the people in this world don&#8217;t have the guts to do&#8230; he&#8217;s taking a giant step into the dark AFTER having fully thought through everything that is possible to plan for something like this.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"line-height: 24px;\">I know that no matter what happens, Willie and his family will be okay. I know this because they live righteously and they work hard and are honest in all of their dealings. \u00a0The lesson here for me, I believe, is the importance of taking that big step&#8230; into the dark.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"line-height: 24px;\">Trying something new and something big is the only way to make a BIG difference in life. I think President Obama said it fantastically (just because he&#8217;s good at saying things doesn&#8217;t mean I&#8217;m an advocate of his actions) when he said, &#8220;We do big things!&#8221; It&#8217;s what the American dream is all about&#8230; even if he is leaving America for Guiana. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"line-height: 24px;\">Willie is doing something BIG because he has the guts to take a leap of faith. He&#8217;s digging for gold and he may just find it. So what am I looking for? What are you looking for? Whatever it is, I suggest you start digging.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-count=\"vertical\" data-url=\"http:\/\/joe-mangum.com\/2011\/02\/mining-for-gold-in-a-third-world-country\/\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script> <fb:like href=\"http%3A%2F%2Fjoe-mangum.com%2F2011%2F02%2Fmining-for-gold-in-a-third-world-country%2F\" show_faces=\"false\" style=\"margin:0px 0px 15px 0px; clear:both;\"><\/fb:like>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My brother Willie called me yesterday with the inevitable news that he had put in his resignation for work. He&#8217;s quitting his job as a warehouse manager for Swire Coca Cola to take his wife and two kids (one newborn) &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/joe-mangum.com\/2011\/02\/mining-for-gold-in-a-third-world-country\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/joe-mangum.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/joe-mangum.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/joe-mangum.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joe-mangum.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joe-mangum.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/joe-mangum.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":217,"href":"http:\/\/joe-mangum.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions\/217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/joe-mangum.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joe-mangum.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joe-mangum.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}