Growing up, he had always thought that if he didn’t become a doctor what he would love to be is a writer, and so in the cottage in his private room he started writing a novel. After the first two chapters he was talking to one of the neighbor farmers and the neighbor farmer was thrilled.It was the first time in his life he had ever met a writer.Well, of course he was a doctor, but at the moment he was writing, and the farmer was excited about this fact, the fact that this particular man was writing, writing, writing, writing a novel.

This was a great motivator for the farmer it really inspired him that he knew a writer. One day the farmer asked our friend, “how’s the novel coming along?” and our friend said “well I read it over the other day and I was terribly displeased with it and I threw it away, I threw it out in the garbage can.” And the farmer looked at him speechlessly and couldn’t muster a single word.

Finally the doctor said “the expression on your face, what is it? Are you alright? Are you having a stroke?” Then the farmer found his tongue and he said “you threw it away?” the farmer felt a part of himself, his own inspiration had been thrown in the garbage can, and he continued “look, do you know the way you see me working in that field when you’re out on those walks you take? Picking up those heavy stones, loading them in the wagon and having the horse cart them off.

“My grandfather started removing the stones in that field before I was born. He died. My father, as long as I can remember kept removing the stones in that field, knowing that someday the field would be cleared adequately so that it could be plowed and there could be a harvest in that field. I can’t remember when I was not helping my father removing stones, now that he’s gone all of my spare time is spent removing the stones in that field. Another two or three years and that field will be ready for plowing and there will be a harvest. And for generations to come there will be harvests in that field because my grandfather started removing the stones. And you finished two chapters and you threw it away?”

He turned on his heels and stormed away. Our friend stood there realizing that he had quit, he went out to the back, found the garbage pail opened it, dug through some other trash, refuse, debris, and there were the two chapters. It had rained since he put them out there, and they were soaked, all these sheets soaked.

He painfully recopied them, reworked them, and after he got two or three more chapters he took a train into London,the first publisher said, “when you smooth that up you’ve got something very special here.” Lloyd Douglas did smooth that up and it was named The Magnificent Obsession. The Magnificent Obsession, for decades now has been a great inspiration for millions,oh yes, millions of readers. He had quit, he had quit we don’t procrastinate,you and I, that’s a form of quitting – procrastination,when it becomes prolonged, is a form of giving up.