Perhaps this is not all a true confession since I am not pouring out my sins to a priest. But more of a take of what it is like to be in network marketing, mlm, direct sales or whatever you want to call it. I have been in this industry for almost 10 years. What I do not get is how some people like to call it a scam or a rip off. Well actually (confession) I do know. I first started in early 2003 for a company and paid big money to get involved. Almost 500 bucks! I was 16 years old at the time and that is a lot of money to throw down at that age. But I was sold on running a business and having the financial freedom that we all crave. After about 4 or 5 months I got next to no results. I had no one else to blame but myself. Normally this is when people go online, or tell people this was a scam and they took all my money. But that simply is not the case. I didn’t work it and I fully didn’t put in the time and dedication needed to it. I was ill experienced. But that doesn’t mean it was the companies fault.
After a while I realized the product was not for me. You see you have to be passionate about what you are doing other wise you will never get any results. I have been with a few others companies since then and tried them out, some I got little results but I wasn’t completely hooked on the product. You may be asking “then why did you join”?. Well the answer is simple, I wanted to make a positive difference in other peoples lives. Jim Rohn says ” Help others pay their bills and yours will be taken care of”. I followed that philosophy and I still do now. Since then I have been with this one company that I absolutely love. The mission statement is where I belong, the core values are what I believe in and the products are out of this world amazing.
But what still get’s me is how people manage to call it a scam, even when they have never even been with the company. I know these days it is tough to know because all you read and hear about are ponzi schemes and criminal organizations. Well mlm is not like that and has gotten a bad name. One of my big goals is to change that. People don’t realize mlm is responsible for more millionaires than any other business. We also do over 10 billion $ annually collectively for our economy. Think about this. We are called a pyramid scam because only the people at the top make the money. Some what true, but they worked hard to get there. Take a good look at the your company that you work for. Who is at the top?
The CEO is, then the CFO, VP, Board Directors, Human Resources, Supervisors, Regional Managers, managers, assistant managers, then perhaps the sales team, the receptionist, janitor, ect, ect… Obviously this is an example and all business have different personnel but the system is the same. The higher you are the more you get paid, the lower you are the less you get paid. Looks like a pyramid to me, so you must be working for a scam on your hourly wage? Just because we run a business and can sit home and do what we like with our time does not qualify us as scammers or money takers. We are hard working professionals that change lives.
It costs nearly a quarter million dollars to get started in a franchise and that depends which one you want. That is not including inventory, wages, insurance, waste, bills, etc. My point here is for less than 3,000$ a year (tax deductible) (average company cost) you can run your own business. I am not here to poke fun at the hard working class but to educate those who do not understand it. Over the years I have learned more in this industry than I have ever learned in school and I am a college graduate. I know how it works, I know how to get results and I know how to get people started right.
My confession is this. I failed for years before I made money. I failed at working the business before I made money. I failed at being productive when I should have been. I have failed at a lot of things and I am not afraid to keep failing. I can only learn more from failing and all of the failings I have encountered has turned my life around for the better. I have learned from the top earners, I have grown as an individual and I have become what everyone craves.
My friends and family made fun of me for being in this business but I laughed it off and said that is ok. You can either trade your time for money for the rest of your life or become independent and have the freedom of finances and time. Now while most of my family works 10 plus hours a day sometimes even the weekends I work from home, and from my office here in beautiful Southern California. Now they ask me how my business is doing and don’t make fun of it anymore. Why? Because my life changed, I believed, I set goals and I was hungry and out to prove them wrong.
I confess to my failures and my success. I confess my dreams and aspirations. I confess that I have not always been the best leader but I am a strong leader and getting better everyday. This is to you my friends. It is easier to confess that your with an mlm than to hide it. Some will respect you for it and some will not. But be true to yourself and work hard. I have always found that the harder you work the luckier you get.
