One definition of insanity is: doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. If you have ever found your keys in the drawer after the third or fourth time you looked there already you understand why many of us continue on the insane road. There is quite the debate among bloggers as to whether this was originally said by Benjamin Franklin or Einstein or someone else. Like any experience because it has worked for us in the past and it is comfortable we continue with insane habits. Habits, even dangerous and worthless ones, provide something we need. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is just not very smart because we are not thinking when we are in this pattern.  

The same path applies to business. The businesses that break the mold and do something new often succeed. Those that continue with a version of status quo eventually are shown the Chapter 11 door. Horse carriage makers thought that the whole automobile fad was just a phase that would pass. How many vinyl record companies disappeared when CD’s appeared? In a more recent example, huge, established airline companies are struggling while new, smaller companies are succeeding by focusing on low fares and customer satisfaction.  

The original businesses of network marketing began almost 100 years ago with vitamin sales in the US. Since then it has grown into an enormous and comprehensive industry with companies on all continents. (Yes, all continents. Somewhere, some scientist on Antarctica is pitching Amway or something like that to one of his coworkers. You know it!)  Obviously, the industry hasn’t always remained the same, and success has favored the new and innovative. You shouldn’t remain the same either.  

MLM may make you a millionaire. It has a remarkable track record for accomplishing that. If you are seeking a new way to break the mold of mediocrity (insanity) and achieve success that is captured by the few who possess the business courage and agility to do what it takes to get it then you have arrived at the right place in your life.  

Many people will not achieve the financial success that originally lured them into network marketing (or real estate or insurance or …).  If the data is to be believed nearly 95% will not succeed.  That appears to be a working number in most industries. There is also the 80/20 rule. 20% do the work generating 80% of the income. The first step is your choosing to be ready to be a part of the success group. Are you ready?  

One key is to take a different approach. What you have done in the past if you continue the same approach will likely achieve the same results. My experience has shown me that the search for the simple and easy has led many people to skip or ignore essential steps in the path to success. Success is organizing a large number of people who do something simple and easy over and over and over.  

If you have not experienced success in the past I suggest you make drastic changes and break from your past patterns.  If you have achieved success and then it stopped what is your story about it?  It happened too soon? You were not ready for it? You didn’t deserve it? Was the cost of your success more than you were willing to pay long term?  Quitting for any reason, valid or not, is the only reason for failure. Success is a journey with a goal in mind. 

Throughout history, whether in war or exploration or business, success comes to the few.  It also comes to groups who hang out together.  If you have a large address book and are a ‘leader’ your success in MLM is much more likely than if you are the Lone Ranger. I grew up living and breathing Lone Ranger episodes.  The Lone Ranger is the ultimate nice guy, friendly and one friend away from becoming a cloistered monk. Not the best role model to follow if you are looking for success in MLM.   

Success, financial success specifically, is a science. Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich“ is a must read.  Working on you and your mind set is more important to your success than any other item.  There are many mentors out there.  By and large they have the same information.  Pick one or two that you can relate to.  Then go to work. You may go through many before you find a good fit for you. Eventually pick one or two that works for you.  

If you are not sure what the difference is between a legitimate program and one that looks it but only take your money I recommend you invest some time with Lou Abbott’s material and participate in the MLM War.    

If you have found a program and need to learn how to recruit and sponsor the first place I would start is with Mike Dillard. Look over all his free Magnetic Marketing material and Build on a Budget and also participate at Better Networker.  

If you are doing everything and you are stuck perhaps you need a prosperity coach. No one is better than Randy Gage. Take the prosperity quiz clicking the “Free Prosperity Resources” for an eye opening view on how far you have to go to become prosperous.  

If you are spending over $50 a month on leads, splash pages and multiple marketing tools I recommend you investigate a program that has every tool you need along with unlimited hosting and unlimited autoresponders all connected with a contact management system. The time I have saved is worth $1000’s a year and I cut my monthly expenses by $100’s day one.  Visit Iceburner.com/wanted or skip capture going direct to Iceburner.info  

There are three groups working the net. Which one do you hang out with?  Visit Iceburner.com/threegroups and let me know. 

The formula for creating wealth in Network Marketing: “Get a large group of people – to do a few simple actions– over a consistent period of time.”

                                   n  Randy Gage

When I was a child Christmas began not after Thanksgiving but the day the first “wish book” catalog arrived.  Sears and JC Penny had the best ones and there were other ones too.  From the day each one arrived, my brothers, sisters and I would turn the pages with our imaginations in full gear.  Initially each of us was given only a limited time each to view and wish.   Some pages became dog eared and others had initials and numbers identifying who and the order of their desires.   Eventually the catalogs lost their allure and were available for long term dreaming.  I imagined playing with dozens of the trucks, army forts complete with armies and numerous other intricate displays.   There were enough to wet my imagination and I did not let on what my favorite was. Often my favorite changed with the day.  

As I grew older my taste in toys and dreams changed.  Between my brothers, sisters, cousins and neighbors the entire wish book catalog eventually became available if only for an hour or two.   Many of them were much more fun to play with in my imagination than reality.  And there were those my imagination came in second.  

Besides toys my imagination wandered into wondering why the Creator of the universe would become one of us, born as a poor kid in a barn.  I did like the barns at my Dad’s childhood home. They were comfortably warm from all the animals, even in the cold tundra of northwestern Minnesota and the smell of fresh hay and straw was a great place to hide and nap on a cold winter’s day.  He chooses to be poor and begin as a baby made a certain sense to me after all the babies I met had special privileges. 

Father Julian Carron is a Spanish priest and a professor of theology at the University of Milan. He wrote:

The true protagonist of history is the beggar.  If we wish to live this moment as protagonists, that is, without being formal, by following the manner in which we have been educated, each of us must become, or better, recognize what he is: a beggar.

It is easy: each of us must realize his need.  The beggar is the one who is aware of his own human need.

One instant of true awareness would suffice to make us realize how needy we truly are. To become aware of one’s own need means to become aware of oneself, of the fact that he is a man.  The beggar, therefore, is the man who is most self-aware.  And in order to be aware, we must use reason even today, or better, especially today.  We therefore begin to be protagonists when we begin to use reason, which means becoming aware of reality, aware of what I am according to all the factors.

So the beggar is not the one who is most naïve, but who is most realistic.  And, consequently, as we begin to defeat the confusion that surrounds and penetrates us, nothing can hinder us from becoming aware of ourselves in the present moment.

We have no fear of looking at our need, of recognizing that we are needy, because of what has happened in our lives. Yes, we can look with sympathy on what is human because Someone has embraced us; we can look with sympathy on our nothingness because Someone has had pity on it: “I have loved you with an eternal love and I have had pity on your nothingness.”   It is this awareness that can help us to live this gesture.  It is this awareness of standing before a Presence which permits us to take on an attitude of expectation.

The word that must govern, the attitude that must govern in all of us is “expectation,” the expectation of what will be given to us … The beggar has only one option: asking.  Our expectation is one that becomes asking.  Asking for what?  Asking for the willingness to accept and welcome everything that will be given to us today.

 -       Father Julian Carron 

I have paid attention to my expectations.  Adjusting them on purpose or accident is your choice.  I have noticed expectations are the key to happiness and satisfaction. Have a spectacular and wonderful Christmas.  Let’s all make the coming year our best one ever!

John Reese’s blog on How To Get Everything You Want In 24 Hours  is a great read for the season as well.

Mornings walking the mountain roads near our home with our friendly ‘street’ dog Menta is when I am often struck by the obvious.  Many mornings I forget my realizations by the time I return home or the ‘note’ I wrote is senseless.

Last night we read chapter 3 of Think and Grow Rich at www.MoonLightNews.com. The chapter looks at ‘faith’ and how we use and misuse it creating the lives we experience and share with each other. Whatever your dominating thoughts are, they are mixed with your beliefs about them and have intended and unintended consequences.

I noticed this morning the attention and intentions you are organizes how your questions color how the world works for you.  It is possible your questions are a function of your commitments and past way of solving problems that worked for you.  I suspect unless you notice how and what you do, you will continue to have what you have, regardless of all other feeble or extraordinary attempts at changing your outcomes. The dominating thought theory suggests until analyzed your dominating thoughts will not alter the rest of the mix of whatever you put in.

I have noticed there are people who look for what pleases others, what others like and how to create situations that please others. Their emphasis is on what works well for everyone and a general awareness of what is happening around them, especially the effect they have on the circumstances and situations they encounter in their dance of life each day.  Their attention is on others and as the observer they disappear. There is lightness, humor and a spirit of happiness present wherever they go.

The other method and I find it the most common is to look for and at what displeases people. Special notice on what they and others don’t like, the cataloging of circumstances, the attempt to avoid the ‘triggers’ as they understand them, the rules needed to prevent upsets and unhappiness all seem to dominate and be a part of those lives. The emphasis and attention comes from the observer and equates the observed relative to the observer.  The clouds of misery and unhappiness are always overhead or on the horizon.  This method is useful in avoiding landmines providing there is no other way to get where you are going.

If you are looking for what works the sign saying landmines ahead has you veer course as only experts may detect all potential explosions. Miss one and you ruin your day and everyone’s day you are with.   In fact the more people you walk into a field of landmines with the more likely your day will be ruined.  There appears to be gatherings of both types.  Their ‘dance’ makes sense to everyone practicing the same steps.

If you are looking for what works, among a group of landmines that are forever changing course relative to all the other landmines, you either become one or get hurt, often.  Misery loves company.  I wonder is it possible to dance with what works in spite of the landmines.  Is it possible to defuse enough of the field for workability to appear? Is there some way to shift or turn landmines into sunshine?  I appreciate your thoughts and suggestions.

Anyone who has ever caught the dream of network/multi-level marketing knows that it’s not perfect but I have yet to find anything better for the average person who has little money and never run a business. I became involved with it because I thought I had a knack for networking and initially I wanted to supplant my primary income. Then I needed to do something other than my previous job because it was not going to continue to feed me. Working from the comfort of home and no commute excited me. It is a more efficient way to make money. It is also easy to ruin your relationships with friends and family and it can be done in as few as 10-15 hours a week. Anyone who has poured countless hours and thousands of dollars chasing the dream knows that it is not as simple as uplines, downlines, and growing bank accounts.

I jumped in only to find that success did not come as easily as I had thought. How come people cannot see the same possibility as I do?  I worked hard but the fact is I did not know enough about the business initially to train anyone. It did not go as smoothly as I had hoped but the experience has been exhilarating.  I was still in training myself and I had to find mentors and coaches who had success to show me the way.  I had to retool my way of thinking and learn new skills. There are drawbacks in this industry. Everyone can do this but not everyone should.  Every product sold today is through some kind of network and yet every distributor involved is not rich.

Shockingly one belief is 95-99% of all distributors lose money. That may be true for ‘tax’ purposes, but whatever the number many people are nowhere near their potential. Many believe in scarcity. They believe they cannot find anyone or there isn’t enough for everyone. Basically their attitudes justify it being too difficult to search and track down more people to become involved, either as buyers or downline distributors. Richard Bach wrote, “Argue for your limitations and sure enough they are yours.”

Your family and friends are not a reliable base for success for most of you because you do not know how to invite them or add them to your base. If your friends and family will not support you who else will? Many of you have forgotten how to make new friends. Of course no one wants to be hounded by their distant brother-in-law or old high school teammate to join up in the next big money making scheme or buy whatever wonderful irreplaceable product you happen to be pushing at the moment. Yes, your mother loves you, but no one person is going to make you rich. Breaking out from your life long cocoon is both a rewarding and heart wrenching experience.

Success takes time and effort. The part-time, work-from-home, independent moneymaker is possible and even likely but successful distributors must actually spend enough time to make the business viable. Industry experts tell you that every second of the day is a potential time for marketing. No regular hours. No limits. Always ready and open for an opportunity to share.

This is not the standard make-money-on-the-side job. For many, it becomes a lifestyle. “Pep rallies,” training seminars, workshops and retreats are the industry norm. Network Marketing has its own culture and financial growth is impossible without becoming part of that culture.

If this appears as drawbacks and serious obstacles to your financial success perhaps you need to spend more time on personal development or find something else to do. Most people fail ignoring or denying some combination of these facts.  Any system claiming it allows distributors to bypass these hurdles guarantees your continued failure while adding to their bankroll.

Most ventures lose financially because new clients, leads, and customers can’t be found faster than the ones they have who are leaving. Until you realize it easier to keep a customer than to find a new one you will not spend an appropriate amount of energy and time with your current customers. When you believe the well dries up you walk. Had you continued drilling and tackled the leadership skills needed to support your current customers you would be rich. When your customers (downline) have success more leads hunt for you and more leads hunt them. When you are only contacted by interested leads the frustrations end and the money finds you.

The appeal of this system is that people come to you. There is no more ruining important relationships by your constantly nagging people.  When you use this system only the genuinely interested leads come to you and while many programs promise their system gets it done I know it works here.

One of the greatest assets of any system implemented correctly is it does the heavy work for you. It works while you sleep and in all 24 time zones. The difference between it and other systems is that it will actually save you time while developing your business with no extra effort.

There is no comparable system in my opinion. If your dream is beyond becoming prosperous and has you and all those you know thriving you have found the entry portal. Your success happens by breaking through those barriers you have built in you. Working with those who have done it is the best way and maybe the only way nothing else can. If you are tired of always reinventing the wheel or working a program that has success a couple dozen levels up then check us out and spend the time you need to get to know us. We will.

www.iceburner.net

Newer Posts »