Network Marketing Is a Personal Improvement Program With a Compensation Plan Attached
At least one network marketing executive has said that his particular company is “a personal improvement program with a compensation plan attached.” I have been intrigued with this industry for most of my adult life and had dabbled in several of the big name companies until three years ago when I settled on the one that was the best fit for me. It only makes sense to me that the truest form of marketing is person to person, friend to friend, neighbor to neighbor, family to family. Even billionaire entrepreneur Donald Trump acknowledges that network marketing is the oldest business model known to man. Word of mouth referrals are generally considered the strongest and most to be desired.
By way of clarification, network marketing and multilevel marketing are one and the same. I’m not really sure why they have gotten such a bad reputation in so many circles. Probably because Ponzi schemes have been around as long as people thought it was a good idea to cheat their fellows. But network marketing is not a scheme and is, in fact, a legitimate business plan now being taught in Harvard Business School and hundreds of other universities around the world.
Multilevel marketing is a business model distinct from others types of businesses. While these types of businesses are generally home-based, they don’t necessarily have to be. Most are product driven. Some emphasize recruiting more than others. Some are sustained by auto shipments to distributors. But the thing that intrigues me most about network marketing is that it is — in its purest expression — always about personal improvement for success in life. It’s about more than just increasing your income; it’s about increasing your capacity to believe for and to receive greater abundance. But it goes deeper that that.
My wife does not work directly with me, although she has attended local events and several international conferences. Once in our sharing time she asked if I wasn’t feeling a little jealous about the amount of time I was spending in my business opportunity. Without thinking long enough to formulate a contrived answer, I said, “It’s not about how much time I’m investing; it’s about me becoming a better person that I was before.” To me that answer summarizes the essence of what multilevel marketing is about and why it represents a valuable part of the worldwide economy.
Every businessperson strives to improve his financial bottom line, otherwise he wouldn’t bother to start a business and would content himself with working for someone else. But when a businesswoman also dedicates herself to a lifestyle of personal improvement, there is a natural consequence that occurs. It may seem like a contradiction, but a devotion to self-help does not cause one to become self-absorbed. On the contrary, becoming a better person necessitates a mindset that is about helping other people succeed first. The universe rewards unselfish acts of kindness and demands that each of us should do unto others (first and without expectation of reciprocation) as we would have them do unto us.