Network Marketing – The Chicken or the Egg?

The Books Say The Egg

It seems like every book I’ve read says you should begin your network marketing career in this fashion:

1)    Find a great company with a wonderful product

2)    Find an awesome sponsor within that company who can mentor you to success

3)    Go to work with your sponsor

4)    Learn the ropes

5)    Make money while you learn

6)    Find others to duplicate these steps

That would be the egg.

But The Chicken

Might look like this:

1)    A friend or relative tells you about the company he’s working with

2)    You sign up because you like the product or the company or your friend

3)    You don’t know what to do and neither does the person who signed you up

4)    You tell a few people about it and nobody else is interested

5)    You quit

Or maybe like this, which it did for me:

1)    My brother tells me about the company he’s working with

2)    I sign up

3)    With the help of my brother’s sponsor, I sign up someone

4)    That person makes several sales

5)    I get excited and try to repeat steps 3 & 4

6)    Number 3 runs out of warm market to talk to and loses interest

7)    I move on to another job and while not losing interest, don’t network market for several years

8)    I read books, I start and run my own traditional business

9)    I sign up for another network marketing company and fail

10)     I keep running my business

11)     I read more books

12)     Etc.

The Reality

I’m guessing that most people reading blogs about network marketing or home businesses or work from home jobs have experienced some version of the chicken scenario; jumping in and trying to figure it out.

The ones who persist through the failures and keep learning eventually discover that there is a reason most books give you the first version, i.e. the egg: you increase your chances of success by doing things in that sequence.

It doesn’t mean the chicken is wrong, or the pig or the cow or the bull moose; if you keep your eye on the goal, you’re going to get there. (For more on the goal, see my earlier post “Why, Oh Why.”)

I want to help you speed up the process.

What Do I Do If I’m already A Chicken?

Keep going! The only thing that can stop you is if you quit. If you know where you want to go, you can get there. As Jim Rohn once said, “working hard on your job makes you a living, working hard on yourself makes you a fortune.”

The difference between the first chicken who gave up and the second chicken (me) is that I didn’t give up. I kept working on myself, reading books, finding mentors, etc.

If you’re already in a company and you’re happy with the products but not so much with your sponsor, find a mentor, read a book, learn how to talk to people. Develop the skills and attitudes you need to attract people into your life, whether mentors, teachers, or business partners.

What If My Company or Product Isn’t So Great?

Hey, it happens. The initial hype can generate enthusiasm for a company or a product that isn’t that good. Don’t throw out the baby with the bath water! Find a better company/product and go to work.

Not only will your attitude be better, your honesty with yourself and your prospects will improve and so will your results.

For more info on how to pick a company or a product, see my post called Five Things To Evaluate, or go to www.AlansMLMTips.com for free emails on how to pick them like a pro.

Another Quote

“Would you like me to give you a formula for… success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You’re thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all… you can be discouraged by failure / or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember that’s where you’ll find success. On the far side.” – Thomas J. Watson, founder of IBM