Parts of this may sound suspiciously
similar to ranting, but I just want you to know that…uh…yup, that’s about it.
Without further ado.
Three and a half years ago, I was
introduced to an idea. This idea was already something I had previously understood
to a degree, and thus I was loath to dive into debt for a post-secondary
education. What I didn’t know was there was a better way out there, a shift in
the global economy that could be learned and taken advantage of. A lot of what
I’m about to say I learned from a man named Eric Worre.
So, the world as we know it has changed.
For people who don’t - or refuse - to see it, I’m afraid the worst is yet to
come. But there are people who do see it, and here’s what they’ve noticed: Over
the last hundred years, an interesting phenomenon occurred. The rise of the
corporation became the standard of society. The safe and respected place for
people to exist in the workplace was as an employee.
Step one: Go to school to learn
how to be an employee.
Step two: Find a company that
will employ you.
Step three: Work for that company
for 40 years.
Step four: Retire.
In recent decades, the promise of being
rewarded by the company you work for because of your loyalty and hard work has
been exposed as a myth. People started realizing the loyalty they were giving
to their company was not being given in return. So a different process evolved.
Step one: Go to school to learn
to be an employee.
Step two: Find a company that
will employ you.
Step three: Switch companies for
various political and economic reasons every three to five years over the
course of your career.
Step four: Find that you can’t
retire comfortably after 40 years, so you keep working.
And now, we are going through one of the
biggest shifts of our lives. The world is moving towards a performance economy.
More and more companies and industries are now no longer paying people for
their time, but instead are basing wages on performance. Servers in the food
industry are already living in this world. They get paid very low hourly wages
(as required by law) and make their living through tips. For office workers,
here is an example.
A person has a $60,000 salary.
Step one: The company will lower
that salary to something like $50,000 because with today’s marketplace there are
other people to take the job for a lower amount.
Step two: They will reduce the
“base” salary to something like $20,000.
Step three: They will tell that
person they can get an additional $30,000 over the year if they hit certain
performance benchmarks on a monthly basis.
Companies love this new way of doing
things. They save tons of money when you don’t hit your numbers, and guess
what? If you do, they will gradually (and often abruptly) raise the
requirements. Unless you are extremely specialized, this will happen to you; if
it hasn’t already, I would count on it. The evolution is already well underway.
Something else is happening at the same
time, feeding the first problem: Companies need fewer and fewer people to run
efficiently. The exponential rise of technology has changed everything. Even
McDonalds is now getting large touch screens instead of tellers for you to
order your food. Soon even the cooks will be replaced by machines to do their
jobs. Every other corporation will need to make the same advances to stay
viable or they will disappear. Notice how call centers are now robotic?
Remember going to a store and seeing massive amounts of sale people? Now we
order online. Remember Blockbuster video? Now we have Netflix, and a wave of
new outlets for media streaming. It’s an exciting world to live in, but a tough
one in which to stay employed.
Technology and efficiency are
eliminating jobs every single day, and there is nothing we can do to stop it.
In fact, it’s only going to accelerate.
At the age of 27, I have already had
over two dozen jobs and have seen all of these things happen, over and over -
which is why I always believed one day something would emerge and take
advantage of this NEW economy. That something is what I was shown three and a
half years ago.
Network Marketing. I can already feel a
lot of you cringing as you read it. Sorry, but the best way I know to not only
survive, but to thrive in the new economy is Network Marketing. There are
important products and services in the world today that need to be promoted by
the people who need them. Consumers still need to be educated.
Companies have choices, they can dive
into the ever-fragmented world of advertising to get the word out, they can
hire a large and expansive sales force to sell their products or services, or
they can utilize Network Marketing to spread their story to the world.
More and more companies choose to use
Network Marketing because it fits the new economy. They can provide all the
corporate support and pay distributors on a purely performance basis to promote
their products or services. It’s extremely efficient because in the new
economy, word-of-mouth advertising continues to work better than any other form
of promotion. The company simply takes the money they would have spent on
advertising and promotion (typically about 70% of profits) and instead pays
that money to their distributors to get the word out.
What that means for you as an
entrepreneur is that you can receive all of the benefits of traditional
business ownership without the typical risks. AND there will be no cap on your
income, because Network Marketing companies WANT you to make as much as
possible. If you’re going to be paid on performance anyway, why live with the
cap, right?
Network Marketing is also a business of
building people up, helping one another and embracing the service of others.
This is completely upside down in terms of traditional business – you know, the
kind that revolves around pushing others out of your way, climbing on over top
of each other, and fighting to reach the peak using superior politics rather
than skill.
There is a catch though, and it’s a
nasty one. Here it is:
You must accept a temporary loss of social esteem from ignorant
people.
That means that for a while, people
still living in and trying to function in the old system will think less of
you. There is a reason why, and it’s not just because they are stuck in the old
system. Most people have either joined a Network Marketing company or know
someone who has. This is what goes through the mind of virtually every person
who decides to get involved “Hmmm, I can think of five or six people who might
do this too! My sister would be great! My friend loves this kind of thing. I
know this other person who could be amazing! Okay, I’ll join.”
In other words, they aren’t joining a
profession. They’re just hoping to get lucky, sign up a few people and sit back
and wait for the money to roll in. The lure of being paid for someone else’s
work is powerful, but often sorely misinterpreted. They haven’t started a real
business. They just purchased a glorified lottery ticket. The reality is, very
few people have the skills when they first begin to make it big - although some
certainly do - and because of that lack of skill, most of them end up with
nothing (just like that poor little lottery ticket). It becomes just another
lost opportunity.
So they rip up the ticket. Who wants to take
responsibility for failing to even try
starting a business? Much easier to blame Network Marketing, and don’t forget
to tell the world, “Look, I’ve been there. I’ve done it. I talked to every
person I know, and Network Marketing just doesn’t work. Save your money.”
THAT’S what you’re dealing with when you
choose this profession. And I’m the first to admit, it is hard to handle. If
this sounds too hard to handle, it
isn’t right for you. But if you can embrace it, then the world is yours.
Seriously.
Some people like to say, “Perception is
reality.” I really hate that saying. Great leaders worldwide have been ignoring
it for centuries. What if Nelson Mandela had said perception is reality? What
if Martin Luther King Jr. had said perception is reality? Real leaders say, ‘Reality
is reality, truth is truth, and I will do everything possible to open your
eyes.’
The truth is, Network Marketing isn’t
perfect, because neither are people. It’s just better, and that’s reality.