That Thing.

People who don't understand what network marketing is, always seem to look down on what we do. I mean it's all find and dandy to tell someone you're going back to college and it'll costs hundreds of dollars per credit hour to do so.  They pat you on the back and say good for you. But tell them you're investing that same money to join a network marketing business and you're  C-R-A-Z-Y! 

You would think that by now , people would know that our industry is not a scam. I once had an uncle who didn't understand my business.  When I first got started with network marketing I followed my upline's instructions by "making a list" of at least 100 people that I knew. Being that I was a pretty introverted guy, naturally I told him I didn't know a 100 people. I mean who does?  Of course he insisted that I did and he gave me something called a memory jogger to help me.  Can anybody relate?  Anyway, I got to work making my list and low and behold I came up with 100 names. 

Next, it was time to contact them. That was the one thing I dreaded the most while I was making that list. Some of the people I wrote on that list I hadn't spoken to or seen in years.  But in my top ten was my uncle. I was able to get an appointment out of him by calling him up and telling him, "I've just invested in a new business and I'd like your opinion on it".  He agreed for me to meet him at his office.   He was a business owner himself so I figured he would be easy to talk to about it.  So I went over to his office to tell him about my new business. There I was taking out my presentation folder and drawing out my company's compensation plan.  Bless his heart.  As I stumbled through it, he sat through the whole thing looking interested. When I was finished he said, "That was a great presentation and I see you really believe in what you're doing, but Frank "that thing" will never work in the real world ".   

I had a lot of respect for my uncle and I thought he would be impressed with my knowledge of the "plan" and my enthusiasm for it.  He went on to say, "those pyramid type deals wind up getting people thrown in jail and I suggest you try and get your money back." 

Talk about hurt?  I was devastated.

I wanted to show him and others so badly that "that thing" does work. But why do they call it "that thing"?  Every time I showed my business to someone it was "that thing" will never work.  Or if I ran into someone I had tried to show my business to, years later they would ask me, "Sooooo....you still doing "that thing"? 

Well they say success is the sweetest revenge right? 

After about a year those same friends and family that were on my list that I tried to show my business to started noticing a change. They noticed that I started driving a nicer car, wearing nicer clothes and taking vacations.  Some of my closest friends noticed the pictures of me I had placed in my home office of various places I had traveled to like the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, St. Thomas, Aruba, Cancun, Barbados just to name a few.   Most of them had better paying jobs then I did at the time and had never even been out of the state,  let alone traveled any where.  

My point?  

The people in your life that you may have shown your network marketing business to will not think your biz is "that thing" when it single handedly funds your next dream vacation.   Or when you upgrade your car and your newly founded prosperity comes shining through for everyone to see.   People who are ignorant about network marketing and its power always have a negative outlook. And it's usually strongest from people who are constantly complaining about money. Go figure. 

My advice to any of you just getting started in our biz? 

Keep working on "that thing".  And watch the look of disbelief creep across those individuals faces you tried to talk to about your business, as they see evidence of the fruits of your labor.