What Are The Top Earners in Network Markting/Direct Sales Doing That You Aren’t?

Last Friday night my girlfriend and I experienced a real treat when we attended a performance by Alasdair Frazer and Natalie Haas.  Alasdair Frazer is an absolutely amazing fiddle player while Natalie can tear up a cello. (Yes, I said cello.)  If you remember the haunting fiddle tunes from the movies “Last of the Mohican’s” and “Titanic” then you’ve heard Alasdair play.  These two team up to perform both traditional and new Scottish fiddle and dance music.   The two of them together took us from energizing jigs and reels to relaxing melodic tunes from old Scotland and back again.  It was a wonderful experience.

Why am I writing about a concert of Scottish fiddle music?  Don’t worry, I’ll get to it.

Afterwards, we were relaxing with a glass of wine while listening to the cd we bought at the concert.  We were talking about how amazing the performance was and what world class musicians the two of them were.  My girlfriend mentioned how much they must enjoy the music they make and how their passion for the music enabled them to become such virtuosos on their respective instruments.

At great personal risk (Just joking, sweetie!), I reminded her that becoming that good involved much more than just being passionate.  There must have been many days in their early development when the practice was anything but enjoyable or fun.  Rather it must have often been dull, monotonous, and boring.  Sheer drudgery!  I opined that it was not just their passion and enjoyment of the music,  but their vision of becoming virtuoso performers on their respective instruments that kept them going when part of them must have wanted so badly to quit.

(Now, here comes the business application…)

The top earners in the network marketing/direct sales field are like virtuoso performers.  Do they have a passion for what they do?  Of course!  But did they enjoy everything they had to do to get to where they are?  Absolutely not!  No matter how passionate one is nor how much pleasure your particular endeavor gives you, the fact is that there are going to many instances of activities necessary to ones success that are not going to be fun.

However, the top earners have a vision of where they are going to be.  Notice I said “are going to be” and not “want to be”.  There’s a huge difference.  One assumes success.  The other is merely a wish.  And wishes don’t always come true.  But a vision, also known as a goal, have a much greater likely-hood of becoming reality simply because they are more likely than a wish to motivate someone to continue through the hard part in order to get to the good part. (This is also known as deferred gratification.  Something we rarely see in our fast-food culture anymore.)

Top earners, the truly big dogs in the industry, have a vision of where they are going to be long before they get there.  It’s this unwavering knowledge of where they are going to end up that enables them to bore through the hard work that is an inevitable part of success, no matter what industry you’re in.   They are willing to put in that hard work and accept the concept of delayed gratification because they have no doubt that it’s going to pay off, and pay off big, in the end.

How often, after going to a concert like I just did, have you heard someone say, “I wish I could play like that.”?  Most of us wish we could play like the great performers.  But very few of us are willing to put in the day upon day, week upon week, year upon year of seemingly endless hours of practice required to reach that level.

In the same way, many newcomers to network marketing and/or direct sales will say, “I wish I was making the money they are” or “I wish my business was growing like theirs is”.  But the reality is most are unwilling to put in the time and do the work necessary to achieve that level of success.  A woman whom I greatly admire named Artemis Limpert is one of the elite leaders in her chosen network marketing company.  She once said, “People want what I have but they don’t want to do what I did.”  And therein lies the sad story of failure for so many network marketers.  They want the success but they are unwilling to do the work to get it.

Why?  Most have no clear vision of where they are going.  They have a lot of wants and wishes.  But they never really set down and make a firm decision (key word there, decision) about where they are going to be. No matter how hard it may be.  The decision’s made.

Or they make what they feel like is a firm decision but they give up when it gets hard.  Remember that advertising slogan, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”?  Well, apply that to your business endeavor.

Many people never consider what it truly takes to be successful.  There’s a passage in the bible that talks about counting the cost before you start building the barn.  Many people never count the cost of building a successful business.  Once again, in our fast-food culture, they want the get-rich-quick avenue.  They want the reward without the hard work.  And they want it now.  While it’s true that wealth, and occasionally success, sometime come quickly and easily, the reality is that it usually takes time and hard work to reach the level of achievement of the top earners.

So, if you want to play like a concert pianist, be willing to put in the practice and work that’s required.  Even the most talented have to pay their dues in the practice room.

And, if you want to make a lot of money and have the same level of freedom that the top earners in the network marketing and direct sales industry have, make a decision and not just a wish.  Be willing to put in the time and effort that is required, regardless of whether it’s always fun or not.  If you’ll do those two things, then you’ll see your dreams come true.