July - August 1999
Feature
The Rite of Passage to Success
or... What I Must Become In Order to Be Able to Do It - Donald Partridge
If you have worked this or another business and not had the kind of success you want-- though you keep trying and working, it just won't take off-- here are the answers. This is a synthesis of what I have seen in those who make it. This is what I had to go through, too. I heard it for years, but it never sank in or I just couldn't believe it or find a way I could apply it to myself. The reason most don't get it is because it is not about the tasks of the business as much as it is about your own personal changes and interaction with other people. There is a way you can fit these concepts into your belief system without compromising. When you find this, you get the success.
If there are still excuses you accept for not doing it yourself and not believing you can do it now, you will not be able to boldly and confidently empower others to see that their excuses are not real obstacles. There is only one reason your business fails and that is because it does not have a leader others can believe in-- a leader who believes in himself; a leader who knows without a doubt the value and promise of Network Marketing.
If right now you don't believe this, that is the reason your business is not succeeding and producing other solid, believing leaders. It's not the problems, the product or plan. Your prospects have not found a person they can believe in and trust, who they can learn to be unstoppable from. You must decide one day that if you are going to make it, you must become 100 percent positive and in belief that this is a great business to be in and that it will work for anyone who wants to do it, and that many will.
Everyone thinks they need some particular thing, and you can't always satisfy them or convince them they can make it without it. But if you personally live by the decision "Failure is not an option," you will no longer be forced to accept the excuses others give you. Just do it yourself and be an example. It can be done! When you know there is no excuse in the world that can really prevent you from making it, you will be able to convince them they can do it anyway!
Remember the Apollo 13 mission? The most brilliant minds said it was impossible. "It's mathematics, it just can't work. There is no way, no solution." Everyone accepted this as truth. Who are you to know more than they? Who are you to dare insult them by thinking there may be a way?
``Plan now for what you will do when you have a large downline all demanding time. What you will do with all the money? Who will be your friends?''
But one man did. He was not a genius like the others, but he had a vision. He saw the death of those men and what it would do to their wives and children, to the space program, to Americans, and he dared to say "No! Failure is not an option!"
This was the brilliance of his mind. He freed their minds from the rigid confines they had in the past to use their creativity to come up with a solution he knew had to be possible. He didn't know it or know how to do it, but he believed there was a way. His vision of, "It is possible! Just go do it!" freed those men to do the unthinkable.
There is a way for any of us to have success if we will get out of our old limits and fears of what others will think. Even if it feels awkward, we need to use our creativity, see ourselves as able and powerful, do that which we fear most and step out in faith, knowing "If it is possible for others, it has to be possible for me!"
When people get this and do it, Network Marketing really does become easy. When they see this as a means to find out who they are and what they are here for, it becomes part of their purpose and destiny. It is who they are and how they do what they are here to do. It is the vehicle they use to get into the lives of people to fulfill their purpose here.
This makes them unstoppable-- they enjoy the work, because it is as much a part of them as their arm or leg. It is not only easier, it's an adventure and a challenge, self-revealing and empowering, and they can't keep from doing it. Once they quit worrying about what people think of them or how they are doing and focus on what another person needs, they will have the servant attitude that can handle the wealth and responsibility that will come. Network Marketing is a people business unlike any other business. It won't work by mass mail or ads. It only works and lasts when you involve yourself with others. This will force you to change and grow as you are shaped by those you seek to serve.
Accept that success comes with pains and disappointments. The wrong product shipped to a new person, being put on hold too long . . . problems help us to grow up and quit being whiners waiting for a perfect, no-difficulty business to come along (which is an unfulfillable fantasy). The reason this business pays so well is because it is hard. You have to stick with it and get over expecting it all to go smoothly. If you can't handle problems, get a job and let the boss or owner handle them. That is why it pays so well to be the owner. When people get this and overcome, then they have matured to the point where they can handle the reward. They see that it is not the product, the literature, the company, their upline, their neighbor, their kids, their lack of time, or anything. They will see " I can do it!"
Spending your time answering objections will not work-- that's not a successful duplication system. Constantly answering problems, we will not have time to build! There comes a point at which you just have to keep building and let the ones drop who drop. You become so positive and clear that you find yourself recruiting people with such ease and speed that it is faster and better to keep training new ones then spend time and energy in damage control guided by fear of loss. Either way, many will drop out of all companies. It's sad, but it doesn't matter, because-- and here's the clincher-- no matter how many drop out, all you need is four people who get this concept of how to achieve and maintain success: lead and help the most people, and you have it made for life! All you need is four and you can do it, because they will keep their groups going until they get their four. There are four people out there who you already know or will find who can get to this level of understanding.
Pour your life into the few who will take it. Live your dream now if it is to be real. Keep waiting for it to happen, and it won't ever begin.
Some people won't do this until they are desperate. Their fear of potential pain at trying something new or different is so strong that it keeps them from acting. Not until they become so aware of the hopeless situation they're in-- fed up with the trap of being comfortable now, enough to just get by-- do they see that it will be more painful to stay where they are than to risk making changes.
There are also many of us for whom much of the fear is not of our potential failure, but of success. How will this change my life if I make it? Will it corrupt me, will I become greedy or lazy or evil or snobby? Will my husband resent me, will my friends envy and hate me? Will others demand too much time of me?
All these fears hold us back from pulling out all the stops and saying, "Let's go for it!" You must then decide not to let success control you, but to control it-- and be who you are anyway. Decide ahead of time not to become greedy or snobby. Plan now for what you will do when you have a large downline all demanding time. What you will do with all the money? Who will be your friends and what you will do with them?
``As we empower others to help us and let them build us up, though we may lose a few, it is the easiest and most successful way.''
My fears were holding me back. To succeed, I had to decide that I would be an example that a wealthy person can be good! I would do it so others would not be afraid, and they would be free to do it, too. This was my passion and power-- I would do it for them. I would control myself so they could be free to have the benefits they helped bring me! I still use the same literature and the same products and the same company and have the same problems I had before, but now it works! My business works successfully-- it's a challenge, not a burden. I am no longer beating my head against the wall, over and over, stuck in the same patterns.Now my business is moving ahead even when it slows for a while. It is fulfilling and a joy, even though there are still some pains at times. I handle them more easily than before, because I understand it now. It is supposed to be this way. It is supposed to be full of new trials and challenges. It is no longer frustrating. I don't fight against it, or wonder why does this or that keep happening to me? I know it is all part of getting me to more success, so I just accept it and let the process work on me and change me and mold me! I see the big picture and the purpose more than just my income; I am in harmony with my purpose and fulfilling my destiny.
Can anything stop me? Not even a chance. For I have changed; I am different now. I overcame and now desire to empower others to have this also. It is my greatest desire and worth sacrificing to see them get it. It is like giving birth and becoming a part of another person's life and purpose. I will always have these people in my life, wherever or whatever we do, because I imparted my very being to them and held nothing back. I gave of my mind, my heart, my passion-- I risked myself for them. I treated them with integrity and they got it. They will be there when all else is gone or changes. And this is my legacy, what I have left in this world, in others, that they can pass on. Was I perfect? Not nearly. Was I even a lot better than others? No. Did I unintentionally hurt others on the way? Sadly, yes, and I hope they can forgive me and know it was not intentional, but just the result of a normal, imperfect person doing his part as well as he knew how at each step of the process.
Learn to be humble and build up others rather than yourself. Many seek to sell, recruit, or train and do it all themselves. Instead of partnering with another, and building up their partner's esteem in the eyes of prospects or new associates, they want to build themselves up in their eyes so they get the respect and praise. They fear their people may like or follow others more, so they don't try with all their heart as needed to succeed. They don't do it the way that works and is easiest, because of the fear they might lose what they get.
It is far more successful to build up others, trust that your time will come, and let others build you up as they refer people to you. As we empower others to help us and let them build us up, though we may lose a few, it is the easiest and most successful way. Decide today who some partners are who you can commit to ethically working with to build each other up for success.
Time freedom and financial freedom are side effects of paying the price of doing it right, with all our heart and hope in this opportunity we have been given. Realize you are not being greedy by being diligent in your work-- though well paid for it. Don't waste the opportunities brought into your path as those who buried money entrusted to them by their master out of fear of losing it, rather than investing it and making more. Share what you have, leverage what you have, so that you can free yet another struggling person to see his own power to be all he can.
Success is a process we go through-- you can't do it for someone or speed it up or even get them to see it. You just have to keep setting it before their eyes. Some get big pieces of it all at once, others get tiny bits so slow it seems like they may not be getting it at all. But you just keep putting it out there like bait for a fish, and when it's their time, they get it, they put it together, and they do it. Understanding it logically is not enough. It has to awaken them like a vision and become a part of them. As long as they keep working at it, there is hope they will get it. Our job in part is to fight for them to stay until they get it. This is dry, unrewarding labor, but the joy when they finally get it and it breaks them loose like an unstoppable cannon is a rush like no other.
Those who are not ready don't know what we are talking about-- it seems airy-fairy as it used to, to me. It feels strange to be the one now saying these things that sound like evasions from the truth rather than the answer. I used to think all the details needed to be handled-- but they don't. The truth is, it's you. Because when you get there, you'll know it. And you'll know everything you need to know.
To my downline, I say, how can I ever repay you all for what you have pressed me to do for myself and for you? I didn't value myself enough to seek to improve, or spend to better myself, or take the meditative time to work on myself in these areas. I thank you for what you have helped bring to my family-- it has been transforming me as I never dreamed.
Take the losses along the way. Keep offering help to many so you can find the people you're supposed to help become leaders. They will continue to help many more as they seek out more leaders. This is the only way we will have enough leaders to change the world. Decide to be unstoppable and positive. Learn who to trust, how to tell who is telling the truth, and who is perverting the evidence for the wrong reason. Overcome your fear by ignoring it and doing what the leaders do anyway. Just follow the leader when you find one you know is true. Then use your success wisely.
DON PARTRIDGE has been involved with Network Marketing for nearly 20 years, beginning with a dabbling interest in the concept and going through the MLM junkie process, to serious full-time work-- in the last four years as a 12 star Gold Presidential, he is now among the top earners in Mannatech. Don has an extensive background in alternative medicine and has operated a natural healing product supply company for 18 years in Seattle, WA. He has been involved in the formulation, testing and development of products internationally and was elected by his peers onto Mannatech's Associate Advisory Council as chairman. Don also currently serves on the Marketing Council elected by and from the top 30 income earners in Mannatech. He lives in Renton, WA, with his wife on their eight acres complete with trout pond, vegetable garden and animals.
Reprinted with permission from Upline, Partridge Feature - July/August 1999, 888-UPLINE-1, http://www.upline.com
