Chapter 1
The #1 Secret for Creating Prosperity
What is the greatest secret for creating success, wealth, and overall prosperity?
Famed Greek mathematician Archimedes best revealed that secret when he said:
When he spoke those words, he was illuminating the awesome power of leverage. Leverage truly is the number one secret you can use to create success, develop wealth, and manifest prosperity.
The most prolific entrepreneurs on earth draw on leverage to create prosperity. Famous industrialists like John D. Rockefeller, J. Paul Getty, and Andrew Carnegie used it, as do modern-day success stories like Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Oprah Winfrey.
With Direct Selling, everyone has the opportunity to apply leverage—just as the wealthy do—to create financial freedom and security. Every new distributor can build a solid customer base and a team of entrepreneurs—all producing residual income for themselves. Before long, your business can start spreading exponentially.
But how do you successfully build a viable Direct Selling distributorship? Allow me to share with you one of my favorite affirmations, one I use frequently:
The reason I use that affirmation so much is because I need it so much. Because it goes right to the fundamental essence of personal growth and how to become successful:
Once you truly understand this, your whole world changes. Because you stop looking for excuses from external sources (the economy, the Prime Minister, your ex-spouse, etc.), and you turn your attention inward.
Let me suggest something you might find shocking and probably have a hard time believing. Most of the opinions, ideas, and rules you live by are lies.
They are the residue of past, limiting beliefs you haven’t yet released. You were most likely programmed with those beliefs before you were 10 years old. And for you to succeed in Direct Selling, you’re going to have to eradicate those beliefs. And then replace them with beliefs that actually empower you, instead of hold you back.
No, you don’t get the results in an instant. You still have to make the decision, take the action, and go through the process.
But your world has explicably changed, because you’re courageous enough to make that decision to start. That changes everything forward from that point.
If you’re looking for reasons why something won’t work, you’ll never find a shortage of them. However, if you approach this business with the expectation that you’re going to succeed, you dramatically improve your odds of actually doing that. Your mindset is critical—which is why I’m beginning the book with this topic.
Essentially, it’s pretty simple to build a successful business in our profession. But don’t confuse simple with easy. It’s never easy.
There will be dropouts, no shows, and potential superstars who flame out in 30 days. You’ll be competing against sleazy recruiters, Ponzi schemes, and other money games. You’ll face frustration, rejection, and perhaps ridicule. And you’ll face something much, much worse: your own self-doubt.
To persevere and still be here for the victory in the end, you’re going to have to pay the price. Pay it gladly. Because the cost of living your dreams is high. But the cost of giving up on your dreams is much, much higher.
You’re joining a business that millions of people around the globe have utilized to improve their lives. And I’ve seen the proof…
I’ve done new member orientations in Skopje, Macedonia; conducted Leadership Institutes in Zagreb, Croatia; and sponsored the first woman to ever qualify for a bonus car in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
I’ve seen people ride trains for 40 hours to come for training in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and show up to an event in Trujillo, Peru—via mule. I’ve seen the passion in the eyes of people pursuing their dreams from San Diego to London, La Paz to Sydney, Moscow to Memphis, and Seoul to a trailer park in Pensacola. Thousands have done it. Millions more are doing it.
I wrote this book to give you the best chance of replicating their success. Please think of me as your surrogate sponsor, here to guide you through the process.
Of course, this all comes back to you…
And what you do with the information you’re about to receive. You’re going to face challenges and face doubts. You’ll be tempted to quit a hundred times.
Will you choose to be a victim or a victor?
You can’t be both. You have to decide. The greatest honor you can give the force that created you is to become who you are truly meant to be. So if you’re up for that, let’s get after it.
What You Don’t Need
Before we delve into what it takes to succeed in this business at a high level, let’s run through some of the things you might think you need—but actually don’t.
Here’s what you don’t need to be successful in Direct Selling:
- Experience
- College degrees
- Lots of money
- Selling skills
Let’s unpack each of these, and allow me to share my thoughts on each.
You Don’t Need Experience
You don’t need experience, because no one is going to ask you to quit your job and instantly replace your income. I’m going to recommend that you start part-time, working 10 to 15 hours a week, keeping whatever job you currently have. Just work the business as a side hustle, and see where it develops from there. You’ll have no pressure, and you can learn and earn as you go along.
The real success in our business comes from duplication, employing the concept of leverage. So a lot of the time, coming in with preconceived ideas or experience can actually hold you back. Personally, I prefer to work with people who have no experience in the profession, because we don’t have to go through a massive unlearning process.
You Don’t Need a College Degree
Because I’m a high school dropout who became wealthy in this business, I don’t think degrees and accreditations are necessary. But it’s not just me. There are countless stories of successful people with no degrees. Most of the theoretical stuff they teach in business school doesn’t apply here anyway.
Success in Direct Selling comes from empowering a large group of people to consistently perform a few simple behaviors on an ongoing basis. So you certainly don’t need four years of higher learning to do that.
When you join a Direct Selling company, you have an entire sponsorship line that has a vested interest in your success. They will actually come down in the group to train and work with you for free. This makes having experience or a degree considerably less important than they would be in traditional businesses.
You Don’t Need Lots of Money
Beginning a Direct Selling business requires a minimal investment. You don’t need a physical location, employees, or a large inventory. You can start this business for literally a fraction of what traditional businesses cost to launch.
You Don’t Need Selling Skills
Maybe most surprising is that you don’t need selling skills. That’s because no one is going to ask you to knock on the doors of strangers, make cold calls, or use high-pressure closing techniques to convince people to buy your products.
We produce literally billions of dollars (pesos, pounds, yen, rubles, and many other currencies) in sales every year. But this astounding amount of sales is created by conversationally marketing the products to friends, family, and neighbors. People you already have relationships with, who can benefit from your product or service.
You learn how to discover needs, then solve problems and add value through what you offer.
The big difference in our business is the leverage. Leverage is one of the great wonders of the world—not unlike compound interest—because it allows you to escape the trap of trading hours for money. And when you employ that leverage, following a simple, duplicable system, you might create an organization that produces literally millions of dollars in sales—even though you don’t know any closing techniques or perform any of the normal behaviors you’d associate with a salesperson. This is why I call our business model Leveraged Sales, a concept we’ll talk about more in the next chapter.
So now that you know what you don’t need to be successful—what does it actually take to succeed?
What It Takes to Succeed
This business has produced some of the most remarkable and inspirational success stories you’ll ever hear. Practically every company has its “rags to riches” stories of everyday people who went from poor or modest beginnings to living the lifestyle of their dreams.
From single mothers on welfare to people with disabilities, from pizza delivery drivers to the young man in Taiwan who rode his bicycle to opportunity meetings—people have rediscovered their dreams and made them happen through Direct Selling.
Across the profession, you will find striking similarities in the ultra-successful people in all companies. These common traits are the prerequisites for long-term success in the business. Let’s explore exactly what the commonalities are.
Everyone in This Group Is a Dreamer
They stopped buying the gloom and doom portrayed in the media and reconnected to the vision of greatness we all once had for ourselves.
If Morpheus were to offer them the red pill or the blue pill, they would always choose the trip down the rabbit hole rather than the safety of the Matrix. Because they know that in today’s world, risky is the new safe. And the people who are playing it safe are actually at the greatest risk for a life of mediocrity.
Everyone in This Group Is a Critical Thinker
They reject herd thinking and practice discernment. They are curious by nature and open to challenging their most deeply held foundational beliefs. They are not cynics, but they are skeptical of conventional wisdom. They question authority and want to know the reasoning behind a premise. They know any beliefs they have that serve them will survive a healthy skepticism, and any beliefs that don’t stand up under scrutiny need to be replaced.
Everyone in This Group Is a Worker
They don’t look for the free lunches and get-rich schemes. Far from running away from work, they get up, throw the sheets off the bed and actually look forward to work. They love challenge, growth, adventure, and helping others while helping themselves. Because they love their work so much, they don’t need a 12-pack and a Netflix binge to escape from their job. They have discovered how to merge work and life into a lifestyle they love.
Everyone in This Group Is a Good Teacher
They recognize that real duplication comes from teaching skills much more than selling skills. They follow a formula that allows large numbers of people to replicate their actions.
Everyone in This Group Is Also a Student
They have a passion for lifelong learning and set aside daily time for quiet reflection and self-development.
Initially, my biggest mistake in the business was thinking that success would come from changing others. I soon learned that success comes from changing oneself. The actions you take and the examples you set create a ripple effect that impacts everything around you in a positive way. To change the world—you must first change yourself.
Everyone in This Group Is a Leader
They weren’t born a leader. Nobody appointed them to the position, and they couldn’t care less about titles, hierarchy, or conformity. They are called to lead from the small, still voice in their soul.
They lead because they have belief. Belief in a better way, belief in contributing to others, belief that prosperity is everyone’s birthright. And they know their conviction comes with a responsibility to share that belief with the larger community.
The rules of the corporate world don’t apply in Direct Selling. In this business, you get ahead not by beating out other people or holding them down, but by helping them to grow. The more people you make successful, the more successful you become.
A corporation has room for one president, a few vice presidents, more middle managers, and then many workers at low-level jobs. In Direct Selling, we encourage everyone who desires to be a leader to strive for leadership positions. There is no limit to the number of people who can reach the top of your compensation plan.
Now that you know the attributes required to be successful in Direct Selling, let me show you why the old paradigms of Network Marketing/MLM have to die—and how we’ll move forward with a better model…