If you have your own business, and especially if you are in network marketing, I have very valuable advice for you today.
What’s the Real Reason Why You Joined the Business
It’s about how you should never forget the reason why you joined the business, and it is NOT what you expect to hear.
It’s not what others will tell you and DEFINITELY NOT what MLM companies tell you to do.
What I’m going to share with you today is something I learned at a dinner at the Chili’s restaurant in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur in January 2007.
Before I share it, let me first tell you what happened over the last few days because what happened has a lot to do with what you are about to learn.
Visit from My Mom
I was really excited to see my mom again. As the years go by, I find myself closer to my mom and able to share more and more with her.
Whether it is about business, the NBA or politics, we connect well.
In my mind, that trip seems like last month, but it has been a while already. However, the memories are so vivid. I even remember the exact audiobooks that I was listening to while driving when my mom fell asleep to take a nap in the car.
The best feeling is that I’ve accomplished so much since that trip. That trip laid the groundwork for my run to win the #1 Growth Award and President’s Award in 2012. It also gave me new ideas to expand my vision to helping others establish their online presence and brand.
As you can tell from my weekly blog posts, in the past year, I’ve increased the number of activities and time that I spend with my family.
I was really excited to see my mom and for her to enjoy time with my son, Ethan, as well.
Here are some pictures from this past week.
The Unexpected Lesson in Kuala Lumpur
The reason I’m sharing my feelings toward my mom and the happy moments with my family is because it relates to today’s lesson.
Pay special attention to this if you are a business owner!
I learned this lesson from one of my mentors back in January 2007. At the time, I was a Gold Director (average income $86,000 USD) in my MLM business. It wasn’t big money, but enough to allow me to quit my job and work at home full-time. I was ambitious and hungry to climb higher and faster.
I was one of the pioneers that helped my company open the Malaysian market. I was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at the time, and my mentor was nice enough to visit me to support my team.
He stayed and helped me for a week, but it was the dinner on the second night after his arrival that I will never forget.
He wanted American food so we went to Bangsar, where all the expats hang out in Kuala Lumpur. We ate at Chili’s. I was expecting advice on how to continue to grow my business so that I could become a Superstar Diamond Director.
He never gave me the advice on how to grow faster and bigger.
Instead, he shared with me something that was MORE valuable and one of the BIGGEST lessons I’ve learned in my life.
He said that he didn’t need to teach me how to grow my business faster and earn more income because I would figure that out sooner or later. It was not that important.
He had an even MORE important lesson for me, and he didn’t want me to make the same mistake that other entrepreneurs make.
According to him, the MOST important lesson is to “never forget why you joined the business.”
Never forget your WHY.
By that, he didn’t mean my motivation for joining an MLM company.
He meant that, as you grow and the money comes in, you must have a target on when to STOP working.
In other words, you must have an exit strategy.
His advice didn’t make sense to me then. I thought he was just being “lazy,” giving excuses for his own lack of activity, but years later, I saw his wisdom.
My Why: The Reason I Became an Entrepreneur
I decided to start my own business and joined MLM over a decade ago because I saw myself going down the same path as my father.
I love my father and what he did for me, but he was always so busy that he never had the time to do all the things with my brother and me. I appreciate everything his hard work provided for us, but it wasn’t the life I wanted when I had children.
I wanted to be the dad that could take my son to ballgames everyday, if that is what he wanted.
That was the reason why I joined the business.
I wanted to be able to spend time with my kids when I had them.
The beautiful part of network marketing and the reason why I joined the business is because it can provide residual income, which means it pays you even if you are not working.
That type of passive income gives you time to do the things you love. It allows you to pursue and indulge in the “reason why you joined the business.”
My mentor’s lesson means that there are always more ranks to conquer. You can achieve Diamond, and then Star Diamonds, and then get more Stars…
You can always pursue MORE money but at what cost?
He gave tons of examples of top income earners who lost their marriages because of their pursuit of more ranks and more money. Yes, they were successful in their businesses, but they failed in their personal lives.
I started to see my mentor’s wisdom years later. He was a six-figure income earner and had become “lazy.” He never won any more awards, but he did spend tons of time with his family. Together, he and his wife raised six wonderful kids.
On the other hand, throughout the years, I’ve seen countless top distributors chase more ranks and create turmoil in their personal lives. Some even lost their marriages.
I’m not saying which path is better, but if you give me a choice, I’d take less money in exchange for a happy marriage with six wonderful kids.
Seeing my mentor’s success and personal happiness reminded me of the reason why I joined the business.
It was to spend time with my children and do the things that my dad never got to do with me.
And now, I am a father.
For me, that means spending time with my son. Whether it is taking him to the park everyday, reading to him, taking him in his bike trailer to the beach, jogging along the water or teaching him how to swim, I want to be there for him.
That’s how I am spending my time these days.
Success in MLM Takes Tremendous Sacrifice
Don’t get me wrong.
Success in network marketing is just like success in any other profession.
It takes TREMENDOUS amounts of sacrifice.
You must pay your dues.
There is NO BS and NO HYPE to that!
I always emphasize—not just to my business leaders, but also to my Mastermind Coaching and Insider’s Circle members—that you must work so hard that you can’t stand the business.
When you get to that stage, you know you are close to success.
I’ve definitely done my fair share of sacrificing and “hating the business.”
Whether it was spending over a year and a half living in Malaysia, doing prospecting meetings at 3am in the Philippines, or making prospecting calls at 11pm in the streets of Santa Monica, I’ve paid my dues.
Prospecting in Streets of Santa Monica at Night
By the way, if you are wondering why I couldn’t prospect at home and had to prospect on the street, it is because my wife was so sick of hearing me make prospecting calls in our tiny 500 square foot apartment that she told me to, “take it outside.”
I would prospect in the USA from 4 to 8pm and then take a break. However, I would resume prospecting in Asia from 10pm to 1 to 2am. Initially, even prospecting on the streets was not easy since the street lamps were not bright enough for me to read the numbers on my contact list. I also got some complaints from neighbors who said I was, “talking too loud.”
After a few days of making long distance calls on the street, I found a good place by a business office on 26th and Broadway in Santa Monica. I had good lighting there, and I could talk as loud as I wanted without worrying about disturbing the neighbors.
Clearly, I have made sacrifices, and those are the things you have to do, that relentless pursuit, in order to become successful.
It’s Time for Me to Enjoy the Benefits of MLM
Now though, it’s time for me to enjoy the benefits of the MLM business I have built over the years by spending time with my son.
My mentor’s words are always in the back of my mind, “Never forget why you joined the business.”
I’ve hit my passive income goal now, and I am going to enjoy the benefits of MLM.
I’ll be doing things with my son that my dad never got to do with me.
And I’m thankful to MLM for allowing me to do that.
So if you bump into me on a weekday afternoon at Redondo Beach with my son Ethan, don’t be surprised. 🙂
Sincerely,
Simon Chan
P.S. I’d like to share with you a Positive Force that will not only help you stay motivated but become successful in MLM.
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Best blog yet Simon! So good in fact I’m going to send it to my wife as well! I am a family man too … spend all the time to can with your family you will never regret that decision, EVER!
Albert, Thanks for the feedback. Family is just like everything else and especially kids. If you don’t spend time with them early on, you will end up spending MORE TIME and have MORE HEADACHES later on. So best to take care of them and put them first
Greetings;
Well being a full time businessman -only part time in MLM- my time with my family specially with my children are on weekend only. Since all of 3 of them are all in school also during week days. But i always sure that when we are together, its always a quality time in all its sense.
My reason for joining were first: to try out the products – if they would help me, the next (and the biggest) reason for me joining was for the business. The way it was discussed was that it seemed very easy and i could do it part time. But now, i’ve realized how difficult it is and conflicting with my time schedules and also my personal values (of being honest, straight forward and direct); i dont like to do it anymore..
Also i am not good with rejections as well.. All of this negativity has led me to think of not continuing the business rather than suffer more losses