When I first started out as an entrepreneur I was unfocused.

I didn't know what I really wanted or how I was going to get there.

I just new that I was magnetically attracted to the options that rich people could access and that I wanted to make and invest money in the same way.

Naturally, I was prone to look closely at any and all manner of opportunity that floated past me.

In 2003 I was at a business networking event and met a young woman promoting a network marketing opportunity.

The company with whom the opportunity was with had all the prerequisites: a pharmaceutical nutritional product, a cast of awe inspiring characters, a listing on the stock exchange, and a business model that promised to make you rich within a few months.

One of my strengths (or one of my pitfalls when not properly channeled) is that I execute at the speed of thought.

This means that as soon as I have identified a target, a goal, or a mission, my mind has already planned steps 3, 4, 5, and 10 while I'm still thinking about or implementing step 1.

The reason why I'm telling you this is that so you can understand how I jump into something with both feet and do it to the best of my ability.

There's no halfway with me.

So, I joined up and worked this network marketing opportunity for about one year while I was still running my own personal training company.

Yes, I made my list of friends and family and started calling them and creating the necessary tension by asking them to meet with me for a presentation and buy some of my vitamins.

Then I sold the vitamins to all my personal training clients and to the owner of the fitness studio I worked out of and so it went until no one would return my phone calls.

I advanced several levels in the company and even got to the point of cult-like freaky fervor that I would stand up and speak at our team meetings and opportunity events for prospective new recruits.

Then, as in many of the early entrepreneurial opportunities I became involved with, the business failed to hold my interest and I reversed my enthusiasm and effort just as quickly as I engaged it and I quit the opportunity.

Network marketing is not all bad, and, if you get with the right company at the right level of the organization at the right time in its evolution, there are some significant educational and even monetary benefits that you can capitalize on.

I learned several valuable lessons from my year in networking marketing which occurred early on in my entrepreneurial career:

1. I overcame the fear of direct contact with potential buyers of my product and investors in my ideas.

2. I learned how to present and sell one-on-one, face-to-face, nose-to-nose, toes-to-toes...a prerequisite to me becoming an effective marketing copywriter and fund raiser, and, one of the most valuable skills any person can possess. If you know how to sell, if you truly how to make money from nothing more than an idea, then you will never be poor or have fear of lack of money.

3. I learned the value of personal growth and development and enhanced my already intense regiment of self-education by investing in myself through buying more books, audio programs, and seminars.

4. I learned how to not take "no" for an answer. Hearing the word "no" became nothing more than an unemotional trigger to commence follow up. At first, hearing "no" was very emotional because I was still overcoming my fear of rejection, but eventually that passed and was replaced with confidence that human behavior is predictable.

5. I learned the value of a mastermind; having like minded individuals with similar goals to meet with regularly and share successes and failures. A support network is an incredibly powerful factor in any entrepreneur's success and if you're reading this and you don't have one, get one...create your own if you have to. This is critical.

6. Finally, I learned how to present to a group as I moved up the ladder and chose to speak at team events.

Am I recommending you join a network marketing company?

If you are a young or new entrepreneur that has absolutely no idea where to start and you are confused and/or frustrated because you can't come up with any ideas that appeal to you or a plan that makes sense, then yes...find a network marketing company with a product that interests you and that you can actually see yourself using (because you're going to be buying and stocking a lot of it) and enroll.

Here's a few tips for selecting a viable network marketing opportunity:

1. Enroll under a top dog (your "upline" as they call it in the biz), someone that's been doing the business for at least 5 years and can demonstrate with actual check stubs that he is making at least a respectable full-time income or six figures consistently on an annual basis. This person will be a skilled sales person at this point and can probably teach you a thing or two. Whatever you do...don't enroll under a part-timer or some newbie that has no proof of income. This is a total waste of your time and your hard earned money.

2. Don't go into this blind. Do not expect to make a lot of money. Don't even expect to get your ongoing monthly investment covered. Consider your investment in the opportunity your crash course in personal selling skills. You probably won't make any money at all and it's even more unlikely that you'll actually make a living doing this, but, as I stated above, there is definitely some payoff.

3. If the opportunity you decide to join isn't well organized or your sponsor sucks, quit and find another one. That's the great thing about MLM. There's typically little up front investment and if you quit you've typically lost very little. Much easier than opening up a bricks and mortar startup business, failing, and then having to start over again with a new opportunity. Trust me on this...network marketing is a great business to fail at because your downside is so minimal.

Ever got sucked in to an MLM or network marketing opportunity?

What was it like? Did you gain some benefit from it or did you quit after the first few months because you couldn't make any sales or enroll any new members? Are you in network marketing now? Have you ever replaced a full-time income with an MLM?

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