Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn’t
be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn’t
know it so it goes on flying anyway.
-Mary Kay Ash
"If you think you can, you’re right; If you think you can’t, you’re right!"
Humble Beginnings – Don’t Sell Yourself Short
Can you be the “million dollar earner?” Don’t sell yourself short just because you’re starting small in the direct selling business. History tells us that, in America, many billion dollar businesses have been started on a shoestring in garages and in back bedrooms. Cases in point: Bill Gates of Microsoft, Phil Knight of Nike shoes, and Steve Jobs of Apple Computer. There are also countless inspiring network marketing success stories about individuals whose companies or distributorships had very humble beginnings.
Amway/Quixtar… from the Bathtub!
Take, for example, the co‑founders of Amway, known more recently as Quixtar – network marketing’s largest multi-billion dollar company. Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel mixed their first product, LOC Cleanser, in their bathtubs to start their business. Starting out as distributors for a vitamin company, Nutrilite, their Amway Corporation later bought Nutrilite, which today is their division for nutritional supplements. Amway has gone on to become the largest seller of dietary supplements in the world with consistent sales in excess of $5 billion.
Avon…Door-to-Door Bibles…
The founder of Avon, David McConnell, wasn’t even in the cosmetics business in 1886. He was selling Bibles door-to-door, and giving away free perfume samples as a way to get into the homes of prospective customers. As it turned out, his customers showed such attraction for the perfume samples that he started the California Perfume Company, later renamed Avon. Today, Avon, trades on the New York Stock Exchange, operates in more than 140 countries with sales in excess of $7 billion, and is one of the largest sellers of cosmetics in the world.
Mary Kay…Starting from Nothing…
After a successful career as a top distributor for the direct selling company, Stanley Home Products, Mary Kay Ash started her own small business. She started Mary Kay in 1963, utilizing products such as a hide tanner used to cure animal hides and became the most famous face of direct selling and network marketing, lecturing around the world and even included in a case study at Harvard Business School. In fact, Mary Kay Ash was one of three alumni distributors of Stanley Home Products that established multi-billion dollar companies. Her colleague, Brownie Wise, went on to help establish Tupperware, and Mary Crowley founded Home Interiors. Clearly, their direct selling distributor experiences allowed them to accept and succeed in new challenges that would likewise impact millions of lives and inspire other entrepreneurs to develop successful distributorships and found their own companies.
Watkins…Liniment, Yes, Liniment…
And, consider the origins of Watkins Products back in 1868. Today, Watkins sells a full line of products, from spices to cosmetics, to health items. In 1868, however, the founder of the company, Joseph R. Watkins, was selling only one product: liniment. From that single product was built, perhaps, the longest-running direct selling story of the industry.
Art Williams…from Football to Financial Powerhouse…
How improbable! Art Williams was a high school football coach making little more than $10,000 per year when he applied principles of multilevel marketing to the sale of term insurance. A. L. Williams went on to become the largest seller of term insurance in the U.S., eventually evolving into today’s Primerica, a division of one of America’s largest financial institutions, Citibank. Sales of financial products by Primerica run into the billions of dollars every year. And, all from a football field!
Dream Big!
Modern-day network marketing successes – whether they are companies or individual distributors – all have their “on a shoestring” stories. This business was meant to grow from the humble beginnings of one person’s dream.
And the successes of those that have started billion dollar companies are paralleled over and over among the millions of network marketing distributors. Look around at the top distributors for major companies today and you will find individuals, who in their prior lives, were teachers, plumbers, lighting salesmen — all with modest employment incomes and equally-modest prospects in life.
A Positive Mindset
This is a mindset business. Your attitude is often a self-fulfilling prophecy. There is some real truth to the veteran’s advice which notes, “If you think you can, you’re right; If you think you can’t, you’re right!”
So the next time you think you can’t do it, think again! Make sure, however, that you have access to one of the following tools: a bathtub, a garage, a back bedroom, or a dream.
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