How To Focus On Your Business And Achieve Success At Your Own Pace

Do those 'motivational' emails from your MLM or Network Marketing company make you feel you're failing? They did for me. They made me feel I was a complete failure.

So how did I deal with that?

The first, and unquestionably the most important, step has to do with your own mindset.

If you're really in this business for the long haul, if failure is not an option for you, then you have the soundest base possible for dealing with this.

This is an absolute requirement. Without a mindset like this you will, sooner or later, pull out.

So, with that as my foundation, the next step, for me, was to start picking out the facts. You have to be brutally honest with yourself here because this can very easily be confused with looking for excuses.

For your own sake be brutally honest.

Here are a couple of examples that explained some of the successes and exposed the hype.

Once you get to grips with this in your own business you'll find it much easier to deal with those 'motivational' emails and calls.

If you can do that, and stick with it, ultimately you will be successful.

I joined a new business more than a year ago. There was an enormous amount of hype about how much money different people had made in their first month in the business.

Six weeks into the business I had made $0.

Still the emails kept coming, previewing calls where these mega earners, who had earned more in a month than they had in a year before joining this business, would be spilling their secrets etc, etc.

By this time I was feeling totally inadequate and ready to quit. I was frustrated and angry because I felt as though I'd been conned and let down.

But, as I began talking to other people in the business, I began to understand how these so-called success stories had made their money.

They had done it all before.

They had been in previous MLM or network marketing businesses, had a list of thousands of people who were interested in that type of business and had simply brought them across.

This could not have been more different from my situation - but that was never loudly proclaimed. Or even proclaimed at all.

I was new to this type of business. I had no pre-existing down-line I could bring across. No wonder these people were pulling in the big bucks while I was making nothing.

These were not excuses - they were (and are) the facts. And as soon as I understood them I began to understand what I had to do.

I also realised that these 'success models' had started where I was. And that, in one case, it had taken them the best part of 20 years to develop a Rolodex that was big enough to pull in commissions of that order in the first month or so of a new business.

I also, quite by accident, discovered that these 'motivational' emails are not always to be taken at face value.

I received one such email that talked about how 'independent, 3rd party sources' had reviewed the business and found it to be the best business around, etc, etc.

When I checked out the 'source' I found it to be an affiliate - very far indeed from being an independent source!

Far from being disheartened, grasping these realities turned me away from quitting. They were far more effective at motivating me than all the hype had been. I began to look at my own business practices and to measure myself against my own yardstick. I started setting short-term goals, and as long as I could see I was improving month-by-month, I was OK with things.

And improving didn't just mean making more money each month. Although I'm making money now, and I'm qualified in the business, I've not earned more money each month. Some months it's less. Last month it was $0 again.

Improving means I know more this month than I did last month. I'm better at something now than I was last month. I can do things now that I couldn't do last month. My knowledge of this business and what it takes to be successful is better now than it was last month.

I set myself targets to learn new things. To test new marketing techniques. To adopt new strategies.

These are not huge steps. They're small steps. But, provided I keep making small steps forward, I know I'll get there in the end.

For me, failure is not an option. That mindset helps me to be dispassionate, objective and honest when I review my progress.

You have to be honest with yourself.

If you can't be honest with yourself then you will, eventually, pull out. And all your investment of money, time and stress will have been wasted.

If that's the case you'd do better to pull out now and cut your losses.

But if you can be genuinely honest with yourself, and continually set yourself achievable goals, you will eventually succeed. Don't try to create your empire in a day. A solid, resilient business takes a long time to grow and mature. Like a good wine.

Just make sure you keep moving forwards, however small the steps may be.