Networking has become synonymous with the line “open-minded ka ba?” But people who once joined an MLM group have some positive things to say about the business that everyone loves to hate.
I vividly remember the day when my P.E. teacher asked if there’s anyone in our class who wanted a part-time job. Four students raised their hands, myself included. We were asked to stay after class.
An hour later, we found ourselves getting introduced to networking, right at the bleachers of our school’s basketball court. Out of the four, I was the only one who got convinced. I was barely sixteen.
I was excited, managed to afford to become a member, but I didn’t know what I was doing. I left when the semester ended.
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About three years later, I was recruited again this time by a total stranger. After several days of attending orientations and getting introduced to a lot of “successful” people, I decided to give it another try.
It was fun, and I was learning a lot. But I was not really making any money just like the first time. I left after over a year and never returned.
Personally, networking may not have given me the wealth that I was hoping to attain, but I learned a lot of things that I still keep until now.
The Strategies.
There were marketing strategies that we were practicing in order to convince people to sign up. In fact, using the word “convince” is a big no-no as it implies being pushy. We did not want you to feel that we are forcing you to join.
We are not recruiting you either, we are”inviting” you. And we do not want you to sell products, you simply need to “share”.
By being mindful of the words we use, things become easier between us and a potential future member. I believe this to be true in any endeavor that one would venture into.
If you Dream, Dream Big!
This is probably the biggest thing that I learned from joining an MLM company. We were encouraged to create vision boards, to be very ambitious, and be a believer in endless possibilities.
We became dreamers who did not want to be limited by our current realities.
I took this learning with me until now. The only difference is that I have also learned to be more accepting and gracious of anything that the present moment is giving me. And with being grateful comes the continuous hard work towards achieving my goals based on what I have now and what I know now.
Prepare to be Hated.
Many experts say that you must be willing to be hated in order to be successful. Famous people are being bashed left and right, but because they long accepted this to be a part of the formula to greatness, no amount of hate could bring them down.
Successful people have the most haters because they achieved something that the haters could only dream of. Rejections are common for people who are into networking, but when you look at it, it happens to everyone, all the time.
Have you also been invited to be one these networking groups? How was your experience?