Charlatans

I want to come back to my Business Coach friend I referred to on my 2.11.09 post entitled Conventional vs Network Marketing business.

He was very scathing of many of the personal development top trainers (who I am not going to mention here), saying and I quote “ … et al – charlatans (mainly American, I’m embarrassed to say) who have grown rich off the hopes and aspirations of others, but who peddle mainly simplistic platitudes. Excuse me if that seems somewhat harsh, but it’s an opinion I share with many others.

His bit finished again.

A great topic for discussion, don’t you think?

So where do you want to start.
Lets start at the beginning, the Network Marketing industry was invented in the US in the late 1950s and one of the first pioneering companies was Amway (and I believe it is still the largest network marketing company). Amway was the trail blazer and on the back of their and other pioneering companies success there are now hundreds of NM companies around the world and it won’t surprise you to know that the majority are US based. Over 50 million people worldwide now work in this industry.

The US has always been the land of the entrepreneur and so Network Marketing or Multi Level Marketing (MLM) was invented to provide an opportunity for the average person to go out and make his million. Everybody who joins a NM company joins at the bottom a totally pure business model, no work no pay, plenty of work plenty of pay.

As the industry developed through the 50s 60s and 70s you would expect there would be other industries that developed alongside network marketing. Yes you guessed it, the Personal Development Industry. If you have been reading my posts you will realise that network marketing is more about you and the company you join right, (I must have mentioned this at least ten times). So two parallel industries with much cross over where successful network marketers would become personal development gurus and vice versa. Logical.

Some of these trainers (for want of a better word) became household names and in the process becoming wealthy in there own right. I can tell you now I believe these guys have done a great service to society in that they provide material for people to develop themselves. I could rant on big time on this. I am a perfect example on this one.

I was “locked in” industry for 25 years, a cocoon of unreality and company politics. When I say unreality I mean when I got out (the company went bust) I was not prepared for the “real world”. Real world is me, what do I want to do with my life? Get another job I suppose. Hang on; I didn’t answer the question “my life”.
It was only at that point when I started reading about self-development that the penny started to drop. The only person I am going to mention in this post is Tony Robbins. I was invited onto one of his personal development training courses in London and to say that it was the inspiration for me to be doing what I want with my life is an understatement. “Awaken The Giant Within,” says it all. He was absolutely brilliant.

So the punch line is, “it’s your life”, nobody else’s and the great thing about a democracy is that you have a choice. So if you want to go down the conventional business route; that is fine by me. If you want to go down the personal development route and join a network marketing company then you are also free to do so.

And do you know in network marketing you are looking for people who are better than you and your success is dependent on helping other people to be successful. In my opinion that is a wonderful work ethic.

Do not disrespect an industry you know nothing about my Business Coach friend as you don’t know what you are talking about.

Peter Ragg
3.11.09