Network Marketing and the Entrepreneurial Age

A NEW BREED OF PROFESSIONAL FOR THE NEW CENTURY

As we turn the corner of a new millennium, a new role model is emerging for the business world. Replacing the acclaimed corporate executive of the 20th century will be the entrepreneur of the 21st century. In fact, eight out of ten people believe that with the advancement of technology and the World Wide Web, entrepreneurship will surface as "the defining trend of the business world in this next century." This conclusion is not mine alone; it is also one reached in a survey of leading Americans, commissioned by Ernst & Young.

A new breed of professionals is emerging--professionals who are no longer satisfied with the old social mores and work ethic so prevalent at the close of the 20th century. These new professionals are putting aside their corporate ladders and replacing them with a vision that they can create a balanced work environment which offers personal growth and fulfillment, financial rewards in keeping with how they value themselves, the chance to share their wealth, and the freedom to enjoy life. Not only employees but also employers are candidates for this new form of capitalism, tired of too many sacrifices at too great a personal cost. These entrepreneurs will become the leading economic drivers--so much so that it is expected that the 21st century could well become known as "the entrepreneurial age."

The profession most likely to advance this entrepreneurial age is network marketing--an industry embodying ten million Americans and more than three times that many worldwide. In fact, it's the fastest growing industry in the world. This is largely because it offers a viable alternative to life in the corporate world.

The American Nightmare
For all too many workers, the American dream of our forefathers has become a nightmare.

More and more people are realizing that Monday is an awful way to spend one seventh of our lives. The very thought of going to work has become hateful. Those who keep track of such things tell us more suicides are committed on Monday morning before nine o'clock than at any other time of the week. Today's workers can hardly wait for Friday to roll around--they have even developed their own special cheer (and a chain of bar/restaurants) to mark it: TGIF... Thank God It's Friday!

Network marketing is emerging as an alternative way to make a living--and to live.

The difference between a corporate and a network marketing pyramid is simple and straightforward. In a multilevel marketing pyramid, individuals start out at the top, as the president and CEO of their own businesses. They then proceed to build their organization, in pyramidal fashion from the top down, looking first for their vice presidents, who make up the "front line" of their corporation. Those so inclined can in turn set themselves up as the CEOs of their own businesses; and that process can be duplicated repeatedly.

Working from Home
Network marketing brings democracy back to the workplace. We are in charge of our own lives. No one tells us what to do. We don't have a "job," in the traditional sense of the word. We don't commute to work. We don't race out of the house to catch the 7:15 to Grand Central Station, or fight the freeways in a carpool. We conduct our business from home.

It's ironic: Americans spent most of the 20th Century moving from the farm to the city. Now, as we enter the 21st Century, men and women are moving back to the farm again--in a metaphorical sense. Indeed, some Americans are moving literally from the city to more rural locations, where they can have chickens and ducks. Many more of us have figured out a way to earn a living simply by staying home, whether in the country, the city, or the suburbs.

We're leaving the rat race, doing our work at home. No more commutes of an hour or more. Now we're getting our work done in the hours from eight a.m. to three p.m.--and we're home when our kids get out of school. Or if our kids are grown, we're off to the golf course, the tennis courts, the local fishing hole, or to contribute time and money to serve those less fortunate than ourselves. We're living our lives.

Home Business Attracts Professionals
Why are so many professionals drawn to work at home? It offers a low-risk venture with the potential of an exceptionally high return. With network marketing, you have no overhead, no accounts receivable, no payroll, and no geographical restrictions. Network marketing is a business you can conduct from anywhere in the world. Anyone can become a networking success, irrespective of gender, race, cultural heritage, education, or other social or economic background. The essential determinant of success is the individual's personal connections and genuine commitment to hard work, sustained over time.

As more professionally educated and financially successful attorneys, physicians, dentists, teachers, chiropractors, professors, corporate CEOs, and entrepreneurs join our industry, we are also seeing more and more socially-conscious men and women entering the networking industry. These folks are attracting other men and women like themselves, people who will continue to raise the bar of professionalism in our industry. The kind of experience and credibility they bring can only enhance network marketing, making the industry even more effective in creating a legitimate, efficient, and rapidly growing channel of distribution for moving an ever-broadening array of products and services to customers around the globe.

These new professionals are putting aside their corporate ladders and replacing them with a vision that they can create a balanced work environment which offers personal growth and fulfillment, financial rewards in keeping with how they value themselves, the chance to share their wealth, and the freedom to enjoy life.

Freedom from Professional Slavery
As we move into a new millennium, it is natural to want to create new paradigms. Gerry Spence, in his book Give Me Liberty, proposes:

"The new paradigm for success in America must be person-based, not money-based. A successful person is one who has acquired not great wealth, but great personhood. The wealthy man who has not become a person is only an empty machine powered by churning greed. The individual who has achieved personhood is a lily in perpetual bloom. The paradigm of wealth as virtue, of money as success, of profit as the ultimate human goal, is the most enslaving value of all."

Network marketers, as a body of people, are on a campaign to set people free from modern-day wage slavery.

More and more people are realizing that Monday is an awful way to spend one seventh of their lives. The very thought of going to work has become hateful. Those who keep track of such things tell us more suicides are committed on Monday morning before nine o'clock than at any other time of the week.

"By slavery, the old or the new, I mean that state in which the person has no effective control over the course of his or her life," says Spence. "Despite his freedom to jump from job to job or junket by jet from beach to beach, if no matter how he schemes or toils he cannot explore his boundless uniqueness, if he has lost his only power, the power of the self, then he is enslaved."

For us to liberate ourselves as a nation, there must be visionaries who rise to lead us from our contemporary captivity.

I believe that this remarkable industry will be responsible for changing social trends over the next few decades. Entrepreneurs who spend more time working from home will be better mothers and fathers, there when their families need them rather than stuck in gridlock on a freeway. They will re-establish priorities and create lives with a more elevated sense of purpose and fulfillment. With more capital in the hands of responsible entrepreneurs, I expect to see countless people earn more money than they ever dreamed possible. Many of them will use their newfound wealth for altruistic causes.

These entrepreneurs are carrying us across the threshold of a new age--the Entrepreneurial Age--with legions of network marketers leading the way. Through this new rising profession, these spirited networkers have the opportunity to change the business world as we know it. For those of you who choose to become part of this profession, we welcome you and congratulate you for a thoughtful decision.