Chapter 1
Itâs Crazyâor IS It?
Are you truly happy right now? I sincerely hope so. But if youâre not, itâs not surprising. And itâs not necessarily your fault. Life is ever more unpredictable, juggling everyday demands ever trickier, and satisfaction ever more elusive. There are so many people who are silentlyâor screaminglyâdiscontent with the trajectory of their lives, who donât know that Network Marketing offers a potential answer as close as their smartphone.
Before we dive into the details of the business model, youâll need to decide whether thereâs even a chance youâd be a candidate for this kind of thing. Ask yourself: Are you open? Warm? Honest? Coachable? Do you like helping people? If you answered yes for each, great. Those are all prerequisites to becoming an Ivy League Network Marketer.
Next, diagnose yourself. Do you have one or more of these top 10 common modern era symptoms that signify Network Marketing might be for you? You can call it your Ivy League entrance examâexcept no one is going to grade you but you.
1. Your Day Job is a Nightmare.
It happens. And itâs OK to admit. But letâs clarify: are you sick of your job . . . or sick from your job? If you are sick of your job, you are not alone. Youâre in the majority. According to a Gallup Poll of the American Workplace, of the countryâs approximately 100 million full-time employees, 67% either feel no connection to their jobs, or actually resent them. Worldwide, that statistic is 85%.
If youâre sick from your job, I feel you. Being a lawyer made me literally ill with chronic fatigue syndrome. Law was a great fit for my bank account, but a lousy fit for my body, not to mention my soul. Nothing against the legal professionâitâs awesome for the right type of person. I just wasnât her. So, if you are sick from your job, your body could be telling you that something needs to change.
2. Your Work Just Isnât Working for You.
You donât have to be sick of your job or sick from your job to be feeling like somethingâs off. Maybe the economics of your industry are shifting in a way that makes you uneasy. Maybe youâve outgrown your cubicle. Maybe at 27 you trained to be a dental hygienist and it was great, but now youâre 47, and you donât want to put your fingers into anyone elseâs mouth but your own. Maybe you simply feel youâre not growing. Or your energyâs not flowing. Maybe you just get the feeling you were made for more.
And of course, you donât need an actual âjobâ to feel this way. You can be âworkingâ as a stay-at-home mom, as a volunteer organizer, as a solopreneur, an entrepreneur, an unpaid intern . . . and it can be working for you, or not.
3. You are Currently Job-Free.
If you donât have a job and itâs because you have a big fat trust fund (my family calls this âLucky Sperm Clubâ) or you have a big fat lust fund (what we call it when your life is paid for by someone who thinks youâre hot), congrats! Network Marketing may not be your jam. (Though it still might be, because you might see it as a vehicle for social change, community, or philanthropy.)
But if the reason you donât have a job is because youâve been sidelined from the workforce by illness or injuryâyour own or that of someone you loveâor just by a topsy-turvy economy, you might be in the right place because this is one profession where you can never be âhiredâ or âfired.â
4. Youâve Got Student Loan DebtâWhether Youâre a Student or a Parent.
Awkward congratsâyouâre part of a huge club of which no one enjoys being a member. In the US alone, youâre one of 44.7 million people who have traded learning for loans, averaging almost $33,000 per student. Or youâre one of the 3.6 million generous Parent PLUS loan borrowers who borrowed money to help pay a childâs educational costs. Your average loan is $25,600.
You might be fresh out of college, or someone who went to school decades ago and still has unpaid debt. Or maybe youâre one of the 25% of private student loan cosigners ages 50 and older who had to make a loan payment because your student borrower failed to do so. If youâre younger, just having loan payments can feel like a burden. And the older you get, the more the financial strain likely comes at an inopportune moment in your earnings timeline. Blech.
5. Youâve Gone to an Institution of Higher Learning but Youâre not Higher Earning.
If youâre a recent grad, youâre one of over 40% who doesnât have a full-time job six months after graduation. At two years after college, youâre part of the 43.5% who feel youâre underemployed. You either have a full-time job, but believe it doesnât put your education, experience, or training to work, or youâre working part-time when youâd rather have a full-time job. Later on, your odds of having a job go up to approximately 90%, but you still might feel that youâre not getting paid what youâre worth.
6. Youâre Tired of Betting on a Broken Employment System.
The old-school model of getting a degree, working for 40 years at 40 hours a week, and retiring comfortably with a pension is gone, never to return. Whereas companies used to be places you could count on for the long haul, now the average time at any job you get in the US is four years. Not to mention outsourcing, downsizing, pandemic-related disruptions, and the benefits-free joy of the âgig economyâ (or as I call it, the âgag economyâ). You might be ready to bet on yourself in a new way.
7. Youâre Earning a Lot but Donât Have the Time or Energy to Enjoy Your Money.
Youâre in the happy minority of highly paid people; however for you, earning and fulfillment arenât going hand in hand. You might be feeling âtime-poorâ because there just arenât enough hours in the day to practice your profession, plus engage in hobbies, philanthropy, or meaningful time with family or friends. Or maybe your work takes so much physical or emotional effort that itâs wearing you down. Whichever the case, you canât take advantage of the other things the world has to offer and might want to explore a way to ultimately have more balance.
8. Youâre at a Crossroads.
Youâve made some choices, and theyâve led you to where you are, but you still feel like youâre missing a map to the next destination. Youâre ready for the next chapter, if only you knew what that looked like. Youâre stuck at a decision point. Youâre past the past, but you canât see the future. And you can go this way, or go that way, but you canât just keep standing there forever.
9. Youâd Rather Potentially Get Paid than Just Pay.
Like it or not, we buy stuff all the time. Imagine if just some of that stuff cost less and could even make you money. Youâve gotten hip to the fact that, while most people are simply paying for their stuff, some people have created businesses where they can potentially get paid because of the stuff they choose to use. Youâd rather be like them.
10. You are Silently Suffering.
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