It happens at the grocery store, the library, the park, the work place, a club, at home, and even at church. You are usually targeted by strangers, but even coworkers, friends, family, and lovers may target you as well. The people that target you are relentless and they usually strike when you least expect it. Often you are selected for a reason but just as often you are selected for no other reason than being in the vicinity of the person that selected you. And because of this no, place is no longer safe. No place is no longer sacred. And no one is off limits.
It happens more often than a Michael Jackson nose job. Or an R Kelly sex video with underage girls. It affects more people than the amount of women world wide who tune into Oprah's show religiously at 4pm on weekdays. It's become as big an epidemic as the common cold, email spam, celebrity breakups, high gas prices, etc…
Network Marketing is more common now than ever. And Network marketers are recruiting more aggressively than ever before. In fact I did a survey of 100 of my readers and 97 of them stated they were approached by a network marketer. The other 3 didn't respond. In that same survey I asked them to name the companies that they were approached by. The names I heard most often were, ACN, Pre Paid Legal, Mary Kay, and Amway, but there are many others. Too many to even keep track off. Some of them of them offer legal services, health insurance, medical miracles, cheaper utility bills, products that will revolutionize the market place, cheaper bills, etc… There are so many, that it's hard to tell which ones are legitimate and which are scams.
Here are some things that they all have in common. 1) You are approached by a rep and asked to go to a meeting or listen to a conference call. 2) During their presentation, you are told how there company has had phenomenal growth, how there product is superior to others or the 1st of it's kind, how in a few short months you could be making enough to quit your current job, and for a small investment you should start RIGHT NOW; TODAY! 3) You are pressured into making an immediate decision to become a part of the company and no matter how much you say you need to think about it, they have someone who is a so called up line executive trying to convince you to join right then 4) you are instructed to recruit as many people as possible, family, friends, coworkers, etc… and lean on your relationship with them if necessary 5) You are encouraged to attend Meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting 6) You are told that the company is your only ticket to financial freedom and should be your number one priority 7) you find out that you need to spend more money and more time than what you were told at the initial presentation 8) after a few months with the company, you realize that you are in the same situation you were in when you started; nothing has changed
Has this ever happened to you? Even if you are a person who refuses to join a network marketing company, you have certainly been approached by a representative from one. How many of them did you have to tell no SEVERAL times before they finally left you alone. How many of them tried to make you feel guilty if you refused to join them? How many of us have lost friends because we wouldn't join their multi level marketing organization? How many of us avoid our friends who are network marketers because they only talk about the company that they are involved in or continue to try to recruit you every time you talk to them? Now ask yourself how many people you know that are in some type of network marketing company and they are in no better financial situation than you are; yet they still insist that you should join them.
We all want to make as much money as we can and most of us desire to be wealthy. Therefore, I don't fault those of us that are daring enough, ambitious enough, and persistent enough to pursue a dream. As long as the decision is made logically. However, I do have a problem when network marketing companies influence their reps to manipulate facts in order to recruit others into a so called business opportunity that will change their lives. Unfortunately, what usually happens is that the distributor at the bottom is the looser. He or she can only tell stories of how rich the founder is, or how someone many levels above him became rich in just a few months, or invite others to hear a company executive speak on how he became rich in the company. He may be telling the truth but what they are leaving out is that they are one of the few who are successful in the company. And there are many agents working as hard as he did, but will never be in his position. "Yes, money can be made through MLM. However, this is restricted to the first few in the system. It gets harder as time goes by and as the network grows. The unfortunate "distributor" higher up the line is the loser. Once this becomes apparent beyond all the slick videotapes and motivational pep talks, people start to get a bad taste in their mouths about the whole situation." (Source: The Manage Mentor from themanagementor.com)
"The basic question that needs to be asked is this: If this product or service is so great, then why isn't it being sold through the customary marketing system that has served human society for thousands of years? Why does it need to resort to a "special marketing" scheme like an MLM? Why does everyone need to be so inexperienced at marketing this! Is the product just a thin cover for what is really a pyramid scheme of exploiting others?" (Source: www.vandruff.com)
Is network marketing the new revolutionary way to do business as many of the companies it involves claims or is it just a pyramid scheme feeding of the dreams of the optimistic dreamers it pursues? That's for you to decide. As they say on the X-files. The truth is out there somewhere. My job as a journalist is to help you find it.
Written by: Edward Andrews I
(note: more to come on this topic in future issues, next we examine some of the companies and people who were and are a part of these companies)
Edward's main purpose is to get people to educate themselves on current events and to think about them not just read them but develop an opinion and learn to think independently. He can be reached at EEAndrews@yahoo.com
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