Earlier today I was watching a DVD from an issue of Success Magazine and it happened to have a clip from a talk given by Robert Kiyosaki. Rich Dad Poor Dad was the very first book I read back in 2003 which started me on my quest for building residual streams of income. There was a term that he used called "leverage." Leverage is one of the secrets of the Rich.
John D. Rockefeller was quoted as saying, "I would rather have 1% of 100 people's efforts, as opposed to 100% of my own effort." He understood the meaning of leverage. When working at a job for example you are being paid on your own effort. Whereas the owner of the business, whom you work for, is being paid on the efforts of those people he employs, in addition to, his own effort. The owner has created leverage. Can you see the benefits of creating leverage in your life?
Another quote that I love by Kiyosaki is, "The Rich build networks, while everyone else looks for work." Now there are a lot of people who have become very Wealthy as Employees working for big corporations, however, it seems a lot of the most successful people are self made Entrepreneurs.
Personally, when my wife and I decided to embark on our journey, the biggest hurdle we had to overcome was our ignorance. That is, we simply didn't know what we didn't know. The thought of investing money and taking risks was a very scary scenario. Both our parents worked jobs, and still to this day, do. Yet there was something in our lives that we just knew was missing. We wanted more in life than just working a 9-5 job. If you could choose to be Rich, who wouldn't?
When we were introduced to Network Marketing, the business model made sense. Only because we learned about leverage prior to looking at the industry. The first time we seen Randy Gage draw circles on a whiteboard and explain how to build a network we were hooked. Then we heard these most comforting words, "You are in business for yourself but not by yourself."
If you join the right company, there will be a team of people that you will be working with. This is very important. As with anything new, it takes time to learn and get good at the business. This is the first part of creating leverage in your business. I know for us in the beginning, we leveraged the time, experience, and knowledge that our sponsor had while we were learning. In this business, like many others, you learn as you go.
Now, as the business has grown, the shoe is on the other foot. While I still work with my sponsor, and might I add Alicia is awesome, it is my responsibility to mentor and train the people who are getting started on our team. For every new team member that begins to build their business, we are creating more and more leverage. As you can imagine, the more leverage you create, the faster your business grows.
First, it is your own effort and that of your sponsor to help get you going. Then you have 4 people in your team, 10, 25, 75, 105, 225, and so on.... I am here to tell you, there is power in numbers. Think about it this way, at your job, what if you were paid for your efforts, and also received a 6% bonus of everyone's paycheck who works with you? How cool would that be? Would you be interested in helping those other people at work make more money? Would you be interested in helping the business grow, as now you have more of an incentive than just getting paid for your own efforts? Of course you would..
A networking business is built in that same way. As you start building your business, you will get paid based on your own efforts. However, as your team starts to grow and other people in your business are now making money, you start to earn a % of their income as well. The more money they make, the more money you make. Can you see why Network Marketing is so powerful. When it is done right, and people understand how the business works, everyone works together and wins together.
Now, this leads me to my next point, "The power of compounding..." Check out part 2 of this article!
In Christ,
Ron Curtis, Jr.
Independent Isagenix Associates
Isagenix Nutritional Cleansing
