The MLM Taboo

I have came across so many people who run at the thought of Multi Level Marketing (MLM). Most of the time, it is because they have created an expectation due to past experiences from a friend who failed to correctly tell them what it is, so they feel "cheated". It is wrong. I can never understand why people do not want to tell the truth tactfully and resort to blatantly lying to get their way. This mentality is too short term and is very wrong. Short term gain, long term pain.

One of the biggest differences between MLM and a traditional business is its leverage. Considering the amount of time and money put into a traditional business, revenues might be high, but profitability almost non-existent. In a legitimate MLM, we do not need to stock inventory, and only use the products for ourselves, be the difference demonstrated and manage our business partners as effectively as any big corporate managing their customer relationships and voila! The leveraged income could be ten folds of a traditional business with much accumulation and less stress.

I came to understand that the reason why people are unfavourable to MLM is because of a few reasons.

1. They had a bad past experience and cannot get over their foolishness.

You see, in every business opportunity, there needs to be careful due diligence. We never enter into a business because "my aunty/best friend/cousin says it is a good business" and if a person has the mentality of "I believe in them to put my money into it, not do anything and I will get a lot of profits", that's failure lurking to happen from the get-go. There is no such thing as "high risk, high return" as I was foolishly made to believe back in my university days studying Finance. The correct term is "high effort, high return". I do not care what you invest your money into. If you really do not want to put any effort in understanding how money is generated, then put it in the bank with low interest rates. Unless you are an only child whose millionaire parents will simply love and adore you regardless, everything else takes a whole lot of effort.

2. They do not understand what is MLM, cannot differentiate a scam from a legitimate business, but think they do anyway and are not open to learn. 

Many people think that they know business. What they know is their ideology of what business is, which could be very far from the truth. People in high positions in corporate mostly only helm one area of expertise. They are not able to get their hands dirty or go down to technical aspects of business required in MLM. In a normal sales world, people will sell you whatever they can to make a quick buck. In MLM world, we do not sell. We share our experiences using our products and see whether what we have is what the prospect needs. It is Human Resource Management and Business Matching 101. If there is not a match, no go. Of course there are successful MLM people and unsuccessful MLM ones. The barriers of entry into a MLM business is so low that anyone can come in and out. As opposed to traditional business, the shame or loss of money into a business is more severe, hence people will put in more effort to ensure success. If you are interested to know how to differentiate a scam from a legitimate business, read this post Multi Level Marketing, a scam or...?

3. They want fast money and MLM is too much hard work

People like these, unfortunately, are just sitting ducks for scams. Business is hard work. A successful network is building a relationship, having a fantastic personality and true friends that are assets. It takes time to build. There is no such thing as fast money. Everything is a process of cause and effect. If you're not willing to put in the work, then do not expect any good outcome from your lack of work.


And there you have it. My 3 reasons for why people are allergic to MLM. Of course, all these are also caused by the fact that a lot of people who lacks business acumen going into business and leaving a much sour taste in many people's mouth.

If more people are authentic in their conversations and relationships, have more responsibility and integrity, and with a sincere intention to enrich others, the world would be in a much better place. That is what we need to do instead of waiting for others to clean up the place for us. I believe that we are all empowered to be independent and have abundance. That is what I tell my team, and that is what we aim to do - to help enrich other people to have better health, ageless beauty, uncommon freedom and exponential income with Nu Skin business.

For those people who are still allergic to MLM, it is okay. I hope that they would someday be cured of this allergy, but we can only leave that to fate.