Day 10/365 - Why is success in MLM so hard?

A dear friend of mine often shows me statistics and written reports on how success in my company and industry is so slim as opposed to the many failures, cheats and pyramid scams.

"It is a pyramid!" - tell me which organization chart is not?

"People are stuck with all these products that they cannot sell!" - well who asked them to take on so much stock? We do not need to hold any inventory if we dont want to in Nu Skin business. Just order back to back, and Nu Skin ships nationwide for us. No hassle of going to the post office or paying additional to courier services.

"People lose more money than they earn!"  - how? They already didn't need to pay any shop rental, renovation costs, no need to spend money on promotion materials or hire any graphic designers, all the staff's that are at Nu Skin Corporate we don't have to shoulder their salary.. so, how do people lose more money than they earn? The education seminars at Nu Skin is only RM10 per time, highest I have paid is RM60 for a Nu Skin corporate organized training. I paid RM295 for my own Nu Skin 642 training. How can someone lose more money than they earn?

I am not denying that people do. I would like to point out this simple fact. In entrepreneurship, there are risks, ambiguity, effort, skills and returns. In a traditional business, it is high risk and super high ambiguity. How much returns you get is super dependent on how much effort and skills you have. In Nu Skin business, it is low risk (low start-up costs - just buy products for your personal needs), low ambiguity (structures and predictabilities are there). How much return you get is still super dependent on how much effort and skills you have.

So what does it tell me? People are the problem. Success is hard. If I failed in my traditional business, throwing in more than RM300,000 investments, and other players in the industry are still thriving - would you think I'd say that my company or the industry is a problem? My ego, bad management, horrible due diligence and lack of skills are the big problems. Ahh.. but barriers of entry in Nu Skin business is so low. If I had RM300,000 invested in Nu Skin business, with the same effort I put in, and gathering the right skills in the process, I would be able to generate a huge personnel team and returns? The sky's the limit.

Success in Multi Level Marketing is hard. Heck, success in any industry is hard. If people were to really show you how hard they work, who they really are when at work, how is their relationship like at home because of work - you will know for certain that successful people who are millionaires and billionaires who can sustain their wealth, truly deserve it.

Everyone always gets what they deserve. Are you committed to success? Can you put in the necessary work, go above and beyond in creating value to clients and partners on a constant and consistent basis? All successful atheletes, entrepreneurs, entertainers, professionals; they all have fantastic work ethics.

The biggest misconception in Multi Level Marketing is that people think that they can be successful by putting in little effort. Call your own time, have financial freedom easily without putting in necessary work. Seriously? You can't think your way to a 6-pack body, neither can buying products without consistently consuming them automatically give you good health or beauty.

If we are lazy, greedy, stupid, egoistic.. will not change, refuse to learn.. then good luck. These habits are detrimental. Even if you strike the lottery, in time, you'd be broke.

It is the cultivated good habits and values that secured success. Multi Level Marketing / MLM is hard work. But the rewards are exponential and worth it. For me, at least.

You decide for yourself what's it worth.