The MLM Junkie

For those of you who read my articles in the last two issues, you heard my story about how I was introduced to the networking industry. I used an analogy of a marriage to explain how I eventually "divorced" the first company I joined and "re-married" into a second company after a 3 year stint with the first one. However, like a real divorce, if you don't determine the cause and reasons for the failure of the relationship you will be doomed to repeat your mistakes. I was concerned about becoming an "MLM Junkie" during and after the "divorce". Moving from one relationship to another is an easy way to avoid the pain and struggle of overcoming obstacles in the current relationship. Determining whether the relationship is workable or whether you are just avoiding the real issues is one of the hardest decisions to make. Personal growth is not easy. This is why "MLM junkies" abound...they take the easy road. However, the easy road rarely leads to true happiness and success.

My definition of an "MLM Junkie" is someone who jumps from company to company in search of quick payoff. They don't really care about long term involvement. For a junkie the only person that is important is themself, and their only concern is their own personal gain. Irregardless of this, junkies are often great recruiters and very enthusiastic about their latest "fix" from their newest venture. However, most people see through their facade of enthusiasm and realize that the junkie is just trying to get in their pocketbook. Unfortunately, some honest and legitimate first time MLMers get excited about a MLM opportunity and wind up unintentionally looking like the "junkie". For newbies this is a most dangerous scenario because their legitimate enthusiasm and good intentions are misperceived. Sometimes, by lack of due diligence, a naive but enthusiastic new distributor gets hooked up with a shady company and winds up in a really sticky situation.

Even more dangerous than the basic MLM junkie is the "BIG GUN Junkie". These people are extremely talented at quickly developing large organizations, but they have no loyalty or commitment to their downline. The big sin of the "BIG GUN Junkie" is that they know what they are doing and they make money doing it, where the regular "junkie" is often unaware of why they are failing. Sometimes when growth is getting stagnant in their organization, a "BIG GUN Junkie" will convince their star recruiters to move to a new company just to get new growth and excitement going again. Often this move isn't to a better and more stable company nor in the best interests of their downline. This ploy is designed simply to line the pockets of the guy at the top. In my opinion, the "BIG GUN Junkie" is the modern day false prophet. Unfortunately, some "BIG GUN Junkies" get fabulously wealthy at the financial peril others. It is my opinion that the "MLM junkie" and the "BIG GUN Junkie" are the biggest blemishes on the legitimate network marketing and direct sales industry.

True "junkies" never learn, and they are unwilling to pay the price of true success. The sad part is many "BIG GUN Junkies" make a lot of money in spite of their lack of ethics. Sometimes the "BIG GUN Junkie" rehabilitates himself in order to obtain lasting success. They eventually change their evil ways when they realize the truth and underlying principles of successful networking are not self-centered in nature. Even the basic "junkie" has hope if they are willing to work on their "recovery" into a legit MLMer who puts others first.

The "BIG GUN Junkie" is completely different from a legitimate MLM leader. I don't begrudge the truly successful MLM leaders, only those who have no loyalty or commitment to those who support them and provide their income stream. Still, I have to respect the "BIG GUN Junkie" for their amazing ability to attract people to their "program of the day". "BIG GUN Junkies" do more harm than good in our industry, and if they would only refocus their effort in an altruistic direction, everyone (including themselves) would receive much greater benefit from their talents.

Unfortunately, the "MLM junkie" image is largely the image our industry has in eye of the general public. Nobody in this industry for more than a few months has escaped being labeled as a "pyramid scam" or "get rich quick scheme" even if this is the farthest thing from the truth. The network marketing industry has a poor image in the business world, and one of my goals is to help change this poor image into an image of a model entrepreneurial vehicle. In my opinion, what our industry needs is more people who are honest and open about the opportunity they represent. Misrepresentation, false claims, exaggeration, hype, and outright lies abound in our industry. Pyramid scams and get rich quick schemes are lumped in with the legitimate opportunities in the mind of the general public, and those of us in legit opportunities end up being considered one and the same with these parasite charlatans. It is my hopes that those of us involved in quality, honest programs will work together to clean up the image of this fine concept in American (and now global) entrepreneurship. This newsletter is one of the best tools for getting the word out that legit MLM does exist. I applaud Ralph, Ken, Neal, and Bill for their efforts with this great newsletter. [CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!]