How Badly Do You Want It? by Rodney Brandt

Rodney BrandtThe happiest, most fulfilled and most successful people on earth are the ones who chase their dream. They go for it and they never stop. I met Matt on one of the coldest days we had that year. It was mid-January and he was walking down the street toward our house into a stinging wind. When I answered the door he introduced himself then said, “I’m in financial services. I’m just in the neighborhood getting to know people.” Call me old-fashioned, but I was impressed. We live in a world of social media, email blasts, webinars, texting and other New Millennium tools that are supposed to make marketing our businesses easy and convenient. And, here’s this guy knocking on doors in the middle of the winter. I just had to invite him in. Matt left me his business card and asked if he could call me later. I naturally said “Yes.” (After all, I’m a networker and we’re in the people business.) NULL

I found out some time later that Matt talked to some 2,500 people during his canvassing effort. He walked the streets of our town nine hours a day, five days a week for two solid months, and then 5-10 hours a week for the next four years. That’s a lot of doorbells. Sponsoring is the lifeblood of our business; the most important thing we do is talk to new people. We need to be consistent in that effort, day after day, week after week like Matt was. Yet, most of us in network marketing find that hard to do, don’t we?

I have learned that in order to maintain a consistent effort, we must have two things: 1) a mature understanding of what it means to own a business; and 2) an indomitable desire to succeed.

Understanding business: Most of us who join network marketing have never run a business. We’ve always been employees, who are told what to do, where to be and when. When we become our own boss, we don’t have anyone to report to but ourselves. This means we have to supply the discipline and motivation, and we’re not used to doing that. Second, most of us have never worked in sales before and have no idea how many people we need to talk to in order to build a business. Were you shocked at the number of doorbells Matt rang as he was building his client base? Are you prepared to talk to a similar number of people if necessary? We may think we’re working extremely hard in this business, but most of us are not talking to nearly the number of people we need to. Once you resolve in your mind that you may need to talk to hundreds of people to find a handful of leaders, it will be easier to develop the habit required to go out and do it. The nature of the network marketing business model plays a role in this, too. Our industry is different from traditional bricks-and-mortar business in many ways. One of those differences that we might overlook is the timing of our profits. Say for instance that you have a McDonald’s franchise. You have an immediate and substantial return on your investment in the form of daily sales. In network marketing, however, we’re not selling burgers and fries to transient customers. We’re building a network of people that we must then train and mentor.

It takes time – months or even years – to realize significant income from that process. To hang in there when we don’t see immediate fruit from our work requires a much greater consistency of effort than is required in a traditional business.

Desire to succeed: The most important factor in all of this, however, is our desire. At age 47, Matt had been downsized from his job selling large construction machinery. It may not have been the best point in his life to become a financial advisor, but the opportunity was there to pursue a dream and he jumped on it. Most of the 2,500 people Matt spoke to told him, “No.” But about half gave him permission to call on them again and some of those people eventually became his client. Matt has been successful, more than anything, because of desire.

When the dream is big enough, we will pick up the phone and make the calls we’re afraid to make. When the dream is big enough, we’ll walk door to door through the neighborhood if that’s what it takes.

When we want something badly enough, the discipline happens naturally. In the end, that’s what it boils down to: desire. So, my friend, take some time to really decide what you want in life and how badly you want it. Until you do, the discipline needed to get it will probably elude you. The happiest, most fulfilled and most successful people on earth are the ones who chase their dream. They go for it and they never stop.

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