Running a race is the analogy I use for building our network marketing business. Inspiration can come from many sources. Recently in my life, my eleven year-old daughter Darienne has been an inspiration to me. She entered middle school, and tried out for cross country. The very next day was her first meet, and she “medaled”, running a 7.22 minute mile, beating every kid from her school, and all but three boys, each from other participating schools! Since then, she has run two other races, and put up times that now allow her to train with the fastest kid in the school. Talk about inspiration! I had been a runner in middle school also, but ended up tearing ligaments in my ankle. After healing from that, I ended up with shin splints and RSD, which landed me in a walking cast for three months. At that, I quit running, figuring the pain of recovery wasn’t worth the enjoyment I got out of the competition. NULL I maintained my competitive view on life, wanting to do everything with excellence, but chose foozball instead of running. Watching her these last few weeks, though, has re-opened my personal love of the sport, and a piece of me I had put away for a long time. As a Mom of three girls now, I had relegated myself to the role of “softball Mom”, “piano Mom”, “school-room Mom” or “ice skating Mom”, but not dared think of myself as “5k running Mom” until this! Running a race is the analogy I want to use for building our network marketing business. Instead of running a predictable 40 hour a week office job on a straight smooth track, building this non-traditional business is much more similar to the world of cross country running: over the hills, splashing through the puddles, and around the grassy fields.
All of us have our own individual goals, our own course, so to speak, and yet at the same time this is a team sport too.
There are times when we run with others~ someone in our organization at the same achievement level, or working with a teammate who’s on the same time schedule that we are, or someone working towards a similar goal. As much as we share in common with others, ultimately we are accountable to our own selves and our own family. We develop our teams based on who we are and what we value. We are responsible for our own personal growth and level of activity. We have to train to build up our level of endurance. As a brand new associates, we can’t see clearly to the top level, or even a five-figure a month income yet. Think of making phone calls a windsprints. Think of your local overviews as 1000 meter dashes; three-hour training events as the required 2 mile training run; regional events as your local 5k run; and the national events as the Invitational, with many teams represented, where all those who have reached their goal are awarded medals~ in this case a shiny new pin. Along the way, there have been many checks cashed. Along the way, you have paid off a credit card or two. Along the way, you treated your family to something special. Do you remember the “no’s”? Picture this: the answering machines are the sore muscles from someone who didn’t call you back even though they said they would. The “false starts” ~ they are the ones who said “I’m on my way over to see the presentation”…but never showed up. How about the twisted ankle that painfully swelled as you lay on the ground while others whizzed by you? That was when someone on your list didn’t say a polite “no thank you” but tried to take you out of the game & crush your dreams.
Some people think they can wander through the fields of the cross-country course and pick the wildflowers after a hard “no” instead of continuing to run the race.
Some pretend there is no greater calling or responsibility on them than to play in the mud puddle right in the middle of the course where racers are pacing along because the last “no” hurt, and they don’t want to get back into the game. But God has “put eternity in our hearts”. There’s a piece of us that knows we were destined for more! When we’ve lost our way in the field of wildflowers or it has rained, and washed out parts of the chalklines, and all the trees we pass look the same… what now? How do we get back on track? Thinking back, we remember the feeling of cashing that check at the bank, with tears in our eyes~ so thankful for what it meant! Perhaps we get a call from our first hosting, who now has one side of her business on auto-pilot, and is thanking us for what networking has done for her family~ she lost her job, and if she didn’t have this business in place they would have lost their home. Out of the blue, our upline calls and says “hey, how are you? It’s been a while since I’ve seen you”. We go to the team website to find the next event so we can plug back in, determined to get up from our stumbling place in the mud puddle~ so what if we’ve taken some detours! We are still here, and now we are standing again! We pick up a good book, and begin to grow beyond what we’ve known so far.
From somewhere deep inside comes a stirring need to fulfill our destiny and touch the lives of our budding team! f we don’t, who will?
We, leaders in this industry of network marketing, have exactly what our US economy needs: we are the “economic stimulus package”! Now that’s more like it! Because we have overcome, we become the ones who come alongside others running up the slippery hill on the course of life, calling out our encouragement, and leading by example. When we reach the top of that next hill, a place we’ve never been, the view is vastly different. Soon we will hit the national stage to receive our award. Here we are, and they’ve just called our name! Our team is lined up in front of the stage, cheering, flashing cameras, and smiling huge knowing grins back at us because they understand some of what we’ve overcome, and in doing so, we’ve invested in them and they are thankful. Do we remember the “no’s” now? Only as a distant memory of what we overcame, and used to inspire the dreams of others.
Our focus of the moment is our team~ the lined-up “yes’s” in front of us!
Now I ask you… is it worth it to pick up the phone, and offer hope and opportunity to those on your list? Is it worth it to spend precious time reading the good books, so you can feed into your team the positive that’s grown inside of you? By the way, I’m back on the running trail, and though I’m not expecting to beat my daughter any time soon, I know that I can be more than what I’ve given myself credit for in this area of life, and I choose to run with excellence, in such a way as to get the prize! Godspeed! ~~Robyn
Downloads
- Balancing All Those Hats We Wear! by Robyn Peake - July 1, 2010
- How’s Your Endurance? by Robyn Peake - December 1, 2009
