Srinivas Rao was a smart young branch head at an MNC in Hyderabad. I had met him briefly in Mumbai at a Retail Summit. As a consultant I had to be there. As a vendor, he did. The second time I met him was in my office. He called and offered to have the Managing Director of a fast-growing retail store-chain drop by. Some business ideas to toss around. That was not unusual.
“Tomorrow noon?”… “Sure”… “Done!”Mahesh Raju stepped into all 800 square feet of my proud little office. He was wearing a silly smile. “Hi”… “Hi”… “Hi Srinivas!” Srinivas nodded.
Mahesh spoke as we settled down. We chatted about this and that. The economy. Entrepreneurship. Control and choices. Srinivas did not speak. Even if I would ask Srinivas a direct question he would deflect it to Mahesh. I felt Srinivas was dumber than he first appeared to be. I later realized that he was really smart. This is a very important lesson for network marketers. When your upline is speaking, you have only one job. Shut up. This way you will not be the ‘expert’. And importantly, you will subtly transfer trust and edification to the stranger. Mahesh, in our case, was gaining a trust I would grow to value for life.
Before long Mahesh drew some circles. Spoke about networking. Mentioned Robert Kiyosaki. B-quadrant…“Yayayaya… I know.” That’s all I said in summation.
Two years later I read somewhere the wise old saying, “you stop growing the moment you let four words take a place in your mind… and those words are ‘I already know that’.” It’s true. I had not been growing personally or professionally through the preceding 3 and succeeding 2 years of this eventless meeting.
In fact, about 20 minutes into the dialog Mahesh figuratively bowed his hat. “Thanks Sandeep, it was a pleasure to know you.”
I already knew that too. My ego beamed benevolently, “Hey Mahesh, the pleasure is mutual. Thanks guys for coming.”A couple of days later Srinivas called to ask if I had a chance to hear any of the tapes he’d left behind. Haughtily I replied, “come on Srini, I’m a brand consultant with 15 years of advertising behind me. My guys write the stuff these tapes have on them.”
And that was true. We did have an MLM client and we did understand the people-get-people model very well. We also did understand the value of ‘motivating the lesser beings’ and developed various materials – CDs, booklets, visual aids, websites – to look slick and ‘convince’ people. ‘What all people will do just to make money’ we used to think.
I couldn’t help wonder why Mahesh would do something like that. Maybe he’s winding up his 3 stores. ‘He’s in a competitive space’. I had no idea that he had already learned not to look at competitive spaces. That he was well into practicing abundance. He was a B-quadrant operator and I would realize its significance only when he’d set up 16 showrooms and developed a flourishing networking business.
It took about two years for Mahesh to grow from 3 to 16 showrooms. It took me one and a half years to start to read Cashflow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki. I didn’t read it because Mahesh had told me it would change my life. I read it because another friend casually mentioned that it was a good read.
This is how we are. We will trust the word of a known devil but not of an unknown angel. And this is the trick to network marketing. Become a known devil first. And then keep your words casual. Don’t be persuasive, over-excited, salesy, or incredible (it will change your life). Just casual.
Cashflow Quadrant did change my life.Meanwhile, there was another known devil, Ashok, who had started sending mails all over the Rotary circuit. I had been President of my club and was therefore on many mailing lists. Ashok’s messages were arousing curiosity but stank of MLM. Maybe my nose was extra sensitive to messaging as I had been a copywriter early in my career. But Ashok was persuasive. And even after he confirmed it was about network marketing, he made sure we attended a meeting. A BBS. My wife and I did go, only to get ideas for meetings for our own MLM client. But that was one right thing Ashok did. Here’s the decisive mail that got us into a meeting environment:
*****Dear Sandeep,
There is one and only one reason why Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Robert Kiyosaki recommend network marketing. And that is the mindset that you develop to leverage people and resources... which is exactly what they do... which is exactly the formula to create wealth.
They believe the world needs more wealth creators. Good employees, for all they are good for, are money suckers from an organization's system. A liability. Marketers - at most - would be assets, if they bring enough money in. But network marketers on the other hand, are assets for their own organizations as well for the system/s they subscribe to.
I find this point is rarely understood by people. Even those people who have been open minded enough to opt in to the network marketing circuit. And I believe that if network marketers are to design the futures of their families with some level of predictability, this is the key point to understand.
Therefore I say it again, phrased differently. If you want to control your success, you need to accept that your traditional knowledge and education is not going to get you there. You need B-quadrant thinking (ref: Robert Kiyosaki) and a good understanding of what actions will put money into your pocket (assets) and what will take it out (liabilities).
Chances are, you still didn't get it (it took me several years to get it myself :-)). And that is the point of this mail. You need a different education, for a different mindset, for success in network marketing. And that education, like any traditional education would require you to go somewhere. Meetings are like the 'schools' for network marketers.
You learn faster if you attend more meetings because your mind develops that much more. It is important at a meeting to not judge or like/dislike. Because you don't really understand what the meeting is doing to your mind anyway. All you have to like is 'the reason why' you will opt for network marketing. Just as you may not have liked Chemistry at school, but liked the idea of becoming a graduate... so you went through the Chem classes, right?
There's no rocket science to this. Just be at the meeting with your wife.Love, Ashok
*****
That was it. We went. We saw. We came back. We didn’t entertain much further discussion. But I didn’t realize then, that the 2 hours we spent even as rank outsiders had left an impression on us. Which would return to us later.
Srinivas also did a lot of right things. The way he made contact. The way he shut up. Left material and casually touched back. He was perceptive about my big fat ego which he never mentioned. Maybe if he’d not met in my office, but at home instead, he’d have involved my wife and we’d have sorted matters between us… and who knows, she might have understood the beauty of network marketing earlier and forever. It’s always a good idea to share the plan earlier and forever. It’s always a good idea to share the plan hour work week is not a business. It’s life.
So how did Mr. know-it-all Sandeep Nath finally come around? God is kind. Mahesh and I shared the gym at the Jubilee Hills Club. It was always just a courtesy exchange between us. One of my clients was a competitor of his company. And this guy was driving us all nuts before the festive season. Sale offers. Promotions. Merchandise. Discount programs. The consumer electronics industry always went berserk at festivals. But Mahesh was cool. Never missed a beat every morning at the gym. A picture of calm. And the grapevine was abuzz with news of 8 new showrooms he was opening that month.
So one day I gathered the courage to ask, “Hi Mahesh, how’s business?”“Fantastic!”
“Doesn’t the expansion and festive shopping keep you busy with inventories and marketing brainstorms?”
“We have systems in place Sandeep.”
There was silence. “How did you do it Mahesh?”
“Remember the principles we build our networks on Sandeep? They apply. It’s life in the B-quadrant.” He smiled and reached for his towel.
Now that was the time I’d just finished reading Cashflow Quadrant. The penny dropped. Impulsively, as though it might be too late if he’d walked away with the towel in hand, I blurted, “Will you teach me?” And before my ego could cover up the earnest desire of an ambitious heart, Mahesh sealed it, “Sure! Shall we meet early evening or around 8 pm?”
Many huge lessons. Always respond affirmative. Always give a choice between 2 yes-answers (never ask a question that can be answered by a yes or a no). Always ask questions to keep control over the conversation. Always practice silence. Don’t speak unless spoken to. Become magnetic.
“About 5 pm, my office?”“Perfect.” Another lesson. Everything is perfect. Always. Everything in life is pre-ordained. All you do is keep walking. Be a ‘karm yogi’ (a doer) as the Gita preaches.
I signed up to learn the system mindset. To ‘not be’ the expert. To (maybe) make some extra money too. But my wife wasn’t prioritizing any of this. She was clouded by our past experiences and our own client. She knew we painted rosy pictures and deluded ‘weaker people’. So when Mahesh said we ought to accompany the team for a large seminar in Bangalore, an overnight drive, we declined. We’d already signed up. Thanks to Ashok we knew what a ‘big’ meeting looked like. Now we weren’t going to exert. Let it be clear. “Ya Mahesh, I know. It will be exciting, motivating. I’m already motivated… come back and you’ll see.”
And so my business stayed dormant for the next several months. Mahesh would keep the team together at Sunday meetings and invite me. One day I relented and showed up. Only because he seemed sincere. And the other guys involved were quite ok too. In fact that’s the part that took me by surprise at Ashok’s BBS. “These guys are well to do professionals… not the kind we have with our MLM client”, I remembered telling my wife. But she had formed a different impression. Of negative coercion. She had not read Ashok’s mail. She had not read Kiyosaki. To her the meetings were an intrusion. And to me they became a conduit to a world of positivity and cheer. Before I knew it, networking was in my bloodstream. I had started dreaming again. My life was sorted. Except with her.
*****While I started my journey from the left quadrants to the Bquadrant she prided herself in becoming the expert. She made more money per hour than I did in a month of networking. Even after Malaysia. But I had by then heard many tapes. I could relate to the stories of successful people with diverse circumstances. I understood the B-quadrant caveat of delayed gratification. I could leverage the system. My aim had become to merge both worlds. Put consulting into a system.
And so I shared the network marketing plan with my clients. My multi-millionaire mentors like Jim and Basil had drilled into me, ‘build your organization with people who are peer and above, else you will feel stunted’. It made sense… the Russian doll principle… work with people bigger and better than you and you will grow. Over time I found every principle I learned here facilitated excellence in my profession. I and wished it for my clients too…
I picked up the phone and spoke with the first one.“Mr. Ramesh, hello! I have an idea for you to diversify. We can talk about it over tea at Vikas’s place (his son and heir to their business empire). Would you prefer today evening or tomorrow?” “Tomorrow.” “Done. About 6 pm or would you prefer 8?” “8 might be better.” “Great! I’ll see you both. Thanks.” Click. Always invite on phone… never in person.
“Ahmed bhai, good afternoon! How’s everything?” “Sandeep?” “Yes! It’s been quite a while but I’ve been thinking of you.” “Really! Why?” “I met a lady called Tharini Nama recently and she’s a health consultant. In fact she’s an expert on weight management. And I thought of your wife… what’s her name?” “Afsha?” “Yes Afsha! How’s she doing? Is she still bothered by the weight problem as she was when we last met?” “Maybe, we haven’t discussed that lately.” “Right Ahmed bhai, you’ll probably be busy and I don’t want to bother you. I am trying to get Tharini’s time. Could I have Afsha’s number and perhaps the two of them could fix up a suitable time to talk it over?” “Ok, I guess … here’s the number”…
“Hello is that Afsha?” “Yes” “Hi Afsha, this is Sandeep Nath. I had met you and Ahmed bhai at the hitex exhibition, you remember? Ahmed is a client of ours.” “Hmmm…” “That’s ok Afsha, you will perhaps remember when we meet. I called to check if you would still be looking for solutions for the weight issue you seemed very troubled by, back then.” “Maybe…” “Well great! I recently came across a certain Mrs. Tharini Nama who is doing magic with weight loss. Would you like to meet up with me so I can give you a background about it?” “Let me check with Ahmed…” “Great! I just spoke with him. In fact he gave me your number. Tell me when you’re free at home and I’ll check if Mrs. Nama is available too. How’s Thursday evening for you?” “Oh on Thursday we have a wedding.” “Friday then?” “Maybe.” “Great, I’ll reconfirm and can we keep a spot open for Saturday afternoon also… just in case?” “Ok.”
Now she’d make sure Ahmed would be with her on Friday and I’d show the plan. And Saturday would be clear for the follow-up and Tharini as well.
And this way, life went on. Many ‘nos’, some ‘yeses’. And some great lessons for life.The path to success winds its way through failure. This is contrary to popular thought. We are taught that ‘pass’ is the opposite of ‘fail’. Which assumes that we are in the middle of the two. Either we pass an exam or we fail it. But in life, we are actually at one end of the spectrum, failure is in the centre and pass is at the other end, beyond failure. Our road to success is thus paved with failures. And it is only when we study extraordinary lives that the truth of this stares in the face. This is not a truth for a mediocre life. A mediocre life is not affected by this spectrum in real terms at all. And that’s why mediocre is ordinary whereas these people were extraordinary…
• Lucille Ball worked as a hat girl and waitress for 22 years before she landed her first major acting role• Retired Colonel Harlan Sanders gave samples to 1009 restaurants before selling his chicken recipe… popular today asKFC
• Alex Haley spent 12 years and was $100,000 in debt when he found a publisher for his book,Roots• Winston Churchill’s school reports often stated, “no ambition, poor academic work and disruptive behavior”
• Walt Disney was told by a Kansas City news editor that his sketches showed no talent. He was rejected many times over.
• Thomas Edison tried over 10,000 times to invent the lightbulb before he met success, laying the foundation forGE
• Albert Einstein was four years old before he could speak… one of his teachers stated, “he’ll never amount to anything”
The lesson is to ‘go’ for ‘no’. In network marketing, however bad one might be, after 20 ‘nos’ one will find a ‘yes’. That’s the law of averages. The numbers game.
So (I recalled from the day I cracked LC) if it took 50 yeses to go diamond, that would be 1000 nos. “How soon can I collect 1000 nos?” was the question I was asking myself. That was the only physical planning required. The rest was mental planning. About what these ‘nos’ would do to my mind. Dealing with that, I learned, was what made professional networkers great. Mahesh once forwarded this story to me for context…
*****During the great depression, Alina, a young girl, was torn apart. She had lost her child, had a jobless husband, influenza in the neighborhood, a cracked roof overhead (through which the dripping rain was no pleasure). It was not easy. The only person she felt she could speak with was her mum, a wise young lady of 45, who was herself in no better shape, even though she was 5 hours away in the countryside.
Alina decided she would go see her mum. Somehow that lady had borne the burden of war and they both remembered those days vividly. "Mum will have a message for me", Alina thought.
It was an arduous journey to say the least. The highways you see today were obviously non-existent. But she got home somehow and doused herself in the comfort of her mother's warmth. Brave for a fleeting moment... and awash with tears the very next. Mum understood. That's why she's a mum, right?
She guided Alina to the kitchen and filled 3 pots with water and placed them on the fire. Without a word spoken, she placed a couple of carrots in one; and egg in the other; and some coffee beans in the third. In a few minutes all three came to boil. She removed them one by one.
Now mum turned to Alina and said, "darling, feel the carrots and tell me how they are.”
"And the egg? Break it and see.” Alina did as she was told and found the egg was hard on the inside now.
"What about this?" mum asked, pouring the pot of coffee into a mug and it handing it over for Alina to drink. "Mum this is soooo fantastic", Alina exclaimed, her eyes lighting up for once!
"Yes dear, it is, isn't it?” Drawing a deep breath mum continued, "this is life Alina. And adversity is a part of it. Here you saw all three subject to the same adversity... the boiling water... and the carrot went in tough and proud but couldn't stand up to it. The egg went in with an innocent, pliable heart but the circumstances caused it to harden up. It now holds grossness that will stay with it for life, though no one would be able to tell the difference from outside."
"And the coffee beans mum?""And it was the beans darling that took upon themselves to 'go over' the circumstances. They made sure that after the testing times were through, the times became better for everyone.”
***** Now this is what professional networkers do. Become coffee beans. Change the state of their surroundings and make a difference in this world.
Surely we might not start off as coffee beans but anyone can learn to be them. Just like we learn karate. Arjun, a black belt, taught me two important principles about it.
One, that we need to toughen our hands by hitting hot sand. Success (strong hands) lies beyond failure (ouch! hot sand). Network marketing does for the mind what karate does for the hand. Makes it strong. Gives it resilience.
With each ‘no’ I was experiencing my mental arms toughening up. Because my issue was, which part did I want to earn my money from? My mind or my body? So what was I feeding? Exercising? Strengthening?
Second, Arjun said, if we have to slice through a pile of bricks, even as a karate black belt we might break our hand if we focused on the bricks. The trick was to focus beyond the bricks. That’s how we would slice through them before we lost the energy of impact.
Likewise, to succeed in network marketing we must focus on a goal far beyond the obvious benefits. Which is why the invitation to view the project is never about the money, products or opportunity. It is casual. And aimed at opening the mind to ‘possibility thinking’. And of course it takes a lot of practice and failing to get this right! But once the mind knows what it wants, achieving it is really a cake walk. And the impact is life-changing for life.
Author’s note:Getting the invitation right is the crux of building a network marketing business. You must be professional about it and understand that it is your business you are inviting people to partner with. It’s not your upline’s business or the
manufacturer’s business. It’s got your name and your family’s dream written all over it. Treat it with respect as you talk about it with others. Talk with integrity after having personally used the products. Learn the right way to invite and write your ticket to success.