Network Marketing-It's an Asset, Not a Job

Network Marketing-It's an Asset, Not a Job
By Robert Kiyosaki
I am sometimes asked, "Why do so few
people make it to the top of their network
marketing system?"
The truth is, the top of the network marketing
system is open to everyone-unlike traditional
corporate systems, which allow only one person
to reach the top of the company. The reason
most people do not reach the top is simply
because they quit too soon. So why would
someone quit short of the top?
Most people join only to make money. If they
don't make money in the first few months or
years, they become discouraged and quit (and
then often bad-mouth the industry!). Others
quit and go looking for a company with a better
compensation plan. But joining to make a few
quick dollars is not the reason to get into the
business.
The Two Essential Reasons to Join a Network
Marketing Business
Reason number one is to help yourself. Reason
number two is to help others. If you join for
only one of these two reasons, then the system
will not work for you.
Reason number one, means that you come to
the business primarily to change quadrants-to
change from the E (Employee) or the S (Self-
employed) quadrant to the B (Business owner)
or I (Investor) quadrant.
This change is normally very difficult for most
people-because of money. The true E or S
quadrant person will not work unless it is for
money. This is also what causes people to not
reach the top of the network marketing system:
they want money more than they want to
change quadrants.
A B quadrant or I quadrant person will also
work for money, but in a different way. The B
quadrant person works to build or create an
asset-in this case, a business system. The I
quadrant person invests in the asset or the
system.
The beauty of most network marketing systems
is that you do not really make much money
unless you help others leave the E and S
quadrants and succeed in the B and I
quadrants. If you focus on helping others make
this shift, then you will be successful in the
business.
As a B or an I, sometimes you don't get paid for
years; this, a true E quadrant or S quadrant
person will not do. It's not part of their core
values. Risk and delayed gratification disturb
them emotionally.
Delayed Gratification and Emotional
Intelligence
One of the beauties of network marketing is
that it focuses on developing your emotional
intelligence as well as your business skills.
Emotional intelligence is an entirely different
matter from academic intelligence. In general,
someone with high emotional intelligence will
often do better than someone with high
academic intelligence but low emotional
intelligence. That explains, in part, why some
people do well in school but not so well in the
real world.
The ability to delay gratification is a sign of
higher emotional intelligence. In a recent study
of emotional intelligence, it was found that
people who could delay gratification often led
more successful lives than those who could not.
This is why the educational system inherent in a
good network marketing opportunity is so
important. It's the emotional education or
emotional intelligence aspect of their programs
that I find so valuable for people.
Many people write me and tell me they loved
my book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, but I fear that
many of them don't get the most important
point of the book: Lesson #1, "The rich don't
work for money."
Once I have built or bought an asset, that asset
works hard to make money for me. But I will
not work for money-I will work only to build or
buy assets. Those assets make me richer and
richer, while I work less and less. That is what
the rich do. The poor and middle class work
hard for money, and then buy liabilities instead
of investing in assets.
What Kind of Asset is a Network Marketing
Business?
Remember, there are two reasons required to
be successful in network marketing: to help
yourself, and to help others. Reason number
one means helping yourself get to the B side of
the quadrant. What about reason number two
The beauty of most network marketing systems
is that you don't really make much money
unless you help others leave the E and S
quadrants and succeed in the B and I
quadrants. If you focus on helping others make
this shift, then you will be successful in the
business
If you only want to teach yourself to be a B
quadrant and I quadrant person, then a true
network marketing system won't work for you.
You may as well go to a traditional business
school, which focuses only on your becoming a B
quadrant person.
The beauty of a network marketing business is
that your goal is to create assets, which are
other B's working under you-and their job is to
create other B's working under them. In
traditional business, the focus is for the B to
have only E's and S's working for them.
The type of business I was taught to build is a
business with me at the top and E's and S's at
the base. I really don't have room at the top for
many other B's, which is why in my businesses,
I strongly recommend that all my employees
look into network marketing as their own part-
time businesses.
The traditional corporate system really is a
pyramid, because there are a few B's and I's
near the top, and more E's and S's at the base.
A network marketing system is a reverse
pyramid: its primary focus is to bring up more
and more B's to the top.
One type of pyramid, the traditional type, has
its base on the ground; the other type has its
base in the air. It's a pyramid that pulls you up
instead of pushing you down. A network
marketing business gives everyone access to
what used to be the domain only of the rich.
This passage is excerpted by permission from
The Business School for People Who Like Helping
People, by Robert T. Kiyosaki, with Sharon
Lechter, CPA, authors of Rich Dad, Poor Dad."