I remember when I was first introduced to network marketing. I had no frame of reference for what was being presented to me. I was working 60 to 70 hours a week and barely paying my bills despite having a thriving veterinary practice. I can recall the moment like it happened yesterday (which is amazing since these days I can’t remember what actually happened yesterday). I was sitting across the table from my friend, Alan Joel, and he was attempting to explain to me how I was going to be able to work fewer hours and still have extra money coming in every month.

I distinctly remember thinking Alan had lost his mind. He was saying how my income would grow exponentially as I brought in new customers and taught them to bring in customers but I heard how I was only going to make 50 or so dollars in the first month and I never got past that.

Alan said I would invest 10 to 15 extra hours and a few hundred dollars a month now and in the future my income would grow to the point that I would be able to work many fewer hours in my veterinary practice but still have the same or more income. I only heard the additional time and money part and the investment concept went right over my head.

Alan talked about inviting people to look at the possibilities the business offered and I heard I needed to sell lots of product. He suggested I bring people to him for him to explain how the process worked and I figured I could study the products and explain them to people perfectly well myself.

The reason I could not hear what Alan was saying was because I had never had any kind of financial training outside of working harder and more hours. I had never been introduced to the concept of leveraging money or the efforts of others. I had never been taught to invest or even save for that matter although I knew successful people did these things. I thought that if I worked harder I would make more money and then I could invest or save but that never happened.

I did not understand the process of working with a mentor in learning network marketing even though I had not wanted to start my own veterinary practice right out of school so I had worked with another vet for at 5 years before I felt I was ready to venture out on my own.

Even though I did not get what Alan was saying to me I still knew in my heart that what I was doing was not working and I was desperate to change something in my life. I did join his network marketing company and spent the next 10 years being frustrated and demoralized. I could not for the life of me convince people to work as hard as I was working selling products. I heard people in my company speaking about duplication and exponential growth but it was not working for me.

The reason it was not working was pretty simple. I wasn’t doing what the successful people were doing or thinking the way they thought. Through listening to these people I learned about a book called Rich Dad Poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki and when I read it my whole life turned upside down. Without going into detail about the book it helped me understand that I thought only from a time for money model and until I learned to understand and embrace leverage I would continue to work hard and have little free time. Suddenly, all the things I had been hearing for years clicked into my awareness and I understood. When I made this shift my business changed dramatically and I begin to have the things working for me that I had only heard others talk about.

Now my network marketing income is easily one third or more of my total income and I work a very reasonable 30 to 40 hours a week between my network marketing efforts and veterinary practice activities. Although my total income has not increased dramatically yet, my quality of of life has. I talk to many people who are where I was 10 years ago and suggest to them books and other learning tools to help them shift their thinking. Without the understanding of leverage and other business concepts it is hard to see the incredible potential of network marketing. I am so glad my stubborn nature kept me in the game long enough to get it. Madalyn