My first entrepreneurial venture was with a very famous network marketing company a friend of mine recruited me to. I remember well he and his wife coming to our house that evening to tell us about this great mlm business that was going to make us millionaires before we turned 30. Going by the way he had been trained by his upline he spent most of that first meeting talking about our why. We looked at pictures of yachts and mansions, talked about how fun it would be to drive a Lamborgini, and fantasized about being multi-millionaires. Even after we signed up and began doing what he was doing, our upline dutifully kept the "dream" in front of us. Just think, if we recruit 97 people I could buy that super-duper speedboat that I had always dreamed about.
I eventually quit the company after spending a bunch of money I didn't have on motivational material I didn't need and products no one else wanted. And I wondered why I had failed! I couldn't blame the company because other people were getting rich selling their products. I couldn't blame my upline because they hounded me every day to work the business. So I blame the dream!
You see, I was working to have that mansion and speedboat when I didn't really want a mansion or a speedboat. Sure, it would be nice to take a Hawaiian vacation every other week, but at that point in my life I was just wanting to be able to afford health insurance. My dream was not a Lamborgini; my dream was to pay off the Ford I was already driving. There is nothing wrong with having a multi-millionaire dream, but if that is not your dream it won't motivate you to do whatever it takes to be successful. My upline was keeping the dream in front of me, but it wasn't my dream.
I had to find out what motivated me. What would make me get out of my comfort zone, ignore the skepticism of family and friends, and persevere until I became successful? For me, it was to get out of debt, be able to afford braces for my kids, have health insurance, have funds set aside for college, and to be able to pay every bill the day it came in. Not millionaire stuff, but it was my dream. I despise debt and will do anything to get rid of it. I like speedboats but won't do anything to have one. And when I discovered that I hate debt more than I like speedboats, I found my dream.
We all know that you must define your why, but it must be your why. I would do absolutely anything in my power to ensure the health of my children. I would give my blood, donate any organ, and even give my very life for them. But I don't know that I would do it all for your children. My children mean more to me than any other children in the world and I would do for them what I would not do for any others. So it is with your dream! My dream won't motivate you. But your dream will drive you to the ends of the earth.
Discover your dream and you have taken the fist step in becoming successful. You can do anything you want … if you want to bad enough.
