Your MLM Business:
Half-Full or Half Empty?
by Jack Hayford

A wise man once wrote, "Our thoughts, our words, and deeds are the threads of the net we throw around ourselves."

Success in any endeavor begins with a positive attitude. Optimists (positive people) see life as half-full and ever improving and evolving. Pessimists (negative people) see life as half-empty and ever decaying and degenerating.

Whether I'm working with MLM executives or independent network marketers, I can discern right away those who are most likely to find success and happiness. It's the half-full folks.

One of my early clients, while building his own company, complained every time he had to pay a service provider. He grudgingly sent me a check for the job he had hired me to do saying, "I haven't even made that much money yet!" Yet this was his company, his vision, his opportunity, and he stood to make money for the rest of his life. (Otherwise, why did he start it in the first place?) He was a good man, with good products, but his approach was "half-empty." His company closed within a few months.

I talk with MLMers all the time who display either the half-full or half-empty attitude. The half-empty people blame their sponsor, the company, the products, the compensation plan, their financial status, their health, their "luck," for their lack of success. Rarely have I heard a person say, "I need to change my attitude."

Distributors who jump from "opportunity" to "opportunity" are looking for the "perfect" one. There is no such thing! MLM companies are susceptible to the same potential problems as traditional companies: The president may die which leads to a power struggle; the FDA might ban a good selling product or restrict the use of an effective ingredient; economic conditions can force a change in the compensation plan; competition can get fierce (someone might sell the same product cheaper! Oh no!). Half-empty people are defeated by these "problems." Half-full people take them in stride and become stronger and wiser.

The key to success for both companies and independent distributors is staying power and the willingness to evolve. As Deepak Chopra so eloquently points out in his great little book The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, contained somewhere within every obstacle you face is the solution and the opportunity to evolve. You must be open to that opportunity to grow, improve, and fill up your half-full cup of plenty. If you will just confront every challenge with the knowledge that within it there is a seed of opportunity, your cup will never be empty and you will eventually triumph. Change your attitude. Monitor your thoughts and, as a friend of mine says in his answering machine message, "stay positive."