The Illusion of Success

The title for this article came to me this week as I was considering my own personal experiences with MLM, especially in the last 4 years.

I am a good recruiter.  I know that because 2 out of 3 years in my last company I was the top recruiter, sponsoring several hundred people and a high percentage of them at our highest level.  It was fun being at the top.  I had special treatment, I was on the advisory board, I was an Emerald, the 2nd to the top level, I had a nice residual check coming in every month, and people in the company looked up to me and asked me for advice...  BUT

Is it really success if you have to keep recruiting in your 3rd year as hard as you were in your first year?  Is it really success if a large percentage of the people you bring in are leaving just about as fast as they join?  (I know about attrition, but this was more than attrition) Is it really success if no one else on your team is making a decent income? And is it really success if in your 4th year your check even begins to go down a little bit every month?

Since this was my first experience of networking "success" I wasn't really sure how much of what I was experiencing was the growing pains of a new company or building the foundation of a solid team.  I know there were many challenges along the way and the company made it through many of them.  My belief in the leadership and the products kept me going for a long time, but one day I realized I could no longer bring people in.

So, what went wrong?

I believe it was a combination of things.  Some due to my lack of experience and some due to the compensation plan.  A few other internal things came into play, but I won't go into those.

My Lack of Experience:

Since this was my first time having any type of success in an MLM, I just kept on doing what I was good at ~ recruiting.  It was all a numbers game.  I didn't stop to take nearly as much time to work with my new members as I should have.  I was taught to "throw the spaghetti against the wall and see what sticks".  I spent hundreds of dollars each month obtaining leads and taught my team to do the same.

I also didn't have any experience with other comp plans, so I didn't know how to compare "ours" with "theirs" ~ I thought our binary was the best comp plan there ever was!  After all, the top income earner was doing really well!  I never considered it long enough to think that maybe our problems had to do with the comp plan.

The Compensation Plan:

I know every compensation plan has it's drawbacks, but now that I have compared some of them and taken an objective look, I can see that a binary plan only works for certain people.  First you have to be sponsored by someone who is a serious builder so you never have to worry about your strong leg.  Second, you have to be a serious builder yourself.  I joined with a recruiter and I was a recruiter, so I did pretty well, but there was very little chance that most of the people we brought in would succeed.

My first red flag was when one of the 4 diamonds in the company quietly disappeared in the beginning of my third year.  I had enough connections to know something was up.  But I was still doing ok, so I hung in there.  The next warning was when another of the top 4 diamonds resigned at the end of my third year.  Abosultely nothing was said to anyone, this person was just no longer on the calls or at the events.  Shortly after that, was when I  decided I could no longer bring people in and I opened my eyes to some other opportunities.  I actually emailed this person when I began to compare companies on my search for a new company.  I wanted to hear the story from their point of view, and I'm so glad I did!

Well, I don't want to go off topic.  My point being that I was told I was successful, I had a fairly successful residual check, I was treated like I was successful, but it was all an illusion.  I believed it because I didn't really know what success was.  I didn't really understand that for the same effort in another compensation plan I would have made so much more money.  I didn't really understand how important it is to build a team, even more important than being a good recruiter!  I didn't realize the importance of putting your team first, because if they are not makng money, they are not going to stay.

I want to shout it from the roof tops and save everyone the hard lessons I have learned in the past years.  At any rate, don't fall for the illusion of success.  Be open-minded about your compensation plan.  Watch the leaders in your company.  How many are making good money? If they are leaving, find out why ~ ask them, not the company.  How many on your team are making money according to their efforts?  If you plugged into another compensation plan, would you make more?  It's not a matter of the grass being greener on the other side, but if you didn't do your homework before you joined (like I didn't) then you may be in the wrong place.  It may be time to make a move.  If you find out that you need to make a change, don't kick yourself ~ consider it part of your schooling, be thankful for what you learned and then apply that to your new company.

I hope none of you need to hear this.  Maybe everyone has chosen a company that has a wonderful compensation plan who pays everyone from the top dog to the lowly laborer, has leadership with integrity, has products that everyone is seeking and fits your needs.  Great!  But if not, I hope this information will be helpful! 

Remember, success is more than a paycheck.