Dee Morrison

The concept of network marketing had me from the word go; just the idea that I could be my own boss and work from home kept me awake (and excited!) from the time I first heard of it.  But perhaps I am getting ahead of myself...

I am the oldest of two girls born to a working class couple who originally hailed from Texas.  My sister and I were born in Los Angeles and had little contact with our grandparents and cousins in the south.  Our way of life was reasonably comfortable, but my parents struggled financially and I grew up with a sense of there never being enough financially.  My father worked in aerospace as a draftsman and my mom, well she was entreprenurial--actually both my parents were; they just never had any great success as it.

During my pre-teen years, my Dad actually became a Shaklee distributor, and I loathed the protein drinks he used to make.  However, despite my ignorance of what it meant to be a distributor, I have to credit his venture into network market with coloring my attitude toward and excitement about the possibilities of direct sales for success and financial well being.

I grew up to be something of an introvert, fairly good in my studies (except for math) and an inveterate reader, which I still am.  Self help books and metaphysics are a staple of my reading diet and ultimately have helped me steer out of some of my deepest life challenges.  I attended USC--for a semester and had to drop out due to financial challenges and that pretty much saw the end of my dreams for a college degree.  Later, I moved to New York (my parents and I had had a falling out), where I lived for nearly a year before joining the Air Force.

The Air Force offered me an opportunity to travel and live in Europe and also helped me to meet the handsome young Airman I would eventually marry.  I worked as a broadcaster, which was exciting, glamorous and terrifying since I was still pretty introverted.  It took many a self help book to help me feel confident and capable of doing my job well.  I had the benefit of working with some of the best broadcasters in the Air Force and by the time I left the Air Force, I was a different young woman.  

My self confidence took a major hit, however, as I learned that I had married a major player.  My marriage took on a nightmarish tone at the same time I experienced one of the deepest joys of my life:  the birth of our first child--a girl.  I plowed all my energy into our little girl and tried to look over, around and under the huge problems my marriage presented me with.  We had a second child, also a girl, before our marriage was dealt what should have been a fatal blow--the premature birth and passing of our second child Kelly Ann.  I was inconsolable and the next two years were spent in a haze of grief and regrets.  Still, the marriage stumbled forward and I put all my focus into my child and my need for answers as to the whys of life...why was I here, why was life so painful and how could I fix my problems.

The next 10 years were spent in deep study of metaphysics; you name it from astrology to the tarot and anything in between I studied diligently and later became a teacher of this information at a Unity church where I was Youth Education Minister.  My husband and I had had one last child, a boy I named, Sean, before we separated for good.  My world revolved around my day job, a career in education with a local school district (as a Special Education Assistant), my work teaching teens at church and developing and teaching new Sunday school teachers, and my new love--Arbonne (a direct sales company).

Despite my best efforts, my children and I struggled financially and there were days I scarecely had enough money to put food on the table--needless to say I was severely stressed.  The stress became worse when my mother passed unexpectedly and my oldest daughter Kerry married and moved to Switzerland with her new husband.  My daughter and I had been close when she was a young girl, but had seen that relationship atrophy when she became an angry teen.  Her anger stemmed from the dysfunctional relationship with her father, my inability to provide the level of lifestyle she remembered when she had two parents and plain old sibling rivalry.  We had just begun to mend our relationship as she segued from High school into her post secondary education at USC (yeah!), when she suddenly married and moved away.  My sister moved my newly widowed father into her new home in the high desert of California and suddenly I was without my daughter, mother, sister and father.  Life hadn't been that difficult since the death of my second daughter nearly twenty years previous.  To say I was devastated would have been an extreme understatement.

Never the less, I soldiered on; my father, sister, son and I picked ourselves up and tried to get on with life...until my father suddenly passed two years after my mother.  My sister and I had realized my father's health was fading, but it was still a severe blow so soon after the loss of our mother.  And to add insult to injury, my sister died tragically two years later...

So, why do I share his with you?  Because I am still here.  My business lapsed as I was dealing with my grief, but I am back on the horse, ready to build my business--online this time.  And I am extremely grateful for all that Network Marketing affords me.  I can work from home, I lead a flexible lifestyle so I'm able to be available to pick up my son after school.  I can develop an income that supports me and my family in living the level of lifestyle I desire for myself--not what a corporate job would be willing to give me.  Financial freedom, time freedom; I am still seeking these things and I'm thinking there has never been a better time to make my dreams happen.  

If you or someone in your downline is struggling with the challenges that life sometimes visits humans with, don't give up hope!  If you're breathing, you still have time to make a change and to enjoy success.  And I wish that for you and for me.  Looking forward to getting to know you and celebrating success together with you.  Carpe diem...