How Reading A Book Nearly Ended My MLM Career by David Ledoux
Can I ask you a question about your MLM business?
If you sponsored me today, how would you teach me what books to read in order
to increase my chances of success?
They say that, 'Leaders are readers.'
You're a reader, aren't you?
But is your downline?
I was first sponsored into the Network Marketing industry in February 1987.
My upline was a wonderful lady. She told me to 'read good books' in order to
become good at multi-level marketing.
I was 19 years old, and green as grass. I was literally 6 months off of the
farm from rural Manitoba, and going to school in the Big City. 'Good books' to
me were my $80 Calculus textbook and $60 Physics textbook.
I really, really wanted to make money in MLM. My sponsor didn't tell me what
qualified as a 'good book', so I went to the local bookstore at the mall. I
asked the clerk for a 'really good book'.
He said, 'Oh, you want the Bestseller's. They're on that wall over there.'
I'm 19, and green as grass... I look at this huge wall of books. One of them
is a thick paperback called 'The Shining' by some guy named Stephen King.
'This looks pretty good.' I thought. I bought it with quarters. I was so
broke.
That book was the scariest darn thing I had ever read in my life! I sat up
until 3:00 a.m. with that book in my tiny dorm room, every light on and the lock
bolted! I had nightmares for 2 days after that!
'How the heck is this supposed to help me recruit people?' I thought.
It obviously didn't. I quit, a total failure at MLM within 6 months....
I would spare you the pain. In 1997 I created a 1-page sheet for my new
people. I found if I could just get them reading the right books and listening
to the right tapes, it completely changed their chances of succeeding in the MLM
industry.
The 1-page sheet was a recommended 1st Year Curriculum with all the books,
audios and videos that I wanted every new distributor on my team to absorb as
fast as possible. I put the product codes and order numbers next to each item
like a checklist. Every teammate got the same list.
I found that if someone went through the entire list, they were changed for
life. They became passionate about self-improvement and Life Long Learning.
Leaders are readers. If your downline isn't reading, perhaps you can help
them by pointing them in the right direction with a Recommended List.
Until next time,
David Ledoux
