MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) Encounter

Strange thing happened last week while I was in Best Buy. I was shopping for DVD’s to give to my girlfriend for Valentine’s Day. I was in a hurry because I needed to go meet up with her and obviously was getting her present at the last minute (It was 2/14). I was in the DVD aisle, minding my own business.

As I’m scrolling through some of the seasons of LOST, a random gentlemen chimes in and says “Gosh, I love that show”. He was very smooth spoken and polished. He came off like he just wanted to chit-chat a little while about DVD’s. He says he’s just searching for some DVD’s while his wife is off looking at home appliances. He kept on looking for her while we were talking but could never find her. Oddly enough we get into talking about where we work, the colleges we went to, etc. Small talk. I was in a hurry and just wanted to get away. I’m a people person by nature and have a tough time being rude to people so I kept talking to him. He mentioned that he’s part of a ”business team” that ”helps Fortune 500 companies get online faster”. He was very vague and the whole time I’m thinking… “Aren’t Fortune 500 companies already online?” Regardless, I didn’t dig deeper.

Eventually he got to asking me if I’d be interested in learning more about his business over a cup of coffee. I’ve never joined a MLM before, but I know how they operate and how they recruit. I was just getting off a 13 hour day of work and it seemed like something that was interesting at the time. I agreed to have coffee with him and today was that day.

I was hoping to learn more about this venture when I went to have coffee with him today, but just got the run around. I’m a very upfront person and wanted him to shoot it to me straight. I was skeptical about how it worked, but I know people can make a lot of money with MLM when put into the right situation. What basically ended up happening is we discussed Robert Kiyosaki books and the art of ”residual income” or money while you sleep. Basically what ended up happening is that he told me about how his company gets consumer products from the manufacturers to the consumers by cutting out all the middlemen. Seems simple. I signed up to meet with his ”business team” close by my home later this week on Thursday and will learn more.

Updates to follow.

Why I want to be an Entrepreneur…

Everyone wants to be rich. Money drives people. Money is often the cause of either happiness or duress. Having more money makes people happy and having less of it causes duress. I’ve always wanted to be very wealthy. My parents work very hard and struggled at times in my childhood to keep food on the table and to not lose the mortgage on the house. I’ve seen them take night jobs, go through months of layoffs, get raises, come home crying, etc.

I want to make a TON of money. I want to be so rich that money will never be an issue for myself or my family. I don’t want to make money just to spend it on stupid crap all the time and flaunt it around. I don’t want to buy Porsche’s, Tropical Islands, Big Screen TV’s, etc. I want to be financially sufficient and have the freedom to do whatever the hell I want throughout the day through owning my own business.

I like how Donald Trump puts it, “Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score.” I like the idea of starting at ZERO and watching my net worth grow. I am an active stock market investor (even with my limited funds) and enjoy seeing the GREEN percentages on my Scottrade account. I like the idea of growth and entrepreneurship creates that opportunity for me. I don’t see my net worth growing in a long bell curve in the job I’m in now. Most people see 5% raises every year. Year after year. With the lofty goals I’ve set for myself, I’ll never get there working for the man.

I enjoy the idea of my business being MY project for ME to grow. In the job I have now, I work my ass off. Not because I want to grow, but because I work in a commission job and my paycheck reflects the work I put into it. Owning my own business allows me the opportunity to freely do what I think is necessary for me to reach my goals. I like the idea of working at home if I chose, or not working at all. I like the idea that I can grow a business to a certain level and put the day-to-day operations on autopilot through acquiring employees and leveraging the work.

Bottom line. Look at all the wealthy people in the world. OWNERS. They own assets, they own a business, they own realestate, they own a licenses to products or patents, they OWN. Trump is rich not because he has a highpaying job. He OWNS. Bill Gates isn’t rich because Microsoft gave him a sweet job with nice benefits. HE OWNS IT. Entrepreneurship offers the entrepreneur ownership in what he/she is doing. You OWN the right to work 80-100 hrs/week and reap 100% of the net revenues. You OWN the right to do whatever the hell you want throughout your work week. You OWN the right to sell your business at anytime you chose and reap the rewards. You OWN the assets you pick up along the way. You OWN the realestate you’ve picked up along the way with the money you’ve made.

I want to be an entrepreneur for a number of reasons. So do most people. Are you going to do anything about it? Get off your ass. Get an idea. Educate yourself. Put it to work. NOW.

The Entrepreneur’s Journal

Welcome to my weblog. This blog is a real-time account of my experiences towards becoming a successful entrepreneur. As I write this, all I have is a full-time job, a vision, and a few thousand dollars to put to work. You will be taken through the trials and tribulations of my experiences as an entrepreneur AS THEY HAPPEN. I will update my ”journal” for all to see and include thoughts, ideas, business statistics, feelings, hardships, successes, etc.

I feel that everyone at some point in their life wants to pursue owning their own business at one time or another. There are certain risks associated with this that keep people from pursuing their dreams and getting out of the so-called ”rat race” that is the world we live in. I hope this journal serves as a tool for my own personal motivation in pursuing my dream of owning a (if not several) successful business(es), as well as the motivations of the reader to actually get up and start pursuing their dreams.

I hope to, years from now, look back at what I wrote in the early stages of my pursuit and truly appreciate where I am (or will be). I hope to learn from my mistakes and relish in my successes along my journey towards becoming a self-sufficient entrepreneur. I hope to provide motivation and knowledge to those who harvest the same vision and mind-set that I do towards entrepreneurship. I hope to use this blog as a vehicle for information brainstorming from the comments of the readers who read this. I may learn something new from a passer-by reader that could save me thousands of dollars in mistakes. Hopefully I generate an upsell idea that I didn’t think of that will help me out immensely in one of my business venture. Who knows?

I may make it, or I may not. As you’ll see in my posts, I am putting myself in a risky situation where failure is not an option. I plan to quit my full-time job shortly to devote 100% of my time towards my business ventures. Although the idea of starting your own business is risky, I’m trying to be smart about it. I’m putting myself in a situation where I will have the necessary tools, mentors, and information to not go belly-up, but it all depends on me and what I make of it. I have ideas right now that could potentially turn into cash cows, but they are not going to start earning revenue on their own. I have to put the time, money, and sweat into creating my dream.

Please feel free to email me or post comments. I have very thick skin and encourage all criticism as I feel that without open discussion of thoughts and feelings, nothing will be learned.