FLASH: MLM Is NOT for Everyone!

Anyone who's been in MLM or Network Marketing for more than a little while has probably heard -- and maybe even used -- the line "anyone can do this business." It's kind of like the the recent Geico ad campaign, "so easy, a caveman can do it."

Of course the hype of the statement is self-evident because if "anyone can" then just about everyone would. Like sex. But maybe unlike sex, MLM just isn't a big enough motivator.

But even if everyone could, thank God MLM isn't for everyone, or who'd do the real work that needs to be done? Who would create and produce all the values we depend and to which we have become accustomed?

The idea of residual income is nice, but there are other ways of obtaining it, ways that have proven to be more stable than most multi-level "businesses" where you don't really own anything, except maybe your contacts, and are at the mercy of the company, its policies, and occasionally its whims.

Yes, there have been successful MLM-ers who have lost everything they've built due to policy decisions, policy "violations," pay plan changes -- and successful companies that failed under new management such as Changes International, a private company that was bought by Twin Labs and soon disappeared from view -- and Nutrition For Life, a publicly traded company, hostilely taken over by the owners of a rival MLM, (who's name escapes me, probably for lack of having made a name for itself) that quickly led it to its demise.

Residual income is nice, if you can "build it once" and build it "for real."

But it's MLM, so let's not look at it realistically, let's get sold on the hype!

If your work has a fulfilling purpose for you, and is something you love, you don't need MLM and MLM is probably not for you. One of MLM's selling points is that it's a way out of a J.O.B. -- something you hate that keeps you Just Over Broke.

Fulfilling work that you love may not always pay well, but it doesn't quite meet that definition. And MLM has been, correctly defined, as Most Lose Money.

So if you are commercially creative in any way, not only will you gain satisfaction from doing what you do that the alternative of trying to talk others into your MLM program will never provide, you will own copyrights, patents, or trademarks that are not subject to the whims or fortunes of anyone else. You will also own all of the residual income they will earn for you, and that's security no MLM company, no matter how good, can give you because only the owners of an MLM company have true ownership of whatever their members earn for them in residuals.

You, as a member, might think that the vitamins or whatever it is you are promoting for the company is the product, but to the company, you, the distributor, are as much a product as the vitamins because it is you, and not the vitamins, that make residual income for the company possible. Despite any hype, the vitamins don't NOT sell themselves.

As a creative producer of value, you are not the product, though as you become known, you certainly become part of it. Consider the Beetles and Paul McCartney. Their musical success turned them into a product that in turn fueled even greater success. The same with Elvis.

The idea of earning a residual income is not exclusive to MLM, and predates it. In fact, the first time I ever heard the word "residuals," it had to do with people being paid additional money for their contribution to a movie or TV show, whenever that movie or TV show was shown.

People have long been collecting royalties on such things as what they have written, what they have photographed, recorded performances on records, film, and television, and on licensed trademarks, patents, and copyrights. If Mattel or Hasbro comes out with a new Mickey Mouse, Snoopy, or other licensed toy, Disney or someone else gets paid!

Now the Internet brings the possibility of residual income within the reach of may more people and in new ways with web sites, web services, and "virtual real estate."

Their are people being paid a every month for the use of their photography by sites such as Alamy, or through affiliate programs like ClickBank, or for displaying third party advertisements on web sites that they own.

MLM is not the be-all and end-all for creating residual income and is NOT for everyone. Keep that in mind when you're sponsoring and don't feel personally rejected when someone says it's not for them -- or even worse, treat them like they're terminally stupid. That's self defeating.

To paraphrase MLM personality Kim Claver, aka Ms. Stud, multi-level marketing is quite simply for the people for whom it's the right thing to be doing... and the right thing to be doing NOW; not next month or next year but in the present.

Obviously, most won't qualify, so what's the point of thinking it's for