The Price of the Promise

Let me tell you a story. Mark Yarnell, minister in a small town in
Texas, was headed for bankruptcy and just about to lose his car and
home. He looked for a way out and discovered Network Marketing.
Luckily, he had a wise sponsor. The sponsor gave Mark "THE PROMISE":
THIS BUSINESS CAN SET YOU FREE FINANCIALLY IN ONE TO THREE YEARS.
But he also gave him "THE PRICE": TO SUCCEED YOU WILL HAVE TO FACE
AND CONQUER FOUR MAJOR ENEMIES. Mark said, "It's a deal!"

He then invited 200 friends over to his house to watch a video. 80
said, "No, not interested." Mark had encountered
ENEMY #1: Rejection.
He thought, "No problem, my sponsor warned me about that.
I have 120 people still coming over."
Guess what? 50 didn't show up. He had just met
ENEMY #2: Deception.
Mark thought, "No problem, my sponsor warned me about that. I have
70 people who watched the tape." Guess what? 57 said, "Not
interested." he had just encountered
ENEMY #3: Apathy.
Undaunted, Mark thought, "No problem, 13 people signed up."
Guess what? 12 of them dropped out of the business shortly.
ENEMY #4: Attrition had left Mark with just one serious associate. But
Mark had paid the price and succeeded. To this day, that single
distributor earns Mark over $50,000 per month.

Some years ago, 20/20 did a feature story on Amway. They spent 19
minutes interviewing the whiners and complainers; several
distributors who had failed, and showed their garages full of
products they couldn't sell. During the last minute of the show, one
of the most successful Amway distributors was interviewed in front
of his palatial home. He was asked, "This business has obviously
worked for you. What's your secret?" He replied, "There is no
secret. I simply showed the plan to 1200 people. 900 said, "No" and
only 300 people signed up. Out of those 300, only 85 did anything at
all. Out of those 85, only 35 were serious and out of 35, 11 made me
a millionaire." Like Mark Yarnell, he worked through the numbers.

Here's the lesson: Your success is directly related to the degree to
which you are willing to work to find others like yourself who are
committed to succeed. Mark Yarnell's odds were 1 out of 200. The
Amway distributor's were 11 out of 1200.

Would you be willing to go through 200 people to find the one who
will make you $50,000 a month? Or go through 1200 people to become a
millionaire? I hope you will. It's easier when you know the odds up
front.
But there's the catch: You have your own set of odds and you won't
know what they are until after you've succeeded. So if you've gone
through 50 or 100 people and you haven't found one serious person
yet, you can either give up and assume the business doesn't work, or
recognize that you are working through your own numbers.

The race is not always to the swift...But to those who keep running.