Learn From my Stupidity… or Do it the Hard Way

One of the main philosophies that I follow in life comes from Socrates: "As for me, all I know is that I know nothing." The more I learn about any given subject, the more ignorant I feel. Every fact opens up a new facet of an idea that requires time and skills to learn. Sometimes we discover things that can shake the foundation of the philosophies that drive our life. Nobody is right about everything, not me, or any of the other gurus on the internet.

That is why the shopping cart technique is so important. What do I mean by that? When you are reading anyone’s advice, opinions, or research on a certain subject, you need to remember this simple fact:

"They Don’t Know Everything and

Neither Do You!"

The shopping cart technique is taking all of the good stuff from the crap on the shelves. You don’t buy the whole grocery store, so don’t buy EVERYTHING that ANYONE says. Some stores are better than others, but you have to learn to decipher the nuggets from the garbage.

The best of us are wrong sometimes, and it is important to admit it when we are. I’m a pretty damned good network marketer, but I’ve made some mistakes lately, I’ve had a bit of a mindset switch, and I want to help you learn from my stupidity. Read carefully because you might be engaging in some of the same Stupid Distractions that will kill your Business… Or at least slow it down considerably.

I’ve been writing reviews on a lot of network marketing companies lately, and I made the mistake of getting sucked into some hype, and that mistake slowed the progress of my business considerably.

There are really only 2 things that I market… or that I SHOULD be marketing:

1. My Primary Business

2. A simple system that can help anyone do online marketing

The problem with the internet is that there are massive distractions everywhere. Every ten minutes there is a new product launch, or new company that is so enticing that we spend hours focusing on something that either doesn’t pay any money, or slows down the focus that we should have.

I’m going to mention 2 companies right now, that have the potential to become great companies, but they distracted me from my primary goals, cost me time and money, and slowed down my business: YourNight.com and AAAchoo.com. These are social media sites that have a compensation structure built around them.

These ideas look really good on paper. My reason for joining them was to get access to a group of targeted leads that are active buyers in the industry. I knew that I wouldn’t make a lot of money from the actual site, but I figured it could be a good source of leads. The problem with both of the sites is that most of the people don’t really spend a lot of time actually networking on their profiles. Everyone is too busy trying to recruit people from facebook to the new site of the week, that they don’t spend very much time actually looking at the site they are paying for.

If you are involved in one of these social media sites, be honest… How much time do you actually spend on your paid social media site verses facebook? Seriously, AAAchoo doesn’t even have a fully functional product yet, and people are paying $30 a month for it. My brother spent 2 days creating a Ning Network that has much better features that it. YourNight is in the same boat; they have more features active than AAAchoo does, but the product is still in beta testing and people are paying money for it.

Am I trying to bash these companies? No, I actually think they are based off of a really brilliant idea. "Make money for something you do every day!" The main problem is that the compensation plans are represented in a completely deceiving way. Quite frankly, there will be very few people that will make any amount of considerable money with paid social media products. They WOULD have a BETTER chance if the product was actually great, but WHY would people pay for an unfinished product?

Would you pay $60 a month for a vitamin product that didn’t have all of the vitamins in it yet? Come on guys, its in pre-launch, sure we don’t have an actual working vitamin yet, but its going to be the best vitamin ever! Just Pay $60 a month right now to reserve your spot! That’s what people are doing with the social media sites right now.

I HAD paid accounts with both companies, I have since canceled both. The distractions that they cost me were more detrimental that the measly dollars I could have made by promoting them as a lead source. However, paid social media sites are not the only distraction out there. What about all the product launches? Every week there is some "New Tool" that is going to take your business and supercharge it! Have you heard about that new MLM Builder product that has Robots that make all of your phone calls for you so you never have to talk to anyone again? Seriously, go check out www.SuckerOfTheWeek.com and you can get all the details!

Am I saying don’t buy tools? No, absolutely not. You need tools to build your business, what I am saying is to buy tools that enhance your business and don’t distract you from it. Everything I have listed in the Must Haves section of my blog fall into this category.

Like I said, I’m not trying to bash AAAchoo, they are based on a really great idea. The problem was I got excited about the potential of a Free 1,800 a month, and I spent way too much time checking my back office to look at the matrix… and for that matter, it only shows a company matrix. If you are looking at doing this right now, know that all of the paid members it shows in your downline are not in your personal matrix. There are a lot of deceiving videos on the internet that indicate otherwise.

As far as YourNight is concerned, I still think everyone should sign up for the free profile. It’s a decent place to re-syndicate your blog posts. If they make it out of beta testing, I might even upgrade my profile again. What I won’t do with either site, is waste any more time away from my primary business.

If you are looking at getting into Network Marketing, do your research and find the company and team you want to work with. Look for a solid company, not a fly by night distraction. For more information on this you can read my post,"How a Professional Picks Their MLM." There are proven tools that will help you build your business. Don’t get caught up in the product of the week. Don’t waste money and time on distractions that take away from your focus.

Treat Your MLM like a business, focus on things that get results, and buy the tools that people are actually having success with. I know this was a bit of a rant, but if it helped you, Tweet it, or Share it on Facebook.