In my quest to learn more about network marketing and the ways in which people are marketing their businesses online, I have used LinkedIn quite extensively. A few weeks ago, I came across a group discussion with a headline along the lines of "where do you go for your intellectual feast?". It turned out to be an article written by Jim Rohn, who I have since discovered is a self-proclaimed ‘business philosopher’ and motivational writer/speaker. His quotes are everywhere in network marketing blogs and tweets.

I only intended to briefly mention this article, but since it is very relevant, I decided to look it up and post the whole thing for you. If you wonder as you read who Mr Shoaff is, just google it and you’ll soon find out!

By: Jim Rohn

Pity the man who has a favorite restaurant, but not a favorite author. He’s picked out a favorite place to feed his body, but he doesn’t have a favorite place to feed his mind!

Why would this be? Have you heard about the accelerated learning curve? From birth, up until the time we are about eighteen, our learning curve is dramatic, and our capacity to learn during this period is just staggering. We learn a tremendous amount very fast. We learn language, culture, history, science, mathematics… everything!

For some people, the accelerated learning process will continue on. But for most, it levels off when they get their first job. If there are no more exams to take, if there’s no demand to get out paper and pencil, why read any more books? Of course, you will learn some things through experience. Just getting out there – sometimes doing it wrong and sometimes doing it right – you will learn.

Can you imagine what would happen if you kept up an accelerated learning curve the rest of your life? Can you imagine what you could learn to do, the skills you could develop, the capacities you could have? Here’s what I’m asking you to do: be that unusual person who keeps up his learning curve and develops an appetite for always trying to find good ideas.

One way to feed your mind and educate your philosophy is through the writings of influential people. Maybe you can’t meet the person, but you can read his or her books. Churchill is gone, but we still have his books. Aristotle is gone, but we still have his ideas. Search libraries for books and programs. Search magazines. Search documentaries. They are full of opportunities for intellectual feasting.

In addition to reading and listening, you also need a chance to do some talking and sharing. I have some people in my life who help me with important life questions, who assist me in refining my own philosophy, weighing my values and pondering questions about success and lifestyle.

We all need association with people of substance to provide influence concerning major issues such as society, money, enterprise, family, government, love, friendship, culture, taste, opportunity, and community. Philosophy is mostly influenced by ideas, ideas are mostly influenced by education, and education is mostly influenced by the people with whom we associate.

One of the great fortunes of my life was to be around Mr. Shoaff those five years. During that time he shared with me at dinner, during airline flights, at business conferences, in private conversations and in groups. He gave me many ideas that enabled me to make small daily adjustments in my philosophy and activities. Those daily changes, some very slight, but very important, soon added up to weighty sums.

A big part of the lesson was having Mr. Shoaff repeat the ideas over and over. You just can’t hear the fundamentals of life philosophy too often. They are the greatest form of nutrition, the building blocks for a well-developed mind.

I’m asking that you feed your mind just as you do your body. Feed it with good ideas, wherever they can be found. Always be on the lookout for a good idea – a business idea, a product idea, a service idea, an idea for personal improvement. Every new idea will help to refine your philosophy. Your philosophy will guide your life, and your life will unfold with distinction and pleasure.

Mentoring For Free

The article as it turned out, was posted on a blog run by Mentoring For Free. This is a network marketing ‘tool’ that could in some ways be compared to MLSP, in that it harnesses the concepts of attraction marketing.. but in a more subtle way!! MFF offers free help to struggling network marketers regardless of their business (ie its generic just like MLSP and other systems) but the emphasis is much more on working with people, speaking to people and even identifying personality traits so that you can approach and speak to people in different ways according to the way they process information and ideas.

If you haven’t yet read the 10 Steps to Success ebook, I can recommend a few nice people that are involved with the Mentoring For Free program who will send you the link, I have exchanged messages and emails with two or three in past months. Not only is this a great source of information for yourself, but it is obviously a great system for helping your downline to duplicate your success. By plugging them into conference calls and guiding them through all the training, everyone can improve their strategies and tactics in network marketing.

10 Steps to Success

You can tell I do love the idea and I loved the personalities training. MFF mentors will pass on some or all of the training books and calls in time in order to build a relationship with you. If you are wondering what the catch is, then you are very cynical but astute. The ebook 10 Steps for Success was written by Michael Dlouhy, a very successful network marketer in his own right. But the Mentoring For Free program as a whole appears to be led by Tom ‘Big Al’ Schreiter, another hugely successful network marketer who decided to split from the company he was working for and set up his own network marketing company, Vitamark.

The idea of offering tools and training for free is right out of attraction marketing, of course people will come back for more. Ideally they will come to trust and appreciate you for being a great mentor and someone that can help them grow their business. Tom Schreiter is counting on the fact that eventually you might get disgruntled with your own MLM company, if you are already with one – and maybe sign up with Vitamark. Although they profess not to mention company names or products in their training sessions, they obviously warn trainees about the dangers of signing up with the ‘wrong’ company and point out who to navigate the wacky world of network marketing.

5 Pillars and 4 personality colours

The 5 Pillars training for example, explains the top 5 things to look out for in a network marketing company from the management to the comp plan. Tom Schreiter apparently designed the compensation plan at Vitamark to help network marketers make a good income more quickly. I have heard the comparison that whilst it might require you to have around 2000 people in your downline to make approximately $10,000 a month with some companies, Vitamark requires closer to 400 to make the same income (don’t take my word for this, it may well happen for some but that is no guarantee of your success or mine!).

My conclusion about Mentoring For Free is that they have some great ideas, some useful advice and some inspiring quotes and articles to share. The 10 steps to success is well worth reading to remind us all that networking is about people. However, by the time I finished the book, I had no recollection of any next steps.

The colours training is very interesting, I’m mostly green apparently along with 35% of the population. That means I analyse everything to death before making a decision (can you tell?!). Blues are fast-driving party animals that don’t care much for facts and figures. Yellows are nurturing, family oriented types with ocean scenes on their office walls and reds dress for success and run big corporations.. but apparently that doesn’t make them great at network marketing. You can either buy the color to success CD online from any one of hundreds of willing MFF affiliates by googling it! There are also some excerpts on youtube I’ve just noticed, so check that out without spending a dime!