Learn From My Mistakes

Be Responsible For Your Business

A mistake I made was leaving the success of my business in the hands of my upline. I respected him, and his level of success was impressive.

My husband did not support my efforts in the business at the time, so there was not a male role model for the men who were interested in joining my business. 

At first, I thought that men did not respect a women leading them. Later, I realized that men respect a leader whether they are women or men.

I did not show my propects leadership because of my own insecurities, so I left the leadership role to my sponsor. That decision was a big mistake. However, my sponsor made mistakes too.

The mistake my sponsor made was that he did not edify me to my downline. People need to know that their sponsors respect them and supports their commitment. Without edification from upline, people will start to edify themselves.

Another mistake my sponsor made was he set up meetings with my downline without including me; nor did I know about the appointments. Let me repeat these points again! I emphasize these mistakes because people need to understand why this practice is detrimental to their businesses.

• I said that my upline did not edify my qualities to my downline. That means he did not make me look good to my downline or tell them that I am qualified to work with them. Neither did he assure them that I am committed to their successes.
• I said that he set up meetings with my downline without including me. What does this tell my downline? It tells them that he is the "big shot" and that he is the one they need to duplicate. Since I was duplicating my upline,  in every word and deed, there should be no reason to imply by his actions that they should duplicate him rather than me. He saw my business as an extention of his instead of mine.
• I said that he set up meetings with my downline without me knowing about them. I think you understand the problem with this situation. If I am truly a leader, then I should be at each meeting with downline and my upline should be there to support me as a guest. 

Whose Business Is It? 

Because these actions told my downline and ME that I was not a leader, I lost control of what happens in my business and my own destiny. Whose success is it? Is it my upline's or mine? I appreciate the help and support of a motivated upline, but I do not appreciate that this situation ended up being the downfall of my business.

The most important thing you can learn from my mistake is that ultimately, you are the one who has to be the leader in your business and the one responsible for its success or failure.

Leaders must always be teachable and learn how to duplicate what works from their upline. This means they need to explain to their upline how they plan to lead and what they need from them.

Your upline is the most valuable asset you have, so DO NOT alienate them by being difficult and hard-headed; and NEVER embarrass them.  

You must always do what you say you will do. If your upline cannot trust your word, neither can your downline. If your upline starts to believe you are full of hot air and not really teachable or committed, you will lose the support of your upline. That would not be a wise business move!

Is It Excuses or Is It Really Overload?

Upline in network marketing put a lot of pressure on downline to perform, especially when someone stops producing or begins to give excuses. Because a person seems uncommitted or confused about what he or she really wants, an upline will often drop working with him or her all together because it isn’t worth the time. It's just “The Nature of the Beast” for most Network Marketers. It’s a sad story, but one I hear over and over again.

The problem here is that many upline do not take the time to understand why people quit producing. In fact, they view excuses as non-committal or lazy. Let’s talk about why someone may stop producing in a Network Marketing business.

• They do not have the same work ethics as their upline.
• They do not have a reason to do the work. In other words, they have no “WOW”.
• They need more personal time to work on their fears with an upline who understands them.
• They see holes in the plan or they do not understand the plan well enough.
• They have heard negativity from family and friends.
• They have big egos and think success should happen quickly, and so they won’t wait for it. 
• They focus on their sales skills instead of what their prospects want and help them at that level.
• They make mistakes so they are too embarrassed to go forward.
• They do not believe they can be successful.
• Lack of money to support their businesses, limiting their ability to work the business effectively.
• They have run out of names on their list.
• They lose the vision of why they started the business in the first place.
• They won’t accept trainning and try to go off on their own. They learn just enough to be dangerous.

 For more on this subject, see the linck below. The first part of this subject come from this report.

 http://associatedbusinesses.wordpress.com/2009/02/12/why-downline-do-not-perform/