Lesson #1 (Distributors Are Temporary)

So, let's get started.

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Every network marketer wishes that he had a massive organization and more leaders in his group. Life would be wonderful. The bonus checks would be too heavy to carry. And, he could watch cable television 24 hours every day.

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So why not take a shortcut to build your network marketing business? The fastest way to build a large organization is through the help of leaders.

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We can't build a very large network marketing organization on our own if we only sponsor distributors. Our time is limited. We can only service so many distributors and their problems. Even the best distributors need some service and help.

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The way to multiply our efforts is to create leaders who can take care of their own groups. Duplicating ourselves by creating new leaders is the only way to build a large, massive organization.

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>> Then where do we begin?

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First, let's define the difference between a network marketing leader and a distributor.

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Distributors are temporary. They come and go in our business. Sometimes they work hard and build groups, and other times they may continue as a wholesale user of the product, or even quit. And it's okay that distributors are temporary. They should have the right to come and take out of our business what they want.

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For instance, here are some things distributors want from our business:

* The ability to save on their personal purchases.

* A chance to make retail sales and profits.

* A feeling of belonging to a positive group of people.

* A chance to develop personally.

* Some quick checks to pay off the VISA bill.

* A part-time income to put a child through college.

* Car payments.

* Enough money for that one dream vacation.

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All these reasons to be a distributor are good. We should support and service our distributors to reach these goals. However, the truth is that this support and service should only take 10 or 20% of our time. Why?

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>> Because distributors don't want or need a lot of support.

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Some distributors say:

'Oh, don't keep calling me about those opportunity meetings. And I'm not interested in those training meetings either. Call me when the president comes to town, or if the company introduces a new product. Otherwise, leave me alone.'

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That's okay. We only want to help distributors get what they want out of our business. We don't want to push our agenda on them. They'll appreciate that we respect them as adults and let them choose their own goals.

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But remember, your distributors only have a temporary commitment. When the newspaper writes a bad article about your company, your distributor might leave. Or when the home office forgets to return the distributor's phone call, again, the distributor might quit. Or maybe a little bit of rejection from prospects will quickly end your distributor's career.

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>> Distributors come and go, but leaders are the real thing.

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Okay, we all know that leaders are more important than distributors. Most distributors are temporary and have a temporary commitment toward your business - and that's not bad. Like all of us, they're going to take what they want and then get on with their lives.

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But leaders are going to stay with you and your business for a long time. So which would you rather have - one leader or 100 distributors?

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That's easy for us to answer. One leader!

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However, you might be thinking:

'Yeah, having one leader is great, but maybe 100 distributors would give me some pretty good bonus checks.'

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The problem is that we'll have to replace those 100 distributors as time goes on, and instead of building this residual income that we talk about, we end up with just a full-time job replacing distributors.

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Why not spend the next day or two analyzing your organization? Determine how many leaders you have and how your business will be affected if you put more focus on building and training those leaders.

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* Excerpt from Big Al's Leaders Home Study Course

Lesson #2 (How To Be Successful)

In Lesson #1 we discussed that the fastest way to builda large organization is through the help of leaders. We also defined the difference between a network marketing leader and a distributor.

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When we focus on leaders, it changes how we build our business.

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People always ask me:

'Big A, what's the secret to success in network marketing?'

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I have a quick, short answer that I've used for years and it goes like this:

'To be successful in network marketing, all you have to do is build leaders and make them successful.'

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In other words, if you had a choice to go out and do a retail party to sell some skin care or long distance or whatever, that's nice - but that's probably a job. That's not building the type of residual income business you want.

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While this activity is part of your business, this activity will not be the fastest route to your goal of becoming a leader. You have to think differently if you're going to build a large and successful downline organization. You're going to carefully focus on which activities you do, because you want to be a leader.

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>> I'll show you the difference.

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Several years ago, I went over to start a downline in England. I arrived and a friend of mine, John Church, met me at the airport. Because I had a relationship with John, he had already committed to becoming a distributor - even though he had no details.

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As I walk off my plane, John is waiting for me. He has his first prospect with him, a man named Brian. Well, I gave a horrible, jet-lagged presentation and Brian joins. He didn't join because of my presentation. He joined because hewas a friend of John Church.

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Relationships do make a difference.

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John Church and I then proceeded to drive towards his home so I could get a bit of sleep. Before we arrive at John's home, his mobile telephone rings. It's his new distributor, Brian.

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Brian says:

'I have a contact about eight hours away in Scotland and I would like it if you could go talk to him. I just hung up the telephone with him and he said he may or may not be interested - but he would take a look at the business if you'd drive up to meet him. He'll come two hours closer if you will drive the other six hours.'

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John looked at me and said:

'Eight hours?'

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I replied:

'Tell Brian that it's no problem. We're on our way - just give us directions.'

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Well, I didn't get that nap I wanted. Instead, John and I just kept on driving to Scotland.

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Along the way, John said:

'Are we crazy? We're driving six hours for someone who might not even show up!'

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I said:

'That's OK.'

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John gasped:

'What do you mean, it's okay? Six hours up and six hours back and this semi-committed prospect might not even show up!'

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I explained my position:

'John, we're not going there to give a presentation. We're going there to support Brian. We want to let Brian know that because he wants to be a leader, we're going to help him to the ends of the earth no matter what until he becomes a leader. If this prospect shows up or not, it's irrelevant. It's no big deal. We're driving six hours to show our commitment to Brian.'

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That's the difference in focus I'm talking about. Because we're focused on building a leader, our activity changes also. We will concentrate on different tasks and take different view points on situations than other networkers because we're building leaders.

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The above example with Brian and John will also change how you feel about failure when somebody doesn't show up at a meeting, or a lot of guests don't come. You'll have less stress and more focus because you're thinking:

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'The reason I'm doing this meeting is to develop this person into a leader.'

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This helps us focus on what we're doing because we know why we are doing our present activity. This focus and understanding helps us get along in our business, and we make progress.

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As a side note, John Church uses this activity focus to build leaders and get out of their way. So if you don't believe it works, just call him. You'll get his answering machine as he's always golfing or on vacation.

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So that's what I mean by changing what you do to build leaders versus lots and lots of activity,which can take up our day.

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In Lesson #3 I'll give you a good example of why it's better to have one leader than 100 distributors.

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* Excerpt from Big Al's Leaders Home Study Course

Lesson #3 (Who Makes The Difference)

>> Generals make a difference.

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Imagine that you are dictator of your own country. That's pretty good - you have your own army andyou have five loyal generals. You also have 100,000 infantrymen. (Of course, the generals represent leaders and the infantrymen represent distributors in case you're not following this analogy.)

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What happens next is that one night I sneak across enemy lines and attack your army. I use my pinkbelt in karate and go chop, chop, chop and I beat up all 100,000 of your infantrymen.

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The next morning you wake up and you have five generals left. All of your infantry went home to their mothers for sympathy. Now, here's the important question.

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>> With only five generals left, could you rebuild your army?

Of course you could. That's the importance of leaders. When things go bad and everyone abandons the ship, you can still rebuild your organizationif you have loyal leaders.

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What if the opposite were to happen?

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What if I were to sneak across enemy lines and kidnap your five generals? What would happen then?

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The next morning, you wake up and all you have are your 100,000 infantrymen with no leadership or direction. They start marching in circles, firing inward, stepping in latrines, getting lost - it'sa disaster!

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So as you see, generals are everything.

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>> Some networkers build leaders. Other networkers are just busy.

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That's the difference why some networkers can work for a few years and finally retire from their business. These networkers focused all their activity on building leaders.

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The other networkers? The ones that were just busy? Well, they're still busy.

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If you're not convinced that building leaders is important by now . . . well, you can save yourself some time by not reading any further.

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>> Okay! Okay! Let's get some leaders!

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We need a step-by-step plan. And that's easy because I studied engineering. If you're not familiar with engineers, we need a step-by-step plan for everything. That's why we're incredibly cool people with a keen sense of fashion design.

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For instance, when we walk, we have a plan. We're thinking:

'Left foot, then the right foot. Left foot, then the right foot, etc.'

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So, back to our plan. We're going to create our master plan in three easy steps. By mastering each step, one at a time, we'll end up with an organization of leaders.

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Here are the steps to master:

Step #1: Define what a leader is.

Step #2: How to find leaders.

Step #3: What to teach leaders.

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Step #1 is very important. Before we go looking for leaders, wouldn't it be a great idea to know what a leader looks like? It's a lot easier to find somebody if we know what he looks like.

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On a recent teleconference training call, I asked the group:

'Does anybody on tonight's call have a good definition of, what is a leader?'

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The answers were:

* Someone who is willing to step up and help to encourage others.

* Someone who makes sure that he gets done what needs to be done.

* Somebody who is coachable.

* Somebody who is good with people -- a good communicator.

* Someone with a vision.

* A leader is somebody who wants to learn and wants to succeed.

* A leader is someone who commits to taking the action that's required to make it to the top.

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And that was the list. The rest of the callers were silent. I don't think they ever thought about this question. I can't imagine how they looked for leaders if they never even knew what a leader looked like.

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All of the above definitions are nice, but we need something more useful.

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In Lesson #4, I will share with you my three definitions of a leader. Once we know exactly what we are looking for, it gets easy.

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* Excerpt from Big Al's Leaders Home Study Course

Lesson #4 (Definition of A Leader)

What is my definition of a leader?

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I have three definitions of a leader.These aren't the only three definitions. They're not all-inclusive. These are just three definitions to give us an idea of what we are looking for.

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The first definition I heard is from a man named Tracy Dietrich in Dallas, Texas. He says that leaders are professional students of the business.

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In other words, leaders actually read the sales manual that came with their distributor kit. Byt his definition, everybody reading this news letter would be a leader. We're students of network marketing - always looking for new ideas and information.

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Leaders listen to audio training tapes, read books, go to upline meetings and, whenever theycan, they attend company conventions. You'll see leaders hanging around with the upline leaders hoping to pick up a good idea.

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I like this definition. It makes it easy to spot leaders. Just go to any training meeting and you'll see the chairs full of potential leaders.

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>> Sounds good, but what is my second definition of a leader?

This definition is a little harder to explain but easy to observe.

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Imagine that you decide to take a vacation to Hawaii. You're going to miss your local weekly opportunity meeting. Somebody will have to conduct your weekly meeting. A leader is someone who will do the opportunity meeting, make sure the product display is there, pay for the room, and assumes the responsibility that everything runs smoothly - and you don't have to call from Hawaii to see if it was done.

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In other words, you're on vacation and you don'thave to worry or check on anything. This leaderwas glad you left town so he could take theresponsibility!

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This is a pretty good definition of a leader. He is someone who does his business without your constant motivation and checking. He is someone you don't have to worry about.

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>> The third definition of a leader is the toughest.

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This definition separates the so-called leaders from the real leaders. Here it is:

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A leader is someone who handles problems.

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Let's say there is a problem in the downline. Mike didn't get his order or Mary talked longer than Alor there was some bad news in the local press, or whatever.

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A leader handles the problem.

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Your leader will call the home office to trace the order, will help Al understand why Mary talked longer, or support and counsel a devastated distributor who is upset over some bad publicity.

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The leadership test is this:

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Will the problem filter upline to you?

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If you have a distributor whom you think is a leader -- but the distributor is still passing problems upline to you, this distributor doesn't qualify to be a leader.

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This is a tough test, but it separates leaders from the crowd.

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Now we have three clear descriptions of a leader. We know exactly what we are searching for.

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Now that we have a really good grip on what a leader is, the next question in your mind should be:

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>> Step #2: How do I find leaders?

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That's simple.

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There are only two ways to get leaders.

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The first way to get leaders is to steal them. That's right, steal them. We're all leaders here, so let's be honest. People try to steal leadersall the time, don't they?

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They say:

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'Come over to my business and I'll give you $5 more than what you're making over there.'

So the leader changes loyalty and moves to another company. What's the downside of this? Well, if the leader will change allegiance for $5 more income, then what's going to happen when someone else offers this leader $6 more income?

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Ouch!

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If this leader can be bought once, he can be bought again.

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So we could steal leaders, but the problem is that we will only end up with temporary leaders. This means we'd have a job for the rest of our lives, replacing leader after leader, wouldn't we? This isn't what we're looking for.

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You see, a lot of distributors advertise forleaders. They try to persuade leaders to come over with the newest hot deal because it's a tenth of acent lower or it pays 1% more. But what happens when someone else offers two-tenths of a cent lower or 2% more?

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The temporary leader is gone.

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It's just a full-time job replacing temporary leaders. It's not really building a permanent, loyal network marketing organization. So I would like to eliminate further discussion about stealing leaders because that's not really what we want to do.

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We want permanent income.

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We'll learn the second way to get leaders in Lesson #5. The second way will be the easiestway to get that permanent income.

Lesson #5 (Give Them A Test)

So what's the second way to get leaders?

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The second way to get leaders is to build them from scratch.

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In other words, we are going to find a distributor who is not a leader now. Then, we're going to teach him exactly how to become a leader. But there is a challenge!

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If this distributor is not a leader now, he is going to look exactly like any other temporary distributor, right?

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So how do we know who to build into a leader? How do we avoid wasting time building the wrong person into a leader?

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Have you ever worked with someone who is coachable, committed to action, wanted to be aleader -- and that person never became a leader?

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Has that ever happened to you? Have you experienced the wasted time and effort? Well, I spent my first 15 years in network marketing with this same frustration. I did this. I said:

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'If you want to be a leader, let's go for it.'

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So I moved in with the committed distributor. We drove all over the country together. We made phone calls together. We gave meetings together. I taught the distributor everything I knew.

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>> And most of the time, he didn't become a leader.

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I ended up wasting a lot of my time. The distributor wasted a lot of his time. And nothing permanent was accomplished.

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That all changed when I met a guy named Tom Paredes.He came up to me and said this:

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'Tom, you're an idiot.'

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Of course this immediately got my attention. I said to myself:

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'I'd better listen to this guy. He's right. He's telling the truth. I've been wasting all this time working hard - but training the wrong people.'

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Tom Paredes continued. He said:

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'If you're going to train everybody who says that he wants to be a leader, it's not going to work. Talk is cheap.'

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So I asked the obvious question:

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'So how do you know who to train and who not to train? Everyone wants to be a leader. They told me so. How do you know which one to work with?'

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Tom Paredes' simple answer was this:

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'You simply give them a test.'

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I smacked my forehead - I'd just wasted fifteen years! Why hadn't I given these candidates a test?

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Well, because . . . I never thought of it. And now that I know I should give the candidates a test, what would be my next obvious question?

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You're right! What kind of test should I give them?

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Again Tom Paredes had a simple answer. He said:

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'You give them a book! Tell them to read the book and that you'll check back with them in three days to discuss the book.'

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>> Now it all made sense.

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Let's say that you were in a business and you sponsored me. I said that I wanted to learn to become a leader, so you say:

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'Tom, here's a book that's really going to help you build your business. I know you want to be a leader. Today is Monday. Why don't we get together on Thursday and discuss what's in this book? I'll show you how you can use it in your business.'

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Of course I'll thank you for the book and say that I'm looking forward to our Thursday meeting. Well, Thursday comes and you call me. I start making excuses over the telephone and say:

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'Well, I couldn't read the book on Monday, because that's when Monday Night Football comes on television. And then on Tuesday, I had to work overtime on my job. Wednesday night is family night. That's when the family goes out and I can watch television in peace. So I really haven't read the book yet.'

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>> What would that tell you about me?

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That says:

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'Hey, if I can't put forth enough effort to read the book, what chance is there that I would put forth an effort to take guests to meetings? To go to other training and listen to tapes? To drive to conventions?'

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This doesn't mean that I will always be a non-leader. It just means that at this time in mylife, I'm not willing to make a commitment. It doesn't mean I'm a terrible person, it just means - hey, I'm not going to be a leader right now.

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It's important that we give this test before we invest time in training a distributor to become a leader. If we don't perform this test, any time that we spend with an uncommitted distributor is wasted.

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We may be stealing time from somebody who desperately needs to be a leader. So what happens if you give me a book and the next morning I give you a call at 6 a.m.? I say:

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'I know it's early, but I am wired with excitement. I've highlighted the book and made an outline. I know it's 6 a.m. but let's get together for breakfast. If we hurry up, we can have breakfast at 6:30 a.m. and talk about this book before I go to work.'

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What would that tell you?

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>> Ka-ching!

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We have a winner here. This is a simple test but it makes all the difference in the world. By the way, I haven't mentioned which book to give as a test, have I?

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>> But it doesn't matter which book you give as a test!

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Why? Because it's only a test. You're only checking for action from your potential leader. Remember, almost everyone will say that they want to become a leader, but talk is cheap. You have to check for that action commitment.

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So if you don't have a brilliantly written Big Al book handy, you can give them a National Geographic Magazine, right? It doesn't matter. You're only checking for action. By the way, if you don't have a book or a magazine, what else can you give as a test?

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You could use videotape, an audiotape, or have your potential leader listen to a conference call- or send him to a store for milk and cookies. It's only a test.

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But if you don't have a book, an audiotape, or even videotape, you might reconsider your leadership capabilities.

Lesson #6 (Depression Approaching)

Danger! Danger! Depression approaching!

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Remember Lesson #5? Giving your prospect a book?

When you give your potential leadership candidates this test, I have to give you this warning:

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>> You might get depressed.

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After you read this newsletter, you're probably going to grab a superbly-written Big Al book and give this leadership test to your brother-in-law,your friends, and to your best distributors. And you might expect too much from these people.

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I'll tell you a story about a friend of mine in Canada. He was doing pretty well with his business, but after he heard about this leadership test, he went out and gave a test to some of his distributors.

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He called me a year later and said:

'I took your advice last year and I gave my best distributors the leadership test. I gave them all a book. Here's what happened. All of my so-called potential leaders - flunked! I felt really bad and totally depressed.

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'Then, here is what I did next. I gave this same test to a bunch of second-stringers - you know, the people who didn't drive as nice a car, didn't have as many contacts, didn't have as big a vocabulary, didn't seem like the salesman - just ordinary distributors who weren't quite as good as my top people.

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'Again, some of those second-stringers failed. However, a few of these distributors passed the test, and I've spent the last year working with them. It's been the most productive year of my life!

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'I don't have to call these people to make sure they're coming to meetings. They call me to make sure I'm going to be there. We have the most positive people at our opportunity meetings - people who are motivated, people who are going places. It's been a fantastic year!

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'The reason I tell you this story is not because it has a happy ending. I tell this story because here is what will happen after you read this lesson. You'll give this leadership test to a lot of your best distributors and most of them are going to flunk. And then you'll say:

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'I know my brother-in-law would really, really make a great leader and the only reason he didn't read the book is . . .'

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>> And you'll start making up excuses for people who aren't ready to become a leader.

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Then, you'll start investing time with really nice people who didn't pass the leadership test - and won't become a leader. Bad for business.

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So be prepared for some disappointment. Don't take the results personally. You're only looking for distributors who pass the test and are willing toinvest action to back up their words.

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Let's move on. We've given our distributors the leadership testand now we've identified people who look like ordinary distributors, who act like ordinary distributors, but these are special people. These chosen few will now be trained to become leaders.

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>> Here's the $64,000 Question!

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Remember step #3 from the beginning of these lessons? Well, if you don't, let me review these three logical steps.

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Step #1: Define what a leader is.

We have three definitions. This step is easy.

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Step #2: How to find leaders.

We just covered this. Sure we can find leaders, but they'll be temporary leaders. The permanent way to build leaders is to train ordinary distributors (who pass the leadership test) to become leaders.

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Step #3: What to teach leaders.

Yes, this is the big question! What do leaders know that distributors don't know? Look at it this way. You've taught your new distributor to be a good distributor - and that means you've taught him:

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* All about the products.

* All about the company.

* How to be loyal.

* How to network.

* How to be positive.

* How to sponsor effectively.

* How to retail products.

* How to duplicate his efforts, etc.

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After teaching your distributor all these important skills, you now have a really well trained distributor - but you don't have a leader! So now you decide you're going to teach yourdistributor to become a leader.

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>> What are you going to teach him? Great question!

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But the answer is too long for this lesson.

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(Time flies by rather quickly when we're having fun learning to build leaders.)

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So, in the next lesson I'll start to cover this third step so you'll have a step-by-step formula for exactly what to teach your distributors so that they grow into leaders. I'll also give the exact examples and methods I use to teach these important skills.

Lesson #7 (What Do Leaders Know)

In the previous lessons we discussed where to find leaders and began investigate how to develop them. Now we're going to discuss the fun part - exactly what you must teach leaders.

Yes, this is the big question!

>>> What do leaders know that distributors don't know?

Look at it this way. You've taught your new distributor to be a good distributor - and that means you've taught him:

* All about the products.
* All about the company.
* How to be loyal.
* How to network.
* How to be positive.
* How to sponsor effectively.
* How to retail products.
* How to build a group.
* How to duplicate his efforts, etc.

After teaching your distributor all these important skills, you now have a really well-trained distributor - but you don't have a leader! So now you decide you're going to teach your distributor to become a leader.

>> What are you going to teach him?

Great question!

I'd like you to stop reading now and think about this question. Why? Because as busy networkers, we get so involved with building a business that we fail to stop, think, and plan exactly what we should be doing.

So here is your chance to plan. Take one minute now to think of exactly what you should be teaching your potential leader.

And remember it's not any of the things we just listed above.

If you're like most people I talk to, you didn't take much time to think of exactly what you should be teaching your potential leader.

Now, I'm not sadistic, but I love asking this question. I ask the question:

'Now that you've taught your distributor to be a good distributor, how to be positive, how to duplicate, etc., what are you going to teach him so that he learns to become a leader?'

>> And the answer is usually dead silence.

People just stare blankly into space or stare like a deer into an on coming automobile's headlights. This question paralyzes networkers because whenever think about how to really develop leaders.

Here is what many networkers do to attempt to build a distributor into a leader.

They teach their distributor to be positive.

That's nice, but all they create is a more positive distributor. Or, they move in with their distributor.

All their waking hours are spent teaching new skills to the distributor. They travel with the new distributor. They do presentations with the new distributor. They attend training seminars and regional conventions with the new distributor. That's nice.

The leaders bond and build a relationship with their new distributor. However, all they accomplish is developing a real friendly distributor. But it gets worse.

>> Do distributors waste your time?

Has this ever happened to you? Have you said to yourself,

'This distributor would make a great leader. I'm going to travel with him, help him become positive, and train him with everything I know.'

And what happens?

Most times it doesn't work out. All of ourtraining and effort is wasted. Our distributordoes not become a leader. Worse yet, he may evenquit our business.

And there you have it. Six months, a year, or even more of our time - wasted!

All of our time and effort -- and nothing to show for it. Not only did we waste our time, but we wasted our distributor's time too.

If all of this sounds familiar, you're ready forthe next lesson.

Lesson #8 (Be More Positive)

I bet you have been thinking about what to teach your potential leaders, haven't you?

>> Could we be teaching the wrong things? In order to know what to teach distributors to build them into leaders . . . we first must identify the true difference between leaders anddistributors.

What is the difference?
* Are leaders taller?
* More handsome or more beautiful?
* Live in better neighborhoods?
* Drive different types of cars?
* Memorize presentations more accurately?
* Have outgoing personalities only?
* Self-starters?
* More focused and driven?

>> Here is the real difference.

The only difference between leaders and distributors is how they think. In every situation or problem, a leader will think differently than a distributor.

Aha! So if we can train our distributor to think differently when problems, challenges, or situations arise . . . then we'll have a fully trained leader. Great!

How are we going to do this?
We will make a list of problems, challenges, and situations and write down:

1. How a distributor would think, and
2. How a leader would think.

Once we've completed our list, we'll start training our potential leader, the person who passed the leadership test from last issue.

When a problem, challenge, or situation arises, we'll take our potential leader aside and say:

'There are two ways to think about this - as a leader and as a distributor. Let me show you the difference.

Then we'll methodically explain the difference between the two ways of thinking. A potential leader can't learn what he doesn't know. We must give him the knowledge so he can learn this new type of thinking.

If we don't do this, your potential leader will never develop, will flounder aimlessly, and will attempt to learn and memorize all kinds of nice information that won't help him to become a leader. Your potential leader will become frustrated!

Here's what happened to me. Back in 1974, I'd been in the business a couple of years and desperately wanted to be a leader. A famous leader with our company came to town and said:

'I'm going to show all of you how to become leaders.
'Now, I'm excited. So there I'm sitting in the front row - well, actually I'm in the second row because I don't want to be called on or volunteered for anything.

The famous leader tells our group this:
'If you want to be a leader, be more positive.

I'm sitting there thinking:
'Could you be a little more specific? That doesn't help me at all. There's nothing tangible that I can grasp. I've been trained to be a good employee all my life. My teachers told me to get a good job. My employer says to work hard and I can get promoted to a better job. I think like an employee and you have to tell me exactly what to do.

'I left that meeting pretty frustrated. I didn'tget the knowledge and information I needed tochange. The worse part was that I didn't know whatto change in order to become a leader.

>> Do your potential leaders suffer the same frustration?

If they do, let's solve their frustration and teach them exactly how and what to think in every problem, challenge, or situation. The best way to show you how this works is to give you some practical, everyday examples thatyou can use right away. Let's get started.

Imagine that you sell a product. You go next door and sell some product to your neighbor. You come back home, order the product from the home office and . . . it's on backorder!

If this happened to you, what would you think? Would you think:

'This is terrible! I took my neighbor's money and didn't deliver his products. He is really going to be mad at me. And then he'll tell everyone in the neighborhood that I am dishonest. My reputation will be ruined. I'll never be able to show my face again. Everyone in the neighborhood is going to laugh at me. My company can't even keep the products in stock. That's a simple job. If the company can't even keep products in stock, well, they probably won't be able to pay bonus checks. They probably can't even hire and fire employees properly. In fact, I bet they don't even have employees - just a bunch of answering machines. The company is going to collapse. And Western civilization as we know it will collapse! This is terrible - I quit!'

>> Would you characterize this as leadership thinking or as distributor thinking?

It's obvious - this is distributor thinking and you would get distributor results because of this thinking. So just what would a leader think about this?

Lesson #9 (Everyone Has Problems)

Everyone has problems.

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Leaders and distributors face the same problems every day. Leaders don't become leaders because of a lack of problems. They become leaders because of how they think and handle problems.

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>> Leadership thinking.

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How would a leader think when confronted with the exact same backorder situation?

A leader might think:

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'Whoa, the product's back ordered. These products are so much in demand that even if my customers give me money, they still can't get the product. It's so exclusive and selling so well, the company can't keep the products in stock. My new customer is going to be so impressed, he'll probably order two or three times more product to make sure he can get some. That means two or three times more product volume for me, and two or three times the bonus check. Wow! I hope they bring on some more backorders - yes!

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'Would you characterize this as leadership thinking or as distributor thinking? It's obvious - this is leadership thinking and you would get leadership results because of this thinking.

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>> Here is what distributors don't know.

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It doesn't cost anything to change your thinking. Most distributors think:

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'Well, I'm stuck with one kind of thinking. There's no way that I can change it. This is the only way to look at situations.

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'This I can't change my thinking' view point comes from years of conditioning from parents, teachers, friends, and employers. But this viewpoint isn't true.

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Of course, we can all change our thinking - if we want to. But how do you convince your potentialleader that he can change his thinking?

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>> With a story.

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Stories are the best way to change people's thinking. They are easy to remember, and your potential leader can see himself in the story. He can identify with the story.

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To help your potential leader see that changing one's thinking is possible, try sharing a story similar to this:

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Imagine that you're driving along one day and a green Mustang automobile almost forces you off the road. The driver appears to be a young teenager and he is obviously speeding. How do you feel? What do you think about the driver?

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If your potential leader answers honestly, he'll say:

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'I don't like that teenager. He's reckless and I almost had an accident. Someone should report him to the police and have him arrested.

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'Later that day you get a call from the hospital. It's from your son. Your son says, 'Hi. Just wanted to let you know that the doctors said that I'm going to be okay. I fell off my bike and suffered a serious cut. I could have bled to death, but fortunately a teenager in a green Mustang was driving by. He picked me up and raced me to the hospital just in time.

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'Now, ask your potential leader this:

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'What do you think about that teenage driver now?

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'If your potential leader answers honestly, he'll say:

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'You're right. I did change my thinking, and it didn't cost me anything. The situation was the same. And you know what? I could have chosen to change my thinking about that teenage driver even if I didn't get that additional information. You're right. I can change my thinking any time I choose.

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'Now that your potential leader understands that he can change his thinking, you'll want to teach him this.

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Point out that there are two ways of thinking - leadership thinking and distributor thinking. If you think like a leader you'll get leader results and if you think like a distributor, you'll get distributor results.

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Then give your potential leader a big dose of personal responsibility. Tell him:

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'I'm not going to change your thinking. That's up to you. If you want distributor results, think like a distributor. If you want leadership results, think like a leader. It's strictly up to you which results you want. Pick the results you want in your life, and then you'll know which type of thinking to choose.

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'This is a big step -- but this is the only way you effectively build a leader. Because if you don't do this, you're going to spend a lifetime fixing all their problems, answering all their questions, holding their hands, and trying to re-motivatethem after every challenge.

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>> Okay, okay. So what exactly will I teach them?

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Let's make this concrete here.

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First, write down all the everyday problems you encounter in your business.

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Second, for each problem, write down what would represent leadership thinking and what would represent distributor thinking.

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And third, write down any appropriate stories that you could tell your potential leader to help him change his thinking from distributor thinking to leadership thinking.

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That's it. That's what you're going to have to teach them. Let's write down some common problems and how we'll teach our potential leader to change his thinking.