The Dark Side of Network Marketing

The Dark Side of Network Marketing – A Letter to a Downline Raider

Twenty years in the corporate world taught me this: To get ahead I had to step on others. The focus had to be me, to love money and use people. Half truths, empty promises and sometimes even outright lies made the “climb” to the top so much more expeditious.

When I entered the Network Marketing arena, I brought that philosophy along with me, and was assured my skills and beliefs would bring success in this business also.

As life began to pass by and the number of “real friends” I had could be counted on one hand, I came to the realization that perhaps this was the reason it was “lonely at the top”.

In my heart I believe that Network Marketing is a business based on working with others to guide them in achieving their goals. Jim Rohn calls it “adding value to the marketplace”. Help others get what they want and you get what you want and beyond. Servant Leadership is another way to express this model of business.

The challenge is that our incredible profession is filled with far too many people who believe the only way to success is by the “Love Money Use People” philosophy and you my friend are leading the way to perpetuating this falsehood.

When will you realize that “Loving People and Using Money” is a much better way? When will you realize that by taking a feather out of my hat and placing it in yours, is not a mark of honor and accomplishment, rather it is a Badge of Shame!

When will you realize that the tearing down of another does not elevate you higher? When will you realize that building a business on hype and fear of loss is like building your home on a foundation of sand? Do you not realize the responsibility you have to those who blindly follow you?

When will you realize that there are more than enough people in this world to create success for you and your family and realize that by “stealing” people from another is not necessary? When will you realize your actions leave another without income for home and health? That you are taking far more than a person, you may be taking the very money that keeps a roof over someone’s head or perhaps buys medicine to keep a child alive!

When will you realize that your actions feed the very negativity that shrouds our profession? When will you realize that your actions cast us into the same pit of darkness as the Enron’s of the world?

Is your heart truly so shallow? What is it that has blocked the light of the truth from your eyes? Are the words you have spoken in the past so empty? Were the promises and commitments only lies to further your own agenda? What is the beast within you that requires you to feed on others?

Do you not understand that you have the power within you to bring about positive change?

My lost friend, my heart is full of sorrow for you. My prayers go out for you. My faith gives me the courage to go on, to persevere, and maintain my belief that loving people and using money is the only way to live a truly fulfilled life.

Whatever life brings my way, abundance or lack thereof, my heart values of Honor, Integrity, God, Family and Service to others will guide me and lead me on the right path.

And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, "Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain." So God granted him what he requested. I Chronicles 4:10 NKJV