by Eric Worre
For many people, taking responsibility is a foreign concept. When things aren't going the way they'd like them to go, their natural tendency is to BLAME.
Facing personal shortcomings is against most people's nature. We've been conditioned to believe that someone owes us something. But if you insist on holding onto that mindset, you'll NEVER become a Professional. The sooner you get over it and learn to take responsibility, the sooner you'll get the success you deserve.
Lessons from my personal experience:
I had 18 jobs before I was 22 years old. Now, what do you think was a common denominator in every one of those 18 jobs? It was ME. One way to look at it was that I had a virus in my mental software. Several of them actually.
Virus #1 - I was a Professional Blamer
Nothing was ever MY fault. It was the company. It was the product. It was the training. It was my upline who never did anything for me. It was my stupid downline who never sold anything. It was the economy. It was my upbringing. It was my age. It was any number of things.
One of the lessons I eventually learned was, as soon as you go down the blame road, you take yourself out of power and give your life over to things you cannot control. In my blame mentality, I could ONLY succeed if the company product, training, upline, downline, economy, upbringing and age were in perfect harmony with my goals. If they weren't, I felt completely justified in not succeeding.
Once I turned that around and began to take responsibility not just for what happened to me but for how I responded to what happened to me, then I was FINALLY able to take control of my life and begin to turn things around. It wasn't easy. Bad habits like that are hard to break. But a good way for you to remind yourself is to look at the areas of your life that are having trouble. These are usually the areas where you blame the most.
Virus #2 - I would rather get away with things than earn them
The problem with that philosophy is you have to hope to get lucky for the rest of your life. You better be in the right place at the right time forever.
The Network Marketing industry feeds on this "get lucky" philosophy. I can't tell you how many people join, cross their fingers, and hope to hit it big. Very few join with the hope of becoming a Professional and actually earning what they can in this industry. But in the end, that's the only real way of getting there.
One of the greatest benefits of being a Professional in this industry is that it won't limit how valuable you can become and, because of that value, how much money you can earn. Different from other industries, you won't see a cap placed on your income. Companies will always come up with ways for you to make more if you bring more value.
Once I decided I would rather EARN something than get away with it, everything began to change for me. If you adopt that mindset, things can quickly begin to change for you as well.
Virus #3 - Desire for results before work
I'm not exactly sure when this virus started but it was with me for a long time. "Pay me and I'll work harder", "Give me a promotion and I'll get a better attitude".
In the MARKETPLACE, to get ahead, you have to do MORE than you get paid for and, this is important, you have to do it for quite a while before you can even begin to expect results.
In order to move ahead, you have to get past the feeling that someone is taking advantage of your hard work and move on to the mentality that those extra things you do are an investment in YOUR development.
Think of it as an investment in yourself. Even if no one notices, you'll still be increasing your value in the marketplace.
If you do more, you'll become more.
If you become more, you can earn more.
Success as a Professional in Network Marketing is hard, but it's worth it. You're going to have to do more than you get paid for, especially in the early years, in order to achieve big levels of success.
In the beginning, you'll have to put in more time for less money. But as your career develops, you can get to the point where you can put in less time and make much more money.
Here's the thing... All of us have some form of virus in our mental software. It may be the "Blame Virus"... the "Get Lucky Virus"... or the "Pay Me First Virus" like I had. Or it could be some I didn't have like the "Avoid All Risks Virus" or the deadly "I'm Too Cool Virus". There are lots of them out there.
What liberated me from a lifetime of frustration was to identify some of the big things that were holding me back and then to go to work on changing my thinking about them. It sounds easy to say "From now on I'm going to take responsibility. I'm going to earn everything I get and I'm going to work long and hard before I even start to look for results". The reality is, it isn't easy. I had many setbacks along the way, but the important thing is, I did it and so can you.
I'm talking about adopting a winner's mindset... a Professional mindset. YOU'RE in charge of your life. No one else is responsible for your success or failure. That's completely up to you. And, as the person in charge, you need to evaluate the things that have held you back up until today and then go to work to change them.
Be a Professional.
Your friend,
Eric Worre
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