Apricots? Riddle: a Point for Networkers

Apricots? Riddle: a Point for Networkers 

RIDDLE

Mary loved her friend Joan’s apricot jam and was thrilled when Joan gave her the recipe.

Bought 4 pounds of apricots, prepped them and put them in a pan.

Mixture started heating and she double checked Joan’s directions to make sure she had the time right.

Ut-oh.  She forgot to put in the lemon juice.  She was supposed to put in 1/2 ounce for each 8 apricots.

Her jam came out perfect.

How did she know how exactly much lemon juice to add?

Eighteen years blessings in network marketing.  The thrill of new people getting checks never diminishes.  The ecstasy of people developing their skills beyond ours and helping others is stunning.  Not a surprise, I expect it.

Well resourced people shifting to owning their life instead making a living or a single broke working Mom coming home full time has a more profound effect on me now than it did 10, 15 years ago.  I cry.  Not a surprise to see people succeed…..I expect it.

The crying?  Not a surprise for my wife anymore. 🙂

Sharp people with need failing…..people quitting just as they are getting it…..people we like choosing to fail, [it’s always a choice], before they begin…..un-supportive spouses blowing a rising star out of the equation…..sad…..but no surprise.

There is one thing that continues to surprise me. To this day I get just as upset as I did 10 years ago.

Only it happens a little bit more now.  Internet.  More folks have computers, con men love that.

Common sense. Where the hell does it go? When we join the network marketing industry, what the hell happens to our common sense?

I guess Mark Twain was right when he said,  “Common sense isn’t so common.”

I am sure it was the same for me in 1994.  I had joined on September 17th, 1993 and was experiencing some success and started to get a taste…..

Started looking for ‘short-cuts’ …..had a computer. Ut-oh.

My sponsor Steve Seigh [RIP pal], said he thought he could convince the committee on Long Island to let me be the speaker at a Saturday Seminar.  Steve and I had known each other for years.  I was making $4500 a month and rising but they usually wanted 10,000 buck a month earners speaking.  …..wanted ‘BIG HITTERS’……only.

Steve is good friends with Frank Keefer and asks Frank to endorse me.  Frank was making about 25,000 a month and on his way to $70,000 a month.

He had clout.  Makes the call.  I do my first Saturday Seminar.

We all go out to dinner later.  Frank pulls me aside, said, “you’re the best I have ever seen and I have seen them all.”   I feel flattered but don’t really believe him.  Figured he was just being nice.

I start back to the table.  Frank grabs my arm and says he’s not kidding and says ‘the best’ about 4 times and starts blubbering a little.

Next morning we go to Steve’s house before we head back to Boston, Frank stayed at Steve’s with his lovely and lovely heart-ed wife Gingie.

Frank wants to take a walk, tells me the sky is the limit.  Asks me my game plan for the next 6 months.

Tell him about some things I found online and things about the internet.  Frank hits the brakes on our walk.

“Why would someone who knows how to generate leads share the method with other people?”

“They want to help?”  I ask.

“If you were in their down-line would you be happy about being in completion with other lines.?”

I don’t say a word.

“And would you be loving an up-line that just put you in competition with every company on the planet, giving everyone this edge?”

Still silent.

“Look,” Frank says peering dead into my eyes, ” these %#*#-ing bottom feeders will have you promoting their crap and selling you one thing after another.  They are con artists.”

“All of them?” Weakly.

“It’s common sense.  If you found something that would explode your organization would you help them, give it to them or sell it to others.”

Common sense.

“Our industry, the successes in our industry, freely give away what was given to them.  You said it yesterday.  The thing about service being the only way one can ever activate the real gifts the creator gave us.”

We walked in silence for a while.

Back to the house.  Another cup of coffee.  Say good-byes and leave.

Get to my car and there’s a book on the windshield.  “The Greatest Networker in The World” by John Milton Fogg.

Frank wrote a nice note inside, claiming I was the guy in the book, that I was the Greatest Networker in the World.

Read it every year.  Changed my life.

Fogg’s style is simple but profound about the mindset.   More interesting is he is giving it away these days.

Why don’t these gurus [Frank’s bottom feeders] let you see behind the curtain?  Fogg does.

Keefer is still giving away the book and now Fogg is too. Franks been earning over 63,000 a month for 10 years….

I don’t feel like getting on the bully pulpit today with my keyboard but have you ever noticed gurus never tell you who they are building with?   The cock-and-bull stuff about ‘remaining neutral’ does not float.   Oh, yeah, the ‘show’ deposits with screen shots…..but where did they make it?  Sure they are making lots of dough peddling ‘how to’ courses, in which they reveal their ‘secrets’…..but where’s the beef?  As good friend and $20,000 a month earner for 10+ years Gary Rogers like to say, “the proof is in the printout.”  Gary’s not as colorful as Frank

Give me money and I will sell [my word for tell & sell] you a secret that will help you BUILD HUGE …….but I won’t tell you where or who I did it with …..only works when we misplace our common sense.

RIDDLE

Mary loved her friend Joan’s apricot jam and was thrilled when Joan gave her the recipe.

Bought 4 pounds of apricots, prepped them and put them in a pan.

Mixture started heating and she double checked Joan’s directions to make sure she had the time right.

Ut-oh.  She forgot to put in the lemon juice.  She was supposed to put in 1/2 ounce for each 8 apricots.

Her jam came out perfect.

How did she know how exactly much lemon juice to add?

She simply counted the pits.  Common sense.

believe

mark januszewski

world’s laziest networker