For a couple days now I've been mulling over thoughts which have now manifested as this post. Having just received an e-mail asking me if I'm a Sheeple, my immediate thought was "anything but"! Counting my blessings as I do routinely, I found them to be a varied myriad! Now back to this e-mail, of course, selling a service, it was coaxing the reader to make an independent choice instead of just following the "Gurus" and doing what they tell you to do.In my tally of my blessings I was remembering all the people I have been associated with since embarking on my Internet marketing career 12 years ago. They too, are varied but not as many as my blessings. My first sponsor in an online "opportunity" was as much a newbie as myself and had either of us known that at the time, we would not have spent 3 hours on an initial phone call nor would we have lost our shirts over a period of 3 years.
I then decided that I would take to the streets. Literally!! So I began a fax advertising business, took time off from my day job in the afternoons to visit local food establishments on foot in my local downtown area selling ads on my daily "What's for lunch" fax to corporations in the towers surrounding them. Youth, with all it's impatience and lack of experience saw that endeavour end too quickly.
Back to the Internet. In my years living in Spain I believed I had finally manifested the idyllic life in which to pursue my dream of being able to work when I want, where I want, with a business operating on autopilot in the background of my life, only needing me to pop in on my laptop every now and then. Note: I did say "pursue". I was not there yet.
Several alliances, online conferences and mlm programs, later, it became apparent that no two marketers are the same just as no two people are the same. Each situation had elements which just didn't appeal or sit right with me. I made many "friends" and spent hours in those conference rooms, mostly out of loyalty, but not really making any progress back then, or so I thought.
Those "friends" usually fall by the wayside as soon as you become an individual, thinking for yourself, and hesitating to follow them into the next matrix. One said "so and so is a friend of mine, but he and so and so are just out for number one, so I think I'll sit this one out". Another said, "I really want to help people but if they're not gonna do what I tell them, then I'm not gonna bother with them". The third one said "I've helped so and so learn this and that and now they're out there trying to create a business like mine, I'm not helping them anymore". Well as my friend, an engineer told me last year, that's just business. His wife has three bars. Her best manager just quit to open a bar next door and try to take customers with her. She was understandably upset, but her husband related that when he had his own business with multiple crews, "You'd just get one trained properly and they would quit to start up their own business. That's just business". Well, thank God I can think for myself and have learned to trust my thought process as I ponder each move in the huge learning curve that is my life.
I found that I do need to connect and bond with my associates because I am a people person and an empath, so I care. However, I have learned that I do need to discern when someone truly needs my ear as opposed to one who is an energy and time drain, waffling on for attention. I can now walk away, usually at an opportune moment, leaving the relationship intact and conserving my energy. MLM works! It's not a bad word, but it is necessary to pick a good program, market it properly, continuously, manage your time and energy wisely.
The "Gurus" and online "friends" along the way, mostly by process of elimination, have led me to find what works for me and as such I have come to a place where I pick and choose what to endorse. Each program, course, and opportunity has taught me something valuable which ads to the sum total of who I am this moment. In the next moment I will be more. I am grateful for each lesson as I celebrate each growth spurt.
I cannot be bottled and sold. I cannot be owned. I belong to the universe. I am in the universe and the universe is in me. It is fluid and there is no containing the energy that forms worlds. I AM VivBounty, a brand associated with inspiration, growth, quality, hard work, integrity and love proceeding toward abundance in all it's forms.
Prosperous Blessings,
VivBounty
