Dream Accomplished

It’s not easy believing in a dream you’ve been chasing for 5 or 10 years. So I asked myself: should I continue to believe in this one or dream a new one? I’ve been in direct sales since 1998. My career began as a fun and easy way to make extra money. As a single mother of two, I needed something flexible and I discovered multi level marketing.

In the beginning I just wanted to have fun and make money. Getting to the top didn’t seem possible. I didn’t have a husband to pay the bills or parent my children so I could chase a dream. However, the longer I stayed in, the more attractive it became to build a team and help others make money.

The goal would be to land at the top of a six figure income. At the time I was forty and earning forty thousand a year at my day job and an extra ten thousand with my business. Great, right? Wrong. I was a poor money manager who wanted her children to have everything — the latest toy or gadget, private school, sports, I mean I had to compensate for no dad!

So here I am, twenty years later, no closer to the top — actually closer to the bottom. You see, I moved down several states from New England to my dream state of Florida. I’m a Disney fanatic — or I was.

In the two years since I moved here, I’ve received a lukewarm response to my products. I was beginning to think I was finished. However, the fire still burns within. I’ve been a temp, a travel agent, a Disney cast member (promoted to guest; now I’m over Disney) and a shopper in the last two years. Why? I’m unemployable. I hate having a boss, doing what I’m told, sitting in a cubicle, sharing office space, or having a weird boss. In addition, I refuse to work for less than I deserve; entrepreneurial dreams are what I’m made for.

My dad was a dreamer; if he couldn’t find a business he’d invent one. My dad had a hamburger franchise and he hauled bricks; he didn’t like the whole work-to-make-someone-else-rich model.

Don’t get me wrong, I have great respect for the working class; my mother worked in nursing at the same hospital for thirty five years. My sister had been a civil servant for thirty. Both owned their own homes. I never have, I’m a serial renter.

Just as I’m questioning this whole dream thing, my favorite televangelist comes on and asks: do you want it bad enough? With tears in my eyes I knew I had my answer. It’s not impossible, I’m not too old, there’s nothing wrong with the product, I just have to step up and do whatever it takes to make it happen.

This is why I’m writing this story. I’d like you to accompany me on my journey. My BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) is to be at the top level of leadership with my direct sales company and sharing my story at our national conference next summer.

I asked the universe and I have my answer. Come with me on this incredible journey to Regional Vice President.

Getting my mind right... I live with my sister. She made the transition to Florida first as she was able to transfer within the company she works for. To keep my second son from being a burden to his older brother, I later invited him down. Yes, Peter Pan, as my sister calls him, is now imposing himself on the two of us. My challenge is to drown out my sister's complaints from her detailed list of woes from work to her total impatience with Peter (not his name). Secondly, I have to distance my brain from a child that won’t grow up as he finds his own way. How? I hide in my room and work a meaningless job that pays my bills and my business expenses.

Goal setting is important. As you can see, I live to write; my short and long term goals must be in writing. If I don’t tell the universe exactly what I want, then I get what I don’t want. I read everything I can on this topic — Jack Canfield, Tony Robinson, Zig Ziglar and Mary Kay, just to name a few. There’s more, lots more, included the direct sales gurus who’ve been there, done that and are not willing to sell their success secrets. No thanks, not that I’m an expert, but I have almost twenty years of almost there. I watch your free webinar, compare it to what I know, and then I’m in the right track. Florida derailed me some, but a setback is a set up for a comeback. Thank you for that, Les Brown.