The 4 “Key” Ingredients To Your Success (written March, 2000)

Your success or failure in every MLM or mail order opportunity will depend on these 4 “Key” ingredients – consistency, patience, volume, and persistence. Your success does not depend on your upline, your downline, whether you have money, whether you are educated, whether you know what you are doing, whether whatever. Your success solely depends on these 4 “Key’ ingredients, for which you are the only supplier of. Do them with any endeavor in your life and you will be a success. Don’t do them and you will fail. You are in total control – whether you know it or not. It is that simple…..

The first “Key” ingredient you need to succeed is Consistency. A lot of you fail because you are not consistent about what you are doing. For example: Could you lose 10 pounds if you did not consistency watch what you eat? Could you get into top physical shape if you did not exercise consistently? Why do you think McDonalds advertises in newspapers and on TV every day to us?  We know who they are and where they are located – basically on every street corner in America. Obviously they must know that consistently being in front of our face reminds us that they exist. What does that mean to you? Well if you have an opportunity that is good, then how in the world are you going to get people involved if you are not consistently advertising it? This is a big reason most people fail in MLM. Little or no consistent advertising.

The second “Key” ingredient you need to succeed is to be Patient. Sorry to say, but nothing happens overnight. Rome was not built in one day. Your life as it stands today did not happen overnight. It takes months and years and decades to be successful. All of us who have succeeded had to start at the bottom and consistently promote and be patient with the results we achieved. I see way too many of you advertise once, and then sit back thinking you don’t have to do anything but collect checks. I wish that were the way. Unfortunately it isn’t and you have to be patient while you are being consistent. All too many of you are not giving yourself and the program you are involved with a chance because of a lack of patience. How much patience should you have? I believe that depends on many factors, but I will say for a minimum of one year.  If you join a program right now and are going to consistently promote it, then you better be willing to invest at least a year to see if it is going to work for you or not.

The third “Key” ingredient you need to succeed is to get Volume. No matter what, you need to reach as many of the right people as you can in order to succeed. Take my McDonalds example above. Every day of the week, we see their ads. Why? Because not only do they need to be consistent, they also realize that reaching as many of us who might eat their burgers, fries and shakes is essential to creating more an dmore sales. Take me for example. I started mailing 1,000 pieces per month many years ago. I am not mailing more than 1.5 million pieces a year! It took me decades to reach this amount. I had to work my way up, by being consistent and by being patient and by gradually investing more effort and more money into my mailings to get them to the level they are at now. If you have a limited budget or a very limited budget, then start small and work your way up, but always keep in mind that your goal is to get your message out in front of as many of the right people as possible. Not getting your message out and not being patient enough are “killers” when it comes to your success.

The fourth “Key” ingredient you need to succeed is to be Persistent. Hey it is easy for me to say to be consistent, be patient, and to get volume – that is easy to say, but when things are not going your way, when your advertising dollars seem to be failing, when your personal life is in a rut, when your health is taking a turn for the worse, when your financial situation becomes tenuous, yes it is easy to say these things, but that is where persistence plays a key role in your success. Persistence is what separate the winners from the losers. From getting what you want in life or settling for what you get in life. If owning your own business and being independent and self sufficient is your true goal, then nothing, and I mean nothing, can stop you from succeeding if you are persistent. We all have good days and we all have bad days. If you allow the bad days to take over and control you, you won’t succeed. I see way to many of you join into a program, give it a little time, invest some money and work toward getting volume and then when results aren’t satisfactory – you quit.  Well when you quit, you just lost every dime you invested in that program. When you quit, you just lost every ounce of patience you had and the volume you were working toward is gone – kaput!  You must start over. Is that what you want? Is that what you are trying to achieve? Always starting over? Instead of quitting, figure out another method of promotion that might work. Be persistent until you have found a method that does work. That way everything you invested into a program does not go to waste. Let me give you a quick personal story. I joined Money Makers Monthly in 1988. I had no help from my upline.  I had no clue what I was doing. All the “heavy hitters” I spoke to advised me MMM was garbage. To boot, for the first 18 months I was involved, I sponsored one person. Just one!!  Would you have quit if you were me? 99.9% of you would have – that is for sure. Many years later – a few million dollars in commissions later – I am proud of myself and I am proud to say I didn’t quit.  Persistence does pay off!

All four of these key ingredients added up is called Commitment. I see way too many of you try this and try that and invest in this and invest in that, “hoping” something clicks. Have you ever noticed nothing clicks? Do you know why? Without these 4 ingredients that add up to commitment, you will fail at everything you ever try – every time – and that my friend is a shame – because I have been very fortunate enough to talk to so many of you on the telephone and I know many of you deserve to achieve success. So I urge you to give yourselves a chance. Why? So many years from now when I am dead and buried, you can pass these words of advice on to newcomers like I have done. God Bless.

The author of this article is Larry Costello, President of All-American Print & Mail, 2200 Wilson Blvd #102-57, Arlington, VA 22201.