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I have been feeling very great since my trial run for POeT keke has come to fruition; Azeez – one of the benefactors of my tricycle leasing has completed his payment in a record time of 11 months. My mind raced back to the idea phase of this gargantuan project when I told my multitude of counselors that I was going to Ajegunle City (one of notorious slums in Lagos) to invest in tricycles to empower secondary school youths who do not have means to further their education .

 

 

However, there were resistances from my experienced counselors about going the amortization route especially in Ajegunle but this day; this hour, has proven them wrong. I am happy they were wrong because I have a bulk of my monies invested in the project; I went with my gut and heart and reaped 61% of my initial capital in eleven months. I doubt if any legitimate mainstream investment like stocks and fixed deposits could have given me such controlled returns.

 

 

The beauty of this is not just the returns but the ability to make someone’s life better; to give someone a crutch to fulfill his/her dream. Azeez is now a proud owner of a tricycle and he has the choice to further his education if he chooses to; having the confidence that he has a cash cow to depend on. It’s not just about Azeez but his family who were deep in poverty can now have hope for a brighter tomorrow.

 

 

This is very important for me because I realize that I enjoy empowering people while trying to succeed. It’s tough to hold someone’s hand while climbing the mountain but it sure gives you a deep seated joy to know that someone got to the summit of the mountain because of your help. You will also realize that the more people you bring the summit, the more stable you are at the summit of the mountain. This is the concept behind Multi-Level Marketing (MLM).

 

 

For more than one year, I have not engaged in any online MLM despite pressure from friends and readers of this blog. I have actually lost so many readers and friends due to this singular decision. After the demise of Diamond Cash Club and the pain associated with this online MLM, I had to put on the brakes on this course of action. It is not enough to warn people about the dangers associated with such scheme but to completely pull off hence not confirming the old age truth that; “it is not the words but the action that effectively communicates”.

 

 

There are however some critics about MLM which include the first people to get in are the ones that reap all the fruits or the guys at the top of the scheme always reap all the rewards. This may be true for any capitalist system as you can see in the picture above but for MLM, you reap the fruits based on pure performance. Your qualification does not matter, your experience does not matter, and your age in the company does not matter; only your performance matters.

 

 

There were also some other issues associated with MLM which invariable boils down to lack of training and awareness but on hindsight, I realize something that actually shocked me after six years in corporate marketing, eight years in business, more than three hundred marketing books and journals read, first class training and bagging a distinction in my MBA Marketing program that MLM is the most efficient and empowering way of distributing products.

 

 

It was recorded that when Jesus Christ was to distribute five loaves of bread and two fishes to five thousand people, Jesus used MLM to get it done: He made them to sit in ranks by fifty and hundreds and broke the products for his disciples to share amongst them (Mark 6: 38-42). I do this all the time when I want to sink any product I am consulted to sell; I call entrepreneurial guys up from various prestigious companies and give them a discount to sell my product.

 

 

This has worked 100% with minimal cost associated with distributing products; no promotional cost, no rent, minimal staff cost and minimal administrative cost. Anybody who is experienced in selling products knows how these costs can eat deep into your bottom-line. The best thing about selling this way is the peace of mind associated with it. MLM empowers people to be economical sufficient just like Azeez.

 

 

This then brings us to the true concept of MLM. MLM has been abused just like anything in life can easily be abused; it is unfortunate that most people got bitten by the abuse of MLM and do not trust anything that links them to MLM. I will however use this forum to identify good MLM practice versus bad MLM so you can know if an MLM program will last and thus beneficial:

 

 

1. MLM should be focused more on distribution of products rather than hiring people; more commissions and discounts should be given to sales of product compared to the people you hire. Hiring of people would definitely peak just like the Maturity stage of the product life cycle of any company. This is what happens when we get boards that are stuck in online MLMs; when boards are stuck, this does not mean the end of the company, it means the company needs to re-emerge.
2. The products that are distributed through MLM should be products you can find anywhere outside the network and anybody can easily buy not just an abstract product you may never be able to use. This means people can buy the product without actually joining the network.
3. Since hiring people is part of the game, training must be emphasized fully. The whole concept of hiring people is to make them leaders. This is why people must go through the process not just buying positions to get to an ultimate prize.
4. The intention of the company offering the MLM must be reviewed; if there is a get rich quick perspective to it, it won’t last because nobody in this world can get rich quickly except through inheritance or through gambling. Watch out for companies that want to make money in the short run and sell the company to investors.
5. Please, find out how the companies got started; if someone bought the company over, please, don’t bother joining. The company was not a dream but a vehicle for quick bucks.
6. The location of the company matters a lot; they mostly have representatives, please, check them out and see if you can trust them.
7. The promise of huge amount of money for minimal effort – always remember that the people running the MLM company are there to make money for themselves; just note there is something wrong with them giving you such monies.

 

 

On a final note, I read somewhere that to be wealthy in life; you either own it or sell it which means you either own a business or you are selling for a business. If you are not doing any of these things it would be hard for you to be very wealthy and your freedom is in question. Since most people find it difficult to own business, I will advise you to learn to sell because there is no company in this world that does not sell. The 7 pointers above may not be exhaustive but they sure help you in making the right decision to joining an MLM program if you wish to.