There are numerous reasons why you shouldn’t join a network marketing home based business or an MLM.

1. You’re expecting instant riches.

Network marketing infrastructure provides you with leveraged income, but it’s not magic. It takes time to build.

It will build exponentially, and that means in the early part of the curve, it will seem like nothing’s happening.

It takes time and patience, like planting a garden.

2. You’re expecting friends and family to be enough of a market.

Old-school MLMs would tell you to list all your friends and family and then call them to pitch them on your business under the guise of catching up on old times.

This is a great way to Lose Friends and Alienate People.

The truth is, not everyone NEEDS your product or business, and of those who DO need it, not everyone of them WANTS it.

You’re going to have to reach beyond your existing friends and family.

The good thing is, a good mentor will show you how. And as a bonus, you’ll actually find new family and make more friends in this business.

But you cannot compel your existing friends and family to form your network. It has to happen naturally.

3. You plan to “share” and not SELL.

Another lie of network marketing is that you’re not really SELLING, you’re just “sharing.”

Well, you’re sharing TO sell.

Once money is exchanged, IT’S A SALE.

Try and hide this fact and you’ll come across as fake.

And no one wants a fake friend, much less a fake business associate.

4. You plan to “sell” and not SHARE.

On the other hand, network marketing is more about your NETWORK and less about your MARKETING.

If you approach this business with a “features and benefits” model, you’ll be mystified as to why people keep avoiding and rejecting you.

The hard sell may make you a few sales, but it will limit the growth of your network, and the growth of your network is what network marketing is all about.

5. You think MLM will make you a success.

If you’re not already a success on the inside, the external trappings of a glamorous MLM will not magically make you a success.

6. You think network marketing will make you happy.

If you’ve not learned to be a happy person, networking marketing will not suddenly make you happy.

(Actually, it will probably make you more miserable.)

7. You plan on making money ONLY by recruiting.

Unless products or services have changed hands, you’re running a Ponzi scheme (more on this below).

8. You think you know what MLM is.

If you’re not in an MLM yet you “know all about MLMs,” then you have what is known as conceptual knowledge but not experiential knowledge.

It’s like reading up about Paris, versus visiting Paris, versus being a Parisian.

9. You have a problem with pyramids.

Everything in nature self-organises into pyramids.

Shovel a pile of sand into a heap, it’ll form a pyramid.

Same for a pile of bricks.

Same for a group of friends. Same for a fan club, a secret society, a large corporation, a national economy.

If you have an allergy to pyramids, network marketing is not for you.

10. You don’t know the difference between a pyramid and a Ponzi.

A “pyramid scheme” is a Ponzi scheme, where people in the MIDDLE of the pyramid pay money to the people at the TOP of the pyramid for the “privilege” of making money from the people at the BOTTOM of the pyramid. This is done through “gifting schemes” or chain letters or the selling of certificates backed by nothing of actual value.

A pyramid by itself is not a Ponzi.

All distribution models are pyramids, such as the Master Distributor–Regional Distributors–Resellers–Retailers model. Same as the Prime Minister–Cabinet–Parliament–Civil Service model. Same as the CEO–Executive Suite–Management–Labour model. Same as the Pastor–Council–Lay Ministers–Congregation model. Pyramids are part of nature.

11. You are wanting to run a Ponzi.

If you are actually wanting to run a Ponzi, you don’t belong in network marketing, you belong in jail. (Which incidentally is yet another pyramid.)

12. You are allergic to personal development.

Network marketing companies typically will have a programme of self-betterment. This is typical of any successful organisation, actually. In “Good to Great” and “Built to Last,” the authors point out how successful large corporations like Microsoft and GM have a cult-like culture. It’s obvious when you look at companies like Apple, Facebook, Nike, etc.

In a network marketing company, everyone’s a commission-based marketer. You don’t produce, you don’t get paid. It’s way different than a paper-shuffling, pen-pushing job where you can fly under the radar and collect a paycheque.

That’s one reason MLMs are big on personal development.

No person, no network, no marketing. No personal development, no person of significance. That’s why MLMs focus heavily on personal development. Have you seen any successful sales and marketing organisation that DOESN’T focus on personal development?

The good news is, if you succeed in this environment, you know your success is real. Coasting doesn’t work here. 97% of network marketers don’t make a full-time income from network marketing.

This 97% provides an endless supply of detractors of network marketing home based businesses and MLMs.

I don’t blame them, mostly. They were mostly sold an unrealistic picture of easy riches.

Network marketing is simply but not easy.

13. You’ve tried it once and “it doesn’t work.”

97% don’t make a full-time income from network marketing. But it doesn’t mean that people don’t grow in their business. As more people “make it,” even more newbies join up, keeping the 97% ratio, although the absolute number of fulltimers increases.

It’s the Pareto principle at work.

Those lower on the pyramid make less than those higher up. Same as in professional sports, academia, the police, the department of motor vehicles, real estate agencies, law firms; you get the idea.

No matter what the job, few people make it big on their first go. It takes effort and trying again and again.

Especially since most of us spent ten years of schooling on employee skills and zero years on entrepreneur skills.

14. “Going to the office” is essential to you.

Some people crave the routine and predictability of a “respectable job” and they’re willing to put up with the idiosyncrasies of office life.

If “going to the office” is crucial to your sense of self, network marketing is not for you.

15. Being “socially acceptable” is more important than fulfilling your dreams.

When you join an MLM, most people will look at you sideways.

It’s a relatively new model (although decades old by now). It’s on the cusp of becoming a “respectable” business model, but it’s not yet embraced by society as a whole. Maybe in the next generation.

In the meantime, you’ll be considered a bit strange and odd and an outlier at best.

If this bothers you too much, a network marketing home based business isn’t for you.

16. If you want to be a manufacturer.

A network marketing business is a MARKETING business.

Some protest, “But you don’t OWN the products!”

Yes. Walmart doesn’t own or manufacture almost all of the products it sells. They’re not a manufacturing business. They’re a marketing business.

If you want to be a manufacturer, by all means, be a manufacturer.

17. You’re a sheep.

If you’re too easily influenced and susceptible to exploitation, the high-energy environment of an MLM may take you where you do not want to go.

But then, so will any high-pressure company, job, club, church, family or nation.

I recommend doing some serious inner work first of all.

18. You’re a wolf.

If you’re looking to prey on sheep, an MLM is a good place to find them.

However, in a good network, the “sheepdogs” and “shepherds” will identify you and separate you from the flock, so you will have to keep repeating this unethical strategy with decreasing success until you’re old, broke and alone.

19. You’re sociopathic.

Network marketing is all about the NETWORK first, and the network is made of people and relationships.

Thus, long-term success in an MLM requires being an authentic, caring and powerful human being.

People who are sociopathic will not last long or rise high in network marketing.

You’ve got to be real, care about people and care enough to lead them along their personal growth.

Then network marketing home based business is the thing for you.

But wait, there’s more…

I’m sure I could go on with more reasons why you shouldn’t join a network marketing, affiliate marketing or MLM home-based business.

But I think you get the idea by now.

If none of the reasons above apply to you, then MAYBE, just maybe, network marketing, the “new normal marketing,” is for you.