The tortoise or the hare?

I received the following message from Rod Larkin regarding building something worthwhile. I believe that being consistent is as important as anything for becoming successful. Rod builds a great case and explains it with great clarity.

Gary Burke

Hi,

 

Doing a bit of coaching support with a business builder on our team and felt this part of the message would be to the benefit of all.

 

Here is a question to consider once you read this--  Would you rather be the tortoise or the hare?

 

Rod

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Thanks for the update on your business activities and sharing your thoughts. Keep doing what you are doing and you are going to be very successful in Shaklee.

 

What this business rewards the most is consistency.  Gary Burke has always referred to himself as the plodder-- just being consistent.  Gary and Faye will be the first to tell you they never grew fast, but they grew in increments every year, year after year, because they stayed consistent every week, every month, and every year with their business activity.  They never pushed their business on the back burner for weeks or months at a time.  As  result over time, Gary & Faye have one of the top 16 largest Shaklee businesses in North America-- just by plodding along.  People like Gary are the tortoise-- just keep plodding along, andalways moving forward.

 

A lot of people in this business will do short bursts of effort for a few weeks, maybe even a few months, and then back off for some reason, lose their focus, get distracted, etc... and what momentum they had going all disappears and they are back to square one. At some point, they do another burst, back off, back to square one-- and I've watched many people repeat this cycle year after year wondering why the business isn't working for them, and why they can't seem to get ahead.  Short burst people are the hare-- they go at a frenzied pace for a short time, sponsor some people, their volume increases some, but then something causes them to run out of steam, enthusiasm, excitement, they lose their focus on business building activiites, and theystop moving forward.

 

As we all know the story well, we know who finishes and wins the race-- the tortoise.  I think we can all agree there is much greater value and wisdom in choosing to be the tortoise in this business.  Fast can be fun and exciting, but is almost always short-lived.

 

There is no traditional form of business, no profession, or no occupation I know of that allows or permits this type of up and down, on and off again activity with out the risk of losing the job, the business or the profession-- other than a home-based network marketing business.  In this business, people can do exactly what I just described-- work it , don't work it, work it don't work it, and of course--- the results end up being the judge of productivity in the end.

 

Here is the difference with our business--- when a person works at it and builds it strong and solid for a period of a few years part-time--- THEN you can take some time away, some time off, and the checks keep coming-- just like Linda Flack Coral who was our guest speaker in last week's webinar.  Her story is a great example of this.

 

Ask anyone-- if you had to take 6 months, or even a year off from what you do to earn money-- would you still continue to receive all of your income every month?  VERY few people could say yes to this question.  But-- a person who has built a strong,solid, and successful Shaklee business can absolutely answer yes to this question.  As Gary Burke often like to ask people this question when he is prospecting for a new business partner-- How would you like to build something that will continue to pay you even if you are not there to do the work?

 

From the movie Field of Dreams-- "If you build it, they will come." 

 

From a successful Shaklee business owner-- "If you build it, they (the checks) will come, and keep coming, and keep coming, and keep coming."  Now what is building something like that worth to you, and to have a business legacy you can pass on to your spouse, your partner, your kids, or your grand kids?

 

It always takes sacrifice to go after anything that is truly worthwhile, be it a relationship, a job, a business, etc... and in this business--- it is worth ALL of the sacrifice one puts into building it right, and building it strong.

 

Rod