What is success? Simple question. Most people want success. However, very few of them can define it in any succinct or tangible way. In most work at home business opportunities, success is a word batted around like a proverbial racquetball. Yet for many newcomers to the work at home arena, "success" has eluded them most of their lives--hence, the reason they are searching for a new, more fulfilling life and mode of making money. Work at home business opportunities and recruiters know the desires of their prospects and they prey upon their desire for success like wolves in a henhouse. Ergo, the 97% failure rate in network marketing/ work at home business opportunities. To illustrate this point I must use myself as an example.

When I got started in business I thought my "success" was a forgone conclusion. Throughout my life most things that I applied myself to came relatively easy to me. I was a miserable failure in high school, but in college I applied myself and achieved excellent success, graduating Summa Cum Laude . I was an excellent employee: I had an voracious work ethic, impeccable attendance, a desire to learn quickly, a knack for picking new tasks up, and a meticulous way of doing things that always helped my company succeed. However, when starting my own work from home business I was the exact opposite of the great employee. My time management skills were terrible, I had a slovenly filing system, and a work ethic that rationalized surfing the web as work. In short I was the poster child for why work at home business opportunities fail at an alarming rate. My turnaround in business came to me when I realized I was not a good supervisor of my one employee, myself.

Many people who get involved in work at home business opportunities don't want a business, they want a job. If you have had a boss throughout your working life you understand that having a job is one of the securest feelings one can have. You have a guaranteed check coming in, you are usually extended a grace period to learn your position's responsibilities, you usually don't have to perform at the top of your game at all times and can still be effective, there is little financial risk involved. You learn a job and you perform it, then you go home, watch T.V. and get ready for the next day. This of course is a simplified version and there are exceptions. In my one business, one of the common threads I find in the people I talk to is most people are searching for a way of making money that makes them excited about what they are doing with their lives, rather than just living their life for a paycheck.

However, the reality is that most employees have not been trained to be their own boss, hence their learning curve in business is much steeper than what it is for those who have owned businesses in the past and can remain disciplined to their marketing strategy and the goals hey have set. For work at home business owners the discipline of running an effective and lucrative business is a learned skill that is developed over time. There are many different factors contributing to the failure rate of many neophyte work at home business owners. The most common I have found follow:

1. Poor marketing strategy provided by their upline and company: Most work from home business opportunities recommend buying leads from business seeker leads brokers. This is the quickest way to go broke quickly in your business. Business seeker leads are expensive and offer a very low return on investment (ROI) for most new business owners that are just learning recruiting techniques . Learning how to produce your own leads is far more effective strategy and has the added benefit of teaching the new business owner how to market effectively and produce a "circle of influence" on the Internet.

2. Your Warm Market: Talking to your family and friends is another way to quickly find disappointment in running your home business. Your friends and family are the last people you want to try and market to when getting your business established. By and large, your warm market knows you better than anyone and they also know you are not a business owner. When you have begun to find success, and money is rolling in, your warm market will seek you out to find out how you are making your money talk to them then. Pessimism is a killer of new businesses.

3. Commitment: New business owners are notorious for using a shotgun approach to finding success. They are constantly searching for a "sure thing" only to be disappointed by the fact they have been duped again by slick sizzle copy and the promise of fast cash. The only people getting rich by writing about guaranteed success in business are the "Internet Marketing Gurus" who promise you to get rich following their "proven system". You must find a marketing strategy that works for your personality and pocketbook and stick with it until you begin to see results.

Success in work from home business opportunities is never a guaranteed thing. The one variable that remains is you. Your commitment to success in business far outweighs your opportunity, talent, intelligence, and financial position. If you are falling prey to the slick marketers out there, throwing money at your problems in an attempt to solve them, you should check the classified ads for a new job because this industry will leave you disillusioned, frustrated, and in a poorer financial position than when you got started. If you are truly committed to success: do your homework, find an upline that understands your personal goals, your financial position, and, most important of all, work from home business opportunities that train you how to be a leader in business. Your upline should be what you aspire to be and then follow their guidance until you find success and teach your people how to do the same. Only then will you taste true success.