The first time I was introduced to MLM, it was literally the most amazing experience of my life. As if I saw the matrix, I all of a sudden understood the concept of leverage and I was desperate to build my own organization that would support my lifestyle. So the idea of building a business around my life was very attractive, and admittedly I was extremely green so as a good downline member, I listened to my upline and took everything they said as gospel. I began by making the largest list of friends and family I could think of, I made up flyers and took them door to door, and started scheduling 3 way phone calls with my upline thinking I had guaranteed my success.

The first 3 way phone call went great, after all it was with my grandparents so of course they switched their long distance service to support me (wink wink, you may be able to guess the company I started with..) But all of a sudden after a few more 3 way calls, I began to notice something, there wasn't any consistency with my upline. It was as if some went well, and some missed the mark depending on when I caught him or what he was in the middle of, or heck if he woke up on the right side of the bed. This didn't concern me at first, after all, I was going to be an MLM millionaire and that meant listening to your upline, right?!?

Well needless to say things went way downhill from there. The next 10 3 way calls bombed, and my upline encouraged me to add more people to my list so we could continue building the business, but my gut was telling me that this didn't feel like real business, it felt like a big pile of hoping that my upline would come through, and there weren't any systems in place to standardize how people were introduced to the product, the opportunity, and finally the decision whether to join or not.

So my stint with that company didn't prove fruitful, however I learned the immense value of systems. Let me share with you what I mean. Can you make a better hamburger than McDonalds? I am sure you absolutely thought yes...so my question is:

"If you can make a better hamburger than McDonalds, why do they make more money than you?"

The answer is systems silly.

They don't make the best burger in the world, but they have set up a system that has been perfected to provide the same average food, in roughly the same quickness, all around the USA. People don't go there because the food is life changing, people go because the system has taught them what to expect, and that experience can be duplicated for others.

Friend, don't miss this! Every time I do individual coaching and consulting (which I do very little of due to the constraints on my time) people start out by telling me that they have the greatest widget in the world, that their product is the only one that cures cancer, makes you taller, helps your kids behave, whatever the claim is for the widget, and my response is always, "Well McDonalds doesn't make good burgers, but you should see the system they built to move them."

I am not at all saying that product doesn't matter, having a great product that changes lives allows you to discuss and market it with conviction and excitement. But the system is much more important than the product will ever be. You will always do better with an okay product that has amazing marketing than you will with an amazing product and no system.