If you are like me, you wonder what others have that you don't. How in the world did that new team member recruit five people on their very first day? How did she sell so much product her very first week?

Well, a lot goes on behind the scenes that we may never know about. Those five new recruits may have followed her from her last business, and those sales may have been to family members to whom she promised favors.

Now, that is not always the case of course, but many times there is a very good reason why a new person seems to just take off. For those of you who are new to this business, you just don't have the advantages that seasoned marketers do.

You don't have the established downline, the network marketing education, or the mentor. You may not have the large advertising budget that someone else has. You are starting from scratch, and that is hard.

Comparing ourselves to others is a very discouraging activity. There will always be those who shoot to the top faster. Sometimes it is nothing more than dumb luck, but it is usually because they have an ace up their sleeve.

Experienced marketers will not usually divulge the fact that their first several team members were from their downline in another company. Therefore, we are led to believe that they know something we don't.

We think that we absolutely stink in this business compared to them, but in reality, they probably experienced all the same frustrations in the beginning of their careers. Some people are natural-born salespeople who could sell an igloo to an Eskimo. However, I don't believe that this trait will get you very far.

After all, not everybody is going to like or want your product. Those people will not buy from you no matter how good a salesperson you are; especially in these times of high gas and food prices. They will only purchase your product if they find value in it, and it is something they truly want.

There will always be those who are better communicators, leaders, marketers, etc., but we can continually improve our skills, too. We can read and study network marketing. We can learn the business from the masters because this information is readily available.

We may eventually find that the new marketers are even comparing themselves to us. They may someday wonder how we became so successful. I hope that someone tells them that comparisons are frivolous.

I hope that they soon figure out that we all took the same hard road. Instant success is usually an illusion, and it probably rarely happens to anyone. Once we all reach that conclusion, we will be happier in our network marketing journey. We will realize that this is not a competition, but a learning process.