"One of my most memorable conversations...was with Buzz Bruggeman, CEO of ActiveWords and a good friend. He told me to hang around people who are happy. And I realized I had been listening to too many people who were deeply unhappy and not bringing any value into my life."

Ask yourself: Is that happening to you? Do you remember a time when you were feeling fine, and then you talked to someone, and you ended up less happy?

Life is short, too short to hang out with people who are unhappy and make you unhappy, too. Let them find others who are unhappy and they can all hang out together in unhappyville.

The Buddha recognized clearly "right association" 2500 years ago. Religious scholar Huston Smith wrote:

"No one has recognized more clearly than the Buddha the extent to which we are social animals, influenced at every turn by the 'companioned example' of our associates, whose attitudes and values affect us profoundly." -Buddhism, a Concise Introduction

Look around you, upline, sideline, friends, family or colleagues. Who is happy and adds to your life? Who brings out the best in you?

Associate with such a person, and limit access to the rest.

"I'd have gone door to door in my underwear."

Today we interviewed Mary Jane Medlock, who talked about the crazy things she did when she first started marketing her weight loss product. Like walking up to obese strangers at aiports and handing them her brochure with her before and after picture and her story, saying "THAT was ME! Maybe I can help you!" and then running away.

She told everyone on the call, "I LOVE my company and I LOVE my product and I could NEVER have done any of those things if I didn't, as Kim says, "love it MADLY"! Then she added, "I did really crazy things because I LOVED it and I was so excited..."

For love or money?, What's YOUR reason?

This question is reminiscent of Doug Rushkoff's thesis Get Back in the Box, that people who run companies do better if they love madly the core thing they're manufacturing or marketing, because they'll do a better job of both...instead of just trying to be #1, wipe out the competition, and cut costs and increase profits - the money motivated goals.

The most successful business people today say it all starts with something you love madly and that matters to you from your bones. Money is always secondary.,

One gal who today is one of our industry's millionaires told me years ago that when she was first repping her then-company's weight loss product, she was SO EXCITED about it, and about getting to the events each year, that "Kim I'd have gone door-to-door in my underwear to go. We all would have."

Do you love your product, or the marketing of it, THAT much?

You'll need that kind of deep love/obsession/crazines for it to survive the process of building your business. There are many less stressful and "Jennie-on-the-spot" ways to make income than your own business.

So do you love it MADLY?

If not, find something you do. It's the best way I know to survive the process of building up a little business for yourself, because it may be a lot harder and longer road than you first may have thought.