I have been marketing on the internet for over five years and building my Network Marketing business. Over the years I have met a lot of interesting folks. Some of those interactions remind me why the Network Marketing Industry is so problematic for so many people?the dark underbelly of Network Marketing.

It is not unusual for Network Marketers to go to my site and fill out the form in an attempt to cross-recruit me into their business. These are people who seek to capitalize upon rather than solve the problem of the known attrition rate in the industry and never stop to ask themselves whether it is good for their business to build with people who can be enticed away from their current enterprises.

I think by now I have pretty much seen it all: the brash distributor from A.C.N Canada who had his brother hit sites. Follow up and you get Mr. Brash who's pitch went something like. ?you gotta %^&*($#join me. I am at the top of the compensation plan. Money talks &$%# walks!? The couple, with the Travel Biz who would like for you to join them because they are at the top of their compensation plan. The wife fills out the forms online, the husband answers the phone. Then there is the couple with 700 people in their downline. They are not making money because no-one is buying, using or selling the product. People are people. There is even a distributor or two at the top of my company who will go to crossline distributors and offer to train them personally?the catch, of course, is that they quit their business and join their downline. Ah, well, such is life.

Something happened recently, though, that inspired me to write this article. Last night I responded to a gentleman from Michigan who went to my site. He told me that he had already found an opportunity. I was following up with him less than 48 hours after he went to my site. I thought, ?wow, kid you are getting slow.? Intending to wish him luck and let him go, I asked him which business he decided to join. Big Ticket to Wealth was his answer. Before I could say, ?goodbye and goodluck?, he said, ?would an extra $1000 to $3000 per day interest you?? I had to laugh.

Several years ago I had the priviledge of sitting next to a couple on a plane. They were a former pilot and flight attendant with the now-defunct Pan AM. They were at the top of their then company, Excel. I was with my first network marketing company. We got to talking, they did not pitch me on their company. Instead they said, that the biggest mistake that people make is leaving their company for a ?better opportunity?. It is well known in the industry that the longer you stay with your company the better your odds of success. ?As a policy, we don't cross-recruit.? They went on to say that most people join a company for solid reasons. Unless the company betrays them in some way or those reasons genuinely change, folks should stay the course.

That encounter stuck with me. They gave me awesome advice. Network marketing is a hard business. There are days of disappointment and there are ?championship days?. There are weeks of 4 figure checks and the surprise missed pay day. My first company did betray me and several thousand other distributors and I had to move on.

Hopping from company to company no matter the hype is one sure way to lose and lose big in network marketing. I know many people in the industry who were with 3-4 companies over a decade. They spent more time out of the industry than in. They learned from each opportunity and allowed time to produce the maturity they needed before going into a new opportunity. One of my dear friends was introduced to network marketing over 14 years ago. She was never with a company longer than 6 months, and found success with her fourth company. After 2 years of failure in her fourth and final company, she found the maturity to transform her business and move to the top of that company.

She found the ?one true thing? in Network Marketing.

I found my current opportunity and have stayed with it. I joined my team because my team has systems of success. I got started with my company because it has a solid reputation, products systems and services. I had just a little wealth and wanted more. Now I have so much more wealth and freedom because I found the one true thing in network marketing: success belongs to those who pick their company well and have the personal maturity to draw that line in sand and make their stand where they are.