Network Marketing provided that option, and without nearly the investment that a franchise or setting up a traditional business required.

If you're like me, you thrive when you can rely on your own talents, ability and efforts and would rather get paid on that than the other alternatives, even if it doesn't make you rich. For me, it beats stressing out at a corporate job full of office politics, or anything else where I don't get to rely on what I bring to the table to enjoy my work and advance myself.

In a stunning new book, Doug Rushkoff discusses the definition of success, using some well known names. He asks:

"Who would you rather be, Bill Gates or Steve Jobs? Sure, Bill Gates is a much richer fellow but who seems to be having a better time? Who would you rather work for, or with?"

Then he adds that Jobs doesn't seem to mind that he sells such a tiny percent (4%) of America's personal computers, compared to Gates, whose Windows operating systems are on most of the rest (96%). Here's how Jobs totally reframes this fact (that he's a little tiny banana, compared to Gates, who is a humungous banana):

"Apple's marketshare is bigger than BMW's or Mercedes' or Porsche's in the automotive market...What's wrong with being BMW or Mercedes? I think we're having fun. I think our customers really like our products. And we're always trying to do better. But I think we're leading the industry and we're having a good time."

Rushkoff adds,

"Jobs may just as well have said he is leading the industry in having a good time. And this is not only a great way to keep people coming into work with a smile on their faces, but also the easiest way to keep them innovating, as well. When people are really at play, the object of the game is no longer to win the game, but to keep the game going." - Get Back in the Box

Follows right along with Joseph Campbell's directive to his students in choosing how to live their lives, "Follow your bliss." His work on heroes was the inspiration for George Lucas' Star Wars movie phenomenon.

The traditional idea of "work" or "job" is so opposite to concept of fun, that in Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus, First Edition (v 1.1.1), work and job are listed as ANTONYMS to the main entry of "good time".

So yes, something of my own is what makes network marketing good. Hard, fun work.

Not for everyone, no. But for anyone for whom something of their own constitutes, by itself, a chance for a good time, something you can bliss out over, become engaged in, and something where you get to rely on your own efforts, abilities and talents. Yes, THAT is something good about network marketing for people like us.

But don't take my word for it...my entrepreneur friends,

"...just like examining gold in order to know its quality, you should put my words to the test." - The Buddha, circa 500 B.C.