Singapore won a silver medal in table tennis in Beijing Olympics! I shouldn’t be saying this but it was expected that we can’t win against the mighty China team. I am still very proud as a Singaporean.

As some of you might already know, Singapore is a small country. Some people called it just a red dot on Earth. But this is not an ordinary red dot. We may be small in size, but we are big at heart.

We are not recognized as a sports country. But our country managed to get a silver medal. Maybe you might not be impressed but if I were to tell you how hard it is even to compete with sports nations like China and Korea, you might change your mind to think of this as indeed an achievement.

Ever since we came close to winning a medal in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, the Singapore table tennis team has been working extreme hard for this coming Olympics. Even though we are desperate for a medal, we knew that the realistic chance comes from the table tennis team. All focus has been built on this team and tension has been running extremely high.

Everyone will agree that physical fitness play the most important part in winning a medal. I do not totally agree. Physical and mental fitness are the ones which will determine who will prevail at last. Ask the swimmer who won just by a fraction of a second. It is not because he is physically more fit than the 2nd place swimmer. It is his mental strength which brought him over his opponents. Can anyone be more fitter by a fraction of a second? I can’t think of a logical reason to support this.

Coming back to Network Marketing, it is not only the know-how which will make you successful over others. Your mental strength to carry forward determine how far you wish to go. If you observe the network leaders around you, they tend to show more resilient than the rest of the ordinarily networkers. So do not just focus on sharpening your network marketing skills. Slow down and work on the most misunderstood form of success factor, which is your mental strength. You won’t go wrong with this!

What is network marketing if it isn’t consistency of purpose?

The name of the game is know what you stand for - stand for it - and act in accordance with it in everything that you do from today until you meet your objective.

The problem is when you’re on the phone all the time getting fed negativity and rejection even the strongest willed person will have moments of doubt.

But if you can pay yourself along the way to validate what you are doing is the right thing and you can continue that process until you meet your goals . . .

Then, my friend, you’re on the path to great success.

Always be consistent in your actions, but make sure the things you stand for are things that you can stand for 10 years from now and you’ll have a winning formula that just can’t fail.

One of the interesting statements I learnt during the seminar is that doing sales is just a concept. If you managed to persuade someone to give in to your way, it means that you have successfully done a sale. You might not have noticed it since we have always classified sales as selling some physical things. Everyone is born with a selling skill it’s just a matter of to what extent you have expose this skill in your daily life.

As Adam Khoo puts it, many people with high education has high ego which prevented them from succeeding. Until they have overcome their own egoistic nature, this will always be an obstacle to move them to greater heights.

This was the very statement I often think when I started my first network marketing business. The reason why I didn’t manage to make a single deal there is because of this personal obstacle I imposed on myself. In my mind, I keep repeating that I do not like doing sales because it is very degrading. I do not like to be seen begging other people to buy my products. But at the same time, I knew that network marketing is definitely a working model which can bring in good money. So I persist but without any results to show.

I have attended some previews on sales and marketing and I learnt some useful facts about it. Most rich and successful people have some or all of these attributes:

1) Selling skills

2) Marketing skills

3) Leadership skills

Like it or not, selling and marketing skills are 2 of the important skills you need to master if you really wish to be very successful in wealth.

It is not degrading if you are very proud of what you are trying to promote. It only appears degrading if you are doing it half-heartedly.

Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you can’t get more time.

-Jim Rohn

Investing in time is the most important process in your buildup to a successful life. An Olympic gold medalist does not take 1 month to achieve this feat. It probably took them their entire youth to train for it.

It did not take me one day to achieve what I have today. Instead it took me 1 year to constantly change myself for the better. This transformation will last forever and it is definitely worth to invest in your time to improve yourself now.

Let me give an illustration on how two different persons managed their time but having different results.

Daily routine of a highly successful millionaire

6.30am: Wake up and wash up

6.45am: Meditation

7.00am: Swimming

7.30am: Read newspaper

8.00am: Eat breakfast

8.30am: Leave for work

6.00pm: Return home from work

6.30pm: Eat dinner

7.00pm: Spend time with family

8.00pm: Listen to inspirational audio tapes

9.00pm: Read books on personal development.

11.00pm: Go to bed

Daily routine of an unmotivated professional

7.30am: Wake up and wash up

7.45am: Read newspaper

8.00am: Eat breakfast

8.30am: Leave for work

6.00pm: Return home from work

6.30pm: Eat dinner

7.00pm: Spend time with family

8.00pm: Watch TV, play computer games, surfing internet

11.00pm: Go to bed

Do not be mistaken over my intention here. I am not against any of this lifestyle. I study biographies of some outstanding people and found that most of them carry out most of these routine activities so I did not make it up on the life of the highly successful millionaire. . They did not complain about having no time even though they still go to work as most of us did. In fact, all of them are busier than us. As for the unmotivated professional, it is not difficult for me to come out with this routine as I am surrounded by most of these people. In fact, my life used to be like that in the past.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

-Albert Einstein

I was amused to hear of this quote by one of the great motivational speakers. “Every one wants to go to heaven but no one wants to die.”

When working on this network marketing business part-time, I have heard some people complaining to me that they have no time but they would like to earn more money. Some even asked me if there is any short-cut to reach my current level in earning. As much as I sympathize with some of them on their real situation, I see many others using this as a convenient excuse. Even though they do have the time, they gave the perception that they are extremely busy with their work.

Every one of us is given 24 hours a day. I am no exception. It’s a fair game. The difference is how you managed your time differently from others. For me, I try to cut down on watching TV programs and sleeping 1 hour less every day. There is of course some sacrifice if you wish to achieve something different in life. If you do not wish to make this small sacrifice, then there is nothing further I can offer to you.

Be honest with yourself on how you spent your time. Are you spending your time playing computer games and watching TV and complaining about no time to improve yourself?

If you seriously think what you have been spending your time to do has not yield much return to you, doesn’t it make sense to change the way you do things with your time? Try doing something differently and observe the results later. I can assure you that you will see a difference in you.

“You are the only problem you will ever have and you are the only solution. Change is inevitable, personal growth is always a personal decision.”

Bob Proctor

In life, how things turn out to be reflect on how you are willing to make changes upon yourself when necessary.

I am sure most of the professionals getting in the network marketing have got the same problem. Since you are comfortable in your life, you do not think that there is anything else to change about yourself.

Do not delude yourself, if you aspire to change your life but didn’t think that there is anything wrong with you, you can never go far in life. The fact that you have not achieved what you think you deserve shows that there is much more to improve in yourself.

Do not be too anxious to try to impose your thoughts unto others. Work out on changing yourself first. You will be surprise how much you can be attracted by others. As the law of attraction rules, positive people always attract positive people. Many people experienced a lot of rejections in the attempt to change others opinion. My advice is to change yourself before you can finally change another person to think in the same frequency as you.

Reflect on your attitude in life. Are you too stubborn to hear more about what others are teaching you? Do you always put yourself as knowing everything that you need to know and refusing to learn more things? If you are having some of these dangerous signs which I have just describe, perhaps it’s really time for you to make a reflection on yourself. This is exactly what has been hindering you. Accept it graciously and make an effort to correct them.

If you clearly have an attitude to change for the better, I do not see any reasons why you can’t improve on your life.

“People are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.”

As A Man Thinketh

I used to be a very unmotivated and egoistic person. I seldom have the initiative to perform extra tasks. I was also very stubborn and full of pride of myself and didn’t think that there is anything wrong with me and often telling people to accept me as I am and not to expect too much on me.

When participating in some money related courses, I realized that making changes is inevitable for you to have a break-through into your wealth. I was even more convince after going through another success related course that making changes on yourself is absolutely a must if you wish to see a difference in your life. I started to do something which I have never tried before, or even felt ashame of trying in the past. It was quite strange to think back about how those things could have been easily done if I had been open to advices.

As time goes by, I was disgusted to associate myself as an unmotivated person in the past.

Indeed, there isn’t anything you need to change if this is the lifestyle you wish to stay with. And if this is your philosophy, you are destined to stay there.

If you are serious about your own network marketing success, perhaps its time to think if the problems lies with you. Only you can answer to this myth.

Your choice of people to associate with, both personally and business-wise, is one of the most important choices you make. If you associate with turkeys, you will never fly with the eagles.

–Brian Tracy

One of the worst advice you should ever take as a network marketer is “free advice” from people who are not there in person to experience success. These people can be your close ones, friends or relatives. They generally belong to the 80%. I am not saying to be rude to them but these advices given by them are not professional, they are just their own opinions and views.

Often they are skeptics and refused to try out anything, citing many reasons why certain things will never work in their personal opinion and thinking that they are always right. My advice to you is to leave these people alone first. It is hard to influence their thinking at that moment. And the worst thing is to let them influence you instead if you do not have a strong faith in what you are doing. Do not attempt to get into any arguments with them. Leave them alone for the time being until they request to further understand the program.

Give a lecture to a thousand people. One walks out and says, “I’m going to change my life.” Another one walks out with a yawn and says, “I’ve heard all this before.” Why wouldn’t both be affected the same way? It remains a mystery.

The millionaire says to a thousand people, “I read this book and it started me on the road to wealth.” Guess how many go out and get the book? Very few. Why wouldn’t everyone get the book? It’s yet another mystery.

I guess this 80/20 principle can help to explain the above mysteries. I believe in this 80/20 principle of wealth distribution and I always used this to remind myself not to be average. Being average means that you are sharing the 20% wealth with the 80% people. I always work to get onto the other side of this wealth pie, that is to share 80% wealth with just the 20% people. The key lesson here is “don’t be average”. Keeping this in mind will align you to disassociate with the mentality that 80% of the people has.

This 80/20 principle is highly prominent when you approach network marketing business. In most cases, 80% of the people you met will brush this opportunity off and will not believe this is true. They will give all sorts of excuses in order not to get into it. I see these people as losers in life. They are living in their comfort zones and refused to take any risks. They see such opportunities as unusual and do not think there are really such good things in life. Only 20% of the minority will grab such opportunities. I urge you not to be influence by what majority of the people think. If you do not understand this 80/20 principle you will easily be moved to the side of 80%.