I have been an employee all of my adult life, pretty much. I’ve been a team member, a customer center representative, a supervisor, a manager, a project manager, and independent designer. You name it in the corporate world, and I have been there. And with those, I have had varying degrees of enjoyment. I loved being a manager and being able to really make a difference in people’s careers; helping them find a way to pursue further education, other options, learning new skills, etc…Maybe that’s why network marketing was so appealing to me!

When I looked into my own business, specifically my web design business, it was a very different world. I had no one to really report to, other than myself. However, I kept looking for direction, a reason to do something about a deadline, some kind of an incentive. There wasn’t one coming from anyone else other than from my own intrinsic emotion to create that.

Along the way, network marketing came along. Now network marketing is a very similar concept to owning your own business, except for that there are OTHER people involved. Those people range from the corporate team that provides at least some guidelines to how everyone should adhere to policies in an effort to protect the brand, and also your sponsor team. Here is where most people fail to recognize what type of ‘mentality’ really takes to be in network marketing.

You see, most of us (me included for a while), have very much an “employee mentality” when we come into network marketing. We can’t help it. It’s all we’ve been faced with our whole lives. We EXPECT to be guided, trained, told what to do and followed up on. We look for incentives and encouragement from individuals “above us” so we can get motivated to make things happen. And in some cases, we plain flat out GIVE UP AND QUIT if we have no contact from our so called “upline”. Now, in all sincerity, I DO believe there needs to be some type of structure that educates new team members on how to do things. Granted. However, in network marketing YOU ARE YOU OWN BOSS. You ARE your own MOTIVATOR. You are your own INCENTIVE SYSTEM. The person who enrolled you is a person JUST LIKE YOU. They may or may not have management experience, but they do NOT have any right over YOU or YOUR BUSINESS. Nor should you assume so. Most people who join have NO CLUE how to be “leaders” and guide others. That is ok and also the reason WHY you should have a different type of mentality when coming into the business.

See, my point here is that your career in network marketing should never ever ever depend on someone else’s management style, involvement, rank or connection to you. Mentally, you should come in assuming full responsibility for training yourself, motivating yourself and PROMOTING yourself. It is THIS type of ‘mentality’ that ultimately has the most success in network marketing. Because clearly, when you rely on yourself, any help is a BONUS to your business. You won’t be let down by those who bring you in then take off. You won’t be affected by lack of management skills because you don’t need to be managed. You are an independent business owner who doesn’t “need” to be treated like an employee. That’s the ‘mentality’ that gets you ahead in this industry.

All that said, clearly, we as humans (with many of us as trainers, mentors, managers and with other skills) always come forth to offer what we can to help others succeed in the industry. We form teams, trainings, calls, incentives and build tools above and beyond those provided by the company to help people understand things better or move faster along the way. I am not saying these are to be ignored and/or taken for granted. They do help and sometimes make a difference in the teams you decide to join.

What I am saying is that if YOUR expectation and mentality is set right and not “dependent” on what others can do for YOU, but what YOU can do for yourself, that’s when you will see the light in this industry. So, stand up, stand strong, go forth and CREATE your own vision. Wait for no one to tell you what to do. Who cares if your upline doesn’t call you anymore. Find another mentor in the company if you need one. Or better yet, become a mentor yourself. That’s what it means to not have an employee mentality. It means to take responsibility for everything that happens to you without EXPECTING or even waiting for someone else to tell you what to do! Go BE your own boss. That’s why you opted not to work in the corporate world to begin with, right?

Someone with an “employee mentality” waits for someone to tell them what to do, they look for a “reason” outside themselves to perform a task, they only do what feels good and won’t do what’s not so great to advance themselves, they blame uplines for lack of communication, or blame others for their failures. STOP the employee mentality wheel and start thinking about YOUR contributions, how to advance YOUR business, how to take things by the reins, how to educate YOURSELF better, motivate YOURSELF, reward YOURSELF, and then and only then will you find all the other “extras” a bonus in your business that you will appreciate a lot more than if you were expecting them all along.