Thrival from Ordinary to Extraordinary. Mark Mandela

familiar with the story, you will recall that Dorothy was instructed to travel to the Emerald City by following the yellow brick road (“Follow the yellow brick road, follow the yellow brick road, follow, follow, etc. . .”). Instead of journeying alone, she quickly invited others to join her journey to the Emerald City.

      Do you identify with Dorothy as a recruiter and an encourager; or, perhaps, you relate better to the Scarecrow? Scarecrow quickly and enthusiastically linked arms with Dorothy on her journey which made it their journey. His problem was he lacked a brain. Maybe you are new to network marketing and you need knowledge. As you link arms with others, you will gain confidence through using the knowledge of others who journey with you.

      Maybe you find yourself to be the Cowardly Lion. The Cowardly Lion is the person who knows he was born to lead but lacks the courage or confidence because of past failures to lead. Perhaps you resemble the Tin Man—courageous, intelligent, but heartless because your heart has been broken many times by expectations you have not met. Do you have the knowledge and the courage but lack the passion or compassion needed? You will find that the journey on the yellow brick road is the place where you need to go. Whether it is in business or your personal life, people make the journey better. People need people.

      Wherever you are and whoever you are on this journey, we desire to challenge you to go farther. This book is written with each person in mind, from the new networker who needs knowledge to the mentor who is seeking to train leaders to become leaders who lead other leaders to become leaders. We welcome you on our journey and invite you to link arms with us as we become better together!

      --Mark Mandela and Tamara Brown

      Chapter 1: From the Beginning

      As a child growing up, I was chemically wired by God as a direct personality. Also, I am a momma’s boy and proud of it. I am considered a people person, I have always liked people, and I am very talkative. Because of my personality, I was a perfect candidate to be a networker. Little did I realize that I had been training my entire life to be a great networker.

      Developing friendships is what I have always desired to do and as I have gotten older, I have realized that influencing people is what defines a person. When I was young I did childish things but as I have matured, I have put away those childish things (doing wrong). Even as I write, I must be aware of doing the right thing consistently. Much of the time I want to play but I need to work, this is the right way, most of the time.

      It all began in March 1997, while I was running three companies, seeing my own patients, and raising a family of four children. I really had no time for another business. However, a colleague of mine sent me information through the mail that ended up buried in a stack on my desk.

      After approximately a week passed, he called my office after hours to talk. Our conversation began with some small talk before he asked me to go get the information while he waited. At this point, I had not yet looked at the information. I retrieved the information, opened it and scanned it as we talked. I immediately noticed that one of the most renowned labs in the field of nutritional medicine was involved. To me, that was all the validation that I needed.

      Not only did my colleague send written information, he also sent me a cassette tape with information. That was very important for my personality because I need to hear and see information to grasp the importance of the information. As I drove with my parents later that week to my aunt’s wedding, I listened to that tape. I will never forget how excited I became when I heard about this nutritional concept that I was already using at a much higher cost. If I went with the network marketing side of the business instead of going directly to the lab as a clinician, it would save me money and I could make money by developing a network. I started to understand the networking concept. J. Paul Getty said, “I would rather make 1% off 100, than 100% off 1. I already believed in this concept by J. Paul Getty, but the more I heard it the more it moved me. If I wanted all my dreams to come true this saying had to be woven into every business sense I had. This concept, I believed, was what missing in my business sense that would put me over the top financially. If one of the richest men that ever walked in America believed this concept than I needed to believe this also!

      By reviewing the information sent to me, I saw a service and a product that not only was affordable, but it also had a business opportunity. However, I needed to do some clinical evaluations to see if the product was as good now as the manufacturer had been over the previous fifty years in nutritional products. I soon discovered that this company was legitimate. Now I had to figure out the major dilemma concerning how to fit yet another thing into my very busy schedule. Knowing that successful people respond quickly once they have most of the facts, I seized the opportunity.

      The dilemma really came because there was much to understand about this industry that I just did not have the time to learn. However, that was okay because I was really interested in the great product that the MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) company had. My interest in the product had me making more time for the business. Because I was intrigued by the company and the business plan, I spent time trying to understand how to get paid. In time success with the product translated into my working the business. This happened because of the excitement created about the product.

      Even though the business plan sounded too good to be true, the product had so much potential that the pros outweigh the cons at this point. Because of that, I continued the investigation stage of my new potential business. Since I was a very busy person, my number one problem to overcome was finding the time to work this new business. I overcame this obstacle by telling myself that I was not going to work the business, I was just going to use the product. This allowed me time to figure out a way to fit this new program into my busy schedule. Also, I started communicating each morning with my upline, which allowed me to learn much about the business. When I realized that I could not ask my upline nutritional questions about the product because their focus was on the business, I knew I would have to learn about the nutritional side while leaving the business side to them. In my case, most of the people I knew were nutritionally minded. Because of that, I had to handle most of their questions from the beginning. After showing them a great product and teaching them about the different personalities of my upline leaders, they were now ready for instruction about the business. I started my business this way to keep many new people from being chased away by the focus only being on business.

      Remember, if you want something done; give it to a busy person. Also, remember, if there is will, there will be a way. The more time and money you spend on something the more of a life it starts to take on its own. It is just like being pregnant, in the beginning, you do not see anything growing; but, all of a sudden, the woman starts showing overnight. That is what happened with me. Although I was very busy, as I invested time and money into this product, my business began to take on a life of its own.

      As I learned more about the new product and company with which I was working, my belief grew. As my knowledge and belief grew, so did my business. If you have a great product and you start developing some good testimonies with your new product, your belief level begins growing and you begin sharing more frequently with more people. The next thing you know, your business starts growing.

      The simpler your product base is (like when Amway started over fifty years ago with one environmentally-sound soap that would save the plant) the easier it is to stay focused, the more people you will attract, and the quicker your business will grow. The problem many companies face is as they grow, the company adds too many new products. The additional products cause the new marketers to lose focus. This loss of focus causes confusion that passes through your organization. A simpler product base is better in my opinion—less is more.

      The concept of network marketing or distributing a product from person to person had never been merged together with a pay plan before this time. Prior to this time in business history, the majority of distribution was corporate to corporate or business to business. Now the concept of person to person distribution was introduced through the idea of network marketing. Little did we know it would change the face of business around the world.

      One of the reasons that I invested into network marketing is I wanted to live the American Dream. Since