Are you the CEO of your life and do you derive value from your daily performance?
What is a cynic?
“A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.” – Oscar Wilde
The hardest thing I do every day is to identify the value of my activities as a network marketer. As a trainer in the corporate world, I’ve shown people how to take small steps to achieve the company’s business plan, measure results, and help identify best practices and personal tweaks to improve performance. As Director of Sales, I did the same thing, only I was responsible for the larger budget, cost management, marketing, and of course managing the “bean counters” and the CEO’s vision.
I have come to realize that nothing is different in Network Marketing, except that no one is there to stop you from doing what you want to do. I’ve been told by many leaders in the industry that marketers make the worst network marketers and I finally get what they mean.
The role of Network Marketer is the same as that of a CEO.
I thought about the role of a CEO. When you ask a CEO why he is paid so much money and I mean 50 times more than the lowest paid employee of the company, sometimes more; the answer is very revealing. From your point of view; it never has anything to do with his actual education, his successes and achievements, or his ability to work hard. Their answer is because they can communicate their value. The value of the company they represent and the perceived future value of how they can enhance any company’s strongest asset, the employees.
There are a lot of people who know themselves and what they stand for, like a CEO.
A CEO is the person at the top of the corporate pyramid. A CEO seems to have some characteristics that may seem unusual compared to the other employees in the company’s hierarchical pyramid, but those characteristics seem very common to many people in their daily lives. Successful CEOs are great leaders. I see great leaders every day; they are the moms, the dads, the community participants, the softball coaches, the scout leaders, the deacons, and the neighborhood watch participants.
The best CEOs have broad and diverse experience and work in a structured way to achieve their organization’s goals. The best Network Marketers have a diverse experience in everyday life. Do you pay your bills, balance your checkbook, plan for home and car maintenance, pay your taxes, save for your children’s college, meet with teachers, analyze food labels, use a computer or a smartphone, get along with your neighbors, help your family, schedule routines? You do a lot of CEO work and you don’t even realize it! Your experiences, decisions and responsibilities are more than the work you do every day, as a CEO.
I want you to take a clear thought from reading this that you can immediately apply. I want to broaden your mind’s eye to compare the role of a CEO to the value of what he does every day and how it relates to your network marketing opportunities.
What is an executive director?
A CEO is the “keeper of the vision”. A great CEO keeps the company on track to achieve that vision. The vision of the company is the main guiding light of the final objective of an organization. There will be many decisions and actions that a CEO will have to make, and there will be decisions that will satisfy a situation temporarily but affect the long-term vision of a company. This is where the effective CEO steps in and makes sure the organization’s vision is on track. HINT: substitute the word family for company and think about the decisions, sacrifices and actions you took for your vision of your family.
A CEO is resourceful. They give more than they take every day. They don’t give up. If the wall is too high, they back up and find a way around it. Being resourceful is an asset to any organization. TIP: Your organization is your family, how do you manage to shop on a budget, get the kids around, fit everything into your day, think of solutions when you run out of money or time ?
A CEO makes good decisions. Decision is something a great CEO must possess. Without strong decision-making skills, there is very little chance of leading your organization to success. HINT: What decisions do you make every day for your family’s survival, safety, and future?
A CEO is brave. It takes courage to fire someone and it takes courage to sign a merger agreement. A CEO is bold in taking action. HINT: Have you fired a plumber, contractor, babysitter, changed doctors, hired an insurance agent, attorney, or real estate agent? Did you choose a school, buy a car or anything that requires you to make decisions in everyday life for what is best for your family?
A CEO has an eye for talent. A great CEO is able to identify the right people with the right personalities and place them in the right jobs. Keeping the right person for the right job exponentially increases the efficiency of an organization. Having the wrong people in a position of responsibility will cause them to underperform and undervalue their work. Hint: You should be getting my hints by now.
Are you already having an “AHA” moment?
Let me ask you, what do they pay you for? You know in your job, what do you get paid for? No matter how you answer that question, what you really get paid for is your TIME! Whether you perform a process, a function, customer service, or sales, you get paid for the time you put in and how the organization you work for perceives the value of what you do.
As a Network Marketer or CEO, you get paid to keep your vision, your wits, make good decisions, be brave, and have an eye for talent. Time is not relative to your income, time is relative to how you learn to master the above as part of your lifestyle and incorporate it into your everyday life experience. You really are doing it now, whether you realize it or not.
Your life goes on 24/7, you live and have experiences and perform the same skills as a CEO every day. As a Network Marketer, you earn income living every day doing exactly what you do in your life right now; pay attention and talk to people.
You talk to people. As a network marketer, you have a product or service that you believe in as passionately as a CEO believes in their company. You have to build an organization and you do that by doing what a CEO does every day and what you do now anyway, just talk to people.
The only difference is this. Who pays you to tell everyone about the great restaurant you had dinner at last night? Who pays you to talk about the current reality show you’re watching? Who pays you to promote or sell the new product you are testing? Even though you do, every day, you hurt your heart!
You are a promoter and complainant of all the commercial elements that you experience. You also make a lot of CEOs very happy. You’re doing the work they want you to do for them and you’re doing it for free! Well, actually, the cost of getting it to do so is built into the cost of the product, so when you buy or pay; You not only pay for the product, but you also pay the cost of motivating you to promote it to everyone all the time!
You talk to people every day as a CEO, you make the same decisions about your life as a CEO and if you were a Network Marketer you would be earning income from everything you do every day as a CEO. Are you ready to be the CEO of your life? Are you ready to explore Network Marketing?