Network Marketing Gaining Attention

To all you nay-sayers, disbelievers, or pointers of fingers at what you still call the "Pyramid Scheme", it's time to wake up.  Network Marketing is becoming an ever increasing, popular, and admirable option as a business model and money-making tool.  


Don't believe me?  Read the Wall Street Journal?  Recently, the Wall Street Journal posted this article, calling Network Marketing the "ULTIMATE Social Business Model".  Rather impressive.  It also listed the 7 most successful, publicly traded companies currently running under this model, and I do believe many of them also have an extensive global market or world-wide reach, part of which I'm sure adds to their placement in the top 7.  


Still don't believe me?  Do you know who Warren Buffet is?  The long and the short of it is that he's basically the most ingenious investor in the market right now and people look to him for investment, financial, and business advice since he is a true expert in the area.  He's also the owner of Berkshire Hatahway, a parent, financial company to a number of smaller companies including GEICO, Borsheim, and Berkshire Hathaway Life Insurance Company of Nebraska.  He is also the proud owner of a Network Marketing company.  Yes, that's right, Pampered Chef, that wonderful cooking company selling the latest and greatest in cookware.  Clearly he sees value in what the company not only has to offer but in the way it offers it to their clients and what they offer as a career options to their employees.


If you are part of a network marketing company reading this, then you are already well aware of what it has done for you or what it could do, and also where it proposes challenges.  Do not ever let anyone tell you that it's easy, because it's not, and if someone suggests otherwise, be weary.  When you are involved in network marketing you must remember one thing: you own your own business.  I'll say it again:  you own your own business.  There is no one to report to, no one to make sure you're staying focused and on track, and therefore no one else to split the profits with, more or less.  But that also means you have to be willing to actually put in the legwork.  You have to go out and build your clientele.  You have to be willing to work when others won't and you have to be an encouraging leader for those you bring into your business and help them prosper just like you would hope new storefronts would prosper.  That is the difference and that is ultimately what sets a lot of people apart in this business.  There is a certain form of discipline and attitude required to succeed and some people have it and others don't.  And that's just fine.  Just like some people will be lawyers and doctors and others will be welders and craftsmen.  Some people will be entrepreneurs and network marketers.  Just saying, though, it's no longer an industry to look down upon.  It is making its mark in today's society.

Dear State of Illinois...

For those of you who live in Illinois and haven't already heart, the state is said to announce an increase in state income tax from 3-point-something percent to 5-point-something percent.  It is said that this is occurring for only a four year period of time to help pull Illinois out of its insanely high deficit, but if history tells us anything, I'm thinking this is more of a permanent change.  My argument?  Toll-ways.  Case-in-point.


My problem with it?  It's not my fault you people can't manage your own money!  Maybe you should try taking a pay cut like the rest of us and see where that gets you - I bet you'll find it surprising how much extra money you suddenly have.  But that's also my argument for wanting to tax online purchases all the way back to 2004...again, still not my fault you can't manage your own money.  It's unfortunate, really.  The problem isn't that the tax increase is happening - it is what it is, and although annoying, sometimes things have to change.  My problem stems from the reasoning behind the increase and the short-sighted nature of everything.  Why always a band-aid solution when a full out surgical procedure is often the real answer?  *sigh* and this is why I would be terrible at politics.  Oh well, watch your money peoples!

Give Away?

What would you do with $100,000 if you had to spend it and couldn't spend it on yourself?


This question was posed to my sixth graders during their writing extension class.  Every day they are given ten minutes to explore a new prompt, working on enhancing their flow of consciousness and writing abilities.  Today's I found extremely interesting.  What would a sixth grader think to do with $100,000?  


Some of the most common responses included donating to favorite charities - global, local, pet – or giving the money to family members.  Some people even explicitly wrote out the percentages they would give to each family member based on how they perceive those family member's needs.  I found that logic impressive.  Otherwise some students went even further by wanting to donate to schools or universities, build parks and camps, and one person even said he'd give it all to the first random homeless he ran into.  Clearly, the minds of these ten and eleven year olds are hard and working and working in very different ways.


So, that got me thinking.  What would I do with $100,000 I couldn't spend on myself?  Maybe I would help family members pay off bills or put one of them through college.  Maybe I would help a friend start up a company he or she was trying to get off the ground, or, like so many of my other students, I would donate it to a worthy charity.  I would donate it, however, because I would get to write it off on my taxes and probably get some of it back in a refund?  Does that make me somehow less charitable or just more financially savvy?  Who knows.  All I know is one friend, when posed this question, responded with, "I would cry."  How true.  How very very true.  Sorry world, but $100,000 is a lot of money.