The last thing I ever expected in my life was a phone call from my sister asking me to look into her new business and try her product.  Like I’ve mentioned in the past, she and I were always very skeptical about the network marketing business model.  We’d never seen anyone succeed at it before.  We had only seen people waste their money month after month.

But when she called me, she explained that her friend she had known for years had just started with this company and was indeed having real success.  This changed my sister’s perception of MLM’s (or at least this one.)  She had personally witnessed a true example of success, and it proved to her that it was possible.  It didn’t matter for me though.  I didn’t know her friend, and I was still very resistant.  Without hearing any more about it, I said NO!

I didn’t need this product, and I wanted nothing to do with it. 

Some time went by, and as sisters naturally do, we talked a lot.  While most people avoid asking how your MLM business is going, I am not afraid to do that.  I wanted to know how it was going for her.  Although I didn’t want to do the business myself, I sincerely wanted her to have success.  I wanted her to prove that it could be done.  She was steadily making more and more headway, earning bonuses for the quick starters and making money.  And then she asked me again, “will you please just try the product?  Try it once, and then if you don’t like it, you never have to use it again.  And you can even get your money back.”

We don’t ask favors in my family.  We don’t ask each other to do uncomfortable things for one another.  We just don’t, so I figured it was pretty important to her.  Even though I always ran from these types of companies, I said yes.  I became a customer and tried it for myself.

It actually worked out okay because I was secretly starting to get curious, wondering what was so great about this product and this company.

When I got the product, I followed all the rules.  One week went by, and although others noticed their own results in that time I wasn’t really sure about it.  I knew it was nice, and it changed some things, but I couldn’t tell if it was doing all that it promised.  I was curious, though, so I kept going.  After 1 month, I thought I was starting to see the expected results, but I wasn’t entirely sure.  Then 3 months went by, and that’s when I became convinced.

I was able to see substantial results. 

Then I started thinking… this is working, my sister loves it and is starting to see success, her friend is starting to have even more success… wouldn’t this be a neat experiment at this stage in my career-change journey?  Wouldn’t it be interesting to see if I could make this work?  What do I have to lose?  I hear from dentists all the time about how they want to get out of dentistry but they feel stuck and do little to change.  Why don’t I strive to be an example for taking small risks to create change?  Surely someone could be inspired by this, or maybe this could even be a way out for someone.

Intermingled with the hopeful feelings were doubtful feelings… I can’t do this.  No one ever makes money doing these things.  How will I make this work?  What will people think of me?

But in the end, I had to stop thinking and just do it. 

Too much thinking paralyzes me.  I had thought about this for months.  I had almost nothing to lose compared to what I could stand to gain.  I realized that if I just chose to get out there and do it, then my odds of success were better than if I did nothing.  And besides, what’s the worst thing that could happen if I fail?  Absolutely nothing.  If I do, then at least I can file it under “Life’s Lessons.”