A Complete And Total Failure

I had never done network marketing before, but I took it on anyway because I believed that I could. I still remember the day an email came in that literally caused me to jump out of my chair cheering. I couldn’t believe it. I printed the official purchase order again. I remember just staring at it, smiling and taking it all in. Had I ever fulfilled an order from a national retailer? Had I ever had to read a compliance manual? I didn’t even know what that was. Had I ever done a presentation on my product to a group of strangers whose job was to sell it? But I took on all those things anyway, learning as I went. Because I believed I could. Now what about this story encompasses any facet of failure, you might ask? Unfortunately, we didn’t realize it nearly soon enough. The biggest order yet was sitting in my email inbox. The buyer let me know she’d be sending the official purchase order in July for their fall lineup. I had the items made, invested a lot of money, but July came and went with no purchase order.

Hold Me Back

I am so sorry I didn’t have a chance to reach out to you sooner. We have actually decided to scale back our layette department. We hope you understand and look forward to doing business in the future. I probably read that a dozen times before it actually sunk in. There would be no order! There I sat with a substantial investment of thousands of pieces, and no one to buy them. I felt like a complete and total failure. How could I be so stupid? Why did I get ahead of myself and have all these blankets made before I had an official purchase order in my hand? I should have known. I am not good enough to achieve success. I can’t do this. Those were the words that filled my head. Feelings of defeat and failure, confusion and fear took over. And there we were, with a mountain of product and no one to buy it.

All The Things

It was then, after baby 3, that I decided to move on. Mom didn’t really need the money, and I told myself I didn’t have the time. Looking back, I realize now that no time is an easy excuse we allow ourselves. Because for me, no time really meant no desire. I no longer wanted to sell baby blankets. I had gotten discouraged and felt overwhelmed, and those feelings were all the excuse I needed to quit. The negative, primitive mind in each of us will affirm feelings like this. It would take several years before I would start learning how to combat those feelings. I decided to close down the business at that point, feeling that I had failed. We eventually earned our investment back, and then brought in some nice side income for a few years. But once I lost the desire, it was extremely difficult to stay motivated as an entrepreneur. I decided to focus on being Mom to our three little girls, and I took some time off.

Loose Ends

Having my first business was a great experience, overall. I realized that I can learn how to do anything. Everything I did for that business, I had never done before. And in traditional business, you really are on your own. I didn’t have any mentors showing me what to do. And it’s a vehicle for failure. Let’s fast forward a few more years, and two more babies. Once you get to that number of kids you start to just assign numbers to them. As usual, I was sick. It was at that point in the pregnancy when you wonder to yourself, Why did I do this? I can never do this ever again. On one of those days my phone rang. What can I do for you? He was super jazzed about something. He told me he always thought I was a sharp person, and that he remembered that I had once owned my own business. I smiled and rolled my eyes. Then I told him all the reasons why I couldn’t. I can’t have a job right now. I can’t even drink a glass of water and keep it down. I told him no several more times and offered a plethora of other excuses, but I thanked him for thinking of me. Although he didn’t say so, he has probably noticed the mess my face was in because of my pregnancy. If it did what it said it would do, I’d at least be glad to have found it. So I agreed to try a sample. He dropped it off, but in my pregnancy woes I found myself forgetting to even brush my teeth, let alone wash my face each night. But, with my permission, Jimmy kept me posted on the company in the months that followed. It was during this time that I started to have a more open mind to the network marketing industry. I started to realize that there were actually quite a few people whom I knew who had achieved incredible success, across all different types of companies. I wouldn’t have to be customer service, the accounting department, fulfill orders, or do anything else I used to hate doing as a traditional business owner, because the company would do all those things for me. Six months later, after the baby was born, I decided not only to become a customer but to also become a Brand Partner with Nerium International. I wanted to get the products for free and I figured I could recommend it to a couple of friends and make a little money on the side, so I joined. The months that followed would become a great part of my story. Starting a business with Nerium was one of the best decisions I ever made for myself and even for my family. My friend Jimmy became one of my many mentors.