I have often heard that you can sell without selling. It is common verbal fodder for direct marketers in MLM and other direct selling professions to tell recruits that the product sells itself. It’s a no-brainer to purchase this franchise, this affiliate-ship, this territory, this inventory or whatever. You can’t miss!

As most of us who were thrown out into the urban jungle to hawk encyclopedias or pots and pans, the reality is that with few exceptions we come back home each day battered and badly underpaid. With few exceptions, our sponsors throw us to the sharks and watch with disdain as you fall flat.

Eventually, our highfalutin notions that a “can’t miss” product or service will be the vehicle to a cliff-view home in Monterrey are replaced by out-and-out cynicism. We eventually – sometimes in a blink – give up on our dreamy notion of the good life and settle in for the 40-year grind.

Let me give you and I a cold shower to sober up. Here’s what you must know if you want to be successful:
1) a willingness to be a serial failure before being a resounding success.
2) a willingness to give up some empty, mind-dulling escape activities.
3) a willingness to be ridiculed by peers, family and strangers alike.
4) a willingness to accept coaching and to listen with your defenses down.
5) and ultimately, you must develop a high level of self-esteem and a willingness to sell yourself before your idea, product or service.

So if you run into some smooth-talking direct marketer who tells you their thing is a “Can’t miss!” scheme that sells itself, run – no sprint – in the opposite direction.

Your financial and spiritual life are dependent on recognizing the frauds and deceivers whom cross paths with you. The key is to not allow your mistakes in choosing mentors and products turn you into a deer in headlights.

You must sell yourself in order to succeed in any worthy endeavor on this planet. The plus here is that it is do-able as long as you stay in the game.

No doubt some of the best acts in marketing are mega-successful John Reese, Frank Kern and Tony Robbins.  They got together recently ostensibly to discuss the real problem of  “Why people who purchase in-depth training programs for the most part fail.”

Though the discussion was part of a pre-launch for Tony, the content is gold.  This is happily becoming a trend in Internet Marketing – great content preceding a launch.  It dovetails with a theme I have been belaboring for a good while:  Marketing success is an inside job before it becomes an outside success.

I am including this video now, although it is likely to be removed in the not-too-distant future…

Of all the people in this world having a profound effect on my thinking, attitude and lifestyle, longtime coach, seminar speaker, entrepreneur/netrepreneur multimillionaire Jim Rohn has touched me the most.

His success offline in the pre-Internet days has not deterred him from becoming successful with the best online marketers. Anything and everything he does is done with class, élan and integrity. He is a great model of how to build yourself from the outside in. He learned his lessons from his mentor, Mr. Shouf, and he has passed on a legacy which has success written all over it.

From Tony Robbins to Brian Tracey to Denis Waitely…all attribute their mercurial rise to this man. Unfortunately, he now seems to be terminally ill and unlikely to hold any more workshops or seminars. But if you are serious about success with integrity and passion, Jim Rohn will never disappoint.

Order everything he has ever produced – and that’s a lot! – and make time to listen. He’ll touch you with his wisdom, wit, and straight-spoken truth, no matter what personality type you may be. Go to Jim Rohn’s One-Year Success Plan