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.