During a conversation yesterday, with a couple in my network marketing business, I happened to think, “To live in the 21st century and have a network marketing opportunity in your hands is somewhat like living in the renaissance times and having a printing press.” Both opportunities – for network marketing and printing – require training to harness their potential. Both have the capacity to influence millions of people. And both need to garner social proof before the public at large adopts them in their lifestyles.

Network marketing opportunities are a little trickier than printing though because they are intangible. Unlike the printed paper that is tangible proof of a better means to communicate, network marketing is based on the intangible ‘dream’ which is not standard from person to person. And this is what brings up the challenge in belief.

I advocate network marketing meetings as the best means to acquire the belief in oneself, one’s upline team and in the network marketing business one has as well. Attending meetings is the most non-invasive means to shift one’s thinking and thus mindset and thus lifestyle. Attending a meeting every week is not uncommon in social and spiritual circles, so why not attend them when it comes to one’s own mind and personal finance? Moreover, once we agree that network marketing requires ‘training’, attending meetings is akin to attending classes, which one does without question in a business school.

The lady amidst this couple expressed a dream to run a company where she’d have lots of people out on the field marketing her designs for her. Fascinating! Having done that myself, I know the stress associated with ensuring collections from the market, timely salary payments, juggling creditors, apportioning taxes, and the works. But how can one explain this to someone who has not been through the grind of an S-quadrant business ? How does one explain the beauty of the network marketing model where each member is a volunteer, working exclusively for his dreams, doing the right things so others can follow, and thus create huge networks through which an army of volunteers moves substantial product?

Dogged with this question I ruminated over my printing press analogy again. Voila! This morning it struck! The members of network marketing teams often get obsessed with the ‘printing press’ itself, which they think of as the key thing. That’s like thinking of the ‘company’ (Amway, in my case) as the key thing. But if you look at the renaissance, what caused the revolution was not the press, but in fact the writings on the papers that could be circulated far and wide as a consequence. These ‘writings’ are our dreams. They move us to do the things we must do. In the way we must do them.

For the lady I mentioned, the Rich dad approach to business would far outweigh the Poor dad approach to fulfill the same objective (of having lots of people working to build her designing business). Instead of recruiting ‘employees’ she would learn recruiting prospective ‘business owners’, who are people with dreams and willing to work for them. What she would say to them would be the ‘writings on her papers’. And if she took upline help, she’d probably never get that part wrong. A singular message would flow through the organization so established. Like the singular message against the doctrines of the dark ages that resulted in the renaissance.

The printing press was the means then. The alternate distribution system – using network marketing opportunities – is the means now! Are you watching what’s happening or making it happen?

At least twice in life we reach a point where we need to consciously decide where we are going with regard to our career. The first time – obviously – is when we start it. The second time is when we take stock, around 40 years of age, where we have got thus far.  More often than not, at 40 we have not got where we thought we’d be either in terms of time, health or money. And this is a cause of stress or denial… which manifests as the mid-life crisis.

So how does one make the right choices? I quote 2 famous people here:

1. The definition of insanity is, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results (Albert Einstein)

2. Formal education will only earn you a living but self-education will earn you a fortune (Jim Rohn)

Why are these 2 quotes relevant here? Because they will help you think about the possibilities you probably never knew existed.

Here is the first thing to appreciate about possibilities. Robert Kiyosaki’s Cashflow Quadrant. He says there are 4 ways to live life. In the E-quadrant as an Employee who has a job. Or in the S-quadrant as self-employed who has a business which requires his/her personal presence. These are the left quadrants in which we exchange our time for money. We work for someone else’s system.

Then we have the right quadrants. The B-quadrant where business owners own a system. And the I-quadrant where the people own lots of money. In the right quadrants the system / money works for us. Please clearly understand these 4 distinctions before you read on…

For example, McDonald’s is a system (B-quadrant) to make burgers and it sells more burgers in one city than all the hamburger stands (S-quadrant) put together all over the world. The system works for the McDonald’s owner and his income is ‘passive’ (does not stop even when he’s away). Contrast this with the burger stand owner who works 15 hours a day sometimes and his income ‘active’ (when he stops, income stops).

Now the question is, why are most people (90%+) in the left quadrants? And why is most of the world’s wealth (90%+) controlled by the right quadrants? The answer is EDUCATION. Most of us do not get educated by (and stay in an environment of) B-quadrant people.

Why? Because we just don’t know that we can. We think we must earn and live our lives based on the education we have. The right quadrants are too much risk, we think. This is – in fact – not true. On the contrary, since there are fewer people – and an abundance of wealth – on the right side, many people on the right are very willing to mentor people who choose to switch.

The starting point of the switch is a deep desire to achieve something. A dream. All B-quadrant people are dreamers. Bill Gates, Laxmi Mittal, Mukesh Ambani, Thomas Edison, Akio Morita… there are many examples. Step two is networking. All right-quadrant people are networked. Robert Kiyosaki says, "poor people work; rich people network." Just like we earn to work, we need to learn to network.

The quality of unlimited dreaming is often lost when we get out of college. We are taught by our left-quadrant mentors that we must dream only as much as we can achieve. We must compete for growth. Interestingly, these are completely baseless ideas for people in the B-quadrant. We compete only because there is less money and more people on the left. On the right we associate with the right people, learn and grow. Many of the people mentioned in the previous para do not even have college degrees!

On the left we have got the knowledge the limits our potential and prevents our abundance. And the secret to freedom is to break out of that mindset. The good news is this mindset can change in the company of B-quadrant people. And we can enjoy their company even while at our jobs or businesses… if we prioritize the time for it .

There must be a desire to meet and learn from them. To do something over and above our left-quadrant lives. Because the definition of insanity is, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. And if some personal growth must be attained, formal education will only earn you a living but self-education will earn you a fortune. The fortune is in the right-quadrants. Yours to tap into risk-free… when you’re prepared to learn!

It was Robert Kiyosaki who opened my eyes to the fact that there is life in the B-quadrant. Through all my education I had learned from Employees (E) or Self-employed (S) people and therefore that defined the boundaries of my limited view of possibilities.

Kiyosaki also explicitly ‘roadmapped’ for me how to learn to move to the B-quadrant and how a network marketing system can be applied to daily life to change one’s mindset forever. In his book, ‘Cashflow Quadrant’ he presents four options that any of us can choose, to drive our life. They are as seen in this diagram… please take a few moments just to read through the quadrant details and absorb them fully…

Now the question to you is, why are most people (90%+) in the left quadrants? And why is most of the world’s wealth (90%+) controlled by the right quadrants? The answer is EDUCATION. Very few of us get educated by (and stay in an environment of) B-quadrant people (Business Owners with 500+ people).

So on the left we are stuck with the knowledge the ‘limits’ our thinking, ‘victimizes’ our outlook and prevents our abundance. The good news is this mindset can change in the company of network marketers, who typically follow a system and the successful of whom are definitely B-quadrant people.

The good news is, anyone can befriend them, if open and willing to make a 180-degree switch… by ‘surrendering’ to a team and a system that one can get for just a few hundred dollars.

Notice, I have used the words ‘limits, victim, abundance, mindset, surrender’ to draw the attention of those spiritually inclined. B-quadrant people are high on the vibratory scale and their quality of connection with the higher consciousness is amazing. I make this observation after studying many such people and urge you to take spiritual elevation as another reason to move from left to right.

In the left quadrants people work alone. In the right, it’s all about teamwork. In fact Kiyosaki is blunt in stating, "poor people work, rich people network." This is another critical switch one needs to make… of NOT being the expert worker… deliberately pushing down the ego… and setting a network of higher energies in motion! Watch this 7-minute film to really appreciate how your keys to success lie on the right side…

Mindset is everything in business as it is in life. You may also call it attitude… and it is all about how we think and respond, whether we are a corporate tycoon, a downsized employee, a home business mom, a student or whatever. Developing the B-quadrant mindset can change everything about your perspective forever. And should you choose to do that, rest assured you have my team to hold your hand on your journey!

So have a good time exploring more about the b-quadrant . And remember to pop your details on the ‘Success ‘ page so we can begin dialog.