The success formula of champions.
Brian Klemmer
There are five birds sitting on a tree limb. Three of the birds decide to fly off. How many birds are there left on the limb?
I say there are still five, because the decision to fly off is very different from the action of flying off! How many people do you have on your team that made a decision to do this business, yet still have not sponsored anyone?
People simply do not do what they are told. If they did, duplication would not be the problem it is in network marketing. You would simply have a top income earner say, "This is how you do the business," and everyone would run out and be successful. In fact, that's the limit of many companies training programs.
People do not do what they know is good for them. People know they have to be organized, pick up the phone, talk to people. People only act --- and thus produce results --- in accordance with their fundamental beliefs about life. These beliefs include who they think they are, how they think life works, what they view responsibility to be, and all their assumptions around commitment, communication, loyalty, etc.
Until a person's fundamental viewpoints shift, working with them puts you in the realm of motivation. Motivation is good as a short-term fix, but it always wears off sooner or later --- usually sooner. That's why for long-term change you want to do an inside out approach that truly alters how you view things.
"Seeing" Is Believing
Imagine you were born with a pair of dark green sunglasses on --- you've had them on your whole life.
Now, imagine you are looking at a sheet of white paper. What color would you say it is? Green, of course.
Now, your sponsor looks at the paper and tells you it's white. What would you say?
You would tell them they're wrong. They don't know what they are talking about. They better go get their eyes checked, or something even more severe!
Would it matter how excitedly they told you it was white? No. In fact, there is literally no hope, no possibility that you could see it as white, as long as you had the green sunglasses on. You couldn't see it as white even if you wanted to --- as long as you had the glasses on.
Now, if you discover you have those sunglasses on, you could take them off. Literally, in just a fraction of a second you could see what you could not see before --- the color white!
This is what you as successful network marketers often go through with your downline. You know what it takes to be successful. You have the results to prove it. You are telling your downline they can make the same money or more that you do. But they look at you through their sunglasses and say, "I'd like to really, but I'm not as outgoing as you... I don't have the contacts you do... I don't have the time you do, I'm already working two jobs."
They want to build a business, they want to earn more, but they literally connot SEE how they can do it. They try. Some try very hard. Yet they still don't make it. Until those sunglasses come off, they never will!
If you are looking to make a quantum leap in performance in your business this year, then stop looking for a skill or technique and take a look at what type of sunglasses you have on. Look and see what is screening you from noticing the solutions you so desperately want.
Large changes in a short period of time --- or what are commonly referred to as breakthroughs --- do not occur as a result of any learned skill, but from a new way of seeing things. You cannot teach people a new way to look --- they must have an experience of removing the sunglasses themselves.
Follow The Map (But Make Sure It's The Right One!)
Imagine you live in Kansas City and you ask me to come visit you. You mail me a map of the city with some directions from the airport. However, the printer made a mistake. Although the map says Kansas City, it is really a map of San Antonio.
If I am trying to follow your directions using this map while driving a rental car, what would occur? I would get very frustrated, right? (And isn't that the way most network marketers are?) So, I pull out my handy cell phone and give you a call to get proper directions.
Now, suppose one of the maps you have of how the world works is that the way you get ahead is to WORK HARDER. If so, you would tell me, "Brian, I know the problem, you aren't trying hard enough." (Have you ever been told this?)
Okay, I'm coachable (which so many network marketers aren't because they have a map that tells them to do it their own way) so I say, "OK," and I drive faster. What happens next?
I get really angry --- like all those network marketers who have worked hard for a year and have little or nothing to show for it --- because I've gotten a speeding ticket! I pull out my handy cell phone again and call you up.
Let's now suppose you have a map of how the world works that indicates ATTITUDE is the key. You know, the height of your altitude is determined by your attitude. So you tell me, "Brian, I can see the problem, you have a bad attitude." I say, "You're darn right! I just got a ticket!" You tell me to read a positive thinking book.
Okay, I'm coachable, so I do read the book and then continue driving. What happens? I still can't find your place, only now I don't care. Hey, I have a positive attitude!
What's been the problem all along? I have the wong map --- yet I'm convinced I have the right map because it says Kansas City on it.
Suppose you have the wrong map of who you are?
Suppose your map of what commitment is, or what responsibiltiy is, doesn't work?
Suppose your map about what your world means, or what it takes to make relationships work, is incorrect?
Then you'll bust your buns and still not get the result you want.
You say, "Oh, but my maps are accurate."
If you don't have the results you want, then they aren't. That;'s how you know you've got the right map. It's not a question of you being wrong. It's the map --- not you.
Let me give you an easy example:
Let's assume you had good parents. You've experienced a good parent so your brain goes, "I now have a map of good parenting." Great!
Now, you're trying to be a good parent and for some reason it isn't working so well. You have a good map --- your good parents. The only problem is that it's 30 years later and you aren't in Kansas anymore! The territory is all different. There are two income earners now instead of one; 15 year-olds are making decisions about whether to accept some crack cocaine instead of which girl to kiss; college costs more than a house used to, and much, much more.
Here's another example: You have some good maps for navigating the conventional corporate world, yet you're struggling in network marketing.
Look! It's not you --- it's the maps.
When you have a new viewpoint of what responsibility is, then suddenly you are eagerly assuming responsibility for your business --- but only after you see things differently.
The Champion's Success Formula
What if I told you there was a formula, that when applied, guaranteed results? You'd probably be either wildly excited or amusedly skeptical. Well, there is such a formula. I've interviewed world-record-holding Olympic athletes, CEOs of major corporations, best-selling authors and famous scientists. All of them have used this formula successfully. It's a simple formula although understanding it is, for some, difficult. I have personally used the formula to raise and give away over $4,000,000, to create a multi-million dollar business from scratch, meet my wife, and create the beautiful relationship we both enjoy. My intention is not to brag, because I'm nobody special; it's simply to illustrate that this formula can be applied to any goal and that absolutely anyone can do it!
Do you have to be a terrific cook to make a good chocolate chip cookie if you have a good recipe? No, of course not! You simply follow the recipe. It is just the same with this formula.
The secret formula of all champions is this:
Intention + Mechanism = Result
Before you read further, write down your definitions of each of these three words.
Whatever you wrote is your set of sunglasses with regard to each of these words. Now, you can keep your viewpoint, but I would encourage you to allow other perspectives to also exist. That's called growth.
In my workshops, I ask someone to walk from one side of the room to the other and back to illustrate this point: walking is the mechanism. It is the way, the process you use to go to one side and back again.
Then, I'll ask the walker to pause a minute when they reach one side and I'll turn to the crowd and ask what is his or her intention? Many people will say to get back. How do you know that? "Because you told him to," they reply.
No. You can not tell a person's true intention by what someone else tells them to do! You can not even tell a person's true intention by what comes out of their own mouths. I get people all the time in seminars that tell me their intention is to be financially independent or to have a happy marriage ... and it isn't.
Do they want it? Yes.
Is it a good idea? Yes
But that's not intention! Intention is many things. For one, it is your deepest, strongest, most focused commitment. If you are committed to being comfortable, you may want to be financially independent, but you probably won't be. Achieving financial independence is rarely comfortable. If your intent is to be right, you may want a great intimate relationship, but you probably won't get it.
What if your intention ALWAYS equaled your results? You'd like that! That would be exciting!
Owning Your Intention
I assert that that is the way the world really is: Your intention always, 100 percent of the time, equals the result you have. Think about that. It could be very unsettling at first (especially if you are not where you want to be in your networking business.)
Visualize the front and back of one of your hands. If someone asked you for the front of your hand, no matter how many slices you cut off, could you ever have a front without a back? No They are inseparable. You can tell them apart, but you can never have one without the other. So it is with intention and mechanism. They dance together. Two sides of the result coin.
I am not talking about intention as simply what you want, would like to have, or an idle wish as in "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." I'm talking about your strongest commitment.
In my workshops, I have people cross the room many times, each time with a different mechanism; they'll run, skip, hop on one leg. Eventually they get stuck, stop and can't think of any more ways to cross the room. Then all of a sudden a new mechanism comes to mind and they get across the room. What got them across?
Their intention. A voice inside their head said something like, "I'm not going to look like a fool in front of all these people. I'm coming up with a new mechanism and coming up with it now!"
Their intention to cross the room becomes very clear and intense. When the intention is clear, a mechanism will always appear. You do not need to know how to do things, yet that's how most peple are oriented --- and it's where they stop, as well, They are mechanism-oriented.
Here's what you need to know: you can commit to something when you have no idea how to accomplish it. The commitment or intention actually produces a mechanism. Many times the new mechanism seems to come out of the blue, but it is the result of a scientific process.
How many different ways are ther to cross a room? Infinite. I do this at conventions and a thousand people will get across the stage each using a different mechanism. There are an infinite number of mechanisms for any single intention.
This is not to say you don't need a mechanism, but if there are an infinite number of ways to do a thing, anything --- then quit worrying about it. What you want to be most concerned about is your intention. Is it really to get a result, or is it to be liked, or to be comfortable, or to be right, to not look foolish or anything else?
Next time you sponsor someone, actually ask what their intention is. Is it simply to get you off their back?
Look for ways you can increase your intention. I know you'll come up with a bunch of them on your own.
