Perhaps my favorite passage in the entire book of Proverbs is in today’s 30th chapter:
Two things I ask of you;
do not deny them to me before I die:
Remove far from me falsehood and lying;
give me neither poverty nor riches;
feed me with the food that I need,
or I shall be full, and deny you,
and say, “Who is the Lord?”
or I shall be poor, and steal,
and profane the name of my God. (Prov 30:7-9, NRSV)
“Remove far from me falsehood and lying.” I read this as referring both to my own falsehood and lying and that of the people I interact with.
“Give me neither poverty nor riches.” The extremes have their unique challenges, as eloquently expressed in verse 9 of this passage. Please, God, place me right in the middle.
“Feed me with the food that I need.” Too much and I face all sorts of health challenges that result from overindulgence. Too little and I starve.
Network marketing is a great wealth-building vehicle for all people. Anyone can succeed, regardless of education, training, and finances. Most network marketing companies have an obscenely low start-up cost … at least in comparison to other business opportunities such as franchises. (Of course, if you have tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to invest up front, franchises offer a great systematic way to generate wealth.)
One might think, therefore, that the largest fear we all have to deal with is the fear of failure. In my experience, a more insidious fear is the fear of success. If I become rich, I’ll lose my friends. Self-sabotage is rampant in network marketing.
Don’t you succumb to it! You can do far more good with excess wealth than you can if you remain in paycheck-to-paycheck mode. Yes, there are those who squander their gains on fast cars and, in some cases, fast women. But the vast majority of successful network marketers are overwhelmingly generous with their wealth.
In my own company, there are many stories of philanthropy among the 150 or so members of USANA‘s Million Dollar Club. One of the top income earners in USANA is the single largest donor to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. USANA’s founder, Dr. Myron Wentz, is a huge philanthropist. Not only has he subsidized Sanoviv, his world-famous holistic medical center in Baja California, with his own funds, he has established two Wentz Medical Centers, one in Uganda and another in Cambodia. And he and USANA are huge donors to the Children’s Hunger Fund. Just this past week at our International Convention in Salt Lake City, we USANA associates presented a check for $125,000 to Dave Phillips, president of CHF.
Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, has a philosophy that resonates with me:
Make a comfortable living and then make a difference.
In this age of economic uncertainty, the ability to make a comfortable living is an inestimable blessing. Don’t be afraid to succeed. By doing so you can make a huge difference in this world.
