And the prize goes to TOM!!!

You said, "but the focus is on the product and I know exactly what I'll be selling. Why can't they all be like that?"

Boy, you've put my greatest wish right out here for the world to see.

If ALL network marketing companies operated in this manner, it'd be so perfect. We wouldn't have to have these discussions about companies that use smoke and mirrors and hype (not pointing out any specific company here, but a lot of network marketing companies use these tactics, sadly enough) and warn people not to get dollar signs in their eyes.

Put the focus on the product. Great products sell. Don't drag people off to opportunity meetings, don't give people inflated income claims, give them a dose of honesty, integrity and common sense. Don't "convince" them into the company, but show them your products, and let the products convince them.

If all network marketing companies operated in this manner, I wouldn't have to feel like a black sheep here--a person who has somehow beaten these odds and found a couple of great companies with great products that actually sell, a person who has shown others what great products I have, a person who has trained others to go out and tell others about these products, and how they can make money selling them.

I really like this board...and have been around here for a couple of years now. Granted, I realize that not everyone has an appreciation for MLM, because they've been "burned", or know someone who has. I have direct experience in being burned too. The one thing that stuck with me, the one thing that wouldn't let me give up the search was the concept of residual income. THAT part I got--and it cost me a couple of thousand dollars worth of bad mistakes to learn it, but I learned THAT. That's why I continued to search the companies in the industry to find the companies I am with now. I sell products--great ones, and am not ashamed. I sleep at night knowing I scam NO ONE...they get the absolute truth out of me from day one so THEY can make a decision that's the best one for THEM to make.

In four years time, I'm making enough with the two companies I'm with to cover 90 percent or more of ALL of my living expenses for me and my sixteen year old son (I'm a single mom). I have never had to drag a single person off to an opportunity meeting, have never sold training tools, and I help the people I bring into this industry MAKE money, not lose it. The best part of it? I get to spend a lot of time with my sixteen year old son--and he's a wonderful combination of boy/man right now and I am so blessed to know I get to share that with him (when four years ago, when I first started, I was working a sixty hour workweek and only got to see him three days out of the week).