Abandoning The Poverty Mentality Syndrome

“Conference calls are too expensive.”

“I don’t have the money to attend the conference.”

“I can’t afford to advertise.”

“I’m not making the money John (or whoever) is making, so I’m not able to do X, Y, Z.”

I’ve heard a lot of these comments during my twenty plus years in the business. Interestingly, most of them have been second-hand reports from other distributors, not in-person comments from the speaker. There seems to be a poverty-consciousness in some circles that fosters poverty-thinking through language rather than reality.

We are all guilty of it occasionally, and it actually gives us an easy way to prevent excessive spending on frivolous things. I have routinely said I couldn’t afford something that I simply did not want to spend the money on: a hotel suite, when a room would do, or another diamond necklace, when I already have several.

My understanding of poverty-consciousness goes back to my days as a high school teacher almost thirty years ago. I coined a phrase then, based on observation: “You show me a kid with a $100-a-day drug habit, and I’ll show you a kid who learns how to make $100 a day.”

Properly motivated people skip the limits on production. For example, mothers have been known to single-handedly lift cars when their child was pinned beneath the wheels.

After noticing that even kids could come up with cash for whatever they wanted, almost without fail, I concluded that when people in America say they can’t afford something, what they really mean is that you have not yet convinced them that they should part with their money for the object in question.

You’re probably wondering how there’s a logical connection, and then a moral to the story, between a desperate rescuing mother or a teenager “needing” a fix, and you. Here it is! When you begin to focus on “why,” you want to develop your business, and it becomes sufficiently compelling to get you past the normal objections of a skeptical distributor (like those three poverty mentality opening statements I quoted), then you will begin to creatively work around them. Then, you CAN and WILL succeed in this business!Just use other resources to overcome your deficit. For example: PROBLEM: “I don’t have money for conference calls.”

SOLUTION: 1) Use a free conference line or realize that the calls cost just a few dollars monthly, but they will generate sales. One sale will more than pay for the month’s phone bill; 2) Have your sponsor conference you in; 3) Obtain a tape of the calls.

PROBLEM: “I don’t have the money to attend the conference.”

SOLUTION: 1) Share a room to minimize expenses; 2) Earn extra money in advance by “thinking increase;” 3) Plan income-expanding business activities in conjunction with the conference.

PROBLEM: “I can’t afford to advertise.”

SOLUTION: 1) Co-op with downline; 2) Use flyers and inexpensive mediums, like emails; 3) “Trade” advertising for product or services.

Remember: “Thoughts are things.

” When say you can’t afford things, you are perpetuating your condition. Why not shift your perspective away from the poverty-mentality to a more empowering position? You will discover that you attract a lot more business. In this business, the law of attraction influences success. Become a confident businessperson, and great things will begin to happen.

Remember that old expression, “The best things in life are free,” because it still has merit. I received an unexpected call last night for a $350 retail order from a friend of someone who had met me two years ago and had recently shared with the caller about a product I had. His kind words didn’t cost me a dime, yet they generated me a 40% profit on the order.

Since you can do, be and have anything in life you really take a stand for, you are --- after all --- very rich in opportunity.