It has been an interesting week for Vemma members who just got reminded of why they should have trusted their gut feelings to begin with and never joined a MLM. In a recent article released by the FTC, Vemma which grossed $200M+ a year on selling pipe dreams and false hope to its members of being self employed and being able to make $50,000+ a year just for joining and working part time, has now been shut down. The FTC concluded that its manipulation technique of portraying fake lifestyle and making the majority of its income from hiring and recruiting, rather than selling retail drinks as it claimed to do, has labeled Vemma as an ‘illegal pyramid scheme’.
For a long time now, we have fought and stood by the idea that MLMs are a valid business model and profitable for those creating them, but a tremendous financial loss for those joining as well as the loss time, which is even more important.
We do, however, understand why people join MLMs and understand how devastating it must be to have lost the only thing you believed in. But just like in real life or in business, there are no shortcuts to greatness and certainly no shortcuts to wealth.
If you believed joining an MLM would give you skills, business experience, and money, then think again as the core essence of an MLM business is to use YOU the contractor as the main user, rather than help you create a business.
Why do people join MLM companies like Vemma?
Belief in yourself that you are worth more and the promise that others will help you unlock such potential.
The reality is that in many communities, organizations, or startups there are people who were members of Vemma (or other MLMs) that are fed up with low wages, uninspiring work, and poor managerial leadership that expects you to do day-to-day routine work in order to eventually become semi-average individuals like the lifeless person giving you instructions hiding behind a $12/hr manager badge.
When opportunities (or should I say the illusion of opportunities) appear and it seems reachable, then it is only expected that those who are behind feel a need to not miss out and participate.
There is nothing wrong or shameful about falling for an MLM, even if it stole many years of your life. Whats important is how quickly you get up and to make sure that you don’t fall for the same mistake twice.
Now that Vemma is done for, what is next?
The founders and the faces that made up the top .01% will attempt to start yet another pyramid scheme of some sort and will follow up by trying to recruit all their old contacts into it.
They will most likely create an elaborate story about the lessons they learned of their past failures and will even come up with a charitable way to mask the nature of their new work; perhaps through some type of ‘doing right’ for the new generation of hopeless people or focusing on another product but with a charitable twist.
There is also the chance that they’ll simply come up with a simple product and rewrite all their processes to fit. For those of you that will continue on, it will all seem too familiar to be different and you’ll be smarter than that this time.
For the majority of you who have learned from the mistake of joining an MLM to begin with, and are tired of the brain washing that is solely focused on simply working you to death and not compensating you, comes the time to make an important choice.
1. Do you wait for someone else to come to you with a magical opportunity?
OR
2. Do you take your life in your hands and realize that there are no shortcuts, no handouts, and that without your ability to know yourself and the hardship of working for yourself, you will never get out of this vicious circle of non-stop failures.
I know that when you joined Vemma, you were told that you would ‘own’ your own company, but the reality was that you certainly had no ownership of anything but your own liability.
Meaning that if you had any successes, the organization would steal your thunder; but if you had many failures, the organization would have no liability of your actions and would do nothing to stand behind you.
Sad?
No, just a reality that was blurred due to the fact that you needed to believe in the opportunity.
If you selected option 2 and ready to tackle the next step and really be in control of your life, then there are a few tools you will need in order to get started as well as a few things you should be prepared for.
1. Being in business for yourself is hard and requires you to know yourself.
In all my years learning to be a master of my trade between becoming a VP in Corporate America, building a 7 and 8 figure company with $0 in my pocket, and creating one of the best online entrepreneur academies anywhere, I have learned that business or entrepreneurship is more about self-mastery than anything else.
It’s about knowing yourself, what you are good at, what you are willing to do, and what your limitations are. People often ask me why I don’t teach a step-by-step guide on building a business and instead focus on teaching others about the mastery of perspective and awareness as I do in Third Circle Theory.
This is partly because of my belief that forcing someone how to do something will push them further from execution when instead giving them the ability to identify opportunities will give them a sense of purpose. Something that everyone needs in order to succeed in business.
2. Awareness trumps education.
Another important rule in business and taking yourself from worker-to-owner is to understand that the most knowledgeable isn’t always the most equipped, but rather those with the highest level of awareness are those with the greatest chances of figuring things out.
Being well-rounded and aware of your industry and parallel industries enables you to look at business from multiple perspectives rather than only actions and reactions ongoing in your business daily from a unilateral lens.
Be aware and you’ll know what to read and when to read it so that you can educate yourself without taking away from your ability to execute and apply what you learn. Learning how to seize opportunities is pointless if we don’t understand how to identify them.
3. Surround yourself with greatness.
Don’t confuse ‘surround yourself’ with ‘follow people’. When starting a business, most people always want to find mentors to hold their hands, but in reality they don’t realize that surrounding yourself with people who have been there who can only provide support, not leadership.
You are going into business to be independent, yet the first thing you look for is direction?
Makes no sense, instead join a community and learn from others, but don’t expect direction. Expect the ability to connect the dots faster as a results of understanding how others work.
These are three important steps and tools to help you master the transition from MLM to entrepreneur but don’t forget that 9 out 10 businesses fail in their first year and another 70% of those fail within three years.
Succeeding when being self-employed requires your ability to adapt and to mold yourself to ever changing economic climates, customers, and more importantly, your very own vision.
Make sure to join us in the Secret Entourage Academy where you can once and for all start your very own journey, instead of simply living under the instructions of others.
Just because Vemma died doesn’t mean that you have to give up on your hopes and aspirations even if you have to take a different direction.
