The Cost of Leadership

I am writing to tell you of the cost of being a Platinum, the unvarnished truth, not the slick numbers they write on a board at an Open meeting. Those numbers don't tell the true story, but I will. I will write to you because just maybe I can help a family to avoid what I have just gone through.

I remember my first Open Meeting, I thought the presentation went way to long, but I felt somewhat impressed. I went home and told my family about it, and even got some of them to come and see what I was so curious about. At the time I first saw the business, I was doing o.k. financially. By o.k. I mean my Family had good food on the table, the bills were all paid, there was money in savings, etc. But I saw this plan at the meeting, and I thought just what if I could retire (because that is what was claimed you could do from stage) in 5 years! So, I signed up, and I became the sponsor machine, and of course I told all my recruits you couldn't do it without the "system".  I bought a big lot of tools (tapes, CDs, books, brochures) for my car trunk, and I handed out plenty. I showed plans, I went to Men's Leadership, and I became Platinum.

Along the way I saw many things and heard many things. Sometimes the things you see and hear don't sink in very well, especially if you are sleep deprived. I remember being told by my Upline "if the dream is big enough the facts don't matter". I look back and cannot believe I ever fell for that line! Of course the facts always matter, and if you ever think they don't, you are either dim witted or not in touch with reality. I gave up seeing my children at Football games, my daughters dance recitals, and just plain "time" with my kids and wife, because I was running hard. I can remember coming home from work and eating standing up at the counter as I got ready to leave for another house plan. Since I am self employed, my business suffered, as I wasn't able to give it my full attention, because I was exhausted from late night opens, and dream building and plan showing until the early morning hours. I kept thinking of the time when I could just "retire", and it never seemed to come fast enough.

While running hard to build my business, I began to accumulate debt, which I had never had much of a problem with before. I can remember sitting down one Saturday morning and going over our finances, and realizing it cost over 14,000.00 a year to get to Platinum. I added up my expenses, and this was the result. For one year (2003) my mileage was 19,522 @ .36 a mile $7,027.92 deduction. Tickets for Open meetings, seminars, and Leadership meetings for me and my wife $1,680.00. Hotel expenses for 2 Seminars and a leadership Go Diamond weekend were $450.00. I tried driving back and forth to one of the Major Leadership Seminars, but I fell asleep at the wheel and might have killed us if my wife hadn't screamed and woken me up. System expenses (I always showed 15 plans a month from day one) cost me $5,449.76  for 2003. I always received 3 tapes or CDs a week for my own order, plus every person I showed the plan to (that was interested) I gave 2 first night tapes or CDs. I also carried a large supply of books, brochures, tapes, CDs in the trunk of my car too. I always wanted to emphasize the great products, so I usually carried protein bars, gift albums, XS, etc in my car or trunk also. 

 The light bulb finally dawned on me while I was on stage at a Seminar, looking out into the audience, (which is rather hard to see, due to lights) I had my Wife's hand in mine, and I was giving a short speech about how we did it, and they could too. I felt like a liar up there on stage, because I knew so many people wanted to believe, yet I knew how much money and time it took to get just to Platinum. I knew that the majority of my group was spending themselves broke hoping for success, and I knew my tool money was coming from people I was supposed to be "helping".  I had made it, and I knew the big money was in the system, because that was the majority of the money I received every month. Not product flow (like they show at opens) system money, tool money.  I also knew that my Uplines did not have passive income, because I knew their schedules were jammed. I had discovered that they all had to work at least 40 hours a week just keeping their business numbers up, due to continual non renewal of IBO's. I also knew a majority of both Upline and Downline had been going deeper and deeper into debt.  I made up my mind during that seminar that I was going to stop, and go back to my business, and my life that I had before. I can remember driving home and my wife asking me if I was alright, I was so quiet. I thought about it for the next few days until the first Tuesday after that Seminar. My wife was surprised when I didn't eat standing up at the counter so I could rush off to a open. I felt something near guilt that night, because I spent it at home, with my wife and children. I finally told my wife how I felt, and that I planned to quit doing the business, and I hoped she would agree with my decision. I am the luckiest Man in the World to have the wife I have, because she agreed, and even offered to help rid the house of all tapes, CDs, books, tools, anything related to the business. In one night, together we took back our family and our lives. Unfortunately, we lost most of the so called friends we had in the business, because we quit.

I had to build back up the business I had when I was recruited, and that is going well now, but there were some rough spots for a while. We are paying off the debt we accumulated from losing between $11,000.00 to $14,000.00 a year for the first 2 years. When we were Platinum we made about 30,000.00 a year before expenses, which ran over $14,000.00 a year the first year. Every night I go home to my Family I am glad to do just that. I have time on my hands now, and I spend it wisely, with my wife and children. I also have more money in my pocket. Unsuspecting recruits need to be aware that the money figures you see at Opens are tools income, and the myth that you can "retire" is just that, a myth. The big Pins are working their collective butts off.

Sign me,

Former Platinum Leader, now a Husband and Father

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