THE CRISIS OF CHARACTER IN AMERICA
We live in troubled times. The internet, cable, and radio are filled with negative reports of war, disease, economic disaster, natural disaster and personal disasters. The list of corporate crooks and examples of private greed. While ponzi schemes, financial frauds and flim flam man are nothing new, there seems to be a common problem underlying Worldcom, Enron, the Wall Street Meltdown, the Real Estate Melt, Bernie Madoff. It’s a problem of character, or lack thereof.
Mores have changed. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote of the Scarlet A, and ages ago, anyone who went against the mores would be shunned or ostracized. If you are trying to start a business, you would necessarily want to be in business with someone you could trust. In order to develop leadership and a following, you must build trust The concept of sin seems to have gone the way of all flesh. How do you do business in a world or even socialize with people who you cant trust. Stephen Covey Jr. wrote a book recently called the Speed of Trust, and among other things he noted how difficult it is to establish trust and how easy it is to destroy it. Trust is also something that needs constant attention and requires vigilance.
In today’s society, it has become all too easy for people to place profits ahead of principles. The mortgage meltdown can be seen as a primary example of this phenomenon. While there can be a lot of discussion about all the economic factors involved, the bottom line was that lenders were making loans that they didn’t intend to service for a long term and which were overinflated because of speculation and greed, and many buyers simply bought into the American Dream without being able to afford it, working and sacrificing to achieve their goals. It was easy, fast, designed for instant gratification, and not considered for long term consequences.
In order to build a business, you must add value to other people. You do this not just by entering into a financial transaction where the parties make money. You add value by giving encouragement, advice, training, and uplifting other people. This is part of building a relationship. Internet marketers talk about building a list, adding to the freeline, and constantly adding value. Network marketers think in terms of developing relationships with their people, providing value in the form of leadership, education, training and support. The principles of old school network marketing still apply in the information age. That’s because no matter how technically clever and automated your attraction marketing system is, people are still people. And while you can attract a big list with a slick capture page, and an autoresponder series, and the latest in technology, if you’re not helping other people grow financially and personally, you’re not going to build a successful downline, because your going to have to keep adding distributors instead of stimulating horizontal growth. Self branding and attraction marketing are essential to recruiting new prospects, but you still need to provide value to your group. The advent of the internet and webinars makes you more accessible than ever to more people, but there is nothing as powerful as a phone call or a personal and heartfelt email from someone who takes the time to care.
Honesty and fair dealings in all your affairs,
