What Does An Iceberg Have To Do With Launching A Network Marketing Business?

The iceberg is used through business and leadership as an example of what can happen to us if we do not pay attention to things around us.

In most cases when we think iceberg, we think of the greatest ship to ever sail and how it sank due to an iceberg. But, have you ever given thought as to why an iceberg could doom such a ship? I’ll challenge conventional wisdom and say it was the captain and not the iceberg that sank the ship.

Sadly in reviewing the rise or fall of direct selling companies, I also find it is not some specific event which causes companies to fail, but the leaders guiding the company.

For this article let’s use the iceberg as a picture of your personality. The 10% people see is the persona you let people see. In most cases it is enough for you to raise capital, attract a team, and prepare for the launch of your new direct sales company. But… what about the other 90% you try and hide. This is called your character, and at the end of the day is what causes most companies to make it or fail.

See no matter how good we look on the surface, sooner or later our true character will come to the surface, and usually it is when we are under some emotional situation. It may be the closing of angel funding or the delivery of certified letter from a regulatory agency informing us they have opened an investigation into our company.

And like the crew of the titanic, we been going through life ignoring the warning signs. On the night of the crash between the Titanic and the iceberg, the crew received five warning calls to look out for massive icebergs and ignored them all. When the sixth and final message came through the radio operator wired back “Shut up, I’m busy!” Thirty minutes later the Titanic hit the fatal iceberg.

I use to think the radio operator was to blame until I read the words the captain was reported saying to his crew before the launch “God couldn’t sink this ship!” See the captain as the leader of the titanic as well as your company sets the course of the ship. If the founder or CEOs has a character issue below the surface, then the crew may not see it until it is too late.

We can’t afford to forget where we came from, and the fact none of us are too good to sink. When we start believing our own press, we may very well follow in the path of destruction of the titanic. We should be focused on the 905 of our personality most people never see. If you have character flaws you know can self-sabotage your success or the success of those around you, then call in some professional help.

Here are four areas of your character as a leader you need to focus and work on constantly:

1. Self-Discipline – The ability to make the hard calls and do what’s right even when you don’t feel like it. Maybe it is terminating the #1 distributor because you know what they are saying is not true.
2. Core Values – Take a deep look at your principles and the way you live and lead. If you are not able to take a moral stand based on your core values, then you are not really leading at all.
3. Sense of Identity – You must have a realistic self-image of who you really are. Don’t fall into the trap of so many and start believing everything your fans are saying about you. Remember they are only seeing the 10% above the surface, you see the other 90%!
4. Emotional Security – Only you know your capacity of emotional stability. Launching a new company of any kind, but especially one using direct sales as its main marketing channel is full of last second emotionally channeling issues. If you are looking for calm and stability DON”T Launch!

I have watched good leaders who had the potential to be great, get into the limelight and because they neglected their character fall fast. Your skills are such a small part of the overall success, don’t lie to yourself and think you can fake it, until you make it, it will not work!

Adolf Hitler is a prime example of a good leader. He rose through the ranks and inspired a generation. If he was a leader today we might call him “a leader of Gen-Y”. He rallied the youth of his day, and created massive cultural shift inside of Germany. But, it was not a great leader, who inspired positive transformation. So ask yourself this one question, “Do you want to be a good leader who creates temporary change, or a great leader who creates culture shifting transformation?”

Like Adolf Hitler, I have watched highly skilled and charismatic leaders enter into direct sales at the corporate and field levels and leave a wake of dead and dying people behind them. You do not have to be one of these leaders. All it takes is a little self-reflection and a willingness to work on your character.

To start your transformation answers the following questions, but first let me share a passage from the Message Bible as the foundation of my questions.

Luke 6:43-45 – Message Bible

43) “You don’t get wormy apples off a healthy tress, nor good apples off a diseased tree. 44. The health of the apple tells the health of the tree. You must begin with your own life-giving lives. 45 It’s who you are, not what you say and do, that counts. Your true being brims over in true words and deeds.”

1. Why is focusing on my “inside character” so difficult, what am I hiding from myself and others?
2. Why do I put so much emphasis on my “outside skills” of my life?
3. Look at verse 45. Are you living who you really are, or are you faking it, hoping this time things will be different?

Rate your 90% (character) on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the strongest.

1. How strong is your Self-Discipline?
2. Are you living by your Core Values?
3. You have a realistic sense of Identity?
4. How strong is your Emotional Security?

Identify what you need to work on, or what the team needs to work on, so you can launch a direct selling company that can beat the odds.

Living An Epic Adventure,

Troy Dooly

Beachside CEO