I have made THIS mistake so many times, the number is incalculable for me. Not that it’s an infinite number, I just can’t remember all of them!
You have also made this mistake if you have been in the business long enough to sponsor a few people. You will continue to make this mistake, even if today at this moment is the first time you become aware of it, and it resonates so deeply with you that you stand on your chair and yell Never again at the top of your lungs.
This mistake is natural. It is also one of these subtle things that we don’t really notice when it is happening. So what is this ubiquitous treachery?
The mistake of expectation. Specifically expectation of others. And here is why this is a huge mistake. When we have expectations of others, then we are bound to be disappointed. After all, is it someone else’s responsibility to live up to our expectations? Do we even truly know the person we sponsor enough to even have a realistic expectation?
This expectation issue is natural and comes in many ways, and I am going to mention only two of them here. The two I will mention briefly fall under the headings of naivety and wisdom.
First naivety. This is the plight of the young (first few years in the business) networker. They sponsor someone and they are so excited about what’s possible in the business and they think everyone else will be feeling and thinking the same way. So naturally as soon as they sponsor someone, they expect them to jump right in and take action and start sponsoring just like they did! This young networker also still has a little bit of the lottery mentality working too. Even though the responsible leaders in the upline have stressed that this is not about signing up a few people and then the whole world will be in your downline and a big pile of money will come every month…..they still think this is going to happen for some reason? Ohhh…I know why…it’s because of the irresponsible leaders in the industry who continuously parade the few this happens to out front as a carrot….by the way…STOP THAT!
So…here’s what this expectation mistake does. It creates huge disappointment! It also affects work flow and breaks personal momentum. What goes up must come down. Gravity. This applies to emotions too. Get all excited…too excited, because of expectations that these few people you sponsored are going to build a huge business and all your dreams will come true because of them…and when they don’t, your energy crashes from disappointment. In my book Process 2, I talk about how to use the energy from sponsoring to continue sponsoring…that helps to mitigate this issue as well as the second one I just mentioned above and that is slowing down your own personal momentum. There is a pipeline that must be maintained in order to consistently sponsor new people, which is the key to finding the right people (2nd Funnel). Expectations of others, lures you into slowing your sponsoring activities and breaks the pipeline. This drives the disappointment further, because now the people you thought were going to do it, don’t, and you have no new people in the pipeline to sponsor…things look bleak. This is hard for the newbie because they don’t understand the enduring numbers nature of building a successful business yet.
Second Wisdom. How can wisdom be a mistake? It’s not, unless you forget your own lessons. Like what I am about to tell you here. The longer you are in the industry the more you work with and mentor people, the easier it is to see how THEY COULD succeed using the gifts they have that YOU CAN EASILY SEE. It is wisdom to be able to quickly see and connect how someone uses their innate abilities, skills and personality in working the process. It is so easy, we forget that they have no real clue what we mean. They don’t see it and don’t know how to use it (generally). It is easy to have the expectation that they will grow their business and themselves by following the obvious path their gifts have laid out for them. But the reality of it all doesn’t change….some will and some won’t. Regardless of skills and gifts.
You cannot control what others do. So to have an expectation of them is ludicrous. My mantra is simple…I believe in everyone, but I expect nothing. Instead I turn the expectation game onto myself. And this is my advice to you. Don’t disappoint yourself. Make a commitment to build your business every day. Work the numbers in the process. Meet THAT simple expectation. Show up for you everyday. And the numbers and the process will take you wherever you want to go.
