The Law of Time and Money I Learned The Hard Way

The 8 Steps To Financial Freedom I Learned The Hard Way

When I was about 19 or 20 I worked for residential construction company in Sacramento. I was going to school at Sac State and working full-time. One day one of our subcontractors asked me on his way out the door, “Hey, do you ever listen to business tapes?”

I was like, “Hell yeah!” and I was also thinking to myself, “What the f*** is a business tape?”, but my curiosity and driven personality made me feel like I really wanted to check out the tape.

The tape made me feel so curious about it, and excited, that I listened to it that night on my way home in the cassette player of my S-10 Blazer. If you don't know what a cassette player is f****** Google it. They were awesome.

The title of the tape was,”The Law of Time and Money,”  and it explained how good business models don't depend on trading time for money. It also gave a very general outline and description of a specific business opportunity that was currently available and recommended that I contact the person who gave it to me if I wanted to learn more.

Quite honestly, it seemed like at the time that I had miraculously found the fast-track to the promised land of huge and immediate financial success. Bart, the landscape contractor followed up with me, and we had about a 30-minute meeting going over a 3-5 year plan of building a business that would generate $5,000 a month, working about 10 to 15 hours a week or less.

“He used Ray Kroc in his example. Ray Kroc was a milkshake machine salesman who saw an opportunity, and convinced the McDonald brothers to expand their business. Ray Kroc didn’t invent the hamburger, but he understood how the process of duplication could sell a shit load of hamburgers. You can now see the whole story on Netflix. It’s pretty cool.”

The following week Bart and I had another meeting. I think it was a one-on-one but it could have been 8 to 10 people invited to someone's house. Coffee and cookies were served, but no booze! I can't believe I fucken signed up. No booze? But I did.

They waited till the very end of that third meeting to say that it was Amway because I guess everyone knows that Amway is a scam where everybody at the top is making all the money (that’s not true by the way). At the time, I was so stoked I didn’t give a shit. I was committed.

I did it for a year or so, and never made any real money, but I became immersed in their system of training. They had a bullet proof, (no, not butter in your coffee, but that would have been cool), system for building a business based on duplication similar to the way Ray Kroc sold hamburgers with McDonalds.

It was an 8 step system for success. The 8 steps were on these little pink index cards and I don't remember them all exactly, or the order that they came in. Here’s the quick Hiddle-Haddle version:

1. Hand out those fuck'n tapes (prospecting)
2. Show the plan (business building) (GOALS?)
3. Use the product (integrity)
4. Work with your sponsor. F****** Bart! (mentoring)
5. Sell some product (retail) (reward)
6. Read self-help books and listen to tapes (personal growth)
7. Attend seminars (more growth and exposure to other successful people)
8. Associate with like-minded people (network)

It seems like goal-setting would have to be in there. I think maybe books, tapes and association were all one step, and goals was on there somewhere. I don't remember. Even though I never made shit as an Amway distributor, those steps provided a blueprint that I’ve modified over the years to build businesses and help other people start and build businesses.

My real point of this article isn't the steps. They deserve their own article. The point is the methodical process of how the opportunity was introduced. The business (prospecting) tape strategy was awesome. It helped identify who wanted to learn more.

The 3-5 year plan weeded out some more, and you didn’t end up spending an hour showing every Tom, Dick and Harry the full Amway sales and marketing plan with a call to Action.

Online marketing uses a similar process. First you are offered something for free which isn’t really free because you have to “opt-in”. Depending on the company, once you opt-in you will get hammered weekly, daily or hourly to buy and introductory level product. And boom! They’ve got you.

Some people have said that the Amway sales and marketing plan is misleading. You find this unbelievably awesome business opportunity, and then you find out and go, “Ahhhhhh this is fucking Amway????” I don’t want to agree or disagree about whether it’s misleading or not. I would like to share my own unique perspective about Amway and this type of marketing in general.

Everything in my mind, body and soul wanted to hear what was on “The Law of Time and Money”. Every part of me wanted to see the 3-5 year plan, and by the time it came down to paying $100 for a start up kit (it would be $97 if it was marketed today online) and signing up for Amway, I was IN 110%.

Here I was 20 years old, sophomore in college and part of a billion-dollar global company with 300 manufacturers, and a proven training system. How rad is that? I sponsored a few people right away, and I thought, ”This is so cool. I'll be an Amway Diamond in 3 years living a financially free lifestyle on the beaches of the world!”, but at some point it got hard.

I stop passing out the tapes and showing the plan because I was getting a sinking feeling that Amway sucks. It was because most people think that, and I honestly, I didn't have the emotional maturity to ignore the social pressure. And hugely it was because I was more focused on vaulting myself into financial success and personal freedom than in helping others do the same. The true success of Amway is based on helping others achieve their dreams.

There's another very good reason that I failed (fucken learned some great lessons) as an Amway distributor. The bullet proof plan has 8 steps and I was consistently and persistently doing 6 out of 8.

So I don’t feel like I was mislead because if Bart would have walked up to me and said, “Hey fucker. Wanna join Amway? It’s really cool and you can get rich.” I would have said, “Ha-ha. Good one.” and some other 4 letter words.

The true value and what I learned from the experience is immeasurable. I read something the other day that went along the lines of; I never fail. I either succeed, or I learn, and that was definitely the case here. The 8 steps do work when it comes to creating a business that you are not trading time for money. I’ve lived that over the last 2 decades applying what I learned to my current businesses.

When it comes to online marketing of self improvement, success systems or business opportunities, there are some great opportunities out there. And technology has made it possible to deliver a tremendous amount of value at a very low cost.

And at the same time the Internet has also made it possible to sell a shitload of pure crap like a drug dealer pushing cocaine and delivering baby powder or smashed up aspirin if you’re lucky. At least you’ll get some type of buzz off the aspirin.

Personally, whether you are an online consumer or an online marketer (I am both), it’s important to be able to buy the right product (consumer) and market your product (marketer) through a sales funnel that is progressive in nature like the Amway business tape example.

Whether it’s deceiving or not depends on the value of what’s provided. When you choose to get involved in a program you will know for a fact if it’s shit very quickly if your honest with yourself, and any decent program will offer a full refund if you’re not satisfied.

So if you’re a consumer and you want to purchase a transformational product or business system, do your homework, and it’s usually best to get some testimonials. It’s even better yet to try something that someone you know has experience with.

And if you’re a marketer and producer of online products, rock your sales funnel unapologetically, and don’t try to sell crap. We’ll figure it out pretty quick and then you’ll have to do it all again! Don’t send so many fucken emails. Scarcity creates value in this case. Give people an honest opportunity to opt out after 60-90 days. I honestly believe it will help, not harm your business. Find a creative and resourceful way to ask for referrals.

And please, for the love of God respect our privacy.

“It’s much easier to fool someone than to convince him that he’s been fooled.”

 -Mark Twain

Click here if you want to learn more about the 8 steps

“My real point of this article isn’t the steps. They deserve their own article. The point is the methodical process of how the opportunity was introduced. The business (prospecting) tape strategy was awesome. It helped identify who wanted to learn more.”