There are a lot of reasons people fail to succeed in network marketing — and in life, for that matter. Perhaps the most critical one is simply failure to act. It is said that 98% of people entering this industry fail. And most of them fail within the first three to six months. How can you avoid being a failure?

Here are a few reasons people fail to take action:

Lack of Knowledge
I’m a big believer in continuing education. In fact, I don’t think you should ever stop learning. Once you do, you start to get stale. You need a fresh flow of ideas in order to keep things moving. Think of the difference between a pond and a lake. Ponds tend to go stagnant because they don’t have a constant supply of fresh water. Lakes, on the other hand, are continuously renewed.

However, don’t think you have to know it all before you can act. If you are a professional student, you may just keep collecting facts, data and knowledge, but never do anything with them. Don’t treat your brain like a storage building! When you learn a new skill about network marketing, put it into action!

Wanting to Have Everything Perfect First
You need to realize that network marketing isn’t a hunting expedition. I know you’ve heard: ready, aim, fire. And, you’ve probably heard the new twist on that saying: ready, fire, aim. What this means is, you don’t have to have perfect aim when you take your first shot. It’s actually more important to just take the shot. If you hit your target, congratulations! If not, congratulations! You have learned something that doesn’t work. It’s a place to start.

Analyzing your results plays an important part in a successful network marketing campaign. It’s a process of constant refinement. Think of yourself like Thomas Edison who discovered 99 ways of making a light bulb that didn’t work, before he achieved success. He never looked at them as failures, but as learning experiences. These experiences held him perfect his aim.

Fear of Failure
None of us like to lose. It goes completely against our nature. But, if you fail your first time out, if your first shot doesn’t hit the target, what’s the worst that can happen? Maybe you’ll suffer a little embarrassment. Maybe someone will reject you. Who cares?

I still have rejection in network marketing, but most of it I never even know about because my system in automated. But, every now and then, someone will unsubscribe from my system and let me know all about it. I could get angry, I could get my feelings hurt, I could try to please every upset prospect. But, the fact is, you can’t please everyone all the time. In fact, you can’t even please everyone most of the time. It’s a process of natural selection.

Don’t worry about the ones who don’t want to work with you. The worst thing you can do in network marketing is come from a place of desperation. If you let natural selection take its course, you’ll end up with the people you enjoy working with who also enjoy working with you. Let the others go somewhere else.

Information Overload
I hear this all the time in network marketing. We are definitely in the information age. And the internet has massive amounts of information being produced daily. You can’t possibly absorb it all. The problem is, if you go from one package to another, to another, and you never take the time to put anything that you learn into practice, you end up spinning your wheels and getting nowhere.

It may not be easy to know where to start, but you have to decide on a course of action and a starting point. Again, ready, fire, aim.

To recap, don’t let these things keep you from taking action in your network marketing business:

• Lack of knowledge
• Wanting to have everything perfect first
• Fear of failure/embarrassment/rejection
• Not knowing where to start/information overload