Research...

Since I’ve returned to the network marketing and internet marketing arena, I’ve been bombarded by a very large amount of emails promoting a program or a product. I’ve tried to get in touch with some of the people that promote these programs or products just to find out a little bit more about them. Not the product or the program, the individual.

Sometimes it amazes me to find out the reasons behind their decision to join the program. Especially here in Malaysia, I find that a lot of people join a program because the person that recruited them, or people above this person has made money in the program. I find that most of the reasons given to me about why a person joined a particular program have nothing to do with the business. These people were not making a business decision, but more of an emotional decision.

Let me put this argument into a different perspective. If you wanted to set up a conventional business, the first thing you would do is RESEARCH. You have to:

1. Research the product, is it a good, high quality product,
2. Research the market, do you have competitors and if you do, what is your advantage over them?
3. Research the consumer or end user, who are they and why are they buying the product and why should they buy from you.
4. Research the returns, find out what is your breakeven point.
5. Research the company selling the product. How long have they been in business. Try to find out if any complaints have been filed against them or any negative comments or press coverage.

These are just some of the more important points. There are a lot of other points you need to research, but these are the more important ones.

The same goes for network marketing and internet marketing. Research the product and the company before you join. The program might offer you a superb compensation plan but what is the product like?

Before I decided to join 4Life Research, I did a lot of research. I wanted to know how good is the product, is it as effective as they claim. Do people know about the product and if they do, what are their opinions about the product. Do they have any competition which of course the answer to that is that they don’t. What about the company, 4Life Research. Have there been any complaints filed against them. Have they had any negative comments or negative press coverage?

Do the research. Take your time to make a decision. Don't just join any program that looks good or looks like it pays well. Research the program. I see a lot of phrases like "join and you make money", "no need to recruit" or "making money in your sleep". All these phrases are coined to make the program or the business look easy. IT'S NOT EASY.

If you want to build a long term sustainable business where you can earn an income for a long time, then do the research. As for me, I don't want to have to start my business all over gain in a couple of years time just because I could "make money in my sleep". I would rather work hard now, and as the business grows, the work load becomed lighter and lighter.

The main reason I joined this business, 4Life Research is because of the product and the company. I could have joined any other company, but none could beat 4Life Research in terms of the uniqueness of the product and the compensation plan. I wanted a business that is sustainable in the long term. Like I said, I don't want to have to start over again in a couple of years time.

I could tell people how great 4Life Research is and how good the product is, but then I would prefer you to do your own research. Only then you would appreciate how much of an opportunity this is. But if you are too busy to do your own research, you can always sign up at my website and I’ll be happy to tell you why this is such a great opportunity.

FIND OUT WHY THIS IS SUCH A GREAT OPPORTUNITY

Missed Opportunities

“When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.”
– Alexander Graham Bell

I often spend time looking back at the opportunities that I was given in the past. All those career decisions that I made, the ones that if I decided another way, would have put me in a totally different position compared to the one I am in now.

To be honest, I regret making some of the decisions that I made in the past.. When I look back, I look at the turning points in my life. There weren’t that many opportunities in my past, which could have made me a different person, but I guess I made the wrong choice in all of them.

Another thing I realized, that while I was looking back at all these missed opportunities, I missed other opportunities. I spent too much time wallowing in self-pity for missing a golden opportunity, that I didn’t see another one presenting itself in front of me.

Now, I no longer want to look back as often as I did. What happened in the past is in the past. True, things could have been different. But there’s no point regretting the past. Learn from it. Learn from your mistakes. Don’t discard any opportunity just because you thought at that time, it wasn’t a good idea or it wasn’t for you. You will never know until you try. There are so many opportunities waiting for you out there. Grab one and go with it.



This is the opportunity I took. Click here to check it out

It's going to be a bumpy ride...

As I was driving to the Platinum Forum (This is like a training session for Platinum Networkers) yesterday evening, I switched on the radio just to listen to some music and alleviate the boredom of driving in KL traffic. I heard on the new that Honda Malaysia (the car manufacturer) announced they were going to cut their staff salary by a staggering 50%.

When I read the papers later on in the evening, I found more of the same thing. Some of the manufacturers in Penang are considering on cutting their staff salaries by 25%. You add on the comment by the Human Resource Minister a couple of months back that 5000 workers in the electronics sector would likely lose their jobs in the first quarter of this year, it looks like we'll be going through some though times.

Some people might say that given the current circumstances, a 25% pay cut is okay. All you have to do is to cut back on your expenditure, no more overseas holidays, no more extensive shopping trips, no more branded clothes, buy local instead and many other excuses just to make themselves feel better.

But trust me, I've been through it before. It's not that easy. You get used to a certain lifestyle and you feel like everything has become a necessity. You feel like you can't live without your evening "teh tarik" with you colleagues after work. You absolutely have to have your daily "roti canai" or "nasi lemak" at the mamak stall. So how do you cut back on your ependiture?

You can't. You just borrow more to get through the tough times. You max out your credit cards, and when that isn't enough, you apply for new ones. Eventually, you end up taking cash advances from one credit card to pay for another. After a while, it starts to become a habit. You think that borrowing from banks will help you get through the difficult times and you end up being in debts up to your nose. Then once you relaize your mistake, it's too late. You've already got a huge pile of debts.

I went through all that before. So today, I decided to ask myself, am I ready to face what could be another very difficult period ahead of me? I spent the first 10 minutes after I woke up this morning contemplating this, and I have to say, I AM READY.

I don't know about anyone else but for me, I am taking positive action. Rather than sit back, worry and wait for the impact of the potential economic recession to hit me, and believe me, it will hit me just as it will hit everyone else, I've decided to take the offensive.

That's one of the reasons I joined the 4Life Research business. It will help me weather the storm, assist me through what is going to be a very difficult time and prepare me for a much brighter future.

So I guess the question I am asking you is "Are You Ready?"

Setting Out My Goals

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."
- Albert Einstein



I’ve been working on the 4Life Research business for the last 3 weeks or more. It’s been a very interesting 3 weeks or so. I haven’t recruited anyone as yet but I am very hopeful for the future. The reason why I haven’t recruited anyone is not because of lack of interest. Just that I haven’t really spoken to many people about the program as yet.

What I've Done So Far

Besides writing posts in this blog, I’ve spent quite a considerable amount of time translating materials about the business. It is quite inconvenient to have most of the materials in English, especially since I’m targeting mainly a Malay market. But I do believe once I’ve got all the materials properly translated, I will find it easier to talk to my target market about the product, the compensation plans and the company.

In the mean time, I will continue to talk to friends and family about the products. My main aim is to get my friends and family to consume the product first. I’ve given some samples to friends and family and so far the response I’ve got from them is quite favourable. Everyone who has taken the sample has felt better from consuming the product.

Now that I’ve got them interested in the product, it’s time to decide which avenue I’m going to pursue next. I have 2 choices, I can either try to recruit them as distributors, or I can just continue to promote the product to them and get them to become customers. Either way, I get to earn an income from their consumption of the product.

Besides these family and friends, there are other friends who I think would join as distributors. These are the ones who will help me build my own mini empire. Pretty soon, I will start building my mini empire and hopefully by May this year, I’ll be earning a reasonable income from this business.

My Goals

I guess since I mentioned the month of May already, I should tell you my immediate targets for this year. My first target is in April 2009. My first target is by April 2009, I won’t have to spend any more money to maintain myself in this business. I’m hoping that the business will pay by itself. The minimum 100LP required to keep me as a distributor will be paid by the commissions I earn from the business.

My second target is May 2009. This target is a bit more ambitious. I’m hoping by end of May 2009, I will make it to the rank of Diamond. It is ambitious but I’m hoping that by my business will grow exponentially. It has started a bit slow due to the language barrier, but once things have settled down, I have all the materials ready, I know the business will take off.

So, by May 2009, I will have started earning a reasonable income from this business and this business will just take off from there.

What I'm taking...

I've written down what I know so far about Transfer Factors. I didn't really write much as I'm no doctor, not a pharmacist either, nor am I an enthusiast. I'm just your regular average joe who's hoping that he can live a little bit longer than most other average joes. I think I'll know more once I join the business and have to explain it to potential downlines or clients.

Now that I've written what I know about Transfer Factors, it's time for me to tell you what I'm consuming. Once again, let me remind you, I haven't joined the business, so I really don't have much literature on it. Thus I don't really know much about it. All I know is that I'm taking 2 of 4life Transfer Factors products.

The first product I'm taking is 4Life's TF Advanced Formula (which is in the picture above). They come in the form of capsules and each bottle contains 60 capsules. Once you open the bottles, what you get is a creamy coloured powder inside the capsules like the picture below.

I could write about all the good things about 4Life TF Advanced Formula. But then I'd be repeating what is written down on 4Life's official website. So rather than waste my time rewriting what is already out there, here are some of the benfits of consuming 4Life's zTF Advanced Formula copied directly from their website:

• Promotes the immune system’s ability to remember past invasions, allowing your body to more quickly respond to similar health threats
• Educates naive immune cells about a present or potential danger in your body along with a plan for action
• Speeds up the recognition phase of an infection, making the duration of an illness shorter
• Boosts your immune response, or balances it by suppressing an overactive immune system

The second product I'm taking is the 4Life's TF Advanced Formula Plus. Like the Advanced Formula, it comes in a bottle consisting of 60 capsules too (Similar to the one pictured above). The powder inside the capsules are slightly darker as pictured below. More like a greyish color. And like above, I'm just going to copy directly from 4Life's website the benefits of TF Advanced Factor Plus which are:

• Maitake and Shiitake Mushrooms—long known to promote T-Cell (immune system) function and other healing properties.

• Cordyceps—rich in polysaccharides, which help activate immune system response.
• Inositol Hexaphosphate—gaining attention for its preventative immune power.
• Beta Glucans—an important immune cell stimulator. They are the “wake-up” call to white blood cells.
• Beta Sitosterol—a phytosterol that has been shown to help activate immune system response.
• Olive Leaf Extract—may be instrumental in slowing the duplication of infectious cells

Now I guess you must be wondering whether both of these products work. That's for another post. I can't really say for certain whether they work or not at the moment as I've only been consuming them for just over a couple of weeks. And the problem I have now is that I'm running out. Since I'm broke, I can't really jin the business or buy the products. Looks like I might have to rely on my good friend Juliana Idris again for some free samples.

P/s: I might have uploaded the wrong photo for 4Life's TF Advanced Formula Plus. It looks more creamy than greyish.