A reader's thoughts on...Is selling the dream unethical?

As promised in yesterday's post, a reader wrote:

You struck a nerve with your post today. I've seen a couple of posts this weekend that inspired me to pick up the ole' dictionary to make sure I was clear on the possible meaning of words and their usage before generating my own thoughts and response

I love and cherish this industry almost as much as the next breath I am about to take. I am madly and passionately in love (kindness of spirit and goodwill) with most of its people.

As a writer I feel you are aware of the interchangeable nature of the words dream and vision.

As to ethics, I do not think you are wrong in conveying your vision or your dream. As to ethics, I had to chuckle a moment as I really don't feel there is a strong code of ethics, which is adhered to by all companies associated with our industry. Of course we have the government's social standards (ethics) for our behavior, but that doesn't mean all corporate entities feet are held to that fire from day one of their inception.

I feel that as adults we should all have a solid foundation of morality. It seems to me that right or wrong and good or evil are pretty clear benchmarks for behavior in this business. Obviously, a few bad hombres sneak in from time to time. Maybe it is the universes way of keeping us on our toes and not allowing us to forget our own.

Now, to move ahead with the actual reason of why I felt the need to post to you privately. Make sure that your beverage is firmly seated on a coaster or at least on the desktop before reading further. The big shocker is about to land into your hands, in mere seconds.

I believe in personal accountability. I do my damndest not to partake in blame games on the bulletin board. But who do we blame for the high lack of success or failure rate in our industry?

Personally, I think it derives from the manifesto of recruit, recruit and recruit some more!

I know that you don't hear just the rosey fairytales of success in this industry. I'm sure your time has also been steeped in the horror stories as well. 

I have a strong feeling that people who sponsor an individual into this business and expect them to make a list of names and then to contact, prospect and sign-up individuals is doing not only their newly sponsored person a great dis-service, but also the industry as a whole.

How many people do you know that in their right minds would open their first retail store tomorrow, yet make a list, contact, prospect and sign them up as franchisee's the next day. It happens all the time in this business. More often than not, someone is plugging someone into a spot on their personal geneology for the sake of it with hopes that it will spark the same activity. Is this ethical or unethical?

I think of some of the names of people you have interviewed who are icon's in this industry stating within the past couple of years: "Now I am going to build it and I'm going to build it right"!  Many of these icons built business when front-end loading was the norm.

How do we resolve this dilemma? I wish we had a magical wand but we don't. All we can do for the good of the industry is to accept personal accountability for the way we conduct business. Their past actions (the icons) don't seem ethical or moral by todays social standards.

Now for the shocker I promised:  While asking myself who is accountable and responsible and what actions should we take to turn things around for the good of the industry, I came up with this analogy.

I can see much of the similarity of what has happened in this industry over the past couple of decades and the much often played "race card." How so?

1. You and I didn't create nor live during the actual time period of slavery as we have heard about it.
2. What happened, happened as no result of our own involvement.
3. Just because it happened doesn't make it right. It was a part of our civilization's history.
4. People often get assigned the blame when they had no involvement in the ethics or morality of the issue at heart.

We certainly know it happened. We didn't do it, but we can do our part to take a lesson from our history and culture during a certain time period and with awareness commit to not allowing it to rear its ugly head again.

(Now you can take a breath again)

This industry has many well deserving people that partake in it. I believe in my heart of hearts that any person who considers themselves a worthy sponsor should be able to answer the following questions while looking in the mirror each and every morning.

Am I an ethical sponsor?

Am I a moral sponsor?

Does right always win over wrong and does good always triumph over evil?

I hope this does not seem disoriented text affixed to an imaginary piece of paper filtering its way to your computer. I was up 'til the sun had risen this morning due to the deep thought your post elicited within me.

J (the un-named one)
______________________________

Struck a nerve or two with this one.

You don't HAVE TO engage in any aspect of this business,
thinking or otherwise. We are all volunteers. One of the
most remarkable things about network marketing is you
can do it your way—all and any of it. Some people want
to think about it. Others...

So, what are you thinking?

Thanks.
I appreciate you.
— John