Randy Gage - Defcon 1 Direct Selling

An Important Message from Randy

This is the page where you would normally find testimonials from influential people who have read an advance draft of the manuscript. I have chosen not to include any in this book. This subject matter will be controversial for many and frightening for some. Field leaders may be hesitant to publicly endorse the book, because they could face repercussions from their corporate team or even renegade factions in their own team. Likewise, some company owners and executives might be fearful that their field leaders could feel threatened by what this book reveals. The man behind the curtain usually doesn’t want you to know he’s behind the curtain.

Although some courageous leaders have offered to provide quotes, I wasn’t comfortable accepting their generous offers. This book will end the careers of some people in our business. And provide the last nail in the coffin for some companies—rightly so. But this book will also be a catalyst to ignite the careers for the next generation of empowering leaders in our business. And perhaps birth the next great companies.

This is a book for a small but impactful subsection of the profession: the leaders (both field and corporate) with the power to change the game. It’s a book that will cause significant collateral damage to the negative forces in our profession and they won’t take it lightly. They will attack with all they have left. I don’t want to put anyone else in that line of attack. I will face it alone because I believe in the profession as perhaps no one else does. And I believe in you.

Also by Randy Gage

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101 Keys to Your Prosperity

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How to Get Smart, Healthy & Rich!

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Mad Genius—A Manifesto for Entrepreneurs

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New York Times Bestselling Author

RANDY GAGE

MANUAL FOR FIELD LEADERS

Copyright © 2020 by Randy Gage. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

ISBN 9781119642114 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781119642091 (ePDF)

ISBN 9781119642121 (ePub)

Cover image: © Samarskaya/Getty Images

Cover design: Wiley

This book is dedicated to the worst sponsor I ever had. You don’t even know who you are, but I’ll never forget you. And know that because you were weak, I grew strong.

1 Cover

2 Introduction Living the Nightmare Dream… Introduction Living the Nightmare Dream… The car was a ’71 Plymouth Satellite, a pretty sweet ride when it first rolled off the assembly line in Detroit. I managed to buy it in 1979 for $1,500, because my mom co-signed the note and I arranged to finance it over three years. But by the time I was driving it to opportunity meetings in 1980, it already qualified as a broke-mobile. I always parked in the back reaches of the hotel parking lot or by the loading dock. I would be meeting prospects at the meetings to show them how they could “live the dream,” and I didn’t want them to realize they probably had more money than I did. But here’s the craziest part of all that. If you had asked me then whether I would be releasing a book in 2020, distilling the secrets of my success and leadership in Direct Selling, I would have said, “Of course.” Probably not what you thought I was going to say. And if you did hear my answer back then, you probably would have thought I was irrational, foolish, and naive. And you’d have been right.

3 Chapter 1 It’s All on You CHAPTER 1 It’s All on You On the lovely island of Maui, with tall palm trees swaying in the breeze, I lounged poolside, working on my tan while my teammates engaged in a fierce water polo match. (And yes, literally drinking out of a coconut.) It was an incentive trip for top leaders to celebrate and reward us for another stellar year of performance. I was serenely reading a book when Jeremiah, one of the company VPs, interrupted my bliss with the news. He relayed that he had just received a call telling him that my then-sponsor was about to jump to another company. At that very moment my sponsor—whom the company had flown to the island first class and lavished with swag, perks, excursions, and an oceanfront suite—was in that very oceanfront suite, dialing for dollars to take people to his next deal. And planning to tell me the following day. I gazed at Jeremiah thoughtfully for a very long time. Then, sighing heavily, I said, “You know, some days I hate this goddamned job.” I had every right to feel appalled, disappointed, and betrayed. It would have been easy for me to slip into martyr mode and seek commiseration for the injustice inflicted upon me. But here’s the reality… The Person Most Responsible for This Turn of Events was Me The Person Most Responsible for This Turn of Events was Me Because I had failed in my job as a leader to protect my people and create a safe environment for them. I had initially embraced this man and sponsored under him because I chose to believe that he had become the new person he assured me he was, not the person reflected by the track record he had of moving from company to company over the years.