I'll never forget going to my an old upline of mine many moons ago, hungry for advice, guidance, and some of that "Gold Dust" I thought all 7 figure earners kept inbetween the rolls of 100 dollar bills they all store in their pockets. Exasperated, I told him how I had run out of all my friends and family to talk to. He looked at me with that "my dear little grasshopper" look in his eye, quickly glanced at his Rolex as if he had a pending appointment, and then with an air of exasperation directed me to "go out and meet people".

"What does that even mean?" I asked. I had grown up in South Africa, moved to the United States in 2000 with my family and bounced around between high schools as I tried to find my way in America. I literally only knew about 20 of the 150 or so teenagers that attended the same private school I did. I lived in a town with a population less than 10,000 people (we only had 2 traffic lights in the whole town!) so I wasn't really positioned "perfectly" in a thriving metropolis. 

My "upline" clarified further and instructed me to dress up, and to go meet people at the mall, Wall-Mart, or anywhere else that people congregated. 

His "advice" terrified me. Not only was I extremely introverted, but I had a very strong British accent that in the heart of the Midwestern United States made me stand out in a way that made me quite uncomfortable. But so much was my respect for this man that I figured I would at least go try it and maybe gain his respect and more opportunities to learn from him again.

I'll never forget the first (and last) time I "hit" the mall. I was dressed in a black 5 button suit, hanging loosely from my brittle frame. At least the dark material masked the violent knocking of my knees as I walked into store after store, guiltily acting like I was more interested in the merchandise than in the actual store personnel. My "mentor" had told me to look for sharp, business minded people. But what does a "sharp, business minded person" look like; especially at the mall?

After about an hour of wandering around aimlessly I really started to feel like all the store clerks and managers were starting to look at me with an air of suspicion. I clearly wasn't at the mall to "shop" and what 19 year old goes to the mall in a suit to meet girls?! But I still had not located a "sharp, business minded person" and was beginning to get desperate. 

I"ll spare you the rest of the details except to say that it ended up exactly as you probably imagine it would: I didn't find any "sharp, business minded people" at the mall that day. I did however learn a lesson: sales people in fine clothing establishments treat you you really nice when you walk into their store dressed in a suit. 

And so began my adventures in the study of mlm lead generation. I was determined to never go back to the mall and feel the way I did that day.

I'd like to bring up a point while we're on the subject of "uplines" and the things they tell us to do. I later found out that particular upline had entered that company when his last network marketing company had been merged into the company and he had been able to walk in with a huge team. I never saw this gentleman actually go to the mall to recruit. He didn't have to. 

Later on in my career when I accidentaly discovered how to generate leads on Myspace (RIP) and shared my technique with that particular upline as well as others; I was flatly told that these techniques weren't "duplicatable" and I would fail if I engaged in them. Fail?! I was already broke, disgusted, and busted! How much worse could full out "failure" be?!

So what exactly about going to the mall as a 19-year old high school senior, dressed in a suit, and meeting random strangers in the hopes of recruiting them into my business was "duplicatable"? The definition of "duplicatable"  is something that is easy and it is something that everyone can do.

I"ll tell you from my own experience; there is nothing "easy" about walking up to a total stranger to solicit them for you business for the average person.

So let's go back to my mall hunting experience. How much of that "technique" is really duplicatable and how much of it actually "works?!"

I'm sure there are people that have made this technique work out of sheer determination and drive, but there are some definite challenges to this approach when it comes to the average distributor being able to find success in this manner.

First of all, you'd have to have the time to show up to the mall consistently. Most people in our industry are part-time, trying to fit their business into their already busy family, work, and school schedules. You'd also have to have a very strong personality and skin as thick as planet earth just to make it through a week, much less a month of this approach. And then you'd have to find and develop an incredible rejection-immune team to duplicate your efforts. That alone could take forever!

But there's a bigger issue here. The real question is why did my upline tell me to do something that he had never done to build his business and achieve his tremendous success. And that same leader tried to discourage me from using my online methods when up to that point they were the only approaches that actually helped me achieve any measurable results while his advice to go recruit in malls hadn't at all worked for me or anyone on my team?

Here's a guy who had built a huge network over many years and several different companies. He had the luxury vehicles, the Rolex, the Amex black card, the fine tailored suits. He had authored his own book, he was in the company dvd's, magazines, etc. He was a professional speaker who earned 10s of thousands of dollars for an hour's speech. He had built his business primarily on his speaking prowess and through his speaking business; a skill that I and many of the team were far from ever duplicating at that time. 

And yet he still told me not to pursue my internet marketing strategies because they weren't "duplicatable". 

It's been 7 years since that experience. Needless to say, I've proven that my Facebook and internet marketing techniques not only work, but they definitely "duplicate" and I've never been back to the mall to "catch me a sharp one" ever again.

The longer I continue in this incredible industry the more I learn about how the top people really got to where they are. In almost 100 % of the cases they proclaim that their success came from duplicating a simple system through a large organization of people. I am convinced that this is not the whole "secret" of their success. 

If "duplication" truly is the only key then why is there such a high attrition and failure rate inside our industry? Even within these top producing organizations there is still a tremendous failure rate. 

Why?

I'll tell you why.

Systems don't duplicate. Leaders duplicate.

I'll say that again. Systems don't duplicate. Leaders duplicate. 

I'll prove it to you. Take a mediocre "system" and then integrate that with an awesome group of leadership professionals. At the same time take a world-class, top of the line "system" and integrate that with your average, run of the mill MLM distributor. And let's stretch the stakes out a bit here. Let's say that we only have 10 "leaders" to 100 "average distributors". Let them all build their businesses for 90 days following these two "systems". Is it even worth me asking who will come out on top? It's obvious, the leaders! Leaders make it happen!

Now, I'm not saying to disregard systems! Not at all! That would be tantamount to heresy! I owe a lot of my success to well-running systems, but without leadership and high quality people those systems would be a complete waste of time!

Systems and leadership. They work hand-in-hand. You must have BOTH to win in this industry!

So of course, your upline rockstar who travels the world on various speaking engagements to help promote their newest book is able to generate hundreds, if not thousands of contacts and prospects while you Joe Distributor is sitting down with a list of 50 friends you haven't spoken to in 10 years, dreading that they'll remind you of the $200 bucks you owe them....

Think of this next time you pick up the phone to call your Aunt Susie to look at your vitamin business for the 20th time....

Are you marketing an opportunity like 98 % of the amateur distributors in our industry or are you marketing "you" like 2 % of the top professionals in our industry do.

People join people, they don't join systems or companies.

Do yourself a favor; don't JUST duplicate your upline's system. Duplicate their leadership as well. It pays more.

Dream-then find a way,