One word that really gets people's juices flowing is the word "new". In MLM, "new" always gets people's attention. Part of the attraction is the implied "fear of loss", because what is "new" today will not be new next month. That puts the pressure on to act now, or you may well be too late to make your fortune.

In MLM, another way of saying the same thing is "prelaunch". If you just advertise these words with some idea that sounds even remotely possible and which has some nice bells and whistles is likely to attract some good attention. Maybe YOU are interested. But the problem is most businesses fail. Especially when you have a new business, the chance of them surviving 2 years is certainly under 20%, and maybe much lower.

Plus, new businesses have problems. You might totally dedicate yourself to a new business, but others won't. As soon as they get a jug with the label upside down, they'll figure these guys don't know what they're doing, and they'll quit.

Every business needs time to iron out the kinks. Nothing goes just like you planned it. If you get in before they've got problems ironed out, your people will get discouraged, and it will be hard to keep them.

What is the solution? Wait. If you've found a really got opportunity, it will be an even better opportunity in 2 years, because it will have established more credibility and trust with stakeholders. Plus, the problems will have been found and fixed. So you are better off to give it some time to play out, rather than jumping on that "new" bandwagon.

Network marketing is like anything else you do in life. When you are trying to achieve a goal, especially in an area that is new to you, you are not going to do it in a straight line. You are going to have periods where progress is slow or non-existent. You've got to recognize that and be prepared to handle the frustrations.

The best way I've found to do this is to have a really, really big reason to be successful. The more enormous your reason to be successful, the tougher it will be for you to give up when times get tough. So early on, you want to work on that reason and write it out and look at it and think about it every day.

Ask yourself some questions. What gets you most excited? What kind of work have you loved - or hated? Is there some job you love that you'd do forever, even if you weren't getting paid for it? What's your perfect way to spend your free time? When everything's coming up aces, how will you change your lifestyle? How do you handle close relationships now, and are you in the best possible position to create those relationships the way you want them to be? What changes would you see in those relationships if you had no money problems? Would you devote more time to spend with the people you love if you didn't have to commute to a job every day? Answering questions like these will help motivate you to MLM success.

Long-time network marketer Michael Dlouhy wrote about these ideas and more in his ebook, "Success In 10 Steps." There is some real eye-opening stuff in this book. Chances are, you realize the "go down in flames" rate is pretty high in most businesses. And with most MLM companies, the cards are really stacked against you. Back in the early 1990s, Dlouhy signed up in more than 100 MLMs and did a comparison of them in a lot of different ways. He discovered some common factors that really cause most new reps to really have no chance to ever be successful in the business. But he also found that if you can avoid those certain problems, you have a real chance to make a long-term living from network marketing, maybe even achieve the "retirement" dream. It's definitely a book worth reading.