In today’s post, I want to share some of my favorite Bob Crisp quotes from his popular book Raising a Giant.
If you’ve been in the network marketing industry for any period of time, and read some of the classic books, there is a good chance you’ve read Bob’s book Raising a Giant. This is really an amazing book by someone who built an Amway team of more than TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND people, in just a few short years. Chew on that for a moment!
To be quite frank with you, this book is amazing. It is LOADED with wisdom that would benefit any network marketer in any company. Several top earners in our industry (Mark Yarnell and Dale Calvert specifically) have said it was the best MLM book they ever read. I learned about the book while visiting Dale Calvert’s website and ordered it immediately.
Needless to say, I was more than impressed. I read the book in one setting and have since re-read it five to ten times. It is one of my all-time favorite books on the network marketing.
Top Bob Crisp Quotes: Raising a Giant
What I want to do in the paragraphs below is share my top 38 Bob Crisp quotes from Raising a Giant. Each quote is in bold and italics. At the end of each quote I also provide my own two cents. These quotes are in order from where I found them in the book when I read it. Enjoy.
# 1: Everyone has a network.
Every adult knows thousands of people by their first name, even if they can’t remember everyone at this specific moment in time. Most people have minimum several hundred Facebook friends, lots of LinkedIn connections and hundreds of contacts in their email account and cell phone. Saying you “don’t know anyone” is not a legitimate excuse.
# 2: This is a business which requires salesmanship and statesmanship.
To succeed in any type of business, you need to learn how to sell. This means you know how to sell yourself and you learn how to communicate effectively. The best leaders and most successful MLM reps are confident and competent.
# 3: No matter which business you choose, there will always be the doomsayers and naysayers who will tell you it won’t work.
Whenever you stick your head above the crowd, people will try to pull you back down. Whenever you try to do something great in life, people will tell you that it won’t work. Let those people be your motivation, not what holds you back and keeps you from being successful.
# 4: Most of us give up opportunity for security.
You can’t have opportunity AND security. You get to choose one or the other. There’s nothing wrong with having job security and a steady paycheck, but if you want financial freedom you will need to choose a different path.
# 5: The fact is that security is a myth.
In today’s economy, job security is very hard to find. Even if you work for the government, you don’t have job security. You are one merger, one boss, or one bad decision away from losing your job (and income).
# 6: Five years from today your income will be the average of your five best friends.
Choose your friends wisely. When possible, surround yourself with positive, uplifting people who encourage you and bring out the best in you.
# 7: If you run with winners you’ll become a winner.
Who you hang around determines where you will end up in life. Hang around a bunch of thieves and you will become one. Hang around successful people and you will become successful. The Power of Association is huge, even as an adult.
# 8: People will only follow those who are obsessed with high goals and dreams.
If you want others to follow your lead, there has to be a reason for the other person to do it. People don’t follow average people by choice. Be extraordinary and plenty of folks will want to follow you. People love winners. And they love people who know who they are and where they are headed in life. Be that person to others!
# 9: Men and women everywhere are looking for something that will give their lives meaning and prosperity.
Most people live boring, average lives and just live day to day. If you can show people how to dream again AND show them a way to turn their dreams into reality, you will do very well with network marketing. Remember, people want to be a part of something bigger than themselves.
# 10: The line of sponsorship is sacred.
Always cherish your line of sponsorship, both upline and downline. Never say or do anything to hurt it or destroy it.
# 11: By promoting the group over my group your business can grow when you’re not there to work it. If you promote your group over the rest, you’ve got to be there to work it all the time.
Always put the team first. Help other people in your company and they will also help you. The success of the team is always the most important thing. When the team wins everyone wins.
# 12: Securing your business requires both upline and downline help.
You can’t build your network marketing business all by yourself. You need the mentorship and support from your upline and you need a team of distributors under you to help you leverage yourself and grow your business. There is no “self-made” person in life or this industry.
# 13: Success is built on inconvenience.
If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do things you’ve never done before. Building a successful business of any type is hard work. You will have to put in some hours AFTER you get home from your day job. You will have to make personal sacrifices, but it is well worth it. Do what most other folks aren’t willing to do and you will get what most folks have never had.
# 14: When you sign someone up, the first thing to do is to begin building a bond between them and your upline. Get them plugged in.
Leverage your upline. Introduce your new team members to successful people in your upline as quickly as possible. This lets you work smart. Edify your upline and let them edify you.
# 15: Duplicate, don’t innovate.
Don’t reinvent the wheel. If your upline or sponsor has a certain way to build the business, and have proved that it works, follow their lead.
# 16: The NWM industry provides would be entrepreneurs a training ground for success.
MLM is the best business school you can enroll in. It will teach you about marketing, sales, communication, business finance, leadership and so much more. I’ve personally learned more about business from MLM, than I did with my college degrees (three of them).
# 17: Your group will do what you do.
People on your team will not do what you tell them to do. They will follow your lead and do as you do. Be the type of sponsor you wish you had. Be the type of person you want to sponsor.
# 18: The good leader is out front with a banner, not behind with a whip.
Lead by inspiration, not by brute force. Instead of telling others what to do, show them what to do by your own personal example.
# 19: Over time, knowledge and leadership skills will equate to income.
Build the right skill-set and mind-set and you can make as much money as you want in this industry.
# 20: The size of your dream affects the amount of effort you are willing to put in.
If you have a big dream, you will move mountains to attain it. If you don’t have any dreams, or if you have small dreams, you will let temporary challenges keep you from building a business.
# 21: Strive for excellence, not perfection.
No one is perfect. But we can all be a little bit better tomorrow than we were today. If you just keep getting a little bit better every day, within a year or two you can transform your life and be a totally different person.
# 22: Nothing is more demoralizing than indecisive leadership.
Collect the facts and make a decision. Be quick to make a decision and slow to change your mind, rather than the other way around.
# 23: The typical loser tells others how to do it and sits back and watches.
Make sure that you are always doing what you tell your team to do. Lead from the front at all times. Get in the trenches and never leave. Avoid management mode at all costs.
# 24: No matter what we achieve or how high we climb in life, the learning process never ends.
Always strive to learn something new each day. Be a little bit better tomorrow than you were today.
# 25: It takes time to achieve genuine success.
Nothing worth accomplishing will happen overnight. Good things take time. MLM is not some type of get rich quick thing. You must sow before you reap.
# 26: Courage is what you have when the enthusiasm or inspiration that started you on the journey is gone.
This business is a lot like dating. It’s fun and exciting the first couple months (lust phase). But once the initial enthusiasm fades, that’s when you find out who is serious and who isn’t.
# 27: All new businesses are founded on hope.
People start businesses on hope. They hope their idea will work and help them reach their dreams and goals. Never forget that. When you share your business opportunity with others, make sure you focus on how the business can help the person reach their goals and dreams.
# 28: Ignorance on fire is better than knowledge on ice.
You don’t have to know everything to grow your business. Get excited. Enthusiasm is what sponsors people, not knowledge.
# 29: It’s better to get no help than the wrong help.
Make sure you get advice and help from someone who is qualified to give it. Be careful who you listen to, you might end up just like them. Only get advice about the business from someone in your upline who is at a higher pin and income level than you.
# 30: The key to success is duplication not innovation.
Network marketing is about a lot of people doing a little bit, not one person doing a lot. You want to get a lot of people to do a few simple things, day in and day out, consistently.
# 31: Sales volume is most often the poorest way to judge the condition of a business.
Judge the growth of your business by the number of leaders you have in your team. That is the most important thing to measure. These are folks who are doing the work, sponsoring others, acquiring customers and building a team of their own. Volume fluctuates. The number of leaders on your team is the real gauge of the health of your business.
# 32: Boring meetings are bad for business.
Make sure your meetings are fun, exciting, and educational. No one wants to attend another boring meeting. Start and end all meetings on time. Have an agenda and purpose. And be interesting!
# 33: I discovered the money, cars, and material things meant nothing without the recognition.
People crave recognition and appreciation. Recognize people on your team, even when they make small achievements. People want and need this. People will often do more for recognition than they will for money.
# 34: I will do today what others won’t so I can live tomorrow as they can’t.
If you live today like no one else, you can live tomorrow like no one else. Sacrifice today equals reward later on down the road. This is known as delayed gratification.
# 35: 80% of the people that quit actually quit within their first 72 hours after they sign up.
Most people who join your team will quit. And most people who quit will never really even have got started in the first place. This is why it is so vital to help your new reps get an immediate result in the business.
# 36: The programs that endure are the ones where the emphasis is placed on the individual as part of something bigger and greater.
People want to belong to something greater than themselves. People want to be part of a winning team. Make them feel that way and they will stick around for a long time.
# 37: The fact is, in NWM, you will do a lot in the beginning for little financial reward. But you will do a little later for a whole lot of financial reward.
Like any business, it takes time to build a solid foundation in network marketing. You might work for a year or more with very little to show for it while you build up your team. But as your team grows, you will get paid much more for your efforts than you actually work.
# 38: Take charge of your time. Schedule yourself a full year of activities and rearrange your priorities so that your NWM business rates right up near the top.
Make your business a TOP priority, right up there with your family and job. Manage your time wisely. Schedule time each day to build your business. Create a work schedule and let your schedule be your master!
About Robert Crisp: Former Amway Triple Diamond from Oklahoma
Robert Crisp is a former Amway Triple Diamond from Oklahoma. He was born in Kansas and came from a Baptist family. He joined Amway in 1975 after being approached by Bob Bolin, a professional baseball player.
He reached the status of Triple Diamond in less than four years. However, after six months in the Amway business his bonus check was less than $4. He was affiliated with the Dexter Yager line of sponsorship.
He built his Amway business the old fashioned way by sponsoring friends, family and strangers. He used three-way calls, one-on-one meetings and in-home presentations to find new customers and distributors for his business.
He also used the three-foot rule to meet potential customers and distributors. Once he sponsored someone into his Amway business, he started working in depth to find potential leaders.
At one period of time, he had more than 200,000 distributors in his team. In his fifth year in the industry, he earned more than $6 million. That’s pretty impressive. For whatever reason, he later sold his Amway business to another distributor.
In addition to his two best-selling books, he’s also sold more than 26 million audio programs. Robert Crisp still gives a few training sessions and speeches each year. He lives in Southern California near his family. After doing some research online, I found that he is currently affiliated with Enrich International, another network marketing company.
Robert Crisp Testimonials
Here’s a testimonial I found online about Robert Crisp.
I had the pleasure of working with Bob for a very short period of time when I was just dabbling in the MLM industry with YTB. I really didn’t know what I was doing and didn’t have the drive to succeed in it.
What I learned from Bob is that triple diamond or not he was still willing to do the grunt work it takes to succeed even at his level. We were in a room doing an opportunity meeting for 2 people, he could have just said “Eh, this isn’t enough people to be worth my time” but he did the meeting anyway.
This guy gives the time and energy. Also he would personally call me even though I wasn’t producing anything. I didn’t get handed off to someone else, he would personally talk to me and coach me…once again putting a focus on helping someone else become successful. I believe Bob is a super caring man and if you’re serious about becoming successful he’ll do whatever he can to help you do it. ~ Matt Adams
Final Thoughts
In summary, Robert (Bob) Crisp is a true credit to the network marketing industry. He’s personally helped thousands of people achieve success with their own network marketing business. He’s a great leader, mentor, coach, speaker, motivator, and sponsor.
I hope you have enjoyed reading my Raising a Giant book review and enjoyed my top 38 Bob Crisp quotes from the book. If you haven’t read Raising a Giant yet, you should. I give it a 10 of 10 and consider it a must read for anyone who is serious about building a large team of distributors.
On a side note, if you have ever worked with former Amway Triple Diamond Robert Crisp, I would love to hear from you. Please share your personal story with the rest of our community by leaving a comment to this post. Thanks.
Chuck Holmes
20+ Year Network Marketing Professional
Top Earner & Top Recruiter
Email: mrchuckholmes@gmail.com
P.S. Learn how to grow a successful network marketing business. Secret tips, training, and practical ideas. Free training delivered by email.
This does sound like a great book.
I want to touch on the very first quote: Everyone Has a Network. Yes, it is true, but I think that many people are scared they will alienate friends and family by sharing their MLM opportunity with them. It comes down to wise words and actions. You can share the business without “puking” it on them.
Every time I go to a family function, others talk about their work and businesses. You can do the same without coming off like a jerk. Just share it and if they show interest, share some more.
Fear can be our worst enemy.
If you approach people the right way, you will never alienate anyone. It’s when you use hype and pressure that you turn people off.