Today, I’m going to share my book review of The Greatest Networker in the World by John Milton Fogg, along with some of my favorite quotes from the book.
Every once in a while a book comes along and has a big impact on your life. This is one of those books for me. I first read The Greatest Networker in the World about ten years ago, and I have since re-read it many times. This is the book that influenced me to make network marketing my career.
It is a fictional parable about a struggling network marketer who is about to give up on the industry for good. He decides to attend “one more” meeting before throwing in the towel. At the event, he meets the guy known as The Greatest Networker in the World.
This successful distributor invites the struggling networker to his house for the weekend. During this time, The Greatest Networker in the World shares his secrets to success with the struggling networker. This book is the story of what happened that weekend.
It’s a fun and inspiring read. I highly recommend the book.
Top Quotes from The Greatest Networker in the World
My copy of the book has hundreds of underlined and highlighted passages. What I’m going to do is share my favorite John Milton Fogg quotes and lessons from the book. Each quote is in bold and italics. I will provide my own two cents after each quote. They are listed in no particular order. Enjoy.
# 1: For every positive piece of word-of-mouth consumers pass around, there are 11 negative comments being shuttled about.
Good news travels fast, but bad news travel faster. Everything you say and do affects everyone else in the network marketing industry. One bad apple really can ruin it for everyone else. Be a professional at what you do. Take pride in what you do. Treat everyone you talk to with respect, regardless of what they say or do. Never badmouth another person or another company in our industry. Act as if “everyone” is watching what you say and do. Be a network marketing professional.
# 2: Network marketing is truly the responsibility business. We get paid for taking responsibility.
No one cares about your business as much as you do. Make sure that you man up or woman up in your business. Don’t blame others for your lack of results. No one is going to build your business for you. That’s your job.
Look in the mirror. That is the most important person you need to recruit. This is a merit-based pay system. If you produce, you can make a lot of money. If you don’t produce, you make nothing! I’ve never met a successful victim.
# 3: Have a goal bigger than you are.
Goals really are the key to success in life and in business. Set some written goals, create an action plan and get to work! Have a big WHY! Have a WHY that makes you cry. This is what will keep you motivated when things get tough.
Trust me, things will get tough at some point, especially during your first year in business while you are learning the ropes. Have a WHY so big that nothing can stop you! Create a vision board and look at it every single day.
# 4: Number one – to coach your people to have fun. Number two – to teach them the skills they need to succeed. Three – to help them develop and grow, first as individuals, then as members of a team. And number four – to win… when you can!
What a simple, but effective way to grow your network marketing business and help others become successful. Make the business fun. No one wants another job or boss. Create an environment and culture where everyone can learn, grow and improve, and feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves.
Help people launch their business properly, so they can get off to a fast start in their business and make money right out the gate. Be a good example for others to follow! Help enough other people get what they want and you will get what you want.
# 5: I set out to find a way to do this business that anyone – of no matter what age, experience, background, talents or whatever – could do.
Keep the business simple. Have a new system for your team members to follow. No, most people still won’t do the work or follow the system, but at least you have something there for them to follow, if they choose to. Even though most of your serious people will do their own thing, you need a system for the 99% of your team members that aren’t leaders.
# 6: No results – no check. No learning – you get left behind. No fun – you quit, or burn out, or burn out and quit.
Your goal is to help people make a check their first month in the business, even if it’s not a big check. This helps build their belief in the business.
In addition to doing that, you also need to make the business fun. Create a community that people want to be part of, even if they aren’t making money. Finally, place a focus on personal development, so people can learn new skills and grow as people.
# 7: In this business, you will only achieve what your habits of belief allow.
Your thoughts will control your actions which will control your results. Get your thinking right. Work on yourself. If you don’t believe in yourself, your company and the industry you will never make it big. We become what we think about. We attract more of what we already are. Your business will only grow as much as you do. Mindset is EVERYTHING.
# 8: He told me that every highly successful network marketer he had ever met had earned the majority of his or her income from the sales generated by two to five individual distributor groups by leadership distributors.
He said to look for those four or five people – to ask all of my new people right up front if they were committed to achieving that level of leadership and success, and he told me to focus my efforts on developing those men and women who made the commitment.
Most of your income will come from just a few key people in your team. Most top earners in our industry make 90% or more of their income from one to three legs in their organization, even if they’ve personally sponsored hundreds of people. Your job is to find these few key people as quickly as possible and do everything you can to help them succeed. In most cases you will find these people in depth.
# 9: I wanted leaders who would duplicate themselves.
Network marketing is a leadership business. Customers and reps come and go like the common cold. What you are looking for is leader type people. These are people who will build the business with or without your help.
This represents no more than one or two percent of your team. Your goal is to find two to five leader type people as quickly as possible, and do what you can to help them succeed. That’s how you build a big team!
# 10: A number of my leaders today were people who had no idea they were capable of such things when they began.
You never really know who is going to step up to the plate and do great things in your organization. Your job is to work with the willing and support everyone.
Be a good example, teach personal development and let the cream rise to the top. Watch what people do, not what they say they will do.
When you find someone in your group who is doing the work, get in their hip pocket and chase the business with them. I’ve also found that the people you think will do it, don’t, and the people you think will never do it, do. You just never know who will be your next superstar.
# 11: I help my people downline sponsor, and when I meet someone new and exciting, I match them up with one of my people with whom they’ll enjoy working with the most.
When you help your team members become successful, you succeed. It’s true, you can have everything you want in life if you help other people get what they want.
Spend more time helping your team sponsor people than you do personally sponsoring new people yourself. Always work in depth. Chase the excitement in your business and always work with the newest, most excited person, at the bottom most point in your organization. Build your business from the bottom up!
# 12: Network marketing is all about taking care of people and I like taking care of people.
Take care of your tribe. Make them feel special and important. Don’t coddle them, but show them that you care about them, on a human level. Do the little things that matter, such as building relationships, expressing gratitude, and spending time together. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
# 13: It’s a game of position. Certainly the shot right in front of you is important, but you must also think ahead two, three shots or more.
Everything you do in your business should be based upon whether or not it is healthy for your business in the long-term. Don’t worry about the quick dollar. Don’t trade long-term success for short-term profits. Always take the long-term view.
# 14: Usually, when you are concentrating on teaching people to teach people, your results are slower in coming than if you focused on simply teaching people how to sell products and sponsor people… But when you teach people to teach people, you move from creating results to empowering others.
This business is all about teaching people to teach people to teach people to teach people. Your business won’t start out like a rocket ship when you do that, but if you stick with it you will eventually have a huge team. Anyone can make a nice income by retailing a lot of products and recruiting a bunch of people personally. But if you want financial freedom you need to become a teacher and teach your people to teach their people.
# 15: When I came to understand how the business works, that it depends on our ability to effectively sponsor people who know how to teach people how to teach other people, my business began to grow for real.
Focus on teaching your team to duplicate. This is a sponsoring and teaching business. Teach people how to teach other people. Show others how to be leaders and duplicate their business.
Your goal is to develop leaders and people who are independent of you as quickly as possible. Until you do this, your business will be 100% dependent on you.
# 16: See, unless you’ve been taught to help people discover or reveal their own values and what’s really important to them, you can’t connect your opportunity to anything lasting or meaningful in their lives. It’s not anchored to them.
Find out what your prospect wants and show them how the business helps them get what they want. Do that and you will sponsor a lot more people. Find out what each person on your team wants and help them come up with a game plan to accomplish that. Do that and you will retain more people.
Remember, everyone has different reasons for doing the business. What’s important to you might not be important to someone else.
# 17: In our business, you take a stand for the people you sponsor. You champion them and their success. The shortest and most direct way of doing that is to teach them to teach others.
You should be a servant leader and work closely to help the people you personally sponsor. That’s your responsibility. Of course, not everyone you sponsor is going to want your help or be coachable. Maybe 1 in 10 will.
Find the people who are coachable, have a desire to succeed, and are willing to work and work closely with them. Help them build their business. Work closely with them as they sponsor new distributors into their business. Teach them everything you know about the business and teach them how to teach their people.
# 18: There are mentors lurking everywhere just waiting to serve you.
Find a mentor, someone who is successful in the business. All successful people have a mentor. You need one too, if you want to succeed in network marketing.
Look in your upline for someone who has the income and lifestyle you want and ask them for their help and guidance. And whatever you do, humble yourself enough to follow their lead.
About the Book
The Greatest Networker in the World was published by Crown Business in 1997. It features 160-pages. The ISBN is 978-0761510574. It is one of the best-selling MLM books of all time. Order a copy here on Amazon.
Final Thoughts
“The Greatest Networker in the World” by John Milton Fogg is a really wonderful book. I give it 9 of 10 stars and consider it a must read for ANYONE who wants SUCCESS in this great industry. It’s told in a parable format so it’s really easy to follow. It’s available anywhere books are sold.
What are your thoughts? What is your favorite John Milton Fogg quote from this list? What do you like about the book? Leave a comment below to let me know what you think. I look forward to hearing from you.
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.
John Milton Fogg is an very good writer, and he put together some quite wise material in the pages of this book.
What network marketing company is he with? I was just curious.
There are several quotes I found very impressive. #13 is important. Life in itself is like a chess game. Network marketing must always be thought of in a similar way. Instead of just looking at your next move, you need to consider moves in the future. This is why creating a business plan is so important.
I also bit on #18. There are mentors everywhere. We can learn from a variety of sources. I actually consider this blog, and you Chuck as a mentor.
Thank you for sharing this review. It sounds like a book I should read.
He is with Isagenix last time I checked.
I like the quote, “Have a goal bigger than you are”. Someone once told me that if you are capable of accomplishing your goal on your own, then it’s too small. You should set huge goals and then start creating a plan and making the connections you need to start accomplishing that goal. No one who has made it big had some tiny goal. It is the people with the larger than life goals who actually became larger than life.
I agree with you Diamond. Our goals should stretch us out of our comfort zones so we become better.
Thank you for this great compilation of lessons and quotes from network marketing world. I love this post and most of these quotes/lessons are quite inspirational. Each of these have a deep message inside and it is conveyed effectively. Really enjoyed reading all of these and will be sharing them with my people too.
The Greatest Networker in the World is one of my favorite MLM Books and the wisdom in it is nothing short of amazing.