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I am currently reading Stephen R. Covey's classic book entitled 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People'. Even though this book has nothing to do with Network Marketing, there are principles found here that would be of giant worth to us if implemented in our businesses.

Perhaps I'll write more articles as I read further into the book, but for now, I'd like to focus on being proactive in Multi-level marketing. I know we could all become more successful by simply deciding to be the kind of representatives who act instead of being acted upon, which is one of the most important parts of being proactive.

I have been tempted many times, as I'm sure many MLM reps have, to be reactive in my business when anything goes wrong. When a rep is reactive, they would say things like, 'If only I had a better downline/upline', or 'That person on my team makes me so angry all of the time!' When we are reactive, we think that because something has gone wrong in our business, such as downline reps quitting the business or someone else signing up a rep that we had prepared that there is nothing we can do and all is lost. Sometimes that sense of despair leads to negativity creeping into our minds until we have changed our mind about our company and begin to badmouth it.

It goes without saying that things go wrong in our businesses and that sometimes those things set us back some time or dollars. The difference, though, is in how we react to the setbacks, and if we come out a better rep or not. If we are proactive reps, we understand that while we can't control some things that happen, we can control how we react to those things. Covey says that we may either act or be acted upon, but when we are the actors, we decide what affects us and what doesn't. If our downline rep does something dumb, we acknowledge that we control our own feelings and that only we can make ourselves mad. If we are tempted to say 'if only I had better reps', then being proactive would mean we would say, 'I will be better myself so that my reps can learn what it takes to succeed'.

No matter which business we join, there will be reactive people and negativity. Unfortunately, these are usually the people who quit and then badmouth our industry. I really like Covey's insights as applied to MLM because they can help us to understand that by being proactive and focusing first on ourselves and our own needs for improvement, we can shape the attitudes of those who would potentially become destroyers of our industry. It all begins with you and me and the proactive behavior we bring into our work.