Every month, a million Indians become age-eligible to join the workforce, but the growth in jobs has not kept pace with the rising number of aspirants.

The last quarterly survey by the Labour Bureau showed that India has never created so few jobs since the survey started in 2009, as in 2015 — Only 1.35 lakh jobs compared to more than nine lakh in 2011 and 4.19 lakh in 2013 in eight labour-intensive industries.

The result— unemployment has been on the rise, despite India supposedly being one of the brighter spots in a slowing global economy. India’s unemployment rate grew from 6.8 per cent in 2001 to 9.6 per cent in 2011, according to Census 2011 data.

President Pranab Mukherjee recently stated, “The Indian economy today needs to generate 115 million non-farm jobs over the next decade to gainfully employ its workforce and reap its demographic dividend.”

In 1996-97 19.5 million government job were available. Today that number is 17 million. Not only are fewer jobs available than before, those that are created are precarious, and badly paid because of the informalisation of the economy.

“Employment creation will be one of our greatest challenges for the next decade,” said Jayant Sinha, minister of state for finance in a recent article in India Today about rising unemployment.

A McKinsey Report titled The world at work: Jobs, pay, and skills for 3.5 billion people predicts that by 2020 most of the additions to the global labor force will occur in India and the “young” developing economies of Africa and South Asia.

In the next two decades, the world is likely to have too many workers without the skills to land full-time employment. In both developing and advanced economies, policy makers will need to find ways not only to produce high-skilled workers but also to create more jobs for those who aren’t as highly educated. Solutions include moving up the value chain in developing economies (food processing creates more employment than growing export crops, for example) and finding opportunities for workers without a college education to participate in fast-growing fields—such as health care and home-based personal services.

In light of the current situation, how can we create these many jobs? The one possible solution to this grave problem is promoting entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs hold the key to the growth of a nation’s economic development and growth.

The direct selling industry provides a potential solution by promoting entrepreneurship and self-empowerment.Robert Kiyosaki, author of the best-selling personal finance book of all time, Rich Dad Poor Dad, has a lot to say about the value of the direct selling industry. In his book The Business of The 21st Century, he writes that direct selling is the “business model of the future. Why? Because the world is finally starting to awaken to the reality that the Industrial Age is over.” He says that direct selling “gives millions of people throughout the world the opportunity to take control of their lives and their financial futures.”

American economist, New York Times best-selling author, and social entrepreneur Paul Zane Pilzer says – ‘Ten million new millionaires will be created by 2016, and you can become one of them–especially if you are in direct selling, technology or home-based business.’

Direct selling offers the unemployed the opportunity to earn an income and allows the underemployed to supplement part-time employment. Direct selling also provides personal development such as improved self-esteem, interpersonal skills and career development in terms of business, entrepreneurial skills and selling experience. At the heart of direct selling is the ability to offer people the chance to feel empowered, to take control of their lives and to add value to society. This fuels entrepreneurship, self-employment, and micro enterprises.Research shows that such ventures strengthen a country’s economy.

According to a report by KPMG and FICCI published earlier this year, the direct selling industry in India has the potential to grow almost nine times to touch Rs 64,500 crore by 2025 and is likely to provide self-employment to around 1.45 million people. The report said the direct selling industry has been recording double digit growth of over 16 per cent over the past four years. 

The direct selling industry is putting a dent in the unemployment cycle for numerous professionals. In fact, direct selling companies are some of the only organizations that offer significant, substantial training to the people who need it most—those who are currently unemployed—for little to no cost.

Companies in the direct selling industry provide invaluable training skills. Not only do people learn financial principles, which they can use to build their business, the training they receive helps them with their personal growth that is also transferable to other careers they may have in the future.

While direct selling is a relatively new industry in India at less than 20 years, it has provided a livelihood to over 4 million Indian households and has generated approximately Rs.7500 crores in revenue. Taxes to the exchequer on account of direct selling industry are in excess of Rs 600 crores.

Despite its many benefits and popularity in India (India is No.21 in global direct selling markets) there has been a lack of clarity on the legislation governing this thriving industry. The lack of guidelines and legislation leads to genuine direct selling companies being bracketed with pyramid schemes that disguise themselves as direct selling companies. This negatively impacts the entire industry.

Many countries like Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines, have specific and strict direct selling and MLM legislation and the industry is a big contributor to the economies of these countries.

Last year an Inter-Ministerial Committee was set up under the aegis of Ministry of Consumer Affairs to understand and formulate the requisite legislation governing the Direct Selling Industry. Among other things, the committee is considering the enactment of legislation to regulate Direct selling/Multi-Level Marketing companies; formulate guidelines for such companies, and promote and to some extent adopt international best practices to protect consumers.

We hope that with time and with the above measures, direct selling sector in the country will only flourish and add on to the economic growth of the country.

(Source : http://www.qnet-india.in/breaking-cycle-unemployment-direct-selling/)

The Compromising Frog

Put a frog in a vessel of water and start heating the water.

As the temperature of the water rises, the frog is able to adjust its body temperature accordingly.

The frog keeps on adjusting with increase in temperature...

Just when the water is about to reach boiling point, the frog is not able to adjust anymore...

At that point the frog decides to jump out...

The frog tries to jump but is unable to do so, because it has lost all its strength in adjusting with the rising water temperature...

Very soon the frog dies.

What killed the frog?

Many of us would say the boiling water...

But the truth is what killed the frog was its own inability to decide when it had to jump out. It was a sort of compromise and adjustment he was making with the existing and changing situation.

We all need to adjust with people and situations, but we need to be sure when we need to adjust and when we need to confront/face.

There are times when we need to face the situation and take the appropriate action...

If we allow people to exploit us physically, mentally, emotionally or financially, they will continue to do so...

Similar is the case with situations with our life. Are we happy in the life, the job, the profession we are pursuing? Or, are we secretly desiring to follow our passion in a free and uninhabited manner?

We have to decide when to jump.

Let us jump while we still have the strength.

Think on It !! 

A Closer Look At Direct Selling

Unfortunately, direct selling companies get a bad reputation from being constantly compared to illegal pyramid schemes. Despite working within the law and following the business ethics that govern the direct selling industry, direct selling myths flourish and it's hard for people to see the difference. 

Watch this presentation to understand the direct selling industry and learn how to tell the differences between an illegal pyramid scheme from a legitimate network marketing company. 

We believe that the direct selling industry offers incredible freedom the way no other business can and we want to share that gift with everyone.

Redefining Wealth

My friend had just taken his company public. He was worth a fortune (think: winning the lottery every week for a year).

I wanted to know the details, so I said, “You had a big vision. You fought for it every day. Naysayers lined your path. Yet you never gave up. And now you’re the CEO of a publicly traded company that has pioneered an entire industry. 

How does it feel to have achieved such success?”

I was stunned by his answer. It was not at all what I was expecting.

He replied, “I don’t judge my success based on our stock price or how much money I have in the bank—or even what I leave to my kids. I judge my success based on how many of my employees leave our company to start their own business.”

Say whaaat?!

He continued, “The biggest mark I can leave is not the amount of wealth I create for myself, but how I teach and inspire my employees to create their own wealth.”

I found this shocking, not only because if I were in his shoes I’d at least get one fancy car, but also because his company is consistently rated a Best Place to Work in the entire state of Texas—and that’s a big state. Yet here he is saying that success to him was all about empowering his own employees to leave his company and start their own entrepreneurial journey.

The more I thought about my own definition of success—which over time has changed from a fast car to quality time at the park with my 3-year-old daughter—the more I realize success is never achieved. It’s a journey of personal growth.

When we help others achieve their goals, like starting a company or a nonprofit, we give our employees the opportunity to re-create the same scenario with their own employees. The cycle continues, and generations benefit from it.

If you’re a business owner yourself, you may be wondering, “But what about retention?”

Encouraging employees to leave their jobs to start their own businesses flies in the face of an all-important employee metric: retention. But as my friend shared with me, the more he helps his employees develop the skill set and mindset needed to start their own businesses, the more talented employees he attracts to his own company.

I recently saw the cycle firsthand.

One of my friend’s former employees sent me an email about his new startup. His company is getting all kinds of media attention and attracting talented employees from across the country—just like my friend’s did.

I finally got it.

Success is not buying a sports car, taking your company public for $500 million or retiring early, but rather helping others to pave their own paths so they can impact the world in their own positive ways. Wealth is what we give to others to pass on through their own actions, lives and journeys.

And that is why I keep that old Corvette poster from eighth grade in my garage—to remind me that how we define success changes as we do. (And maybe, just maybe, my daughter will want that poster someday. That, or she’ll think it’s cool I have a picture of an antique hanging on the wall!)

(Author: Jason Dorsey in Success Magazine)

Tale of Two Pebbles

Many years ago in a small Indian village, a farmer had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to a village moneylender. The moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the farmer's beautiful daughter. So he proposed a bargain.

He said he would forgo the farmer's debt if he could marry his daughter. Both the farmer and his daughter were horrified by the proposal. So the cunning money-lender suggested that they let providence decide the matter. He told them that he would put a black pebble and a white pebble into an empty money bag. Then the girl would have to pick one pebble from the bag.

• If she picked the black pebble, she would become his wife and her father's debt would be forgiven.
• If she picked the white pebble she need not marry him and her father's debt would still be forgiven.
• If she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into jail.

They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the farmer's field. As they talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them into the bag. He then asked the girl to pick a pebble from the bag.

(Now, imagine that you were standing in the field. What would you have done if you were the girl? If you had to advise her, what would you have told her?

Careful analysis would produce three possibilities:

• The girl should refuse to take a pebble.
• The girl should know that there were two black pebbles in the bag and expose the money-lender as a cheat.
• The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order to save her father from his debt and imprisonment.

Take a moment to ponder on this.)

The girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble.

Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles.

"Oh, how clumsy of me!" she said. "But never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked."

Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had picked the white one. And since the money-lender dared not admit his dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into an extremely advantageous one.

The above story is used with the hope that it will make us appreciate the difference between Lateral Thinking and Logical thinking. The girl's dilemma cannot be solved with traditional logical thinking. Think of the consequences if she had chosen the above logical answers. The girl looked beyond the obvious to find a solution in a way that wouldn't initially come to mind. This is just one example of the power of Lateral Thinking. And, this concept of Lateral Thinking was propounded by Edward de Bono.