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.

Happy New Year 2016

 New Year is not about changing the Dates but Direction; 

It’s not about changing the Calendar but Commitment;

It’s not about changing the Actions but Attitude; 

It’s not about changing the Fruit but Faith, Force and Focus!
 

May you Commit and Create the best New Year ever!
 

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2016

 

 

QNET’s Parent Company Bags HR Asia Award Again

Global conglomerate, the QI Group’s Malaysia office was among 38 winners of the HR Asia Best Companies to Work for in Asia 2015 held in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.The awards, organized by HR trade journal – HR Asia, saw 220 companies competing to be known as the best workplaces in Malaysia and Asia. The Malaysian Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Datuk Dr. Abu Bakar Mohd Diah presented the awards to the winners. QI Hong Kong shared the winners’ stage with other notable companies such as Kimberly-Clark, Microsoft, Yahoo! and Starbucks! Nice work!

QI Group Chief Human Resources Officer, Christopher Watson expressed his delight for the achievement and thanked HR Asia Magazine for this prestigious award.

“For the QI Group to be recognized as one of the best companies to work for in Asia is a tremendous achievement. This award will serve as a great encouragement for all of us to continue to place our people at the top of our priorities,” noted Watson.

As part of the judging parameter of the Awards, each participating company nominated at least 20 or 20 percent of their workforce, guided by an Employee Selection Guide to take the HR Asia Employee Input Survey. Forty five QI Malaysia employees participated in the survey.

In total, 5,000 employees were surveyed to determine their motivation, emotional engagement and advocacy of their respective employers.

The summary of findings has been based on three main factors that determine the satisfaction of an individual: the heart, mind and soul. The questions were structured into each of these three categories: employee engagements, workplace culture, advancement and development opportunities as well as other various key points are taken into account from each company so as to produce result that are as accurate as possible.

The winners score high across the board with both the Employee Input Survey and Workplace and Employee Engagement Survey – proving that they are indeed a class above the rest.

“Additionally, it is really an encouragement for the QI Group as it proves that all our efforts have positive outcome and is recognized in the market. We will continue with what we have been doing well and will even do better to strive for further excellence,” added Watson.

Commenting on the most important factors that contributed to winning this award, Watson pointed out that the QI Group believes in employee engagement and puts that into action through the management philosophy, mission, culture creation, policy setting, employee benefits and development, as well as corporate social responsibilities.

The QI Group is a diversified multinational entity catering to varied businesses that include education, hospitality, direct selling, financial services and retail. It employs more than 1000 people across 30 countries, and have key regional offices in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines. QI's focus is on enabling people to rise through solutions that power entrepreneurship, enhance urban lifestyles and reform the education sector.

QNET is one of Asia’s leading Direct Selling companies with a dynamic online shopping and business community comprising around seven million customers and independent distributors around the world. The company offers an entrepreneurial network marketing business opportunity and a portfolio of lifestyle products that have been developed to enhance the lives of its customers through innovation, wellness and luxury.

Established in Asia in 1998, QNET utilises the direct sales business model on a proprietary eCommerce platform to market and distribute its exclusive products. The company specialises in everyday, consumer brands as well as high-end luxury goods.

QNET is a member of the Direct selling Association in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines.