Network marketing success is about a lot of people consistently doing a little bit over time.

Many new reps in network marketing feel they have to be super-salespeople capable of selling hundreds and possibly thousands of new accounts every year to create significant income. And when they fail to achieve those lofty personal sales goals, they get disenchanted in their MLM business and quit.

Yet in network marketing, you don’t need big numbers to create some rather impressive checks. They say small hinges swing big doors. And nowhere is this statement more apparent than in network marketing, the business of consistent action and duplication.

Here’s how the math works.

Let’s use some low, very conservative numbers. Imagine that you can only sponsor one rep per month. And instead of trying to recruit 10, 15, or 20 new reps every month, you’ll invest some of your time into training your new distributorson  how to do what you do, which is find one new distributor per month, every month.

If you just keep doing that, you’ll have 1 rep after month 1. At the end of month 2, you find one more rep, and your original rep will also sponsor someone. Now you have 3 reps in total.

At the end of month 3, your team will grow to 6 distributors.

As you keep doing what you have been doing so far, and if you reps keep doing that too, at the end of first year, you’ll have 72 distributors.

And as you stay the track and keep doing this, your team will grow to 300 reps by the end of year 2 of you in business.

This would be a rather remarkable accomplishment in itself. Yet remember, all you did so far was simple and something that anyone can do: Find one, just one new rep per month.

Now, what if you could sponsor 2 reps per month and teach them how to do the same?

Well, your team would then have almost 1,000 distributors in just about 2.5 years!  And in many network marketing companies, this would generate a full-time income for you. Yes, in a short 2.5 years!

Obviously, things in real life very rarely work out in exactly the same way they do on paper. However, in our hypothetical example, we used the numbers that are very low that can be achieved by about anyone.  And the outstanding result — in any business, and especially that of network marketing —  is acheived through the consistency of action and duplication.

In a team sport, a star performer can’t win games all by herself. It requires every member of the team to contribute to the result. A individual wins only if the whole team wins.

In network marketing, you cannot build a big business all by yourself either. It has to be team effort. You could be a super-great salesperson but you won’t be able to create a legacy in network marketing unless you manage to build a team.

• It doesn’t matter what your talents and weaknesses are…

• It doesn’t matter what your background and experience are…

• It doesn’t matter whether you’ve been in business before…

No matter what your story and your circumstances are, you have a shot at creating a successful MLM business. Because the only things that do matter are your desire and your determination to succeed.

• You can win because your talents can be matched up with and amplified by the talents of the other people on your team.

• You can win because your weaknesses can be offset by your team.

• You can win because every member has to do a little bit to have the whole team win big.

Network marketing success is not about one individual doing a lot. Network marketing success is about a lot of people doing a little bit.  It is not a business of selling, although selling takes place all the time. It is a business of duplication.

It is a business of duplication of the result, not of the way that result it achieved. Here’s what I mean.

One person may know how to work the phone. Another could be very good at advertising via Google Adwords or other pay-per-click engines. Yet someone else may know a lot about online social networks. You could be a good public speaker and know how to sell from the platform. And one of your teammates could be second to none in a face-to-face selling situation.  Then there are people who can organize events, write ads, set up joint ventures with local businesses, and do email marketing.  All these skills are essential to the success of your team and your success too. And there is no way for any one individual to be able to master all these skills and to have time to do all that. That’s why a team of distributors working in concert with each other and leveraging their unique abilities is the fastest way to network marketing riches.

Trying to do all of this alone is not a business. It’s a job. And probably the kind that doesn’t pay too well.

Think about it: Which kind of game are you playing in your MLM business right now? Is it more like a tennis match or a basketball game?

And in business, the person who makes the most mistakes and learns from them is the one who ultimately wins.

The key to success lies NOT in avoiding mistakes but in embracing them.

And just like any business “bedtime story”, when we talk about mistakes, we can’t escape using the example of Thomas Edison who discovered a light bulb on his 1001 attempt and refused to subscribe a point of view that he had just experienced 1000 failures. (Reportedly, he would say that he had just discovered “a 1000th ways things don’t work”.)

In business (MLM, network marketing or any other kind) it’s important to have that Edisonian attitude. And it is very possible that “attitude” is too small a word to use here. “The way of life” is probably more appropriate.

So here’s the list of my personal “Letterman” list of top 10 network marketing mistakes, snafus and bloopers (committed by yours truly and millions of other MLM reps):

10. Not Being A Freak Enough About Adding People To My Contact Database

At the end of the year, I discovered that I have several stacks of business cards of the people I met at various networking events that never made it into my database. What a waste! Most of us don’t need more leads. We just need to patch up that leaky bucket.

9. Pre-Judging Who’s The Right Candidate For The Opportunity And Who’s Not

We don’t and can’t possibly know who’s ready to join our business or buy our product. Our job as network marketers is to let everyone we come in contact with know about our product and let them decide if they need it and if it’s the right time for them. 2 years ago, I had someone I knew relatively well join my company with another rep. (“Oh, I didn’t know you were in this business!”) Not good! Lesson learned. I am not letting this happen to me again and you shouldn’t either.

8. Being The Best Presenter Of The Product

At certain point in time, I knew and loved the product so much I started doing the entire presentation myself, without relying on company-provided aids, presentations and videos. As much as I could get people excited about the product, I was getting them “not sure” about the opportunity. Or rather, not sure about their ability to present. I was good. Too good. And they couldn’t see themselves investing their time into becoming that good at presenting. After all, network marketing is the business of duplication. You need to keep it so simple people will see doing it themselves.

7. Spending Core Selling Time On Non-Core Activities

There are a few very simple activities (a complete list being outside the scope of this article) that you need to do every day to ensure the consistent growth of your business. Slow and consistent is key to success. “Slow” is “fast.” Yet, as impatient humans, we want it now. We want to hit the proverbial MLM jackpot. So when we go to endless networking meetings, spend time on social networking sites and discussion forums, or (as in my case) writing articles and building websites, it feels like we’re getting somewhere — but we’re not. Go back to basics.

6. Not Being Consistent

This is an extension of #5. People who keep on keeping on, and who focus on a few simple, consistent actions every day, build strong network marketing organizations. Those who start and stop, and build their business in spurts, wane.  Last year, I took a few “sabbaticals” from my opportunity to build another (non-MLM) business.  The checks kept coming and but the team stopped growing.  And as soon as I put my attention back on the ball, the business has been growing steadily; other reps started building, too. I’ve heard of this phenomenon from other network marketers and it definitely is true.

5. Not Asking For Help

This is more than just a guy thing. Some “gal” network marketers are guilty of that too. There is a lot at stake for us. We have a lot to prove — to the world and to ourselves. Yet being able to ask for help is not weakness. It’s strength. Your family, your friends, and many of the business contacts you have developed would jump at a chance to help you, even if they may never join your network marketing company. Don’t deprive them of a chance.

4. Trying To Do Everything By Ourselves

Yes, we do that all the time. However, we need to remember we are not alone on our quest to MLM reaches. We have our upline, and some of us have our downline, and our successes depends on each others’ successes. And besides, doing things together is so much easier! Also, you are not limited to just your team or even your company. You can get a “running mate” who could belong to a totally different network marketing company and who will keep you accountable to your goals, just like you will keep her accountable to hers.

3. No Tracking Of Activities

If we don’t track our activities, we don’t really know how we’re doing. Tracking can be and should be simple. There is a story of Jerry Seinfeld in his early days as a comedian. He wanted to learn to write good comedy so he set a simple goal of writing something every day. He placed a huge calendar above his bed and he would draw a line with a marker across the box for every day that he wrote something. For him, the trick was to keep that line going. Figure out a few key activities you should be doing every day and don’t break the line.

2. Not Bringing The Reps To The Company Events

The stats in the industry show very clearly that the reps who are “plugged into” the company events and activities have a lot more success than those who are not. Bringing your distributors to company seminars, events, and annual conventions will grow your business manifold.  One of the very successful networkers told me that for every one of his reps who comes to the company convention, his business will eventually grow by an additional $5,000 annually. That’s a good rule of thumb to follow. Start applying it to your business.

1. Re-inventing The Wheel

Network marketing business is simple. It is not easy. Just simple. The problem is, our “creative side” rebels against the simplicity and sends us on a quest to find new and better ways to build our company.  There is always some new book and new website that promises instant MLM bliss, and we are off to exploring new frontiers. However, you need to remember that business success is found through trial and error, and errors cost time and money. Until you have the time and the money (which you get once you build a massive team), you simply can’t afford to experiment. Listen, if you have fewer than 1,000 reps under you, don’t try anything new. You haven’t earned the right to start experimenting yet. Find a successful networker and relentlessly — alsmost religiously — follow their simple system.