Review of The Next Millionaires--Part Three

Humans resist change yet need change for growth. The T (technology) in Pilzer's wealth equation has gone from barely changing for many years until about the 1980's. The rate of change now doubles each decade. "Today it is the wild card . . . it is your key for creating wealth."

W=PXT Pilzer says that individuals also have a wealth equation. The P in the equation is the people you know, your knowledge and your available hours and the T is your skills. He goes on to break skills into three categories. Basic skills are your ability to read, write, speak, calculate and process information. Functional skills are special skills you have learned such as skills learned for your career or studied in college/trade school. And lastly, adapting skills are your ability to learn new things. Adapting skills are very valuable in starting a business.

In addition, you should work in an emerging industry not an existing industry. Emerging industries are: wellness, the internet and direct selling (multi-level marketing, network marketing).

Wellness is not health care. It is for healthy people who want to stay healthy, slow down the aging process, and not become victims of the sickness industry (traditional medicine and health insurance). This industry has many baby boomers as advocates. Pilzer predicts it be a $1 trillion industry by 2010.

The Internet has greatly accelerated the rate of information exchange. Pilzer says the instantaneous real-word communication of the internet could be called "informationalization". It is just barely getting started. The potential for the internet is just beginning to be realized.

Pilzer calls Direct Selling Intellectual Distribution. He predicts that the next boom in the distribution business will be in educating consumers in products and services they don't yet know about.

Home-based business opportunities have taken off! More than 1 in 8 households has a home-based business. Individual entrepreneurs have an advantage over the big companies. They actually have better technology than the big companies because the big companies can't innovate as quickly as the individual. The thinking now is the bigger the company the more out of date the technology is. It is too difficult to bring in and integrate a new generation of technology.

Corporations who lured employees with medical benefits and retirement plans have disappeared. It is financially unfeasible for these companies to bear the expense of those benefits. Pilzer feels much of the unemployment we are experiencing today is due to large corporations being unable to compete with the smaller companies, and independent contractors and adaptable entrepreneurs. The recent change in tax laws has made entrepreneurship highly attractive. Entrepreneurs have the same advantages or better than corporate employees in terms of health plans and tax-deferred retirement savings. Entrepreneurship also offers lifestyle advantages--work when you want to.

Pilzer gives some interesting facts on Direct Selling:

Direct Selling is growing rapidly--U.S. sales have more than doubled in the last decade. U.S. sales in 2004 were greater than $30 billion--Worldwide sales are nearly$100 billion.
In 2006--more than 15 million people were involved in direct selling in the U.S. and nearly 50 million worldwide.
75% of the U.S. population have purchased goods and services through direct sales--more than those who purchased through TV and Internet combined.
45% of the U.S. population want to buy from direct sellers.
90% of all direct sellers operate their business part-time.

Direct Selling often sells services but is ideally suited to products that people don't already know about, are not widely known or understood and that need a significant amount of information to go with them. The products are very high quality and value.

Pilzer goes on to say that a "person to person conversation is the most effective way, the most efficient way and often the only way, to help bridge another person's technology gap." This applies to the Economic Alchemy Law #6--it represents enormous economic potential.

Pilzer discusses Residual Income--which is very accessible in Direct Selling--income that is paid and continues to pay after work has been completed. " . . . it makes the difference between economic freedom and servitude." Traditional income is paid through exchanging dollars for hours. You don't work, you don't get paid. He concludes that "In direct selling, the 'property' that you develop is the network of direct sellers whose sales volume generates a commission to you, the creator of the network."

In the next chapter, Pilzer covers the spiritual nature of business. One reason he feels direct selling is spiritual is that it alllows people to blend work and family "seamlessly". He likes that direct selling entrepreneurs teach "spiritual values". They are able to teach about unlimited wealth. This is not the common view of society today. Events have left us feeling limits, lack and fear.

Pilzer also says that direct sellers are inclusive. They offer the same opportunity to everyone. You don't need a college degree or special training. You just need to be teachable and have a good work ethic.

In Pilzer's view direct selling improves your wealth equation and economic alchemy because "Helping other people make smart choices, create a business that they can operate from home, spend more time with their families and build a stream of residual income at the same time--and helping so many different people do this--offers its own rewards, far above and beyond the monetary rewards. And . . . you are constantly improving the skills involved in working with different kinds of people. The nature of the business automatically compels you to develop your skills--and it develops the single most important skill you have: the ability to constantly learn and embrace new skills and new information."

One question Pilzer asks at the end of the book is "Why do we work" and the answer is "We work to build a better world". He believes direct selling contributes to building a better world by allowing unlimited wealth, providing superior products and educating the public about them, working with people from all walks of life and teaching the valuable lesson of unlimited wealth, offering the same opportunity to everyone, providing residual income and finally it allows us to love people.

I highly recommend this book. I bought it through Brilliant Exchange.com. I hope that it is as inspirational to you as it is to me. I wish you the greatest success!