An Open Letter…

I wrote this letter to my team just a short time ago. I thought it might be appropriate to share it here with any readers of this blog.

I’m writing from my hotel room in Cleveland, OH where we have just concluded the best ACN International training that I have ever attended. I’d like to say that I am “fired up” but that would not entirely be accurate. That would seem to indicate that my state of mind is one of emotion (and therefore is subject to change). Rather, I would say that I am walking away from this weekend, “resolved.” The dictionary says that to be resolved is to be “decidedly firm on a course of action.”

I want to begin by apologizing to each and every one of you. For those of you who were not here with us this weekend, I owe you an apology for not conveying the importance of these International events. I feel such a burden. I have let you down terribly by not pushing you to be here. My life changed this weekend. You deserve to have had your life change this weekend as well.

This was my fifth International Training since I have been back in ACN and it was the BEST event (by far) so far. While all the ACN trainers were phenomenal (including Debbie Davis, George Zalucky and Janel Presant), I was especially moved by this morning’s worship service led by Pastor Kevin Boyd and today’s Keynote speech delivered by Andy Andrews. Andrews has published several books, but today he spoke about “The Seven Decisions that lead to Personal Success.” There is no way that I could do his 90 minute talk justice in this email. However I did find a PDF that he created on his website (www.andyandrews.com) that discusses those seven decisions. I have downloaded that and attached it herein. Please take the time to review this, it is life changing.

I also owe you an apology for not leading by example these past few months. I don’t want to get into the reasons why, nor do I have any desire to make “excuses.” I merely want to tell you that I know that our team should be further ahead than it is right now, and I accept complete and full responsibility for that. There comes a time in every ACN Reps life where they must draw a line in the sand and say “enough is enough.” That line has been drawn for me this weekend. Forgetting what is behind, I am resolved to do the work to attain the prize that lays ahead.

ACN really and truly is the most amazing company/business model that I have ever seen in my life. It is an honorable business, dealing with legitimate products and services that we all use all the time. This is NOT the company that I knew in the 1990’s. I sit here in wonder, as I think about the company it will become as this current decade plays out. I can’t believe that God has shone His light upon my life to reveal this opportunity for me and for each of you.

I’m resolved this week to pique interest with at least 25 new people.

I’m resolved this week to call each of you personally to see how I might be able to serve you in this business.

I’m resolved this week to focus on becoming a hero to my own children thru this business.

I’m resolved this week to honoring my wife with my work ethic.

I’m resolved this week to allowing God to work thru me so that He can use me to be the man He created me to be.

I love each and every one of you, and am thankful for the commitment that you made to be a part of the remedy, when you paid your $499 and joined ACN. The second half of 2010 is going to be an amazing ride. I don’t want any of you to miss out on that. There is room for each of you to change your life this year.

We will resume our regular Monday night conference call this Monday June 28th at 9 p.m. (Pacific time). The call-in number is (712) 432-1413 and the PIN is: #916261. I look forward to reconnecting with each of you on tomorrow night’s call.

MEAT AND POTATOES

For those of you who were in Anaheim this past weekend for the ACN International Training event, you no doubt came away with tons of great information. This was my third event this time around in ACN. They’ve come a long way from the first one that took place in 1994. That one was held in Las Vegas at the Flamingo Hilton in a conference room that held about 300 people. This past weekend over 15,000 people were in attendance at the Anaheim Convention Center. I’m going to venture a guess that this will end up being the last International event ever to be held in a convention center.

• Darren Hardy, Publisher of Success magazine,  delivered a great keynote address on Sunday morning.
• Pastor Kevin Boyd was spot on during the Sunday morning worship service with his message on “The Road to Prosperity.”
• SVP Darin Dowd provided everyone with a visual illustration of the recruiting process that will forever have us looking at gum ball machines differently.

But one of the most significant “aha” moments came for me during newly-promoted SVP Debbie Davis‘s talk on Sunday morning. In her training on “Timing and Leading by Example” she said,

“Personal development is the meat and potatoes of ACN. The money is the gravy!”

WOW!

Debbie could not have made this point anymore clear. ACN is a personal development company with a compensation plan attached. First comes the personal development, THEN comes the money. You can’t have the gravy without first making the turkey.

So what does this all mean? It means that if you want to succeed on a major scale in ACN, then you need to work on yourself first.

So many people focus on what they want to HAVE. What we need to focus on first is who we ARE. That’s the essence of personal development. Working on yourself and the person that you are.

This has been one of the great life lessons that I have had to learn the hard way. Success in life is not so much dependent on my external circumstances as it is on the person I am becoming in the process. “Being” is more important than “having.” In a materialistic world, what a revolutionary concept!

No one exemplifies this more than Debbie Davis. I was there in 1993. I remember what Debbie was like. She has always been one of the “gosh darn” nicest people you will ever encounter in your life. In fact, back then she kind of became the unofficial ACN Mom to every rep in the company. Debbie was the person you ran to when you needed encouragement. Debbie was the person you went to when you needed a hug.

Watching Debbie Davis get promoted to SVP on Saturday night and then train on Sunday made me realize just how far Debbie Davis has come on her 17 year journey with ACN. She has worked on herself as much as anyone else I have ever seen. Debbie Davis is a leader’s leader.

There’s a saying that goes, “if you wanna have what successful people have, you have to do what successful people do.” What Debbie Davis has done over the past seventeen years (and I suspect over her lifetime) is focus her own personal character and development.

First comes the meat and potatoes, then comes the gravy