It’s Later Than You Think!

At Some Point You Will be the Other Guy!

News of John Kalench’s death hit me like a bullet between the eyes! No, more like a lance through the heart. He was not only a good friend, but also an industry giant.

I have no doubt that in the short time that he was with us he accomplished his life’s goal of creating a million friends. At a minimum, he changed the lives of tens of thousands through his seminars and books. I know. I was one of them. I celebrated his knowledge and experience by giving away his books by the case to both distributors and prospects as well.

Although we talked occasionally on the phone, the last time that I saw John was at a Master’s Seminar we did in the Northwest a while back. John and I shared a common bond. The medical community had written us both off.

At the time, I was barely holding my own but miraculously John was in remission from a cancer that is fatal in nearly 100% of the cases. I was ecstatic for him.

John’s passing, along with the deaths of two other friends in the same week, all three younger than me, brings to the fore front my own mortality and an adage that my uncle has drilled into my head for decades: “It’s later than you think!”

I don’t know how much time I have left. Neither do you. The difference may be that as a result of my experiences as a combat marine and later as a U.S. Army Special Forces operative coupled with seven years spent working in emergency rooms and operating rooms; I may understand it better than you do. Early on I developed a sense of urgency that I brought into my network marketing business.

If you don’t have a sense of urgency, you need to develop one and you need to do it quickly! It’s later than you think!

If you are complacent, you’re defenseless. You are positioning yourself to be controlled by unforeseen circumstances in the future. Why not become proactive now and prepared for eventualities outside of your control later.

Several years back I had three folks in my organization, two personally sponsored, who were battling catastrophic illnesses. The cases were heartbreaking. None of these folks developed a sense of urgency about their business when they had the opportunity. When they became terminally ill, they were panic stricken over the financial future of their family.

Early on, before they were consumed by disease, I had encouraged them to get serious about their business. Their responses were universal. “I don’t have the time.” All I could do was shake my head sadly. I knew what they didn’t know and didn’t want to hear. “It’s later than you think!”

Within weeks of each other they awoke one day to find that they had terminal cancer. Suddenly, faced with their own mortality, their family’s financial future took on a whole new meaning. But, it was too late. They had never treated the opportunity seriously. With tears in their eyes, each came to me begging for an answer as to how they could build the business overnight.

Nothing is built overnight. This business is built showing the plan one presentation at a time, one distributor at a time. There was nothing that I could tell them.

Sacrificing a little time and money now for higher quality time and a more solid financial picture in the future was a concept that they never understood. I’d tell them that “It’s later than you think,” but they wouldn’t believe me.

Three years ago, without warning, I nearly expired due to congestive heart failure and surrounding complications. I was admitted to the hospital in critical condition with a Blood Pressure of 45/20. I was minutes from death. It took several days to get me stabilized but the damage was done. My heart muscle was irreparably trashed. I was told that it would never again operate at greater than 15%. My life expectancy was measured in weeks, a few months at best. I was told I’d never work again.  My activity for evermore was not to exceed 10 minutes every other hour. I was finished!

The greatest solace to me during those dark days was that I was debt-free and had built a solid network marketing business that would not only pay me residually while I was alive, but would take care of my family after my death. Where would I have been if a few years earlier I hadn’t exercised the sense of urgency necessary to build my business? Most likely, I would have been relegated to a few bucks a month of social security disability, probably would have had to sell my home and move into a low rent apartment in some seedy neighborhood and wait around to die.

You know how stuff happens to the other guy? Guess what? It happened to me! And, at some point in your life, it will happen to you. You will be the other guy. You just don’t know when. In my case it was heart trouble. In John’s, it was cancer. It shouldn’t have happened. Both of us were physically fit and nutritionally conscious. Oh well!  It could just as easily have been an auto wreck, a fatal fire, random street violence or some other equally devastating situation. You’re not immune. Wake up to the fact that it’s later than you think.

You have no time to waste. Get your butt in gear! Make it happen! A successful network-marketing career is the cheapest insurance policy that you’ll ever get. The premium is a little effort put forth to help others. The effort that you put forth today is your down payment for your family’s security tomorrow.

It’s later than you think!