A friend had told her about a network marketing cosmetic company, but Sandra blew the idea off.  She started to reconsider, though, when, upon returning from a trip to Paris for her 30th birthday that she’d charged on her credit card.  The reality of her financial situation began to set in.  “I remember watching John as he slept at night and then going into my room and pulling out all the bills and the checkbook and thinking,’ We are circling the drain.’ I thought back to when I was young, and I used to love to make up my aunts before they went out.  My mom was one of 13 kids in her family, so some of my aunts weren’t much older than I was.  I loved making people look beautiful, and they were always so happy afterwards.  When you look good, you feel better about yourself, so I decided to call my friend.”

When she called, it turned out the friend had quit, but Sandra needed to earn $1,000 fast, so she met with someone at a management level to find out how.  “In the early days, I didn’t really believe in myself.  I would go and be interviewed for jobs where somebody would say,’ you have the job or you don’t have the job; you get paid this amount of money for this amount of work.’  They would ask me about my credentials and my education level, but never about my dreams or my talents.  In network marketing, people said to me,’ You can do it!’”

Within six months, she’d earned her first car.

“That taught me a lot,” she says.  “ I started looking at my corporate job and how people treated me there and thought,’ For the amount of hours I’m doing my direct sales business and how much I’m making there versus how much I’m working and making in this job, I should quit my job and go full-time.’  I resigned and told everyone what I was going to do and they all laughed at me.  But about six months later, I went to see one of the secretaries who was a friend of mine, and I had a newer, fancier car from the company.  She said,’ I don’t understand—you have all this and you don’t have a real job?  You can do whatever you want whenever you want to do it?’  I told her,’ Yes—I set my own hours, I work at my own pace, I’m my own boss, and I have a real business.’  She couldn’t get it.”

But Sandra was thriving, and as she grew more successful, her aspirations grew.  She set bigger goals for herself—even when pursuing them involved significant risk.  “ I was evolving, and I realized that company wasn’t really it for me anymore. I’d started with that company because it was the only opportunity presented to me.  Nowadays, people have so many choices, but back then I didn’t.  When I found the right company, the one I’m still with now after nine years, I quit—I gave my car back, no one came with me, and I started over from scratch.”

At that point, success to Sandra was earning herself a Mercedes-Benz from her new company.  After giving back her other car, she took a two-year lease on a white Ford Escort with an intention to earn the Mercedes by the time the lease was up.  “One of my funniest memories is from this period when I knew I needed to build a new team and reach the Regional Vice President (RVP) level, before my lease ended, to earn the company car. I wasn’t afraid to work, and I went all over the place in that Escort.  I ended up reaching the level in just 20 months, and in my last month of qualification, I was driving to Laguna Beach one day, when I got pulled over by a policeman.  At that point, if it didn’t have to do with RVP or my son, I wasn’t thinking about it.  I’d become so focused, I’d let a few things slip—I had no registration because I was paying the bare minimum bills, my tags were expired, my license was expired, and here I was driving down the freeway.

“The policeman got out of the car and said,’ Lady, do you have any idea how much trouble you’re in? I can take you to jail.’  I started crying and giving him a sob story, and he asked,’ Do you have anything in your car that says who you are? ‘ I picked up the company magazine from the seat beside me, which had my face on the cover.  I said,’ This is me, and I’m going to become a Regional Vice President at the end of this month if you will just let me go.  I have to be in Orange County to do a skin care class and I have to be there on time.  If you just let me go, officer, I’m going to be somebody!’

“Believe it or not, he let me go!”

Even though her previous experience helped her to succeed faster this time, Sandra was afraid of not being able to do it again from scratch. Her self-confidence still wasn’t very strong.  It took a friend’s challenge to get her through—a friend asked her once when she was feeling discouraged,” Have you given it your best shot?” Since she wasn’t succeeding yet, there was no way Sandra would answer yes, so her friend suggested,” Why don’t you give it your best shot and then quit?” Sandra agreed, with a plan not to quit until she was successful.  Of course, when she reached that point, she didn’t want to quit anymore.

“ You know the phrase’ fake it till you make it?’  It was almost like that—I believed in the company, I believed in the products, I believed in the people in my upline.  And pretty soon I started believing in me.  Now it’s the other way around, and my whole life is different—I’m a better mother because of this business, I’m a better wife, a better friend; I can go and do anything.  I don’t have fear now.”

With that personal transformation, her definition of success has changed yet again.  “For me, real success is having a life filled with peace, ease, grace and prosperity.  I feel like if I have prosperity, the money will be there.  If I have peace, ease and grace, my health will be there.  And if I have balance, my family will be right.  I’m like a little kid in this business.  The same things thrill me after nine years with this company—signing people up, getting their business started, finding out they’re coming to training, going to an elite party and seeing the smiles on people’s faces when they’re acknowledged, or having someone call to tell me about a great thing that happened to them.”

As a leader in her company, Sandra still finds herself growing as a person and learning new things about the business—sometimes from the most unexpected people.  One of the most important lessons she’s learned recently began with an offhand remark to her husband.

“One night I was going down the list of people in my group and said to my husband, ‘ I’m so concerned about this one person.  She’s been in the company for a long time, and I can’t believe she’s still here with this minimal amount of success.”

“My husband looked at me and said,’ That’s pretty arrogant of you to decide what her success is, don’t you think?  Based on what you told me about that person when she first came in, I’d guess that she’s one of the most successful people in your group.’

“This struck me—and I started changing that belief immediately.  I became unattached to the results.  Before, I thought I knew what her success was supposed to be.  If she wasn’t getting that, I’d be frustrated—instead, I started letting it go.  Nobody knows why another person really comes into the business except that person and God.  When I stopped being like that, I got excited for everything to happen for her at her pace, and it was fun. 

“Those of us in leadership roles can make the mistake of projecting things we don’t know we’re projecting and missing a lot of what’s going on with the team.  The bottom line is, people are really ready to move forward when they say, on their own, ‘No more of this, I’ve had it.’  Today, my goal is to help as many people as I can have their success.”