Monday, July 9, 2007

Discovering (My) Vocation - Part IV

Then, I made a foolish decision to postpone my study to get involved with an *gasps!* MLM business. I was unemployed by that time and, like many people, fell into the trap of the (seemingly) fast and easy instant rewards promised by this sort of business. It was a thing that I sometime still regret until now.

Well, not that this kind of business is impossible. It is possible, I’ve seen many living proofs (my uplines, that is), but it takes a lot of hard work, determination, and patience. While I agree that all work requires those 3 traits, the ones that this business demanded were more than what I imagined. After around 6 months being plunged into the business, I came to my senses and decided to put it down. It was definitely not my cup of tea.

So what did I get after all those months?

Well, I got to know a lot new people from my group (those of you familiar with MLM should know about these groups, it’s like a political party in a way, with its fanatic followers). They’re nice friendly people actually, but (most) could only talk about the same thing again and again – the business, how to get more downlines/customers, how to close a deal, how to sell more, and in the end, money money money. Being in this business means mingling and staying with these people. It’ll be hard for you to be friends with other people outside the business because your brain only works in one way, the group’s way. This was one of the things that kind of freaked me out. I love my friends, they’re not into MLM’s, and I don’t want to lose them. I almost did, in some cases, but thank gawd I got out before I made more mistakes.

I went to lots of seminars and gatherings, which gave me tips and tricks on selling – which could actually be applied to almost any business, and motivational lessons – which could be applied to any facets of life in general. But after I was detached from these activities, I feel that these meetings are equal to a brainwashing process, in a way.

I went for trips to Singapore and Hong Kong for a regional convention – probably the best and worst thing that happened to me while I was in the business. Best because I get to travel, of course, although not really enjoying myself. No shopping, or clubbing, or whatever. Just working. I arrived with a very tight budget because my objective was to learn and to work.

My daily agenda (in Singapore, which is my group’s base) consisted of the same routines: morning meeting at the (group) centre, and then going out to public areas to do ‘surveys’ (which is actually trying to sell and get people on the spot). These surveys have to be done all day long, after morning meeting until evening, ending only at dinnertime.

These surveys were also one of the things that made me had more doubts. The idea of standing around everyday trying to grab some strangers to be a customer is not favorable for me. It was embarrassing, actually. I was no different than a regular salesman trying to sell medicine (a.k.a. tukang obat). But I tried to brush off the uneasiness and tried to get used to it while I was there. I came there despite my family and friend’s disapproval and so I didn’t want to play around and tried to focus on my objective. Hong Kong trip was more fun because there were no surveys, and more time to play around. It was actually a fun trip, because it was also my first visit to the country.

When I came home, my family confronted me. They tried to put some senses in my mind and asked me to quit. I rejected at first (the brainwashing effect was still strong on me after all those meetings and seminars). I even followed my uplines’s ‘advice’ to ask my parents to send me to Singapore to learn, and work there for a while, around 1-2 years, before coming back to Indonesia to set up my branch of the group. I was, in short, an insane little girl who had lost her common sense.

It wasn’t until after a long tearful talk with the whole family that I finally decided to be a sane person again, and just throw away all those ridiculous thoughts of getting money for the rest of your life by doing nothing. I looked at the damaged that I caused; I’ve wasted the money saved for my China study for the business, and got into a huge debt with my credit cards – yupe, that’s how I got those never ending bills. I finally came to my senses.

I quickly looked for a (real) job, and thankfully I got one without waiting too long. I didn’t really think about what I really wanted and just take on the first offer given. I’ve bills to pay so I had to get a job ASAP, I couldn’t wait longer for the ‘perfect’ job. By July 2006, I started working in a big garment company.


(To be continued again..)

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