| Comment Number: | 522418-11940 |
| Received: | 7/17/2006 4:52:46 PM |
| Organization: | |
| Commenter: | Greene |
| State: | WA |
| Subject: | Business Opportunity Rule |
| Title: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking |
| CFR Citation: | 16 CFR Part 437 |
| Attachment: | 522418-11940.pdf Download Adobe Reader |
Comments:
Federal Trade Commission Office of the Secretary Room H-135 (Annex W) 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20580 RE: Business Opportunity Rule, R511993 I am responding on the very last day because I have too. I hate to try to put my thoughts down on paper. Never sure I really can state them in a way that would be of value to anyone else. Although something I read compelled me to speak up Now! Really it was a question- ‘How Long Have You Been in Business?’ That made me reflect over the many years I have been involved with Direct Sales and Network Marketing. My life is blessed with personal growth that would never have come about without this Industry. There is no way you can not benefit as I see it. I came from a broken “dysfunctional” family. I had no self esteem, no understanding of dreams/goals, and no structure/discipline. Thanks to my association with Mary Kay Cosmetics I started to get a glimpse of all the above. Mostly because I saw a lot of women come into Mary Kay feeling much the same. Yet for those that could break through all their negative thinking, and take the direction of the leaders who were trained by the ones who went before them, lives were being change, confident and financially secure women were emerging. Every hour I spent around the positive energy of the women who used the philosophy of Mary Kay truly impacted my life for the better. I took a lot of the positive thinking and goal setting ideas and tools to help my children. They are now, compared to my siblings children, living lives with dreams/goals and high self esteem. Stories like these are far more plentiful, I know, because I have heard them from all the Networkers that I have spoken with who have truly followed the direction of successful leaders in their companies. The Industry is one that demands people to start taking responsibility for their lives and therefore their choices. Personal Growth/Self Esteem and Business/Money Smarts are two major “Classes” lacking in our school system. If our children were to read some of the books that I was encouraged to read when starting my in ‘Home Business’ through the Network Marketing Industry they would have higher self esteem to build better relationships in all areas of their lives and to better plan their financial strategies for staying out of debt and enjoying a secure retirement. Lack of happy families with sound money management skills are huge problems in our society today. Divorce, foreclosures, bankruptcies and senior citizens living below poverty at retirement and not being able to afford basic needs as food and medicine - need I say more? Could we not be using time, energy and money to educate our young to be better prepared to navigate life with tools that will prepare them to make choices from an informed position? Then they will know how to size up a true business opportunity much like a CPA can. It is not that hard to learn some basic bookkeeping skills – yet it is a skill and it needs to be taught - with the financial conditions of the majority of working families it would be safe to say this skill is not being taught or even modeled at home. Why not teach our children the ins and outs of our banking system so they don’t fall victim to the Lending Institutions HYPE and advertising for a ‘Life of Fulfillment Now’? This equals a life of huge debt and insecurity and shame. I say this because of spending three years in the Mortgage Industry as a Loan Officer and hearing horror stories daily of financial ruin and family unhappiness. Yes the schools give our children the ability to read yet they fail to have them read the books that will give them a true edge for making decisions on every day matters…MONEY and How to Handle It. And thanks to this industry I now see myself being able to live financially free during my retirement. Then I will give a huge Thank-you to the co-founders of XanGo and the leaders that believed in them and me.