Hard Work and The Power of Plastic Shoes

There once was a man who was the oldest of 14 children who came to this country from Mexico to make a better life for himself and his family. Born to a Mexican father with no formal education and a Peruvian mother with a doctorate degree, Carlos* understood the value of both hard work and education as ways of getting ahead in life. But with little opportunity in his own country, Carlos did not know how he would make things better unless he left his country and came to the United States.

Carlos’s family could not afford proper shoes for all the children when Carlos was growing up. One day his father came home with a pair of shoes for Carlos that were the wrong size, and pinched his feet when he wore them. Fairly quickly, the shoes caused development problems in Carlos’s feet, so he told his father he did not want to wear them anymore. His father scolded him for not wanting to wear the shoes and told him that his only other option was to wrap pieces of plastic around his feet to protect them from the elements. While it wasn’t the greatest option in the world, at least the plastic did not pinch his feet. But that early experience made Carlos even more determined to one day earn enough money to afford good shoes for himself and all of his brothers and sisters.

When he first came to America, he found work in the fields, picking apples and berries. One day, a man dressed in a suit and driving a fancy car stopped by the field where Carlos was working. Speaking in Spanish, the man asked the group of laborers who among them was interested in learning how to make a lot of money? Carlos immediately stepped forward and said, “I am.”

“Very well,” the man said. “I will show you what to do.”

The man drove Carlos to a fancy home and introduced him to Network Marketing. Carlos had never heard of Network Marketing before, but from the presentation that night, he understood that hard work, which he already knew how to do, could change his life forever.

And that is exactly what Carlos did. He got to work, and rose through the company’s ranks quickly, reaching the highest pin level that company had, which rewarded Carlos with a monthly check of roughly $10,000. For the first time in his life, Carlos could afford things and send home money to his parents and his siblings in Mexico.

“If it hadn’t been for that gentlemen who introduced me to this business model called Network Marketing, I would probably still be picking apples and berries from season to season. And maybe even wearing plastic shoes!” Carlos says with a grin and sparkle in his eyes.

Carlos has indeed become a tremendous leader in the industry, inspiring people from all backgrounds to go after their dreams and never give up. He has never forgotten his roots and practices gratitude daily. “Network Marketing opened the world to me,” he says. “I want to open the world for as many others as I can and give them the same chance I was given.”

*Name has been changed to protect privacy.