Stories of success are always a treat to the ears; real ones yet more. As the adage goes, “Success is contagious when you surround yourself with people who refuse to let you down” and that is the aura network marketing upholds across centuries.
In network marketing, success comes with empowering fellow network marketers to skim their road to success. However, there have been numerous speculations about the multi-level marketing industry in terms of its potential to generate a residual income. But, this is also one of the many reasons why most people join direct selling. Across the globe, over 8.6 million people in India, 12.9 million in the United States, and 6.9 million in Korea are engaged in direct selling, showing just how many individuals turn to the industry for extra income or to build their own businesses. The stories of direct sales success from successful persons in network marketing are a testament to the industry’s capacity to provide creative opportunities for individuals to develop their skills and establish their career. It proves as a great source of inspiration and courage for amateur network marketing entrepreneurs to follow (Source: WFDSA 2023 Sales & Seller Report).
In 2023, the global direct selling sector generated $167.7 billion in retail sales, with more than 102.9 million independent representatives participating worldwide. The Asia-Pacific region dominated the market, contributing 40% of global sales, while the Americas made up 37%, Europe 22%, and the Africa/Middle East region 1%. The United States led individual markets with 22% of total sales, followed by Germany (12%), Korea (10%), China (9%), Japan and Malaysia (6% each), Brazil (5%), Mexico (4%), and France and Taiwan (3% each), showcasing the industry’s expansive global reach (Source: WFDSA 2023 Sales & Seller Report).
According to Business For Home, the average top earner in direct selling, based on 5000+ ranks, earns up to $20,000 per month and $240,000 per year.
Top successful persons in network marketing and their success stories
Success isn’t just about what you accomplish in your life. It’s about what you inspire others to do.
These personal success stories take place within a global industry that empowers over 100 million independent entrepreneurs, providing avenues for skill-building, additional income, and running their own businesses (Source: WFDSA 2023 Sales & Seller Report).
Yager group (Dexter Yager)
Estimated lifetime income: $460,000,000
Company: Amway
Referred to as the “Grandfather of network marketing” and “Father of modern MLM”, Dexter Yager has created a legacy of his own, still standing at the top of the network marketing industry after his demise in 2019. The network he built spans 40 countries with one million network marketers.
His accomplishments are revered by each network marketer even today. He has demonstrated what is considered impossible, possible. Hailing from Rome, Yager started his career as a beer salesman. From a brewery representative to an established network marketing representative, his growth journey was nothing short of an adventure ride. Yager got introduced to Amway in 1964 and from then on he literally breathed the brand.
“We build relationships, and people don’t normally quit on people who love them.’ I’m writing about things that made the difference in my life.” The excitement of creating new relationships kept him tied to the industry.
If you work just for money, you’ll reach a point where you may have enough and you’ll let up.
He was a man of empathy and wanted to help people understand that “a dream unrealized is a dream imprisoned by your greatest enemy: fear of failure!” In order to realize the same idea into reality, Dexter Yager introduced Dexter’s training systems. He also has one of the world’s most impactful personal development organizations in the world.
Jeff Roberti
Estimated lifetime income: $105,000,000
Company: Juice Plus+
A broken waiter to a network marketing icon, Jeff Roberti’s life was nothing short of a roller coaster ride. In January 1987, at the age of 24, Jeff Roberti (originally Jeffrey Roberti) entered the network marketing space with Juice Plus+. He has been with Juice Plus+ for over 30 years.
In one of the interviews with Eric Worre, when asked about special circumstances that led him to his network marketing success he said that he placed a great deal on doing things at the right time.
While choosing the company, he advises people to do a thorough research on the top network marketing companies and also to look for a great product or service they believe in or a marketing system that they believe in, that is also fair by all means. He also adds that young people entering direct selling must watch out for “pop and drop” companies. He asks them to check if the company’s interests are in line with their customers and distributors.
Key takeaways from Jeff’s life
- Do things at the right time at the right place.
- Be responsible for things you must do rather than expecting others to help.
- Invest in proven systems and proven people.
- Look for people who want to grow with you. Help them grow.
The number one tool to extend your network he says is to look at yourself, not your uplines or downlines.
Rolf Kipp
Estimated lifetime income: $100,000,000
Company: Forever Living Products
The goal should be a life from which you don't need a vacation.
Long story short, the 25-year-old network marketing success story of Rolf Kipp is a testimony to his hard work and determination. Born in Germany and starting his network marketing career with Forever Living Products, he considers “Forever” the philosophy of life. He has built a team of 2.2 million distributors, still standing with them in their twists and turns, and helping them develop and grow. From being a salesman in the sports industry to a top earner in network marketing, he considers consistency and stability, the two most important factors that determine success.
He further explains how he achieves this consistency in his business,
“I have a rhythm which means that every three months I start my business again from the beginning, that is, I forget everything I have built up until then and I get my initial enthusiasm back again.” He also advises distributors to be customers first and then practically show their customers the outcome of the products or services they are selling. That, he says, is very important in building trustful business relationships.
He advises young distributors to challenge themselves every day to get a little better at what they do.
Rolf Kipp’s Success Formula
Stability + Balance = Success
Rolf Kipp’s practical recommendations to build a network marketing success story
- Be consistent in all that you do.
- Start afresh every 3 months.
- Use the products before you serve.
- Challenge yourself every day.
- Create new connections.
- Share your experience and knowledge with your downlines.
- Set challenging goals and design a plan to achieve them—weekly, monthly, annual, and life goals.
Barry Chi and Holly Chen
Estimated lifetime income: $75,000,000
Company: Amway
Another power couple in Amway’s history, Barry Chi and Holly Chen, one of Asia's top earners in network marketing, originally from Taiwan became the brand ambassadors of Amway in 1982. While only little is known about the couple's whereabouts, they have made remarkable achievements in their network marketing career.
They became Double Crown ambassadors of Amway and currently hold a large base of multicultural distributor networks across China and Chinese immigrant communities in the United States, France, Spain, and Russia.
The most powerful weapon is to move somebody emotionally. So if you send out a signal as love, you will receive the same signal back.
Holly Chen, initially a first-grade teacher, took it upon herself even when she entered the network marketing space, teaching and transforming the lives of fellow network marketers. Together with her husband, Barry Chi, she set up a motivational organization called “Plum Blossom” for welcoming, training, and motivating the early entrants successfully into the network marketing business. Today, Plum Blossom is one of the largest Amway Motivational Organizations.
A quick wrap on Barry Chi and Holly Chen’s network marketing story
- Joined Amway in November 1982.
- They achieved Diamond in 1996.
- Launched a motivational organization called Plum Blossom.
- Plum Blossom has 20 crown ambassadors and 2000 Diamonds.
- Their downline team expands across the markets of the United States, France, Spain, and Russia.
Ray Robbins
Estimated lifetime income: $71,000,000
Company: Mannatech
Ray Robbins started his sales career at the young age of six, selling donuts in and around his neighborhood. That was just the beginning and today he stands as mighty as a rock with over 40 years of sales experience and a net worth of $71,000,000.
Person of diverse talents, Ray Robbins, was duly conferred with the title of ‘Major’ for his expertise in flying helicopters in Vietnam. He also received the Chamber of Commerce “Entrepreneur of the Year” award.
In 1979, he joined his first network marketing company gaining expertise in the field for a new innovative venture. He co-founded Mannatech together with one of his besties in 1993. His passion for network marketing was contagiously turning the whole of his family including his children and grandchildren to be avid network marketers.
Not only does network marketing give you an unprecedented chance to be the CEO of your own company, it's structured in such a way that when one person does well, everyone does well. I challenge you to find any other industry where every single person delights in the success of the people around them.
Ray Robbins’ inspired many into becoming successful persons in network marketing and here goes a few tips he gives for emerging network marketers.
- Program yourself for success.
- Programming yourself for success.
- Understanding what it means to be the CEO of your own company.
- Finding the four aces that will accelerate your business.
- Working with the equation ”product value = more customers = more income”.
- Employing sales tactics that will work for you and your customers.
Ray Robbins traveled to places in order to train and support people to achieve success in the network marketing industry while ethically working on his principles. He is affectionately referred to as “the Road Warrior” and the “ultimate hugger”.
Highlights from Ray Robbins’ network marketing success story
- 7th lifetime top earner in the top 100 MLM earners list.
- Co-founded Mannatech and enrolled 22 people in his first year.
- Built a distributor base of over a million for Mannatech.
- Served five terms on Mannatech’s Board of Directors.
- Mannatech honored his experience with the “Giving Spirit Award” later renamed as “Ray Robbins, Giving Spirit Award”, now awarded every year to a Mannatech associate for their outstanding performance.
Ivan and Monika Tapia
Estimated lifetime income: $75,000,000
Company: IM Mastery Academy
Ivan and Monika Tapia’s journey in network marketing could be described as ‘a path of stones and thorns’. The couple had quite a good American life until Ivan lost his engineering job during the onset of the 2008 recession. The couple almost had to give up and move back to their hometown in Mexico. But Monika’s determination to not give up in spite of facing downfall has been a driving force of motivation for Ivan. Ivan worked hard to develop his multi-level marketing business alongside his new full-time job. Though there were numerous uncertainties in their lives, the duo climbed the success ladder with hard work and determination.
They didn't limit themselves to being regular network marketers, instead they built teams and used platforms to share their knowledge with people who were new to network marketing. They have helped thousands of students to build a side hustle to finance their academic expenses, assisted over 300 people in earning $10,000 per month.
Monika also has quite a presence in the media industry with regular bylines and columns in multiple digital publications and self-authored a book. She is also a devoted mom who founded her daughter’s brand called Rich & Mind Kids and manages her daughter’s social media page.
Discover how we build resilient businesses with advanced MLM functionalities
Tim Foley
Estimated lifetime income: $65,000,000
Company: Amway
Tim Foley was well known for gaming his way to building his success story in the network marketing industry. An unsung hero of his times, Tim Foley, was an American footballer and former Miami Dolphins defensive back. In 1969 he received his all-American honors as a defensive back. He also served 15 years as a commentator for the TBS college football team.
With an interest in the fitness industry, he started a fitness business that went into a total collapse after which he joined Amway as an independent business owner. A humble beginning as it may seem, Tim built his network marketing success story as an Amway multi-millionaire celebrity with a pure will to work hard and succeed. Today, Tim Foley has a remarkable net worth of $65,000,000.
Tim Foley was a man of benevolence and goodwill. While he worked hard to build a successful business, he also took time to turn around and look at people in distress around him. Distance was never a barrier for him to reaching out to people in need.
The most important role models in people's lives, it seems, aren't superstars or household names. They're "everyday" people who quietly set examples for you—coaches, teachers, parents. People about whom you say to yourself, perhaps not even consciously, "I want to be like that”.
In 2011, Tim won the “Amway Hero Award for Generosity” for his humanitarian efforts with “Habitat for Humanity”, building houses in Guatemala. Tim leads by example, it’s not just about the money he spends, he has also invested his time and efforts in building these houses. He has led the whole of his team into being a part of this humanitarian act.
I believe if ‘The Guy In Charge’ lets you make some money, then you ought to do something valuable with it.
Shane Douglas
Estimated lifetime income: $65,364,000
Company: ACN
Shane is one of the few top tier network marketers who we can undoubtedly call a pioneer. He now serves as the Senior Vice President at ACN because of his business and marketing prowess.
The reason for him to join MLM is quite interesting. When his children were growing up, he wanted to be a present father who wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the responsibilities and tight schedule of a full-time job. Network marketing created a space for him to scale his income while operating on his own schedule and routine.
An element that intrigued Mr. Douglas was the idea of getting paid back for the service you provide. According to him, network marketing helped him to purchase services while earning commissions in smaller to bigger range for promoting and providing the services.
He has been part of ACN for 20 years. Coming from a small family based in Idaho, he started with a few team members but MLM gave global access to its distributors. Shane used this potential and now he handles thousands of customers daily while having team members who operate from different countries.
Hilde and Orjan Sæle
Estimated lifetime income: $63,000,000
Company: Zinzino
This network marketing duo is also the founders of the prominent brand, Zinzino. Though Hilde and Orjan had been in the field for years, they had just come out of their previous company as the operations and growth were unsatisfactory. The couple felt that the industry needs more experienced distributors to anchor the business. According to them, distributors know the industry inside out, hence there is no one better than the field leaders becoming the partners and founders themselves.
Zinzino started as a coffee company and evolved into a test-based nutrition company. This turn took place when Orjan faced unexplained health issues in his mid 30s. One of his good friends asked him to run a few essential tests which indicated inflammation in his body.
It was at that moment Orjan realized the need for nutrition products driven by tests. The couple comments that gone are the days when people were reluctant to do lab tests but the future wellness decisions will be driven by these essential health lab markers.
The couple is very much valued for their visionary leadership and the generous mentoring and guidance they provide to their team members.
Zinzino reportedly earns $200 million in annual revenue. They still work in the field, actively leading from the front as 5-Star Global Presidents.
Nancy Dornan and Jim Dornan
Estimated lifetime income: $125,000,000
Company: Amway
Nancy and Jim are true veterans in the network marketing industry. They joined the leading direct selling company Amway in 1970. They were two individuals with very different careers outside of direct selling. Nancy worked as a speech pathologist while Jim was an aeronautical engineer. Deep inside they knew, they wanted something different that would give them more agency and scale their net worth.
Due to their relentless hard work, they reached the Triple Diamond and Crown Direct in 1979. They continued their contributions to Amway which earned them the Founders Crown Ambassador title in 2006. Meanwhile, in 1989, the Dornans had founded the company, Network TwentyOne. Their company partnered with Amway to mentor the new distributors at Amway. As a continuation to their noteworthy network marketing legacy, their children have also joined the industry with various rank titles added to their profile. Jim passed away in 2013 after his brave battle with cancer while Nancy continued her entrepreneurship at Network TwentyOne system along with her philanthropic works.
You can have what you want, if you decide that you want it, expect it and work for it!
Even amid global economic pressures, the direct selling industry remained relatively stable, experiencing just a 0.5% drop in worldwide sales from 2020 to 2023, while certain markets like India posted strong growth of 8.3% year-over-year in 2023 (Source: WFDSA 2023 Sales & Seller Report).
Inspiring success quotes from leaders of top direct selling companies
I believed that I would be successful, as opposed to believing I could be successful.
Never underestimate the power of clearly defining what success looks like for you. Once you can see it, every step forward will feel purposeful.
Success in almost anything is accomplished in the same way generally. You figure out what you want to accomplish. You figure out the best steps to get there. You work harder than everyone else and rabidly persist in implementing your plan. You evaluate, adjust and rabidly persist some more.
Wrapping up,
Every other accusation the network marketing industry has faced until today, these real MLM success stories proves it wrong. Only that, with the right company and a great strategy every common man with a will to hard work can reap success in any industry.
Explore the low investment MLM ideas and the legal guide to roll into the network marketing industry, safe and quick.
Disclaimer: Earnings listed here are the estimated lifetime earnings. The company mentioned is the last company the earner is known to have been with and the income mentioned is the lifetime income they have earned in all the companies together in their network marketing career.
ronald
the success story of all network marketers are very inspiring. one day i will be feature also in this site. :)