EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN FRANK VANDERSLOOT
If You’re Looking for the Secret, It’s in the Mission
Helping someone reach their goals does not mean pushing or coercing or convincing. Helping does not mean badgering, nor does it mean doing it for them. We are in the business of teaching men and women to fish, not giving them fish. The first secret of helping someone reach their goals is to find out what their goals are. Too often we want them to have the same goal we do, or we want them to adopt our goal. But, of course, that never works. We must take time to find out what someone’s goal is and why it is important to them. If we can understand the “why” behind their goal, we will hold the key to their motivation and will be much more effective in helping them reach that goal. I believe it is our nature to be out working to achieve our own goals as opposed to someone else’s goals. Yet only those who master the art of helping others will be truly successful in this business. Our entire program is designed to reward those who help others. When you think about that, it might be your immediate reaction to think, “Well, no wonder I haven’t been very successful… no one is helping me reach my goals.” Oops. If that is what you are thinking, you don’t get it! You have missed the whole concept. The idea is for you to help someone else reach their goals.
When we first started Melaleuca, we established a mission statement that would guide our activities and our focus throughout our future. It is a simple mission statement. It was not designed in boardrooms with the help of high-priced consultants. Every word was not scrutinized, debated, and negotiated by corporate executives. We did not even have any corporate executives when it was developed, and we surely could not have afforded consultants at that time. But it was from our hearts. It was how we felt. It was what we wanted to do. We were passionate about it. And contrary to other mission statements, which are often framed in a beautiful walnut frame and hung in a corporate hallway never to be read again, everyone in the company knows what our mission is. Every employee knows it; every Marketing Executive knows it. It has been very effective in guiding our activities and our focus, and it has been very rewarding to see our mission fulfilled again and again. “To enhance the lives of those we touch by helping people reach their goals.” It sounds simple enough, but it is unlike any other corporate mission statement. Many don’t realize that the magic of success is in helping others reach their goals, not in trying to reach our own goals. Thousands who have joined Melaleuca have now gotten caught up in the idea and magic of helping others.
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