How to know if your MLM venture will fail before joining

A few years ago I unsuccessfully tried to build three different MLM opportunities (I'll explain MLM in the next paragraph). Considering I wasn’t a huge fan of any of the products and my marketing plan didn't work out, it’s no wonder I didn’t have success. Unless you have a unique set of effective marketing skills, or a deep inspiration to sell the product, you won’t succeed. 

Amway, Isagenix, Xocai, Numis Network, Mary Kay, World Ventures and several other popular companies are a quick way to be up and running with your own business overnight.  MLM stands for multilevel marketing, and means you get paid based on the purchases made by the team you build.  You make money by turning your customers into marketing partners who bring in yet more customers.  It’s the legal version of a pyramid scheme.  

To succeed with your MLM company you need to be “that guy”.  You have to own that you are an Amway representative (I'm using Amway as an example company).  This isn’t something you can fake.  You have to honestly believe from the core of who you are that your purpose in life (for now anyway) is to help other people become Amway reps.  This means you have to believe that being an Amway rep is a great benefit to the people you are trying to sign up.  

You have to think your potential customers will have an improved quality of life after they join your team.  After all, as an Amway rep the thing you are contributing to society is helping to convince people they will be better off if they join your team.  The problem is 94% of all people who join an MLM fail. You have to believe you can teach your team members to be part of the 6%, or that your products and services are really worth the high price your potential customers will pay for them.

It's my belief that nearly every MLM company sells products at an inflated price. They have to in order to have a good payout to the representatives.  The MLM companies I tried to promote a few years ago were no exception.  Because of this belief, I didn’t feel I was doing my potential clients a favor by signing them up for my company.  Instead I felt like I was selling them a product at an inflated price, and then asking them to turn around and try to sell this product to their friends and family at an inflated price.  Besides the whole inflated price issue, this also meant I didn’t feel like I was adding value to society by growing my MLM team. (BTW, if you are curious - The company I stuck with the longest was Numis Network.)

If your comptemplating joining an MLM company, ask yourself if you feel the prices for the products or services are inflated.  If the answer is "Yes", don't join.  The only way you could still have success is if you have an effective unique marketing strategy you can use and teach your potential team members.  But even then, you're now using marketing tactics to promote a product you don't feel is worth the price.  You're actualy just running an immoral ponzi scheme, made legal through an overpriced product.

If you aren’t adding value, where does your self worth come from?  How can you feel proud of your day’s work if your work didn’t help improve the lives of others?  

Have you ever found an MLM that you felt you could “own”?  If yes, awesome!  Which one was it?  Are you successfully growing your team?  What made you feel that you were helping others by growing your team?  Maybe you have tried and failed at an MLM.  Was the core reason for your failure similar to what I described above?