My daughter
Elise at age 11
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The Most Valuable Gift
In Network Marketing, we often talk about the benefits of having
a residual income, that it affords us more time for leisure, travel,
vacation, and more time to be with our families. Last year, my
family and I learned something about the true value of that time
freedom.
My wife Johnnie and I have three young children, a seven-year-old,
a five-year-old and a two-year-old. Two days after our daughter's
second birthday, we suddenly learned that she had a serious, even
life-threatening kidney ailment; Wilm's tumor. She had to be placed
immediately in the hospital for surgery to remove the kidney. For
a time, we didn't know whether she would live or not.
Because I had an established and growing network, I was able
to immediately drop everything I was doing and put all my focus
on my daughter, on her healing and well being. This meant being
away from my supporting role in my network for several months.
The financial security of a residual income meant that we didn't
need to worry about how to support ourselves during those weeks
and months - but that's not all. After Elise's surgery, we were
able to spend as much time as we needed carfully researching all
the possible options for helping her healing and recovery, and our
networking income meant that we were able to choose what we felt
were the best alternative healing modalities, even though none of
them are covered by insurance.
As important as the financial freedom has been over the past year,
there's another dimension, too.
This whole episode was a tremendous emotional shock for us; the
moment the news of our situation went out through the network grapevine,
we felt a huge wave of support, care and love pouring in, not only
from our own network, but also from the entire field as well as
from the people at the company itself. People in the network were
also incredible resources, helping us find the best healing approaches
for Elise. And through it all, we felt so cared for and supported
by our friends, that it really helped us through that time.
If I'd had a "regular job" at the time, there would
have been no way I could have taken that amount of time to research
the best treatments, or to be with Elise, as well as being there
to support my wife and two other young children. We would not
have had the money to afford her treatments. And most of all, we
would have felt far more alone and therefore, more devastated, than
we did.
As attractive as it is to have more time for leisure, and as valuable
as it is to have more time to devote to worthy causes and making
a difference in e world, now we know what is Network Marketing's
most valuable gift, at least for us: Having the freedom to be there
with the people you love at the time of greatest crisis-and the
times of greatest joy.
Our deepest thanks-to everyone in my network, and everyone in New Earth
and to all of you who are in Network Marketing.
By Mark Segars
Longmont, CO
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