- September 4, 2018 -
I hope you had a terrific holiday weekend. Being that it's called "Labor" Day, I've typically used that day to get a lot done around the house.
I don't know if you're like me, but when I'm puttering...my mind kind of wanders.
And I was thinking about the recent and untimely passing of someone Cheryl and I followed in our early days in the network marketing space.
The days when I was straddling the fence between my dying mortgage business and what was then the Wild, Wild West of online marketing for the home-based business industry.
Mark Hoverson was a legend in that space.
He was one of the first guys I talked to when learning the ropes.
And it was interesting to have a front row seat watching him and a couple of other young bucks with egos a mile high duke it out.
They often were part of the same MLM, battling for distributors to add to their downline...often for the same company.
Mark and one of his competitors-turned-partners even bought one of those companies they were distributors for and literally morphed into "celebrities" overnight.
...travelling the world
...pulling off $1M launches
...having video crews follow them wherever they went
...people flocking to their events just to get a picture or autograph with them
...all hoping to tap into the dream they personified by osmosis.
It was easy to get sucked into this stuff.
After several years of this mania, I came to the conclusion: I'm too old for this sh*t.
But out of all the "celebrities" in this weird space that made all of us believe we could do what they were doing...
He was different. There was no b.s. about this guy.
Yeah, he was cocky. We were all cocky.
He actually gave a damn about those who joined his team.
He started from nothing and grew his business from scratch.
Did everything first for himself that he ever taught anyone else to do and was a mentor and leader to tens of thousands.
He demonstrated what was possible with hard work and a strong belief in himself.
Even though Cheryl and I left that world to start Barron Marketing, I continued to follow Mark up until cancer took him at the age of 39!
Same cancer that took Steve Jobs.
Thirty nine years old, people!
Four years ago, he was given only 3 months to live.
I watched an interview that Mark gave a year before he died...and at one point when he thought he was dying, he asked God: "Please, give me one more run. Just one more run. I got things to do. People to say goodbye to."
And to his doctors' unbelief, he defied the odds that were stacked against him - sometimes the illness seeming to REVERSE itself.
See...God had other plans for Mark and gave him four years more than the doctors predicted he'd have.
In the end, he had was 39 years to make an impact. And from what I knew of Mark, he spent those years well.
ALL OF US should aspire in our lives to leave that kind of impact.
ALL OF US should be thinking about our funerals, who will be there, and what words they'll say.
You own a business. You most likely don't run it completely alone.
Therefore, you are a leader.
What you do is under a microscope. It matters.
Hold the people close who you love in this world...as we all get countless reminders that this life is not permanent.
We're only here temporarily, and so is every other person we love.
God's gonna take us all back at whenever He chooses.
We don't control death...or life for that matter.
Never forget it. Appreciate the good along with the unexpected tough stuff that happens.
Live boldly.
Be grateful for every day.
No call to action today...I'm thankful for all of you!
Later,
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