Learning from adversity and defeat - according to the 12th principle from Napoleon Hill’s book, Your Right to be Rich.

The story we are sharing with you today started when Hagen lost his Job 12 years ago, (or rather, as the Louisiana native call it, “being set free.”), and when Mannatech was introduced to us the very same day. Is that a coincidence?

At that time, all we saw was doom and gloom, because our natural tendency is to feel shocked and paralyzed – Where to now? Will Hagen find a job again? Do I have to look for a job? How are we going to pay the school fees, mortgages, or just get food onto the table?  This roadblock wasn’t the first one, neither the last one in our life. We have learnt that nothing big can be accomplished if you don’t go through difficulties and challenges. Like the author Elizabeth Kubler-Ross says: “If you shield the mountain from the wind storms, you never see the beauty of the carvings.”  

A Pastor once told us when we asked him about money and success: “If you have been given a huge dream/ purpose, there will surely be difficulties, roadblocks, adversities of some kind: e.g. Loss of a job, health challenges, loss of loved ones, financial difficulties, etc. To be able to handle your success responsibly, and have the knowledge on how to be an example to others and becoming a leader, you’ll need a lot of personal growth, life experiences, and belief in the process of life, before you can reach your goals.” This statement has been so true. Looking back, and remembering our journey with Mannatech, our biggest growth spurts came after MOVING THROUGH difficulties and learning to change the following:

1)     To stop drifting without definite plans, but setting HUGE goals, using affirmations, and visualising our success in detail, as if we have already achieved everything. Thank you to our 2* Platinum, Louis van der Linde for teaching us this.

2)     Our lack of  self-discipline, learning to say “NO” to things that would not get us to our dreams, and keep focusing on the activities that would bring us to PD and beyond – The four basics, reading, listening, attending meetings, and counselling with our Upline leaders who have  the fruit on the tree. Here’s a big THANK YOU to our 2* Platinum Leone van der Linde for your coaching sessions and great patience with us.

3)     Letting go of unfavourable childhood experiences, making peace with the people involved and especially learning to forgive ourselves for our past mistakes, so we could move on.

4)     Learning to take control of our emotions, and to look at the bright side of life, by focusing on positive things and when we struggled with the old phrases, Hagen always says that we have 2 options:

“FIRST OPTION: Say it is too complicated and give up. (‘There is no way solving this problem, let’s quit.’), or the way of thinking (‘I can’t do this, so please leave me off the program’).

SECOND OPTION: Learning what we needed to learn and changing whatever was necessary. 

So we learnt to stop each other, asking ‘Is that REALLY what you want?’, then changing the wording to how we want things to be – (‘There IS always a way…we must just keep going’, This too will pass.’) & (‘I’ve already achieved so many other things, so I can master this too!’) What is the alternative? Going back to a job for the next 11 years? I do not think so. We cannot just quit, Mannatech is our life!  Yes, it isn’t always easy, but we know it’s possible, because others have done it. So it must be do-able and this means we can do it too.” 

5)     Uncontrolled Ego: What we have learned in Mannatech is that if we really want to go to PD & beyond, we must be prepared to humble ourselves and learn from people who’ve gone before us. Hagen says, we always have two choices: a) we can either let our ego take over, and learn from the mistakes we make, or b) we can learn by asking our mentors and coaches for advice, asking for their assistance, because most of the time they had already gone through the same experience and know what works and what not. We realized that the second method was much more effective, had less financial losses and way faster results. This way we could save a lot of time and money.

One of the other principles in the same book is called the Mastermind principle where we have an option on a weekly basis to sit with our Upline mentors, Silver PDs, Francois and Mabel van Schalkwyk, asking for advice and brainstorming with them. That hour every week, was and is still today of great value to us and the growth of our team. Thank you for your continuous guidance and love. We just love learning from our mentors, because we’ve realized even after 20 years in this industry, that we still do not know everything.

As Hagen always says: “In every industry or business, it’s clear that we learn the most by the mistakes we make. In the past 20 years we have read lots and lots of books that were recommended by our 2 star Platinums, Louis and Leone van der Linde, and guess what, not one book told us that it is going to be easy. Not one. The telephone or computer you are using to read this at this very moment was actually created through many, many obstacles, failure upon failure. But in the end, the people that kept going and found solutions are the ones that achieved success in this industry. It is SO simple. If we walk away from problems, we will always have them come back, until we’ve faced them, learnt from them, moved around, over or through them.  If we can’t do it alone, we have our Upline Mentors and Coaches to help us with advice, a good book to read or just by cheer-leading us on.“

Adversities are actually invaluable gifts for getting to know yourself better. Turn those stumbling blocks into stepping stones and move on. Everyone has a life to live, a story to tell. Keep moving, and you too will write your story of victory.

So be happy and enjoy the journey. See you on the beaches of the world.  

With much love to you all, Hagen and Edelgard