Wave Three Hunt: Genesis of Network Marketing

In its early days, network marketing was the boon for passionate and eager entrepreneurs. And today, it still is. However, some of the original companies are traded publicly on the NYSE and NASDAQ, and blue-chip Fortune 500 companies are incorporating network marketing into their corporate strategies, endorsing it as a sound, strong, and successful way of doing business.

Network marketing is only now emerging from its “tough pioneering” days. Since the industry had begun over 60 years ago, it has evolved through three distinct phases. The first ended in 1979, when the Federal Trade Commission ruled that Amway was a legitimate business – not a pyramid scam. That ended “wave one” – the long gray-market or “underground” phase of network marketing.

Then came Wave Two. New technology sparked an explosion of network marketing startups in the 1980s. Thousands of new companies sprang into the business overnight. Millions of Americans entered the MLM sales force.

But the technology was immature. Like those VCRs that require an Einstein to program them, Wave Two network marketing proved too difficult and complicated for most people. As with early VCRs, the technology just wasn’t ready for the market.
Wave Two network marketers relied mainly on their own personal talents. To excel, you have to be extraordinary. Distributors were expected to single-handedly stock-pile inventory, fulfill product orders, keep track of all the paperwork, prospect new recruits, and stay up all night taking phone calls from angry or depressed people in their downlines.

In short, Wave-Two distributors had to be consummate (perfect) entrepreneurs. And most people just are not.

Wave Three has changed all that. Like the VCR manufacturers, network marketing companies have been working behind the scenes to simplify their system. Now their labors bear fruit.

For decades, network marketers have been promising financial freedom to the masses. But only with the advent of Wave Three has that promise been fully realized.

-Wave 3: The New Era in Network Marketing by Richard Poe