SUCCESS STORY
Words of Wisdom: Do Your Homework!
Bridey M. Orth, Editor-in-Chief
Cutting Edge Opportunity magazine

As an engineer and owner of three computer stores, John Chan thought he was living the American dream. He came to this country on his own with $10 in his pocket and a plan to realize his dreams. John became a successful business owner after a lot of hard work and perseverance. He made a good living, had a great family and bought some fun toys, like a jacuzzi and a Lexus. But john didn’t have time to enjoy his family or his toys. The Chans never had a decent vacation and John found himself putting in 16-17 hour days and sleeping only three hours at night.

There came a point when John’s stores took over his life and became his boss. John was collecting information here and there about network marketing. He did this over a course of 10 years, where he’d stow away videos, audiotapes, and miscellaneous materials to look at some day. When the day came that he decided he couldn’t let his businesses run his life, John turned to his stash of network marketing materials and began to research the industry.

So there he was, working all day and most of the night on his stores, spending a little time with his family and squeezing what was left into his network marketing research. That’s when his wife stepped in and asked, " Are you crazy?"

Crazy or not, John kept burning the candle at both ends. His research was showing him that network marketing was something that he hadn’t been giving proper credit all those years that had tossed tapes and brochures into a box.

He got on the Internet and started looking for a company that he could work with. When he found USANA, he emailed some of their distributors about the business and kept firing questions at them about how the business worked and how he could get involved. " I was rejected by the first person I had contacted. He told me I wasn’t network marketing material." But John wasn’t accepting that answer, so he emailed another distributor who never replied.

Finally John changed his approach and when he contacted a third person in USANA, all he asked was how he could sign up. Usually, it’s the other way around, but not for John. "Nobody gave me a presentation. I‘m a businessman, I did my homework and believed in what I learned, " he says. And so he chose USANA and finally got some one to sign him up as a distributor.

Once John was in, all he wanted was for someone to tell him what to do and he would do it. "When I started, I was totally green. The first thing I had to learn was the terminology. Upline, downline, sponsor what did it all mean?" So he became a student of the industry and learned from his sponsor, the person who brought him into USANA.

It was November 1996 when John became a network marketer. He moved up one rank a month in the company, and says that the more he knew, the more business he did. At a convention, John got to talking to his sponsor about how long it took him to retire from his "regular job." "He told me it took one and a half years. So I asked how long it took his sponsor to retire, and he said it was seven of eight months. His sponsor’s sponsor retired in about a year and a half. So that settled it, I set my goal at one and a half years to retire."

Sure enough, on August 15, 1998, John sold his stores and retired. Now he’s a full-time network marketer, and has plenty of time to slow down and enjoy his life.

John has been able to spend time with his kids, ages 6, 12 and 17. They try to see everything they can in the vicinity of their Philadelphia home. His kids talked him into going kayaking on a river about 10 miles from their house.

John admits he had no idea what they were talking about, but ended up having a great time and plans to go back. He travels with his family on great vacations now, staying at four-star hotels and eating at the best restaurants. "We have the chance to extend vacations now. In the past I was always having to cut it short. Now if the kids want to stay an extra week, we can," says John. He says he thought his first year in network marketing was the best year of his life. But now he says, "That was nothing compared to this summer." The time he has with his family is precious to him, so being able to run his business from home enables him to be close with his wife and kids. How, instead of asking him if he’s crazy, his wife jokes with him, "You’re at home too much. Maybe you should go find a job."

John Chan may be reached at 215-230-9407 or johnch@chanco.com for more information about USANA.

For John, Network Marketing is something they looked into in great detail before getting involved. John actually went looking for someone to sign him up. Today, he says it was the best decision he ever made. The people in their lives who thought he was a little nuts for chosing network marketing, have come around after a little education on the industry and after experiencing the time and financial freedom that comes from the business.