It has been said that experience is a good teacher, but that she wastes her knowledge on old people. That is so true.

As I write this I am looking at a copy of a small Oxford English-Chinese dictionary, a souvenir of a business trip to Shanghai. For for those of you who don’t know; English is not widely spoken in China, although Shanghai is somewhat different due to its colonial past. That realisation dawned on me the moment I tried to summon a taxi at Shanghai airport, and I knew that English was not going to be of much use during my stay. My first priority was to find a Starbucks coffee shop near my hotel, where the staff would most probably speak some English, and ask for directions to the nearest bookstore so I could buy a dictionary.

The Starbucks crew gave me some verbal instructions, but I failed to locate the bookstore and nobody on the street seemed to understand me, so I went back to Starbucks. This time I got myself some written directions in Mandarin. By approaching some friendly-looking passers-by for directions I eventually located the bookstore, only to find that the staff there could not speak English either!

So back to Starbucks I went, this time obtaining a scrap of paper explaining, in Mandarin, that I wanted a dictionary. All the way back to the bookstore I went. Hooray, success! An amusing experience, but so relevant to network marketing.  The lesson learnt from this is that it never hurts to ask!

If you are a 'newbie' in network marketing there is so much you don’t know. Most novice marketers experience a type of sensory overload in the beginning. However, instead of asking for help, they have this notion of doing everything on their own, without assistance. Not very clever! This approach is not very time-efficient and time is money.   

I am not suggesting that you abdicate whenever times are tough. You are, after all, building a new business. If you want to become financially free, it’s only fair that you put in some effort. But for heaven’s sake - there is so much help available! Let me give you a few pointers based on personal experience:

-   Use the search engines to find information. In this context Google really is your friend. Simply phrase the question the way you would put it when asking someone in person! I recently tried this when I forgot a technical formula and, after typing the search phrase in this way, Google referred me to the exact location in a textbook I’ve written myself a few years ago!
 
-   Buy as many relevant e-books and training courses as you can. Knowledge will cost you, but ignorance is even worse. Long before the Internet I spent the equivalent of two years’ salary to do a full-time MBA, because I needed the knowledge at that time. By comparison, a $37 e-book is free. If you are not sure which ones to buy, ask your up-line.

-   Participate in forums, such as BetterNetworker.com. Put your questions and concerns out there to the community members. Be assured that your problems are not unique.

-   Ensure that your service providers (e.g. web hosting providers) have proper (24/7) help desks and use them liberally. That’s what you are paying them for.

By now I hope you understand what I'm driving at. Every conceivable network marketing problem you could have has already been solved. There are thousands of people that have already attained some network marketing success or technical expertise and are more than willing to help. You just have to ask.