The following was taken from a conversation I had with a very successful individual in the Network Marketing business, and this also echoes my own personal observations.

I have been involved in this business for a number of years and I have seen people come and go from literally all walks of life, education levels, backgrounds, etc. I have worked with medical doctors, engineers, scientists and people who were only a step above being illiterate.

And while certain skills are beneficial, none are a predictor of success. But I can tell you what is the biggest predictor of success, and also in many cases a predictor of failure. I am never 100 percent right - if I was I would put everything I have in the Stock Market, however one thing has always stuck out with me. You see I did an in depth analysis several years ago now (consulting a number of successful people) of what made some people successful and what made others basically quit or fail.

And here is what I determined to be true in almost all cases. And this in my observation doesn`t just apply to people in this industry but successful people everywhere. The people who were successful simply were going to figure out a way to make their business work.

They believed they were going to be successful.

They weren`t about to accept no as an answer. No matter how many times they heard "No" or failed they got back up and kept on going. It didn`t matter how much they knew or how much experience they had they simply weren`t going to fail. Failure was not an option, if one thing didn`t work they would try something else.

It really comes down to heart. Heart is what kept Michael Jordon going after being cut from his High School basketball team as a sophomore. Heart is what kept Sylvester Stallone going after being flat broke and having his Rocky script rejected time and time again. All great men and women have the heart it takes to just try again one more time.

Of course the big advantage I feel many people today have is that they can rely on our experience so they don`t repeat our mistakes. And there are many more tools available today to help someone succeed than ever before.

I believe the one main reason franchises are so successful today is because of the large investment involved. First the entry price commitment of $50,000 to a half million dollars or more weeds out all the tire kickers and non-serious people. Second with that kind of investment someone is not going to give up easily.

There is no doubt in my mind that for the right person a home business is so much more superior to a franchise it ain`t even funny. The investment is a mere peanuts compared to a franchise and you aren`t tied down to your business such that you can`t go on vacation. If need be you can just take your business with you to whatever hotel you are staying in.

Plus for the same amount of work you can easily earn more than a franchise - keep in mind you are going to spend 80-100 hours per week working your franchise business the first year or so. And you may need two stores to make a good living.

The point is anybody, no matter what their background can succeed in the right home business, provided they have the desire and good mentors.