Repeat after me: Life is not happening to you. It’s happening to you. I don’t know of any single person, living or dead, who didn’t go through some type of mishap in their lives. Whether you caused the mishap yourself or if it was beyond your control,…life happens. Life teaches us lessons. Incredible lessons of failure that will eventually lead to success if you’re bold enough to try again. The mess-up slaps us on the hands and says, “I bet you won’t do that again,” or it will encourage you to try again, and again, and again.

In previous posts, I’ve told you that some mishaps happen to me. Here’s one of them.

In 2002, we lost everything.

Our home, cars, and “friends.” We went from making over a six-figure income to nothing. My husband and I, along with our four kids under the age of six, moved into an apartment. With four repossessed cars, we ended up buying an old mini-van so we could have some type of transportation. I prayed every day that it would crank up so I could get my kids to school and buy groceries. I was miserable. For the first time in my life, we were living day to day.

According to the Millionaire Woman Next Door, written by Thomas J. Stanley, most people will have at least three economic opportunities present themselves in their lifetime. My family successfully received our first opportunity and enjoyed all the spoils.

We were invincible and a little arrogant. You’ve heard of “pride before the fall.” We were presented with another economic opportunity, and we turned it down because we were doing so well. Lo and Behold, our day had come, and something went left. We were not prepared financially to withstand the fall that would come. This is where my husband made up his mind that we would never depend on another man to feed our family. Meaning, we will invest in ourselves; we will build our own company and control our own destiny.

When the third economic opportunity came to us, we were ready. The year is 2005. We had a lot of debt and back-taxes. A nine-to-five wasn’t going to do it, so we pivoted and began a network marketing career. We started part-time and but the checks were full-time income and then some. A lot of millionaires are made in network marketing, and we were ready for all of it.

Just so you don’t think that this happened overnight, let me tell you how it started. It started with my husband coming home and telling me he was joining a network marketing company and the product was travel. He said, “I need the checkbook.” I said, “We are negative $100+ in the checking account.”

He replied, “I need the checkbook.” I reluctantly gave him the checkbook, and not only did he write one check, but he also wrote two that day. At that time, we were distributing professional haircare products. The next day, he made enough money selling products and deposited the cash in the account to cover the checks he had written.

This is where I would never doubt God’s protection and his promise, ever again. So mess it up, make mistakes, and try again. Yes, we live in challenging times, but life will continue to happen. If you woke up this morning, you were given another chance to do it all over again.

So, where are we now?

We are showing ordinary people how to make extraordinary income for the past 14 years.

Yours in Prosperity,

Deborah Flemming Bradley