“I was told I could be bringing in upwards of $100,000 within two years of signing on,” Dave wrote. “I went to hundreds of meetings and when I wasn’t at a meeting I was on the phone. I was recruiting constantly – my extended family started avoiding me. Then all of a sudden, the company went out of business. Here I am with a garage full of expensive products, a couple of thousand dollars on my credit card from buying products to push up to the next level, and a couple of really strained relationships.”

Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, wrote: “Direct Selling . . . is a revolutionary way to achieve wealth.” Selling! If you just shuddered and envisioned yourself carting a carpetbag of brooms from door to door, it’s time to update your vision. Most direct selling comes in the form of multi-level marketing, and it offers you some incredible advantages in your quest for financial freedom.

Paul Elliott of The Motley Fool (www.fool.com) wrote in 2006: If you had invested $2,000 in Pepsi in 1980 – and not another dime after – and reinvested dividends, you’d now have 2,800 shares worth more than $150,000. If you’d invested $2,000 in Philip Morris in 1980, reinvesting dividends, you’d have more than 4,300 shares worth just under $300,000. If you’d invested $2,000 in Johnson & Johnson in 1980, reinvesting dividends, you’d now have over 2,000 shares worth close to $140,000.

“I thought I’d be my own boss,” wrote Mike. “They made a big deal about how I was going to control my own destiny. Then I found out the truth. I have to buy my supplies through their vendors, so I can’t shop around for the best price. I have to pay their commission on my gross earnings – so they get paid before Uncle Sam. It turned out that basically, I work for them as a manager. Except when I was a manager in a corporation, I wasn’t the one carrying all the financial risk.”

When Robin got laid off from her supervisor position in an electronics firm, she decided that her days of working for someone else were over. She considered starting a business of her own from scratch, but then decided she liked the support and tested path of a franchise. She’d cared for several relatives in their later years. Making sure elderly and disabled people have excellent care in their homes for as long as possible is one of her Core Desires, so purchasing a home health care franchise was a great fit for her.

Holly and Jacob Weinstein started a computer sales and service company in February 2007. Jacob cashed out his 401(k) from work (taking the penalty) and used the money to set up shop in a little store front on a busy boulevard. “It’s a perfect set up,” Jacob said. “Holly can watch the store while I’m out doing on-site service and sales, and then when the kids get home from school, I’ll take over the store.”

Phillip had three Core Desires. He wanted to spend as much time with his family as possible while his children were still young. He wanted to have financial freedom before he was 45. And he wanted to turn his hobby – restoring classic automobiles – into his full time job.

According to Forbes, last year the world had 1,125 billionaires. Today there are 793. Donald Trump lost nearly half of his net worth – a significant amount of that in real property. If “The Donald” wasn’t savvy enough to avoid losses in real estate, will you be?

Jeff Greene was the son of working-class Jewish parents from Worcester, Mass. His parents struggled to support their family, and Green paid his way into Johns Hopkins by selling circus tickets over the phone. In 2009, he ranked 559th on Forbes list of the wealthiest people in the world. How did he make his fortune?

In 1943, Warren Buffet, aged 13, worked as a newspaper delivery boy and in his grandfather’s grocery store. He knew his Core Desire early – make money – and enrolled at the Columbia Business school in order to learn from securities analysts David Dodd and Benjamin Graham. He graduated with an M.S. in Economics in 1951.