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iQuestions Faculty, Randy and Elizabeth Draper 
 
 
Question: 
 
What are the most important characteristics to have in order to be 
successful in a home-based, direct-sales business? 
 
Answer: 
 
ELIZABETH: Some of the most successful people in this kind of 
business have certain qualities they either naturally have or are things 
they have really worked at to develop—one is learning how to handle 
the word “no.”  
 
“No” is a word that you are going to hear all the time, and “no” needs 
to be the word that empowers you to move forward instead of just 
leaving you powerless, thinking, “What am I going to do next?” 
 
So I would really suggest learning to deal with that word “no.” 
 
RANDY: When we got started in this business, Elizabeth and I would 
make it a game. We knew we needed to talk to twenty people to find 
three or four that might sit down and let us talk to them about our 
business. Out of those three or four, one of them would probably get 
excited and become part of our team.  
 
So we would just make it a game, How fast can we get to 20 “no’s”? 
And I would leave that morning, and she would say, “How many „no‟s‟ 
are you going to get today? I‟m going to get eight no‟s.”  
 
“Well, I‟ll beat you. I‟ll get ten.” 
 
We would make it a little friendly competition. 
 
 
 
ELIZABETH: I beat him every time. 
 
RANDY: She beat me a lot. She did.  
 
ELIZABETH: I did. I always won. 
 
RANDY: Yes. But that‟s okay. I worked hard at it. 
 
Another quality or characteristic of our people who do well in this 
business is a great attitude because you basically become the 
president of your business. Every day it‟s up to you what is going to 
happen in your business, if I‟m down, I „m negative, I‟m unhappy and 
I‟m not excited, then I‟m probably not going to find too many people 
that want to take a part of what I am experiencing—because they‟re 
already unhappy and miserable at their office and in their career. They 
don‟t want to come and be a part of my business so they can be 
miserable with me. 
 
So your attitude is so important. It makes a big, big difference. 
 
ELIZABETH: Also being teachable and realizing that you don‟t know 
everything and that other people who have gone before you have 
paved the way. Don‟t always think you have to recreate the wheel. 
There are a lot of great plans out there, and people who have gone 
before you who can show you all the things that you can do, so that 
you can jump over hurdles instead of having to run through hurdles. 
 
RANDY: If you find yourself always thinking, “Well, I just think I have 
a better way of doing it. I think I can come up with something else 
that can work better,” that is dangerous, because most of the 
companies that we have looked at—and there are great companies out 
there in all kinds of products—have proven track records, they have 
Draper -2- 
 
 
systems in place that have been proven by people over decades that 
work.  
 
So don‟t get in there and think that you need to come up with a new 
idea, because new ideas are okay, but it takes time to prove that new 
idea. So being teachable is very important. Your enthusiasm is 
important, because they want to know you‟re excited, and people will 
get excited about your business if you‟re excited every day about that. 
 
ELIZABETH: I have heard this quote a lot of times, and I think it‟s so 
true, “your attitude more than your aptitude will determine your 
altitude.” When you are enthusiastic about something, people are 
attracted to you.  
 
Just think about it. When you go someplace, don‟t you look for the 
people who are excited? Don‟t you want to hang out with those 
people? You don‟t want to hang out with the people that are like 
Debbie Downers, and are like, “Waa, waa.” You know, “Oh, me. I hate 
this,” or whatever. 
 
You want to be a part of a group that is excited about life, excited 
about their business—that is something you need to develop and work 
on, if you want to be successful in this type of a business. 
 
RANDY: People don‟t want to hang out in the whine line or in the moan 
zone, do they? 
 
Another thing you really have to be careful about in a home-based 
business is being patient. It takes time. You‟re building a business, 
putting your time out there, telling your story, encouraging people to 
join your team, and what we have seen over the years is sometimes 
people get out just before they really saw the fruit of all their labor.  
 
Draper -3- 
 
 
You really have to be patient and hang in there. You‟ve got to keep 
working, believe that it‟s going to work for you, and then stay with it 
until you see that success come. 
 
ELIZABETH: I love the quote from John Maxwell that says, “leaders are 
born and made in crock pots, not microwaves.” 
 
I think all of the time,, “if I could just make my business grow. If it 
could just be where I want it to be today,” and you don‟t want to wait 
for next week, next month, next year.  
 
You‟ve got to remember, if you put a roast in a crock pot and cooked it 
or you put it in a microwave and cooked it, which one are you going to 
want to eat? Both of them accomplish the same thing—the meat is 
done—but which one is tender, and which is the one that you‟re going 
to want to think about tomorrow, that was really the best-tasting piece 
of meat? 
 
That is how it is in building a business. You‟ve got to be patient, pay 
the dues, take the time to have a solid business, and just remind 
yourself when you get frustrated that “I‟m not building a business in a 
microwave, I‟m building a business in a crock pot.”  That is going to be 
a business that is going to last you for a long time. 
 
Draper -4- 
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