Kalpesh Patel is one of the most dynamic and inspirational speakers in the UK, he has touched over 500,000 lives over 12 years. A natural born entrepreneur in MLM with his love of transforming lives and winning attitude inherited from his parents. In his business journey he overcame the toughest of challenges. He claims that network marketing has changed his life. We tricked him with one question and he admitted he kind of feels like Superman.
Hello Kalpesh. Forgive my bluntness, but you seem like an exeptional and remarkable person. Almost like a book or movie character. Therefore my question: if you were a book or movie character, who would you be?
Haha, thank you for the complement. I always tell people they have a super hero inside them so I guess it would have to be Superman.
They say you are „a natural born entrepreneur”. Does it mean that it was somehow easier for you to succeed in business?
The journey is not any easier for me than anyone else, what is easier is the fire to get up and go, make it happen. I find my passion for success and working things out makes me more resilient to the walls, barriers and frustrations. Most people love the idea of success but are either too scarred or lazy to apply themselves and become the person that makes it happen, their comfort zone is more important than their growth zone. I have never had a job and have always found my own way, learning from mistakes and improving, never afraid to lose it all to make it back again… unattached to the outcome and fearlessly playing to win.
Kalpesh, and what shaped you exactly, in life? What shaped you as an etrepreneur and a person? I mean, maybe some people or some events from your past?
We are all shaped by our personal experiences and I am no different. My childhood as an immigrant child taught me to survive in a harsh and racist environment. I watched my parents & family work multiple jobs for the first few years of my life. They all went on to buy their own businesses including my parents when I was 10. This introduced me to a completely different reality and during my teens it taught me about business, I started my first venture age 11, made my name and small fortune in my school lunch hours and this is why I say I’m a natural born entrepreneur, my parents encouraged me to be creative, take chances and hustle while I studied.
They demonstrated to me that it was better to work longer hours, take bigger risks, earn less money to start with and own their lives. This is not where most parents are. I lost my father when I was 23, this was the most painful event in my life, 6 months later I broke up with my first love of 6 years and 18 months later I lost my mini business empire. I spent two and a half years in a dark space. At 25 I was introduced to network marketing and my love affair for personal development was started and has never stopped, it ignited the winner in me once more, I turned everything around and within 2 years I had healed my pain and I was thriving again.
Kalpesh Patel
You help people to believe in themselves, light up, want and achieve more in life. So in a few well-chosen sentences: how do you do it?
I share my life journey, my experiences, the good, bad and ugly, they can easily relate to my life and theirs and the lessons are similar. I am able to share in a way that it is simple to follow and easy to understand, it’s a gift I have been blessed with.
When I speak, people are touched, connected and fully engaged, they are inspired to grow, Be more for themselves and others, as a result they go out and do things they may never have done before, overcoming fears and limitations, leading to greater life experiences and creating their own stories. Simply put, I tap into their greatness which they have often ignored or not realised they had it in themselves. All of us have extraordinary in us, most just don’t know how to tap into it.
Kalpesh, tell us something about the way you do business. How do you recruit people? Any special „moves”?
Lol, I have special moves like Bruce Lee. Kidding aside, I train people on becoming their best version, sharpening their skills and tapping into their power. When we know who we are then life is easier, communication is easier and selling / recruiting is easier. Only fear keeps us from being free. Once we are able to identify and embrace this, we always win, even when it seems we lost. So honestly caring about others, finding their pain and helping to solve their problems is the key. No one cares how great what you have is, they care how it helps them solve their challenges. Convincing someone to buy your products or services is hard work, Selling is easy when they want to buy, create the desire in their side world like it is in yours.
Are there any differences in recruiting people in different parts of the world?
Although the fundamentals remain the same, there are subtle nuisances in local cultures to be aware of. I’ve built in dozen of countries and have learnt to communicate in ways that connect with many types of people and cultures. Even as far as knowing how to speak if you are being translated makes a huge difference. All of this comes with experience, go out and do it, learn on your way up.
And a piece of advice for people who are about to start their journey in MLM please.
If you say Yes to this MLM industry, commit to learning until you succeed. Don’t just try it out and hope it works, it rarely does. It takes everything to master success in anything, it’s no different here. Just like sports, entertainment, careers, to climb requires constant improvement, learning, applying yourself, re learning and so on. It’s easy to fail in anything, just give up and see.
Network marketing is not a quick fix to riches, it’s a very smart way to earn an extra few hundred a month, master this 1st. Then learnt to make a few thousand a month, master this and then go o to the next phase which is what grabs our attention at the start, the freedom of earning fortunes through leverage and having fun while doing so. Keep your eye on the end goal and accept the journey is different for us all, it took me 3 years to make a decent profit, many give up before 3 years.
Let’s talk about money. Kalpesh, what is money for you?
I love this question. Many think MLM is about money and in the beginning it often is for most people. For me it was about my personal development journey. The money came afterwards, it was a bi-product of my personal growth.
Some get lucky of course, but luck is temporary and eventually runs out. Self mastery is they key to unlocking personal and financial success. Focus on your growth and let the money follow you, anything we chase is usually repelled. Become the person that you dream of being, this is the true wealth of multi-level marketing. Money is a great tool that allows us to do more of what we love. Another myth is that we measure success with money, I often say even today, who I have become since being in this beautiful industry is worth far more than the fortunes I have made form it.
Le’ts talk about your hobbies. You do caving, climbing, skiing, parachuting etc. Risky stuff. It seems that you push yourself to the limits of your endurance. Am I wrong?
Wow, you have an accurate crystal ball lol. My hobby is making a difference. My life revolves around this now. It’s all about the impact I can have on the transformation of others. At the same time I do love adrenaline activities. I have parachuted, bungeed, scuba and deep sea dived, been Caving and Climbing and love Skiing. I did a lot of this in my early years to break fears and push beyond my comfort zones… another part of the natural born entrepreneur mind set I guess. The thrill of adventures, taking risks and the rush of conquering ones self and winning over the voice that often says you can’t or shouldn’t.
Kalpesh, if you have a time machine and could turn back time – would you change anything in terms of your career? Is there anything that you regret?
I choose to live in the belief that everything happens as it is meant to and therefore live in zero regrets and would not change any of it for the same reason. Living in regret leads to misery and I don’t do misery. If I could change anything without it impacting my journey negatively, of course I’d have my amazing father by my side every step of the way, having said that, had he not died, turning my life upside down, I may never have asked the bigger questions of who am I and why am I here, I may never have left retail to create my own multi million pound telecom empire, I may never have discovered MLM which healed my pain and allowed me to live a life of freedom for the last 23 years. So I say hand on heart, I’d love to revisit dad and say so much I never got the chance to, but I do this in my prayers and like to believe he hears me there where I will join him and the rest of the planet at some point too.
Most people go through their entire existence without ever wondering what else is possible for them, I glad im not one of them.
Last but not least. Kalpesh, your definition of happiness?
Happiness is a choice we must learn to make. Once we decide to be happy no matter what, everything changes. Life really is a mind game.
Kalpesh, on the behalf of the whole rankingmlm editorial staff thank you for this inspirting interview. It has been a pleasure.
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