What would happen to a church congregation if their beloved leader just… vanished?
Imagine this.
You’ve been attending the same church for five years. You love the man leading your congregation. He’s walked with you through the hard seasons—sat with you when your marriage was on the rocks, prayed over your kids, helped you find your footing when life felt like quicksand.
And the community he’s helped you and others to build and nurture?
It feels like family.
You’ve heard him preach on more than one occasion, that “This is the place.”
And because you’ve found the place, you feel happy, safe, comfortable, secure.
Then one Sunday, the announcement comes:
“Brother so and so has accepted a position at another church across town. We wish him well in his new journey.”
Wait… what?
Some people cry.
Others sit in stunned silence. A few grab their coats and follow him out the door that very day.
But most?
Most just sit there—confused, hurt, wondering what they missed.
Now imagine he does it again.
Eighteen months later, he leaves that congregation for another one.
Different name. Different affiliation. Better opportunity, he says.
And then again two years after that.
At some point, the people who once hung on his every word start to wonder:
“Does he even know what he’s doing? How can I follow someone that sounds so sure but looks so uncertain?”
Trust erodes.
Community fractures.
And that special family you once felt like you were a part of with him?
Gone. Scattered.
Some stay, some leave, and others just stop showing up altogether.
Now Let’s Talk About Your Business
If you’ve ever built (or tried to build) a home business—network marketing, affiliate marketing, coaching, digital products—you already know where I’m going with this.
Because the parallel is almost uncomfortable.
Every time a leader jumps to a new company, a new platform, a new “ground floor opportunity,” they leave behind:
- A team that trusted them
- Customers who believed in what they were promoting
- A personal brand tied to something they no longer stand behind
And sure, some followers will make the jump. The loyal few.
But most won’t.
Most will just quietly unsubscribe, unfollow, and move on—taking their trust (and future purchases) with them.
So every time this happens, it’s like starting over.
The Hidden Cost
Here’s what nobody tells you about residual income:
It’s not built by the people who find the best opportunity.
It’s built by the people who stay planted long enough for the roots to take hold.
Think about it.
The network marketers earning walk-away income didn’t get there by jumping ship every 18 months. They picked something, committed to it, weathered the storms, and became synonymous with what they represent.
When you hear their name, you think of that company. That mission. That product.
They became unrecruitable.
What Does It Mean to Be “Unrecruitable”?
It doesn’t mean you’re closed-minded. It doesn’t mean you ignore innovation. It doesn’t mean you’ve drunk the Kool-Aid.
It means you’ve made a decision—and you’re no longer available for every pitch, every “hey, take a look at this,” every DM promising the next big thing.
You’ve planted your flag.
And because of that, people trust you. They see consistency. They feel safe investing in what you’re building—whether that’s their time, their money, or their own business alongside yours.
Unrecruitable doesn’t mean stubborn. It means stable.
Now, let me be clear about something: being unrecruitable doesn’t mean you never buy anything else. It doesn’t mean you can’t invest in courses, tools, or resources that help you grow. That’s not what I’m talking about.
What I’m talking about is finding your horse to ride. Knowing the vehicle that’s going to get you where you want to go—and staying focused on it. Not being interested in looking at other vehicles or joining other vehicles.
That’s being unrecruitable.
What Residual Income Really Loves
Here’s something I’ve come to believe after 20 years in home business:
Residual income loves order. It loves consistency.
It likes knowing that the products are good, that they’re gonna stay good, that they’re gonna get better.
It likes knowing that the leaders are good, that they’re gonna stay good, that they’re gonna get better.
Residual income likes that.
Chaos is when the things you know today are totally different from the things you know tomorrow and everything’s thrown into disarray.
That’s chaos.
And that’s what happens when the pastor’s just running around joining different things all the time.
The Journey to Becoming Unrecruitable
Now when I say these things, I realize there are always exceptions. There are always little things that might not fit perfectly into this equation.
And I also realize that it may take some time to become unrecruitable.
You might have to join a bunch of different things first. Maybe, maybe not.
For me? I had to join like 17 or 20 different opportunities to finally, finally find something and build something where I could say: “Finally, I am 100% unrecruitable.”
And through those 17 or 20 different opportunities, I was learning things I liked and learning things I did not like. That was sharpening my vision so that when I did finally find the thing I was unrecruitable in, I could see it and recognize it.
So this isn’t a criticism for anybody who’s jumping around a little bit—because I jumped around a little bit. Unfortunately, that’s kind of normal in home business.
But it doesn’t remove the point: you don’t want to do that your whole life.
You eventually want to get to that point where you have that horse you’re gonna ride.
When Leaving Makes Sense
One more distinction I want to make clear:
This is not an argument for the preacher staying in the church no matter what’s going on.
Because there may be some very valid reasons that the preacher has to leave the church and go somewhere else.
The preacher may have discovered some dishonesty in the bedrock of the organization. The preacher may have discovered some shady dealings in the foundation.
There are cases where it is justifiable for the leader to quote-unquote “jump ship” and leave.
So this isn’t to say, “Hey, just because you want to be unrecruitable, that means you should never, ever, ever leave something.”
That’s not how I look at it.
There are exceptions where sometimes there are good reasons to leave things.
The True Nature of Loyalty
This brings me to something I think gets misunderstood and even misused in our industry: loyalty.
The idea of loyalty is sometimes used to manipulate people. And I think that’s a misuse of the term.
When I think of loyalty, I think of loyalty to principles.
When I think of loyalty to people, I think of loyalty to the people who are following the principles I believe are true and just, and good and right, and make life worth living and business worth doing.
That’s what I think.
So if I’m following a leader who is in alignment with those things, then yes— You have my loyalty.
But if a leader decides to violate the principles upon which my loyalty toward that leader was based—without remorse and continually—then that bond of loyalty, in my opinion, is severed.
Samuel Adams and the Ultimate Test of Loyalty
In Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill tells the story of Samuel Adams—and I think it perfectly illustrates what true loyalty looks like.
The British Crown had sent Colonel Fenton to deliver a message to Adams. The offer? Stop your opposition to the Crown, and you’ll receive personal bribes and protection. Continue your opposition, and you risk being sent to England to be hanged for treason.
Samuel Adams had the choice of two decisions: cease his opposition and receive personal bribes, or continue and run the risk of being hanged.
Most people would have hesitated. Most would have sent back an evasive reply.
Not Adams.
His answer? “Then you may tell Governor Gage that I trust I have long since made my peace with the King of Kings. No personal consideration shall induce me to abandon the righteous cause of my Country.”
Napoleon Hill wrote that this response demonstrated “loyalty of the highest order.”
And here’s the home business parallel:
There will be times when staying loyal to your principles—to the vehicle you’ve committed to—feels costly. Someone offers you a sweeter deal. A bigger commission. A “ground floor” that sounds too good to pass up.
That’s your Colonel Fenton moment.
The question is: Are you loyal to your principles and the vision you’ve committed to? Or are you for sale to the highest bidder?
Samuel Adams wasn’t for sale. That’s why his name lives on.
The leaders who build lasting residual income aren’t for sale either. They’ve made their decision. They’ve made their peace with it. And no personal consideration will induce them to abandon their cause.
“Comment as to the character of this man seems unnecessary. It must be obvious to all who read this astounding message that its sender possessed loyalty of the highest order.”
—Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich
The Real Residual Income Formula
Let me give you the unexciting truth about building long-term, passive-ish income in a home business:
Residual income = Trust × Time × Consistency
- Trust comes from staying the course and staying true to your word.
- Time compounds your efforts.
- Consistency tells your audience (and your team) that you’re not going anywhere.
Every time you switch, you reset the clock.
You don’t just lose momentum—you lose credibility. And credibility, once lost, is brutally hard to rebuild.
So What Should You Do?
1. Choose wisely from the start. Do your homework. Don’t just fall for flashy comp plans or charismatic recruiters. Look for something you can genuinely see yourself doing for the next 5, 10, or even 20 years.
“Sometime in your life you’ve got to stop running. Sometime you’ve got to stand and say ‘now this is a great opportunity. This time, I’m gonna stand and fight, until I win!'”
—Art Williams
2. Expect hard seasons. Every business has them. The excitement fades. The algorithm changes. Leaders leave. Products shift. The question isn’t if hard times come—it’s whether you’ll still be standing when they pass.
If you base every leadership decision around how much something is making you or not making you financially, people will see that your north star is about as thin as a $100 bill—and guess how much loyalty that creates? 🤔
3. Build your identity around your mission, not just your company. You can be “the dad freedom guy” or “the personal finance gal” without being only about one product. That way, even if things change, your core message stays intact.
People expect, and will tolerate, that the ship might get off course every once in a while with corrections needed. What they won’t tolerate is your north star turning into the south star, or east or west—over and over and over again.
Becoming Unrecruitable: The Foundation
So in becoming unrecruitable, I think what we want to do is:
- Find the vehicle that we are unrecruitable in
- Find the people with whom we can be unrecruitable
And both those things—the vehicle and the people—are built upon the foundation of principles that we believe in. Principles that we say shall not be violated.
As long as those things are intact, then we want to stay consistent.
And that’s how we build residual income.
We build a sense of trust and foundation and safety.
We build something great together.
A Final Thought from the Pulpit
That church leader who kept leaving? He may have been talented. He may have had a gift for inspiring people. But he never built anything that outlasted him.
Because real community isn’t built by people who leave.
It’s built by people who stay.
The same is true in your business.
If you want to build something that pays you while you sleep… something that survives algorithm changes and economic downturns… something that your family can benefit from for years to come…
You have to become unrecruitable.
Not closed. Not arrogant. Just decided.
Because the leaders who build true residual income are the ones who stop looking for the next opportunity—and start becoming one.
So here’s my question for you:
What would it look like if you decided—really decided—to stay planted for the next five years?
What kind of roots could you grow?
What kind of community could you build?
And what kind of income might be waiting on the other side of that commitment?
Something to think about.
🎧 Listen: Today’s Grow Rich Mastermind Replay
“How Residual Riches Come to You”
This replay includes an audio version of the lesson above, plus additional insights from our mastermind discussion.
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Now go be unrecruitable.
🏇 Looking For Your Horse to Ride?
After 17-20 different opportunities, I finally had to build my own vehicle—because I couldn’t find anything else that matched my principles and vision for what a home business should be.
No hype. No manipulation. No pressure tactics. Just real tools, real training, and real residual income potential built on a foundation I could stand behind for the rest of my life.
If you’re tired of jumping from opportunity to opportunity and you’re ready to find something you can be unrecruitable in, I’d love to show you what we’ve built.
→ See The Vehicle I Built (And Why I’m Never Leaving)
This isn’t for everyone. But if you’re looking for a place to plant your flag and build something that lasts—let’s talk.