Do you believe in gravity? That may sound like a strange question, at least on the surface of it. But let’s look at it a bit closer. If you hold a pen at about 5 inches above your desk and let go of it, what is going to happen? 'It’s gonna fall onto the desk, stupid you', you might say. And I would agree (not about the stupid me, but, well...) Because experience tells us that when objects we hold in our hands, let it be a coffee mug, change of money or our glasses slip out of our hand, they go straight down, towards the center of earth. The immediate experience probably doesn’t remind us of gravitational physics, since we are too busy drying our burned lap or shuffling around on the supermarket floor trying to pick up the money before somebody else gets to it. But the underlying assumption here is that those objects took the direction they went, straight down, because of gravity.

Gravity is defined as the force of attraction that moves or tends to move bodies towards the center of a celestial body, such as the earth or moon. And that’s the reason why my eleven-year old son ends up with a bloody nose when he trips over a football. Or is it?

Nobody is going to question the results of the ‘what if’ scenarios here. But I do question the certainty with which we tend to answer the question ‘why’: why am I holding my crotch, and why am I in a fight with that punk in the supermarket. The answer almost always is: “Well, that’s because of gravity, isn’t it?”

I, for one, have never seen gravity. I have never smelled it, nor tasted it. It never gave me the shivers, nor did it, ever, whisper into my ear. So it appears to be all in the head.

As far as I understand it, it is impossible to prove the existence of gravity without a priori assuming that it exists, that it is actually ‘there’. And since we have no way of perceiving it through our senses we have to assume that it is an unseen force which eludes our physically becoming aware of it.

I call gravity an extremely helpful assumption, which helps Nasa scientists calculate the orbits of their spacecrafts and explains why we are walking on this earth and not floating off towards the clouds. I call it a modern day ghost or, to be in tune with 21st century language, a paradigm.

Every age has its built-in assumptions: the earth is flat, the earth is round. First we are the center of the universe, than it is the sun. Nowadays we are dwelling in some forgotten corner of one of a few million milky ways. It get’s kind of depressing.

But if history is any measure, we are wrong, anyway, since the knowledge of every past civilisation is now deemed to be either incomplete, flawed or outright wrong. So why should our age be the exception?

Paradigms are belief systems that help us find our way in a complex world, but they should never be confused with reality itself. When I, here in Mexico, talk to people, online or offline, about the Internet marketing company I am with and the tremendous opportunity it provides, they politely listen through my presentation of the products offered and sold, marketing plan, etc. As soon as I say that the real business is in helping other people become successful in the same business, with and through you, they literally shut down. Their eyes go blank, and they stop listening.

Here the prevailing paradigm is that I am with a ‘pyramid’. It’s a sad state of affairs, but it appears that practically all unethical network marketing companies in the US that didn’t stand a chance of anything resembling sustained growth and wealth for everybody involved came down to Mexico and did their ‘thing’.

Internet marketing companies with affiliate programs embrace the concept of network marketing, because it makes good business sense. It’s capitalism at its purest, and anybody can have a shot without losing a dime. A good company provides you with training first and then you decide wether you are in it for the money or the manuals.

All good network marketing has to be based more on attraction than on promotion. You present your opportunity once. Those who will not join you will not join you, even if you blast them with follow-up e-mails.

Those who will join will join, and that might even be in spite of you. They don´t care, they got the message, they are hot. And your real follow up is to be a good sponsor to them.

Georg Grey is a German communications expert and language teacher in Mexico and offers his training online. He is also a member of the SFI affiliate network. You find his page here: http://www.greyasociados.com/distant_learning.html