The Pelican Principle by Doug Wead

“Decide what you want to do. Then find others who are
successfully doing the same thing.”

Best-selling author Marvin Williams writes about the environmental crisis that hit the shores of beautiful Monterey, California. For years the residents there had beamed with pride when they talked about the pelicans that skimmed the waves along their coastlines. There was a reason behind the proliferating flocks. The birds enjoyed a good life. Trailing the fishing boats of the local tuna fleet, they were able to enjoy a lush diet with little effort. Hunting fish in the bay on their own was much too troublesome; besides, it wasn’t even necessary. But when new environmental laws drove the tuna fishermen out of business, ecologists were confronted with unexpected consequence: the proud pelican so Monterey began to die.

Experts, including environmentalists and marine biologists, descended on the beautiful little city on the Bay. A wide variety of plans were rushed into practice but nothing seemed to save the diminished population. The pelicans of Monterey, California were headed for extinction. The solution was as unexpected as the problem. Biologists imported pelicans from Florida, two thousand miles away. Not just one pelican. Hundreds of them. The hope was that the new arrivals, who had not lost their instinctive skill to hunt, would breed with the pampered pelicans of Monterey Bay and that their offspring would thrive. But to the surprise of all involved, nature didn’t require another generation to get results. Within months the proud Monterey pelicans, influenced by the imported birds, began feeding on their own. The population was saved.

The principle is not a new one. A three thousand-year-old Jewish proverb declared, “He who walks with the wise grows wise.” Psychologists have been saying for years that the friends we choose determine our destiny. Sociologists point to wrong associations as the leading factor in criminal behavior. It is the reason, they say, why people in prison usually return. Wherever we are, in prison or a palace, we quickly become like the rest of the flock. Peer pressure.

Want to cure an addiction to drugs or alcohol? First, counselors will involve you in focus and discussion groups with others trying to do the same thing. And when they do finally turn you out they will do so with this stern admonition. “Get new friends! Or the problem will come back.”

Want to lose weight? Thousands of weight loss clinics are popping up across the United States. Participants are often unimpressed with the diet and exercise programs. They’ve seen it all before. But the peer pressure and the effect of doing it together with others has turned out to be the critical part of the formula.

In a human interest interview three years before his death, billionaire Aristotle Onasis invoked this principle as the key to wealth: “Want to make money?” he asked rhetorically. “Associate with the rich?”
Ah, that sounds great. But how is it done? What if the rich won’t cooperate? What if you can’t find the kind of friends you want? Anyway, how can one walk away from his old friends? His old neighborhood?

Surprisingly, according to Onasis, getting the rich to cooperate wasn’t the problem. It was exactly what he had done, he insisted. And if he had to start all over again without a dime he could do it again. It might involve taking a menial job, or living in a small attic apartment in a rich man’s neighborhood when the same money would buy much, much more in the suburbs. It might involve inconvenient moves or spur-of-the-moment travel. According to Onasis anyway, it can be done. But more about that later.

Jim Dornan and his team have embraces a unique version of the Pelican Principle as a secret to success. As new areas around the world have opened to the network marketing opportunity, enterprising leaders from the industry have spent millions of dollars opening offices, hiring lawyers, public relations firms, and training leaders in the new target countries. Some have even brought in other distributors who know the language and financed the operation, hoping it will take root. But some of the nuances of the Pelican Principle are missed.

Dornan teaches three elements. First, you can’t bring in crows and expect them to teach Pelicans how to do anything. If you want to build an organization in Indonesia, you have to have Indonesians, not Americans, Australians, or British. Secondly, they have to know how to hunt. That is, they must already have a reasonable mature understanding of your business. This presents a challenge. If the business is new in Indonesia, where will you find Indonesians with a mature understanding of your business? The answer lay in cultivating distributors among the large immigrant populations of the United States, Australia, Hong Kong, and other countries where your business already operates. And more importantly, scouting for Indonesian talent among the networks you have already built.

Some networks, which at the time were much larger than Network Twenty-One, tried just such an approach. A distributor was found who could speak the language of the new target country, or maybe had even been born there. Thousands of dollars were invested to finance the distributor’s first year or two of work. But with some rare exceptions, the experiment failed.

They missed a third nuance of the Pelican Principle philosophy. Don’t expect one pelican to change the flock. It took hundreds of Florida pelicans to impact the birds of Monterey Bay. For one thing, you increase the odds that something will happen. People are always in transition. There are children, other job offers, decisions about continuing education, marriage conflicts, illness, and dozens of other changes that may interrupt at any time. You may not need hundreds of imported pelicans, but you will need at least a few, to offer mutual support and inspiration to keep going when the challenges of a new territory set in. They will also generate some healthy competition amongst themselves. Fall behind, and a distributor may see some of the help and much needed support from the home base shift over to one of the others.
It is exactly this formula that led three Indonesians to return to their country from Australia and fill a soccer stadium full with independent distributors in two years. Five Hungarian immigrants living in Australia learned the business and then did the same thing in Hungary. The story is repeated in Turkey, the Czech Republic, Greece and all over the world. It will happen tomorrow in the Philippines, Romania, India, and who knows where else?

Well, you are saying to yourself, isn’t that just great. Long live Network Twenty-One and may they continue to be successful. Hurrah for them. But what does that have to do with me, the average person, someone who hasn’t already built a network, or someone who is not an immigrant distributor who can help launch a new market?

The answer? Turn it all around. Take a look at it backwards. Remember Aristotle Onasis’ comment? If you want to be successful, associate with the successful people. Instead of waiting to be found and trained by an import pelican, go find him. In this case the pelican is someone who has already built a successful network business and is still doing so. In fact, he is looking for you. If you are an old distributor this may require searching back through your network lineage, finding someone who has a good track record and who is willing to team up to help you. If you aren’t even involved yet, it may mean looking for the right person to serve as a mentor, or someone who can “sponsor” or recruit you into the right group. The group will provide the skill, the instincts for success, while you provide the names and show them around their new territory.