Company "Herbalife" is known to almost every inhabitant of the planet. Its products - products for weight loss, weight control and appearance care, presented in a huge assortment - have conquered all corners of the world, most appealing to the inhabitants of America and Russia. Created such a powerful empire in 1980 by Mark Hughes.
Herbalife: biography of a billionaire
Why did Hughes choose this line of work, which has become his life's work?
The legend that every employee of the company knows, says that a personal tragedy, namely the death of his mother, was a powerful impetus. All her adult life, this young woman tried to lose weight, exhausted herself with diets and drank a lot of weight loss pills. Their overdose led to insomnia and, as a result, dependence on sleeping pills. Once, Mark's mother simply did not wake up from excessively drunk pills. At that time she was only 36 years old. Mark Hughes, whose date of birth is January 1, 1956, at that time was quite old and independent 18 years oldyoung men who understood how global the problem of overweight is for all mankind.
From the death of his mother to the creation of the company that made him a billionaire, six years passed. Over the years, Mark managed to prove himself in two firms that produced dietary products for weight loss and he alth promotion; also for some period of time he worked in a center that rehabilitated drug addicts, where he gained some psychological experience. The acquired knowledge and skills gave Mark confidence in the correctness of the choice made.
His dream is to create his own product that could make millions of people happy. The ability to lose weight without exhausting diets and suffering, combined with he alth benefits, is what Mark was striving for. And he charged others with his desire.
How it all began
Fateful was his meeting with the manufacturer and creator of food - Richard Marconi, well-to-do and, like Mark, keen on the problems of proper nutrition. Perhaps he helped Hughes financially at first. There are many different versions about the effectiveness of the "grass of life", which received the hyped name "Herbalife". Some people who have experienced its effect on themselves consider this product to be completely useless. The same version is confirmed by the International Confederation of Consumer Societies, whose studies claim that the drug contains drugs that are dangerous to the body and cause severe addiction.
The founder of Herbalife Mark Hughes made the first sales from a truck right on the street. But that was not what the young entrepreneur was looking for. It needed ads, ads, and more ads backed up by rave reviews. Mark's grandmother was the first to experience the miraculous drug. She got the expected effect and began to recommend this product to her friends and acquaintances.
Multi-level marketing is the main concept of the company's development
Gradually, the popularity of products reached its peak. The far-sighted and enterprising Hughes, realizing that people began to pay great attention to their own he alth, applied the concept of network multilevel marketing to his company - a method known back in the 70s, but widely promoted by Hughes.
The essence of network marketing was to select a certain group of enthusiasts - the future core of the company. These people were given certain knowledge about the proposed product and the intricacies of doing business. The success of Herbalife depended on the work of the elect.
A competent distributor is an important factor in a successful business
The concept of network marketing is interesting and simple: a company recruits a core of enthusiastic people and trains them in product features and business intricacies. After that, the unwinding project depends entirely on how people will recruit new employees. The company provides each of them with the opportunity to build their own network by involving several distributors of the next level in the business, and soFurther. All this resembles a pyramid, but fundamentally differs from it, because income is generated from the sale of a really produced product. Bringing a product to market through multi-level marketing costs pennies compared to spending on advertising; it was this, as well as the lack of money, that became the decisive factor in choosing the method of doing business, the genius of which was Mark Hughes.
Herbalife was a company whose distributor was considered to be the fundamental factor of prosperity. Labor stimulation has been and remains the main driving force of business. Sometimes it was possible to state a real merging of the interests of the company and the employee.
Herbalife walks the planet
Mark Hughes has developed an effective system of helping beginners with experienced employees. For this, various schools, seminars, annual summits were organized, which was held by the president himself and the founders. The brilliant billionaire clearly sought to make his business “nationwide”. Russia in 1996-1999 in terms of sales of Herbalife products ranked second after the United States. And Mark Hughes himself was a perfect distributor. In the first six months, he personally signed 189 people into the business. By the way, Hughes' two younger brothers - Guy and Kirk Hartman - successfully worked in his company.
At first, Mark Hughes, whose biography is like a beautiful fairy tale with a sad ending, did everything himself: he kept accounts, demonstrated the product, held meetings and presentations for distributors.
Rumors about him spread like lightning. Every day andeach new presentation infected an increasing number of people with the idea of such a business. The company grew, in 1982 it went global. The whole world knew about Herbalife: its offices expanded, and representative offices were organized in the farthest corners of the planet.
A time of ups and downs
The crisis happened in 1985: sales fell sharply, distributors began to leave the company in a stream, some consumers went to court with claims. The first publications about the fraudulent activities of the company and the dangers of the product appeared in newspapers and magazines. It went as far as subpoenaing Mark Hughes for a Senate committee hearing. However, numerous scandals, lawsuits and an absolute ban on this product in Sweden did not prevent the company's shares from reaching the $1 billion mark in 1996.
Interestingly, the future billionaire had only a school education; he did not study medicine and biology, he worked only on wild enthusiasm and the desire to create a new product to help people. Much later, experienced nutritionists began to work in his team, among whom was the famous Nobel laureate David Heber.
Herbalife is in demand and popular
The Herbalife concept has gained favor with people in at least 80 countries; net profit in 2012 was US$4.1 billion. Criticism towards the company, which helps to lose weight easily, was just crazy. She was once accused of selling toxic products, many lawsuits were filed. However, in spite of everything, Herbalife continued to work, litigation was often resolved in its favor. Really,the product offered by the company did no harm, and the organization remained and remains on the market today with varying success. Herbalife products are certified in accordance with the law. They are not sold in pharmacies, as the firm defines itself as a direct selling company.
What about Mark Hughes? All this time, he was actively working not only in business, but also engaged in charity work, and in 1994, together with his wife Susan, he formed the Herbalife Family Foundation, which helped children.
Hughes' personal life
Married Mark was 4 times. Back in 1980, his wife Katherine helped him register Herbalife. By divorcing her, Hughes, already a we althy successful man, made Angela Mack happy, who bore the title of Miss Sweden. He intended to live together in a mansion bought for $ 7 million. In 1999, Hughes buys a new 1,000 sq. m. in Beverly Hills. With the growth of the state, the appetites and the sizes of the purchased apartments grow. After "Miss Sweden" was "Miss Thumbelina USA" - Susan. In 2000, a new marriage - to Darcy la Pierre, the former wife of Jean Claude Van Damme.
Hughes' life ended early: at 44. After celebrating the company's anniversary, he went into sleep apnea. It was assumed that strong antidepressants for insomnia and a large amount of alcohol were to blame. The day Hughes' death was announced, the company's stock fell 12%.
Mark Hughes was a real guru in his field. Being at the helm of the company for about 20 years, he managed not tonot only to fully provide for their lives, but also to enrich a large number of people who gave themselves to work at Herbalife. And, despite the rather frequent criticism of both the company and the product it produces, the company lives, works and has a lot of fans.
