To put it lightly, I got a lot of crap for joining a direct sales company back in January. It was something I had decided to do on a whim but I never once doubted the success that could come from it. In all honesty, working a minimum wage job just wasn't paying for everything I needed and by the end of the week I hardly had any money to put away for college. I felt stuck and trapped in this grand scheme of living paycheck to paycheck at only 18 years old. Instead of letting the negativity get into my head, I decided to use it as motivation. Through it all I have learned the beauty of network marketing and why it works for so many people.

I never dread going to work.

Going to work never means stepping foot in an office or getting into super uncomfortable clothes to be someone I'm not for a few hours. Instead, I can sit in my bed and listen to some of my favorite music while I work. Or if I'm feeling really ambitious, I can sit outside on campus and catch a tan while I'm working from my phone. It sounds too good to be true, and sometimes I don't understand how it's working while I'm talking to people on my phone, but it is simplicity in its finest. I can make the most extravagant beach or my bed my workplace depending on the type of mood I'm in, and that is a wonderful thing.

I don't need to stress about the amount of hours I put in.

In most companies, and even in network marketing, you generally get out what you put in. That's true almost 100 percent of the time. However, you never need to feel guilty about working too much or too little. Today I worked for 2 hours total just by working in-between classes I had, and tomorrow I may work more or I may work less depending on what else is going on throughout the day. You will never be told how much time or how little time to put into your business, which makes it unbelievably easy to juggle work with the excess craziness of life.

No matter what day it is, I am my own boss.

Sunday through Saturday I control what I do and do not do for my business and myself. If something comes up and I need my focus to be elsewhere for awhile, I can let that happen without any outside complaints. If I decide that I want to go away for spring break next year, I don't have to worry about asking for time off in advance to make sure it's okay for me to go. Instead, I run my business how I think I should and kick myself in the butt when I don't live up to my own expectations. Being your own boss is especially rewarding in school because there are always things that you want to do. Between sporting events and hanging out with friends, not all your time is devoted to working and that's okay because the only person you have to answer to is yourself.

I control my future.

To put something in perspective, I am an 18 year old college student who just started her first semester. I'm not quite sure what the future holds for me because quite frankly, thinking about all the schoolwork I have to do before then is terrifying. I do know, however, that I am able to control my future. Instead of going home over Christmas and begging for more hours at a job, I can work from my dorm room in college and ensure that my future will not be dictated by loans and outside people who don't know me the way I know myself. There's something extremely comforting in knowing that you are in control of your life, especially when you just entered college and everything feels like it is changing. Having a sense of security even before I graduate from college, or have even really started college is very rewarding.

While I've spent the last couple months proving people wrong about my choices, I am still faced with people on a daily basis who doubt me and the profession I chose. Unfortunately, people cannot be changed and that is just a fact of life. However, if you know someone who is involved in network marketing/direct sales, instead of putting them down try listening to what they have to say for a minute. Direct sales may not be for everyone, and that's perfectly fine, but anyone can do this and maybe you're a rockstar in the making and you just haven't found out yet.