Mark Hughes, founder and president of Herbalife: a success story

The company "Herbalife" is known practically to every inhabitant of the planet. Its products - products for weight loss, weight control and appearance care, presented in a huge range, - has won all the corners of the world, most attracted to the inhabitants of America and Russia. Created such a powerful empire in 1980 Mark Hughes.

"Herbalife": biography of a billionaire

Why did Hughes choose this direction of activity, which became the business of all life?

The legend that every employee of the company knows, says that a powerful impetus was a personal tragedy, namely the death of the mother. All conscious life, this young woman tried to lose weight, exhausted herself with diets and drank a lot of pills for weight loss. Their overdose led to insomnia and, as a consequence, dependence on hypnotics. Once Mark's mom just did not wake up from the excessively drunk pills. At that time she was only 36 years old. Mark Hughes, whose birth date was January 1, 1956, was at that time quite an adult and independent 18-year-old boy who understood how global the problem of overweight is for all mankind.

Since the death of his mother before the creation of the company that made him a billionaire, six years have passed. During these years, Mark managed to prove himself in two firms that produced dietary products for weight loss and health promotion; Also for some period of time he worked in the center, rehabilitated drug addicts, where he gained a certain psychological experience. The received knowledge and skills gave Mark the confidence in the correctness of the choice made.

His dream is to create his own product, which could make millions happy. The ability to reduce weight without debilitating diets and suffering in combination with health benefits is what Mark was aiming for. And he charged his desire of others.

How it all began

Fatal was his meeting with the producer and creator of food - Richard Marconi, well-off and, like Mark, passionate about the problems of proper nutrition. Perhaps he helped financially at first Hughes. On the effectiveness of the "herb of life", which received the untwisted name "Herbalife", there are many different versions. Some people who have experienced the effect of it, consider this product completely useless. The same version is confirmed by the International Confederation of Consumer Societies, whose research claims that the drug contains narcotic substances that are dangerous to the body and cause the strongest dependence.

The first sale of the founder of "Herbalife" Mark Hughes produced from a truck right on the street. But this was not what the young entrepreneur was striving for. It needed advertising, advertising and once again advertising, backed by enthusiastic feedback. The first miracle drug was tested by Mark's grandmother. She received the expected effect and began to recommend this product to friends and acquaintances.

Multilevel marketing is the main concept of the company's development

Gradually, the popularity of products reached its peak. Far-sighted and enterprising Hughes, realizing that people began to pay huge attention to their own health, applied to his company the concept of networked multi-level marketing - a method known back in the 70's, but widely promoted by Hughes.

The essence of network marketing was the selection of a certain group of enthusiasts - the future core of the company. These people were given some knowledge about the proposed product and the intricacies of doing business. It was from the work of the elect that the success of Herbalife depended.

A competent distributor is an important factor of successful business

The concept of network marketing is interesting and simple: the company selects the core of enthusiastic people and teaches them the features of the product and the subtleties of doing business. After this, the untwisting project entirely depends on how people recruit new employees. To each of them the company provides an opportunity to build its own network by bringing to the case of several distributors of the next level and so on. All this resembles a pyramid, but it is fundamentally different from it, because the income is generated from the sale of a real product. The introduction of goods through the multilevel marketing, in comparison with the cost of advertising, is worth a pittance; This, as well as the factor of lack of money, was the decisive factor in choosing a method of doing business, the genius of which was Mark Hughes.

Herbalife was a company, the main factor of its prosperity is the distributor. Stimulation of labor has been and remains the main driving force of business. Sometimes it was possible to state a real merger of the interests of the company and the employee.

"Herbalife" is walking on the planet

Mark Hughes has developed an effective system of helping beginners experienced employees. For this purpose, various schools, seminars, annual summits were organized, which was conducted by the president himself and the founders. An ingenious billionaire was clearly striving to make his business "popular". Russia in 1996-1999 in terms of sales of Herbalife products took second place after the United States. And Mark Hughes himself was a perfect distributor. For the first six months, he personally signed into business 189 people. By the way, Hughes' two younger brothers - Guy and Kirk Hartman - successfully worked in his company.

First, Mark Hughes, whose biography looks like a beautiful fairy tale with a sad end, did everything himself: led the accounts department, demonstrated the product, held meetings and presentations for distributors.

Rumors of him spread lightning fast. Every day and every new presentation infected more people with the idea of this business. The company expanded, in 1982 it reached the world level. Herbalife was known all over the world: its offices expanded, and representations were organized in the most remote corners of the planet.

Time of ups and downs

The crisis happened in 1985: sales fell sharply, distributors started to leave the company, some consumers turned to the court with lawsuits. The first publications about the company's fraudulent activity and the harm of the product appeared in newspapers and magazines. It came to Mark Hughes' call for a hearing in the Senate Commission. However, numerous scandals, courts and the absolute ban of this product in Sweden did not prevent in 1996 the company's shares reach a mark of 1 billion dollars.

It is interesting that the future billionaire had only a school education; Medicine and biology he did not study, he worked only on rabid enthusiasm and the desire to create a new product to help people. Much later, experienced dieticians began to work in his team, among them was the famous Nobel laureate David Heber.

"Herbalife" is in demand and popular

The concept of "Herbalife" received the disposition of people in at least 80 countries; Net profit in 2012 amounted to 4.1 billion US dollars. Criticism in the direction of the company, which helps to lose weight easily, was simply rabid. She was accused at the time of selling toxic products, put forward many lawsuits. However, despite everything, "Herbalife" continued to work, litigation was often decided in his favor. Indeed, the product offered by the company did not bring harm, and the organization with varying success remained and remains today in the market. Herbalife products are certified in accordance with the legislation. They are not sold in pharmacies, because the company defines itself as a direct sales company.

And what about Mark Hughes? All this time he worked actively not only in business, but also engaged in charity, and in 1994, together with his wife, Susan formed the Herbalife Family Foundation, which helped children.

Personal life of Hughes

Married was 4 times. In the distant 1980s, his wife Kathryn helped him register Herbalife. Divorcing her, Hughes, already a wealthy successful man, made Angela Mack, who wore the title of "Miss Sweden". He planned to live together in a mansion bought for $ 7 million. In 1999, Hughes buys a new house with an area of 1000 square meters. M in Beverly Hills. As the state grows, the appetites and sizes of the apartments purchased grow. After "Miss Sweden" was "Miss Thumbelina USA" - Susan. In 2000, a new marriage - on Darcy La Pierre, the former wife of Jean Claude Van Damme.

Hughes's life ended early: at 44 years old. After the celebration of the company's anniversary , he stopped breathing in his sleep. It was assumed that the reason for this were strong antidepressants against insomnia and a large amount of alcohol. On the day when it became known about the death of Hughes, the company's shares fell by 12%.

Mark Hughes was the real guru of his business. Being at the helm of the company for about 20 years, he managed not only to fully ensure his life, but also to enrich a large number of people who gave themselves to work in the Herbalife. And, despite the rather frequent criticism of both the firm and the product it produces, the company lives, works and has a lot of admirers.