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THE OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIMESteve Little knew he needed to build a strong residual income to have the lifestyle he wanted. He found only one company where that was possible for him. by Jack Walker

Photography by Ed Lallo

PROFILE_Little.indd 34PROFILE_Little.indd 34 5/29/07 1:22:06 PM5/29/07 1:22:06 PM

VOLUME 2 ISSUE 5 YOUR BUSINESS | 35

SOME PEOPLE ARE BORN ENTRE-PRENEURS. Right out of high school, Steve Little decided college and the corpo-rate world were not for him. So he started to work with a direct selling company and began discovering the keys to wealth. Despite his early successes, however, he was never able to achieve the true fi nancial free-dom he desired.

Off to a Great StartGrowing up, Steve had a great family

and a strong work ethic. “I always admired my dad and his dedication to our family. But I learned as an employee, the system isn’t designed to provide abundance. I thought there might be a better way.” So after high school, Steve sought to put his energy into something that would generate substantial income. At 19, he was introduced to a direct selling company that marketed insurance products. “It hit my hot buttons,” Steve says. “I loved learning how to market those services and, later, teaching that to others while making overrides. When I got that f irst policy renewal, I became even more excited. That was my initial taste of passive, residual income. My goal was to grow that portion of my income so it would cover all my monthly expenses.”

With that goal before him, Steve worked with relentless focus. He was the youngest person in that company to reach many milestones, set-ting sales records along the way. Although he was remarkably successful, his greatest reward with the company wasn’t fi nancial. It was meeting his future wife, Leigh. “I just received my master’s in education and was looking for some-thing fun to do over the summer,” Leigh says with

a laugh. “So I thought I’d sell insurance!” Steve and Leigh tied the knot, forming a lasting partnership that proved to be per-sonally and fi nancially rewarding.

Moving OnAlthough the original company show-

ered Steve with rewards, he never met his goal of building a passive residual income suffi cient to meet his monthly expenses. “I

made a nice income but it was too depen-dent on generating new business,” he says. “Then, when the founder left the company and insurance regulators made everything more diffi cult, I decided it was time to move on.”

Steve stayed in direct selling, but in addition to his work as a distributor, he

frequently served as a consultant to the corporate side of the business. “I never hung out a shingle, but I started getting calls,” he says. “I made over a $1 million consulting and have the 1099s to prove it. I learned this industry inside and out.”

The benefits Steve enjoyed were not only fi nancial, but personal, too. He liked working with Leigh, who helped with var-ious aspects of their businesses. He also

loved the time fl exibility he had for fam-ily activities. “One of our son’s classmates asked him what his dad did for a living,” Leigh says, “because Steve was always able to go on school fi eld trips.”

“We fi rmly believe that it is God, fam-ily and business in that order,” Steve says. “One needs proper balance. But to get

I have an incredibly supportive wife and family and have lots of

time for them.

Steve, Leigh and their two boys enjoy a trip to DisneyWorld, courtesy of TravelPoints.


36 | YOUR BUSINESS VOLUME 2 ISSUE 5

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things started, I believe it’s necessary to be out of balance for a season, then one can enjoy the good things indefi nitely.”

A New VentureDuring his years in consulting, Steve

met Mike Azcue and became his close advisor. So when Mike decided to found WorldVentures, Steve was the first to receive a call. “Mike, Wayne and I locked ourselves in a hotel room over a week-end and hammered out the compensation plan,” he says. “We took some of the best features of several plans I’d seen while I was consulting and put them together.”

Steve was particularly attracted to WorldVentures’ products. “I once saw a newspaper poll that asked people what they’d do if they won the lottery,” he says. “The No. 1 answer? Travel! People love traveling. I’d always wondered why you couldn’t have one Web site with all the best flight deals at the touch of a but-ton. Well, we have that. We’ve brought together proprietary technology, great

relationships with providers and the power of volume. Combine that with the best-in-class training system, and you really can’t beat what we’re doing here.” Steve is also a WorldVentures trainer and helps conduct the company’s popular Leadership Acceleration Workshops.

Steve is a frequent beneficiary of the travel savings as he and Leigh create mem-ories with their children. “Our family went on a trip recently, and we saved almost a thousand dollars off the best price we could fi nd anywhere else,” he says. “I’d use these services even if I wasn’t marketing them. That’s one key to a long-term winner.”

Better Than EverWhen WorldVentures launched, Steve

didn’t rest on his laurels. The work ethic he’d kept since youth kicked in at full throttle. Almost reliving his early

experiences with that first company, Steve invested an around-the-clock “sea-son” to build a strong business. He says, “I told Leigh during those first months not to schedule me for anything except Thanksgiving and Christmas.”

Today, having earned over 1 million dol-lars in 2007 and $140 thousand in April 2008 alone, Steve feels fortunate. “I am blessed by God,” he says. “I also have a team that is unmatched and a joy to work with. The opportunity with WorldVentures is even better than when I started. That’s say-ing a lot since it took me only six months to generate enough passive residual income to pay my monthly bills. Even after many years of record-breaking activity with that fi rst company, I never accomplished that goal. Overall, I spent 26 years look-ing for a way to make that happen. With WorldVentures, it only took a season.” YB

Home Texas

Family Wife: Leigh; sons:

Steven, 18; Austin, 14; daughter: Ashleigh, married to Michael

(with grand-daughter Abby)

WorldVentures Status PAC Chairman,

No. 1 income earner, International

Marketing Director, WorldVentures Trainer

Vital Business TipKnow what you want, attack it with passion,

and never quit.

My goal was to grow my passive residual income so it covered all my

monthly expenses.

“I have an incredibly supportive wife and family with lots of time for them,” Steve says.


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