My Work with Apollo Astronaut Edgar Mitchell

The late, great Dr. Edgar Mitchell, sixth man to walk on the moon. During the 1990s, I had the honor of working with Dr. Mitchell on a number of writing projects.

THE RECENT death of Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell deprived us of one of our most cherished heroes.

As lunar module pilot for Apollo 14, Dr. Mitchell was the sixth man to walk on the moon. As a scientist, philosopher and mystic, he pushed humanity to reconsider our role in the cosmos, and to rethink our assumptions about reality and consciousness.

During the 1990s, I had the honor of working with Dr. Mitchell on a number of writing projects.

Among other things, I interviewed Dr. Mitchell for SUCCESS magazine, and featured him in my book WAVE 3. I also helped him write a proposal for his own book The Way of the Explorer (G.P. Putnam & Sons, 1996).

As fate would have it, I did not end up co-writing the actual book The Way of the Explorer with Dr. Mitchell. That honor went to another eminently worthy scribe, Dwight Williams.

However, writing the book proposal with Dr. Mitchell was an adventure in itself, giving me the unique opportunity to conduct hours of in-depth interviews with one of the most brilliant and eminent men of our age.

In my book WAVE 3: The New Era in Network Marketing, I focused on a little-known aspect of Dr. Mitchell’s life — his involvement with the network marketing industry, a field in which he was a noteworthy pioneer. Below is an excerpt from WAVE 3, featuring the late, great Dr. Edgar Mitchell. —RICHARD POE
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Excerpted from WAVE 3: The New Era in Network Marketing by Richard Poe.

THE EVOLUTION OF WAVE THREE

“Network marketing is a far more mature industry today than it was when I was actively involved,” says Dr. Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 lunar module pilot and the sixth man to walk on the moon.

Although no longer an active distributor, Mitchell remains a passionate advocate of network marketing. The former astronaut has worked two different MLM businesses since 1987 and still consults network marketing companies on motivational issues. To this day, Mitchell continues drawing residual income from one of his downlines.

“I’ve been a pioneer and explorer all my life,” says Mitchell, “in my military career, as an astronaut, and in the network-marketing industry. I get into things during the tough, pioneering stage, when you’re still trying to find out what the rules are and make them work.”

Network marketing is only now emerging from what Mitchell calls its “tough, pioneering” days. Since the industry began over 60 years ago, it has evolved through three distinct phases. The first ended in 1979, when the Federal Trade Commission ruled that Amway was a legitimate business—not a pyramid scam. That ended “Wave One”—the long gray-market or “underground” phase of network marketing.

Then came Wave Two. New technology sparked an explosion of network marketing startups in the 1980s. Thousands of new companies sprang into business overnight. Millions of Americans entered the MLM sales force.

But the technology was immature. Like those VCRs that require an Einstein to program them, Wave-Two network marketing proved too difficult and complicated for most people. As with the early VCRs, the technology just wasn’t ready for the market.

“I developed a voice mail system specifically tailored for network-marketing companies,” Mitchell remembers.

“But in those early days, only the leaders recognized the value of my system. The public coming on board for the first time was really not familiar with voice mail and did not know how to use it effectively.”

Excerpted from WAVE 3: The New Era in Network Marketing by Richard Poe.


See also:
How Astronaut Edgar Mitchell Nearly Crashed on the Moon, February 22, 2016