I think i found proof that Kūkai (aka Kōbō Daishi) was a secret Network Marketer. Really. That's apparently why he had to leave the capital and return to Shikoku — not because he wanted the seclusion to study, but because he was kicked out of school for conduct unbecoming of an up-and-coming bureaucrat.
Look at these quotes that are regularly thrown around in various modern network marketing eBooks:
"If a man has talent and cannot use it, he has failed. If he has a talent and only used half of it, he has partly failed. If he has a talent and learns somehow to use the whole of it, he has gloriously succeeded and has a satisfaction and a triumph few men ever know."
Thomas Wolfe
"People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things."
Norman Vincent Peale
"Success is neither magical or mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals."
Jim Rohn
"You can have everything in life you want, if you help enough other people get what they want."
Zig Ziglar
"Purposefully leaving a legacy for others breaks the downward pull of selfishness that can be inherent in us. When we strive to leave a legacy, we are acting with a selflessness that can only be good for us. ... We are talking about legacies that make life better for those who come after us, not about our own fame or recognition, but about helping others."
Jim Rohn
"What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals."
Zig Ziglar
Look at it, it seems obvious. Kūkai had an obvious talent. Several, in fact. He was smart, well educated, incredibly curious about life and the human condition, and driven, very, very driven. All marvelous talents for someone who will decide to take on the ills of all mankind. But, he only used part of that talent. He followed, like a lemming, what he was told and what was expected of him. He went to the capital, studied with his maternal uncle, and finally entered the university in order to secure a safe and well respected bureaucratic position in the government. But that only required a portion of his talent, so he was only partially successful.
Then, for whatever reason, it became clear to him that he could achieve much, much more if only he dared to defy his family, friends, and peers and leave the university. If he dared to give up everything and return to a simple, hand-to-mouth life in the mountains and valleys of Shikoku. If he had the courage to give up everything in order to gain even more. And once he knew he could, and he did, he became the remarkable person we all know.
Here is where many people fail, though. They buy into the program, send off their $50 or $100 for the introductory starter kit and instruction manuals, and then sit back and wait for everyone else to make them successful. They assume that success will appear as if by magic, that somehow this mysterious thing that has eluded them all their life called "success" will suddenly appear now that they have sent off their money.
But Kūkai knew this wasn't the way it worked because he had been reading all the network marketing literature. He knew that his success, when it came (not if it came) would be the result of hard, persistent, and dedicated work. It would come as a result of not what he got from others, but as a result of the time and work he was willing to put in himself. By the consistent application of his talent to the fundamentals. So he sat, and he meditated, and he reflected, and he introspected, and he persisted, and he pushed himself, and he never gave up. He worked on these fundamentals day in, day out, week in, week out, year in, and year out. Every minute of every hour of every day. Non-stop.
And in the back of his head he was also clear on one other fact. He wasn't doing this for himself. When success came, it wasn't success just for him, but for all of humanity. When enlightenment came, he didn't jump up and say "I did it!!," he jumped up and dedicated his life to improving the lives of all men and women, of all sentient beings. He threw his life away, and became Kūkai, the savior. A man who's sole reason for existence was to help others.
Kūkai left a legacy that will last forever, and was living proof that what you get from success is nothing when compared to what you become in attaining it.
You may think this proof is a bit circumstantial, at best, but i think it's just too obviously pointing directly at Kūkai's life to be a coincidence. I don't think this leaves any doubt that he studied network marketing — and was very successful at it.
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