Speech of Jeffrey Babener
August 4, 2001
St. Petersburg, Russia

Good Afternoon.

Dobra Dien.

I would first like to thank Mr. Li and Tianshi for their gracious invitation to participate in this important meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia. I would also like to thank the hosts of Russia for their warm hospitality.

Bolshoi Spaciba.

In addition, I would like to thank the Tianshi distributors who are attending this meeting from many countries around the world.

I am a lawyer from the United States, and our company has served as advisor to some of the world’s largest network marketing companies, such as Avon of the United States and Nikken of Japan. For the past 20 years, we have helped to guide the growth of many international network marketing companies. We have advised almost all of the major network marketing companies from Asia - Japan, China, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and others, as they sought to establish their operations in the United States and North America.

It is my honor to return to Russia for my third visit. Tianshi has a world vision, and I have been proud to participate at important Tianshi meetings in the United States, Canada, China, Thailand and, now, Russia.

I am proud to be here with my colleague, Michael Sheffield, a close friend of Tianshi. Approximately 15 years ago, Michael Sheffield and I helped found the Multi-Level Marketing International Association, an international association for network marketing. We have both served on the Board of Directors, where Michael has been Chairman and where I have served as International Legal Counsel. We have worked on many projects in the network marketing industry over the years, but we regard as one of our most important relationships the close friendship we have with Mr. Li and Tianshi.

Thus, it was our honor 2 years ago when we were contacted by Tianshi and Mr. Li, and asked to help establish their business in the United States and to assist in worldwide operations. Based on their tremendous success in China and other countries, Mr. Li decided that it was time to enter one of the most important markets in the world, the United States. He had great vision to build a worldwide business and he was very correct to view the United States as a great opportunity for Tianshi and its worldwide distributors.

In the United States, network marketing is a major industry. More than 10 million people are involved in a network marketing business, and U.S. sales are more than $20 billion. In fact, 1 in 10 homes in America have an individual who is pursuing a network marketing opportunity. This makes America part of a worldwide industry with more than 30 million distributors and sales of more than $80 billion.

Mr. Li had great vision to bring thousands of years of Chinese experience in health to North America and the rest of the world. The opportunity is unlimited.

During the past two years, we have developed a close relationship with both Mr. Li and Tianshi. Mr. Li has used us as an advisor for Tianshi not only in North America, but also for his plans internationally for a worldwide business. In particular, he has worked closely with both my company and the company of Michael Sheffield in developing worldwide planning.

In addition, Mr. Li has extended great hospitality to Michael and myself. Last May, Tianshi hosted both of us in Beijing and Tienshin. We had the opportunity to visit the very modern headquarters of Tianshi and to meet with its management staff. We also were impressed by the evidence of Mr. Li’s very good acts of charity in health, housing and education, as well as helping victims of natural disasters.

In this last year, my family was proud to host Mr. Li at our house in Portland, Oregon. And then, in March, Mr. Li and Tianshi hosted my family on our visit to Beijing. The hospitality was so great that my family is very grateful to Mr. Li and Tianshi, and they will always remember their visit.

 In recent years, there has been an explosion of interest in health products in America and around the world. Specifically, everyone warmly welcomes Mr. Li’s philosophy of balance of health and wealth and family and contribution to community.

In fact, what I most admire about Tianshi is that the goal of Tianshi is to assist people to help each other to live a better and more healthful life. Mr. Li has made it clear that Tianshi is not about one person, it is about all of us.

And we learn from each other’s culture how to help each other.

One of the great Russian writers, Dostoevsky, would like Tianshi and he would also like Mr. Li. He once told a story that reflects the Tianshi philosophy.

Dostoevsky told the story of an old woman who had been mean and wicked all her life. When she died, she did not go to heaven—instead she was sent to hell.

One day an angel asked God to give her one more chance because the old woman had been kind on one occasion in her life. The angel said that once, when she was working in her garden, a poor and hungry man was walking by, and the old woman gave him a spring onion from her garden.

God liked this and said she could have one more chance. God told the angel to reach down from heaven with this same onion and let the woman grab it and pull herself up to heaven.

As the angel lowered the onion, the woman grabbed it and began to pull herself up. All of a sudden, she felt other people holding onto her feet, and they said, "take me with you!!"

But the woman was so selfish, she replied, "get away, this onion is for me only, it is not for you," and she shook the people from her feet.

At that moment, the onion broke, and she fell back into hell.

We can learn from Dostoevsky and we can learn from Tianshi that our success and our triumph is not achieved alone, but from helping each other.

With the vision of Mr. Li and Tianshi, you have a wonderful opportunity to help the world and to help yourself.

If you would like a copy of this speech, your will find it during the month of August at our website, www.mlmlegal.com and you will also find many other interesting articles about network marketing. Again that is www.mlmlegal.com.

On behalf of myself and Michael Sheffield, we congratulate Mr. Li and Tianshi and we wish you great success.

Thank you