Dornan, Jim & Nancy

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Jim & Nancy Dornan
GC JimNancy.jpg
Pin: Founders Crown Ambassador 55 FAA (2010)
Markets: United States, South Africa, India, Turkey, Australia, Philippines, Sweden, China, Switzerland
LOA:

Network TwentyOne

LOS Upline: DeYoung, John & Jan
Website: http://www.n21corp.com
Notes:Founders of Network TwentyOne

Story

Vocation

Engineer

Location

  • California
  • Atlanta, Georgia

The Dornan's impressive growth from Ruby to Crown

The Dornans joined Amway in 1970. They went Direct within the first year and Jim retired from his job at age 24/25. By 1976 the Dornan's were Ruby Directs with two Profit Sharing Direct legs when they started building their business seriously. One of the main reasons was the birth of their severely disabled son, Eric in 1974.

They achieved Pearl and Emerald in 1977; their third leg went from 1000PV to 7500PV in 6 weeks and remained qualified to push the Dornans to Emerald. Leg three went double diamond 4 years later.

They achieved Diamond and Double Diamond in 1978.

During Feb 1978 the Dornan's had 5 legs over. Two other legs went over and pushed them into Diamond qualification with 7 legs. These 2 legs were at 600PV in Feb 1978; by April (two months later) both legs went over 7500PV with over 50 distributorship in each. By their 6th month each leg had over 300 distributorships. The Dornan's broke 5 other silver legs and above to qualify Double Diamond that year. Their 12th qualifying leg was Diamonds Mike & Karla Wilson. Mike was a Professional Tennis Instructor and approached Jim Dornan at a restaurant. Mike was looking to get sponsored into Amway after his "potential" sponsor quit. Mike went 14 wide with 65+ distributorships in 11 weeks and went Silver with 9500PV. The Wilson's went diamond in 2.5 years.

They went Triple Diamond and Crown Direct in 1979. The Dornan's went from Ruby to Crown in 30 months (2.5 years) by breaking 18 new frontline directs (mostly silver). During that 2.5 years the Dornans went from 4 directs within their group to over 150 directs in their organisation; with 4 diamonds, ~10 emeralds and 25-30 pearls.

In 1997, Jim and Nancy achieved Crown Ambassador [1] and Founders Crown Ambassador with 40 FAA in 2006 with businesses reaching 26 countries.

Both are graduates from Purdue University, Jim with a degree in aeronautical engineering and Nancy in special education. Jim was working as an aeronautical engineer with McDonnell Douglas when they first saw the business.

The Dornan's are the leaders of the Network TwentyOne System, which was founded in 1989. They have large overseas businesses and have qualified Diamond in over a dozen separate countries. Jim Dornan was a member of the IBOAI board of directors in 2006, though not in 2007 [2], and vice-chairman of the [3] in 2006 though not in 2007. Their daughter Heather is a qualified Platinum and youngest son David and his wife, Jules are New Founders Diamond in 2011.

In 2007 Jim Dornan was elected a Board Member of the IBOAI for the period from January 1, 2008, until December 31, 2010.[4]

Jim Dornan passed away on 7th August 2013 after a long and heroic battle with cancer.

Making a difference around the world

IBO Leaders - 40 FAA Credits, Jim & Nancy Dornan

It was just past dawn, and Jim and Nancy Dornan were already finding it hard to breathe. The South African sun was beating down on the village huts, and another 110-degree day was getting started.

All around the couple were hundreds of children. Aid workers had arrived to offer what assistance they could, but acknowledged their resources were limited.

“Our hearts sank when we saw these children, but almost immediately Jim and I decided that they wouldn’t be abandoned,” Nancy recalls. “That was not going to happen.”

As soon as they returned to the States, they related their experiences and recommitted themselves to supporting a charity – initiated by their downline in Australia and the U.S. – that cared for these children. And to date, more than 50,000 children in Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe are now being fed, housed, and educated, the sole result of the generosity of the Dornans and their downline.

Jim and Nancy would probably have preferred that we downplay this and their other philanthropic acts. They can command the attention of 20,000 people at educational seminars, but are uncomfortable when attention shifts to their charity work – like building schools for orphans or homes for abused children.

“We’re not doing it for credit,” Jim says. Adds Nancy, “We do these things because they need to be done. We’re just trying to make a difference.”

“A culture of significance” Despite their achievements in the business – they’re Founders Crown Ambassadors who’ve achieved 40 Founders Achievement Award (FAA) credits – they’re nevertheless humble and unassuming. Nancy’s dry wit and stunning beauty charm her guests. Jim is self-assured and insightful, at times both talkative and reflective. Both are restless, and had to be cajoled to share a couch in the living room of their suburban Georgia home and share their business philosophy.

Eric and Abbie If you called them successful, they’d beg to differ. They talk about “a culture of significance, not success.”

“If it’s just about success, your well will soon run dry,” explains Jim. “People get obsessed with success. They sacrifice too much, ignore their kids, their spouse, the things that are truly important to them. One hundred percent of the time that doesn’t work.”

Nancy completes Jim’s thought: “It’s not about acquiring things, or making money. It’s about making a difference.”

Sharing the Quixtar opportunity with others, they say, is one way. After building a large organization in North America, they looked across the oceans. They now have offices in 26 countries.

“It’s very stimulating to grow an international business,” says Jim. “I love the adventure of building it again. It’s rejuvenating for Nancy and me to go to places like Hungary, Indonesia, India, or Russia. We’re experiencing the thrill of building friendships and having a business that really connects with people.”

Whether it’s overseas or here, building a profitable business rests on the same principles. Nancy says you have to first define your reason for wanting an independent business, be willing to work hard, and be “teachable.”

Heather and Ashley-Kate They say that one of the big drawbacks of the business is that “it seems obvious.” The Dornans explain that new Independent Business Owners (IBOs) can’t believe that the (Quixtar IBO Compensation) Plan could be so simple, but not obvious. “It’s really about changing personally and learning how to lead and work with many different kinds of people,” Jim explains. “Most are used to figuring things out for themselves, and resist leadership.”

“You have to be a student of your upline,” Nancy explains. “Do what works, not what you think works.”

Jim adds, “We’re not guessing about building this business. We know how to teach it.”

They’ve observed that people are destined to fail when they get discouraged. “Financial challenges, sickness, or other problems are not reasons to quit, but reasons to continue,” Jim says.

A commitment to build And they should know. When they first started in the business, says Nancy, “we were miserably ineffective. We never thought of ourselves as businesspeople.”

They got into the business like many others. Jim, an aeronautical engineer, had gone to work for an aerospace manufacturer in California, and Nancy was employed by a school district as a speech therapist.

David and Jules Nancy soon quit to stay home with new-born Heather, but Jim grinded it out in his Los Angeles office. He was not happy. And Nancy couldn’t imagine going back to her old job.

“We saw that the people we were working for were in a rut, and we couldn’t imagine that future,” explains Jim. “We didn’t want to continue paying the price for a life we didn’t want.”

Adds Nancy: “It was obvious to me when I was only 22 that if we fast-forwarded the tape of our lives, we wouldn’t be heading in the direction we wanted to be.”

They were ready for a change. So when Nancy got a call from a fellow teacher to show them the Plan, she replied, “Can you come over tonight?”

But they weren’t totally committed for about two years, when Jim quit his job to focus on the business. “People assume we got lucky, or we started early,” he explains. “But there was no road map. It took us a long time to build it.”

When Jim left his job, Nancy was pregnant with her second child. “We were super broke,” she recalls. They didn’t have insurance, so they were putting aside cash to pay for Nancy’s impending hospital stay.

Baby Eric was born with spina bifida. In his first nine months, he had 11 surgeries and suffered three separate bouts of meningitis. Strangely enough, Eric’s challenges clarified a number of issues the couple faced.

First, they concluded that failure was not an option. And they made a firm commitment to build their business to help get out of debt. “It wasn’t a matter of could we. It was a matter of would we,” Jim says. Less than nine years after seeing the Plan, the Dornans became Crowns.

Next, they decided that, according to Nancy, “our children would be our focus, and not the children’s problems.” After the birth of their last child, David, they chose to dwell on their children’s potential, shed the notion of “victims,” and to cherish every moment.

“We wanted to love our lives,” says Nancy, “and we wanted our children to love their lives.”

As the children grew, so did the business. And Jim and Nancy could afford the special care that Eric needed. Eric now leads an active and satisfying life, and he and his wife, Abbie, live in their own house near his parents.

Offering hope and a dream Eric’s passion, in fact, is power soccer. In this fast-paced sport, quadriplegics use specially equipped motorized wheelchairs – or power chairs – to “kick” an oversized soccer ball. When Eric discovered the sport in California several years ago, there were only five power soccer teams in the U.S. and Canada. Eric was determined to create more teams and give other wheelchair users the thrill he was experiencing at being physically active and competitive.

He began an odyssey that took him around the country, bringing attention to the sport and helping to start teams. Funded by Jim and Nancy’s Fernando Foundation , Eric and friends David Ruelas and Jerry Frick traveled thousands of miles to recruit players. The Foundation has funded more than 40 new U.S. and Canadian teams. But Eric’s dreams didn’t stop there. He and others are pushing to make power soccer an event in the 2012 Paralympics, and he’s traveled overseas to work with teams in other countries to forge an agreement on international rules.

Jim and Nancy have been instrumental in funding this sport. They started the Power Soccer USA league and sponsor the annual World Invitation Power Soccer Tournament. “A sport like this,” says Jim, “gives people in power chairs hope and a dream.” (See a related story on the One By One blog in Quixtar’s Opportunity Zone)

Carrying the torch Despite their global sojourns, the Dornans seem to be happiest at home, near their children: Eric and Abbie; son David and his wife, Jules, who have a thriving Quixtar business; and daughter Heather and her daughter, Ashley-Kate. And while they could slow down, they believe they have a responsibility to the business.

“We see us not as Crown Ambassadors, but as ambassadors to the business,” Jim says. “We want to carry the torch of the free enterprise system.

“We teach people to operate their businesses with integrity, honesty, and balance, and to use their businesses to help and build people,” Nancy adds.

Despite all they’ve accomplished, Jim and Nancy downplay their role. Says Nancy, “We don’t assume that we are solely responsible for our achievements. It’s only because God has seen fit to use us this way. And because of that, we’ve had the opportunity to make a difference.”

And make a difference they have.

Philanthropy

Here are just some of the philanthropic activities started or funded by Jim and Nancy.

  • A village in Uganda was ravaged by AIDS, which killed nearly all the adults and left more than 6,000 children parent-less. The monthly sponsorship by Jim and Nancy and their organization fed, clothed, housed, and educated those orphans.
  • Olive Crest is a charity offering care, counseling, and educational services for abused children in California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. When Olive Crest was in its infancy, Jim and Nancy bought a house for the organization so abused youngsters ages 2 to 5 could receive proper care in a residential environment. The group now operates numerous homes in the Southern California area.
  • When the couple lived in the Los Angeles area, they started donating toys and clothes to families in poverty-stricken neighborhoods. They knew of others in their organization who thought their own small donations couldn’t make a difference. So Jim and Nancy created the Share The Blessings program to collect all those individual donations and coordinate the distribution of the gifts. The Dornans downplay their role, and Jim says only, “We were just the catalyst.”
  • Jim and Nancy and their organization have been recognized as the largest corporate network of child sponsors to World Vision, an international children’s charity. According to World Vision, IBOs from the group have donated more than $20 million over the past two decades, aiding more than 50,000 children.
  • In honor of Eric’s long-time caregiver, Fernando Ruelas, who died six years ago, the Dornans created the Fernando Foundation, which supports numerous outreach programs for children. The foundation is the primary sponsor of Power Soccer USA.
  • The Foundation spawned a second charity, the international Ambassador Fund. The fund paid for the construction of Ambassador High School in Karuna, India, which opened in May 2006. Its pupils include 200 orphans or street children who live in housing subsidized by the Dornans’ organization. Nominal tuition fees from the other 500 students help sustain the school’s financial needs.

Publications

Jim Dornan has published a number of books, including Becoming a Person of Influence: How to Positively Impact the Lives of Others co-authored with reknowned leadership expert, John Maxwell.

Inception

1970

Qualifications

United States

South Africa

India

Turkey

Australia

Philippines

Sweden

China

Switzerland

  • 9% November 2011

Downline

Businesses Purchased

Nuyten, John & Gill

Nuyten, John & Gill, Executive Diamond 1987, Australia, Network TwentyOne sold their business to Dornan, Jim & Nancy & Harris, Basil & Leonie

Stonelake, Robert & Lois

Stonelake, Robert & Lois, Diamond 1987, United States, Network TwentyOne sold their business to a group including Dornan, Jim & Nancy

LOA

Media

Jim & Nancy Dornan 50 FAA Points Recognition


References

  1. North American Amagram, May 1997
  2. IBOAI Board
  3. Multicultural/International Committee
  4. Quixtar - New IBOAI Board and Officers Announced