Thursday, August 20, 2009

Amway - Amway Creates Millionaires - Another IBO Myth?

I keep hearing from some IBOs that they belive that Amway has created more millionaires than any other company in the US. I call BS on that claim. I am not saying that Amway hasn't created any millionaires, obviously, the Amway owners are worth billions of dollars. But what the IBOs are apparently implying is that the diamonds are millionaires. I'm sure there are some diamonds who indeed are millionires, especially if they are tenured diamonds, in particular the double diamonds and higher. But conversely, I believe that many high level diamonds are not millionaires. I believe it is just as common for a diamond to be in debt as it is for a diamond to be living large. I also believe that many diamonds did not accumulate their alleged wealth exclusively from Amway.

The reason why this is an issue is because these big pins will stand on stage and show off excessive wealth and imply that it is their Amway income that pays for these mansions, sports cars, and in some cases, jets. In the US, I attended a function called "Dream Nite" where these kinds of trapping are displayed, to the tune of the song "I wanna be rich". The diamonds would say that you can have what they have, if only you will do what they advise. These functions still go on today and I believe it is now called Winter Conference.

Stanley and Danko's book, "The Millionaire Next Door"
http://www.personalfinanceplaybook.com/2009/08/the-millionaire-next-door/

This book makes some very interesting points which I believe applies to Amway diamonds. I will outline the significant ones and I will comment below:

**Predictably, the data shows that most people who you believe to be very rich are not.

**High net worth individuals, statistically, tend to be people that live within their means. They don’t spend a lot of money. They don’t waste money. They tend to be pretty frugal people.

**The authors point out that most of the richest people you know aren’t driving expensive luxury automobiles. That’s what the people who want everyone to think they’re rich drive.

Joe's commentary. The book does say that about 1/3 of millionaires acquired their wealth thru a J-O-B and saved and invested, but did mention that many millionaires were also business owners, such as a pest control company, etc. But based on the points made by the book above, I can see where it is likely that diamonds portray a wealthy lifestyle as a recruitment tactic, when the reality is they may be living very middle class lifestyles off stage, or may even be in debt. I have seen evidence of diamonds having their homes foreclosed and being in debt (Ruth Carter's book: Amway: Behind the Smoke and Mirrors). Recently, there was also a report that Triple Diamond Greg Duncan filed for bankruptcy. The report indicated that he could not make his mortgages, or something to that tune. Odd, because when I was in WWDB, some of the upline leaders said diamonds paid cash for everything because paying interest to the bank wasn't very smart.

My question is why IBOs continue to make up these claims? Try googling millionaire or Amway millionaire. There is nothing to indicate that Amway was responsible for creating the "most millionaires" of any US company. If this were true, wouldn't Amway state it on their website? If someone finds any veracity about this claim, inform me and I will post it.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This isn't about Amway, this is all about IBOs you are talking about. I like your post, you right about that. I see most of the Amway millionaire is high education, and the diamonds IBOs some come from nowhere. The diamonds IBOs most likely to show up " I'm rich, I'm own my business..." and most of them are temporary "rich". But there is someone I know isn't like that, you never know they are millionaire if you don't read there story. So what I am trying to say is millionaire isn't for everyone, isn't for some dreamer, isn't for you too, it's for someone dare to think big not just dream big, it's for someone dare to do big not just talk big.
I think those IBOs just want to recruit new IBOs by put in millionaire in their head like my upline did to me, never mind, for me millionaire is my health and my happiness and the happiness of the person I love, my kids are my millionaire.

Anonymous said...

smart! =)

Anonymous said...

You are right being a millionaire is not only the money, feeling a millionare could be having health and having happiness, but Amway envolves all, Amway can not only give you the possability of being millionare but also in making you grow as a person,teaches you values, commitment and inspires you to dream big.

Anonymous said...

LIES!