Monday, September 21, 2009

Amway - Personal Responsibility?

One of the disturbing things I have noticed about Amway IBOs and IBO leaders is how they wlll tell downline to trust them. To trust them as they have already blazed a trail. No need to re-invent the wheel. Just ride the coattails of your upline to success. The system is proven. Many IBOs take this to heart and put forth tremendous effort. Then when they fail, upline will shun them and tell them that the failure is their own. That they are personally responsible for failure.

Now I am not talking about IBOs who sign up and do nothing, or never place an order. I do believe that the fact that many IBOs sign up and do nothing brings concerns about how these IBOs were recruited, but I di not recall ever seeing an IBO do nothing and then complain that Amway was a scam or anything like that.

I have found, however, that many people who are critical of Amway and the systems, put forth much effort, did everything they were told, and did not find the success that upline promoted, or in some cases, guaranteed. My former sponsor was still active, last I heard and has been in Amway for over 15 years. I do not believe he has ever gone beyond platinum, and I know that he was never a Q12 platinum. Some Amway apologists might see being a platinum as a bonus, but when you are hard core sold out to the systems, platinum is a break even or make a small profit business. Factor in that time spent by husband and wife and these folks are breaking even or making a fraction of minumum wage. Is this the dream that will allow you to buy mansions with a cash payment?

What is also disturbing is how people will tout the system as responsible for any success, but hide the vast majority that the system doesn't help. Sure, some will succeed in Amway, but for every success, there are hundreds if not thousands who fail. And if you consider diamond as the benchmark of success, the failures could be in the millions. As I said, some succeed, but very very few in relation to the number who try. Going diamond is probably less common in the US than winning the lottery.

Succeed and the systems and upline take credit, but fail or quit and it is your own responsibility. Are these the kinds of leaders or mentors you want advice from?
I will pass.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you fail, you are not personally responsible for your failure; some one else is! How can those upline not see?

Whenever you fail, always make sure to find someone or something to put the blame on. Thank you for the great advice.

Joecool said...

Anonymous shows his cluelessness again. Your upline says trust in him. Submit to them. You do exactly as they advise but it's all on you if you fail? Wow, that's a good deal.

Anonymous said...

Suppose you're in the army. The general commands you to do exactly as he orders you to do. You don't think, you do. You don't question, you do. If you don't do, not only do you fail and are responsible for your actions but there are consequences for you to suffer as well. I bet you never were in the army. Your attitude won't get you there either.
That's not to say that your business upline functions as an army general. He advises you to do something but doesn't order or force you to do it. You choose what you want to do. Appartently though, that's something too tough for you to grasp too. But it's always easier to blame someone else for your attitude problem.

Joecool said...

Yes, the general gives an order and the general is held accountable for the soldier's actions. What is your point?

Upline advises people. They say upline should be trusted as they have already invented the wheel, they already blazed the trail, all you need to do is follow.

But even when downline does exactly what they are taught, they are held responsible even if they fail. Where is upline accountability?

Anonymous said...

Really? The general is held 100% accountable for the soldier's actions? Hmmm, interesting!
If the soldier wilfully disobeys the order then according to your thinking, the general is still held accountable for the soldier's action! Wow, interesting!
Again, blame someone else for my choice!
The only time a general is held accountable is when his personal decision is called into question.
Upline has invented the wheel? Maybe you meant "reinvented"! I never heard of an upline inventing the wheel. But what I heard is that they were followers before becoming leaders. You have to be a follower to become a leader. And there's a difference between being told by the upline what to do and actually doing it. You imply that somehow the two are equivalent because the outcome has to be weighed against the upline regardless of your own actions. Again, blaming someone else when the moment is good!

Joecool said...

Anonymous, there you go againn taking things out of context. If the general gives an order and the soldiers follow his orders to the "T' and fail, then the general will be held accountable for the failure.

There are many many stories of IBOs who did everything their upline told them to do and did not succeed. Who should be held accountable?

mrmaximum said...

Even on a smaller scale of something we all see today. You have a head coach on a professional or even college team. If the team keeps producing dismal success, they fire the COACH.

Anonymous said...

out of context? steve your whole blog is out of context. you my friend are completely ignorant to anything but your own veiws. why ====

Anonymous said...

>Anonymous shows his cluelessness again. Your upline says trust in him. Submit to them. You do exactly as they advise but it's all on you if you fail? Wow, that's a good deal.

Thank you again for making me see. As an upline with results and the experience coming from those results I will now tell my downline "don't trust me. Don't do as I say. Don't try to put my experience to work for you, because if you happen to fail, I don't want you to complain. Just go on and learn all by yourself. It's a great way to go. Success is garanteed if you follow that path. I learned that on JoeCool's blog".

Anonymous said...

Joecool, are you seriously this much intelligent?!

Joecool said...

Much more intelligent than some of you anonymous bloggers. LOL

Anonymous said...

Absolutely Joecool, absolutely! You're the pinacle of wisdom :)

mrmaximum said...

"Thank you again for making me see. As an upline with results and the experience coming from those results I will now tell my downline "don't trust me. Don't do as I say. Don't try to put my experience to work for you, because if you happen to fail, I don't want you to complain. Just go on and learn all by yourself. It's a great way to go. Success is garanteed if you follow that path. I learned that on JoeCool's blog"."

And that is great that you are getting results from the business, not all LOS's are the same. However, the issue at hand is that you are the exception, not the rule. Some people do move on, go platinum, emerald and diamond, so it does work for some. It doesn't work for the vast majority and this is all that Joe is saying.