Amway - Why IBOs Have To Defend Amway?

Lately, I have been getting a bunch of silly comments from an anonymous commenter from Canada. He implies or makes subtle threats to stop me from blogging, as if that will happen. It sort of made me wonder why so many IBOs, most of whom are losing money, defend Amway so fiercely. It made me realize that for many of these IBOs, they have no choice but to defend Amway. Let me explain.

Many IBOs and prospects, are not where they want to be financially in life. It is why they get lured into Amway, as they truly believe that Amway will make them rich. Sure, upline will toss in the disclaimer that Amway won't make you rich "quick", but certainly they must give enough of an impression that you will get rich somehow. Then the bait and switch occurs.

Once an IBO signs up and decides that he or she wants to give an effort towards making the opportunity work, upline will then speak about the system. How the system is the key to success. That nobody "makes it" without the system. Or that the system is optional but so is success. The system becomes a defacto requirement for many IBOs. Some IBOs do not realize that some uplines make most of their income from the system tools such as websites, voicemail, standing order cds, and functions.

Uplines will also teach that you only fail if you quit. Or you are now a winner for joining Anway and all others are losers. You will eventually succeed if you never quit. Upline may recommend that you listen to or watch inspiring stories of people who never quit. It raises subtle pressure on IBOs to keep going. To walk away would practically doom you to failure in life. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth.

At this point, an IBO has to defend Amway to justify his decision. To quit would place you in the category of "loser" or "failure". An IBO starts to wonder how he or she will accomplish the dreams and goals without the elusive Amway residual income. So now you have IBOs who will fiercely defend Amway because the alternative is to admit that it was a mistake to join Amway. It may mean quitting and cutting losses. The longer an IBO stays in, the harder it can be to quit. My former sponsor has been fully active for 18 years now and he has never gone beyond platinum. I believe his ego will never let him quit at this point.

For me, quitting was just a wise decision, business wise. I was at 4000 PV (with eagle parameters) and I did not earn what upline said I would earn. I also had my upline continuously adding pressure on me to give him control of my life, such as asking permission to buy things, get married, etc. It was becoming very cult - like and I thought it was getting bizarre. I quit and never regretted it.

But many IBOs and Amway zealots defend Amway. Why? Because they have to.