Amway - How Honest Is Your Upline?

One of the things my upline told me as an IBO was that we didn't have to "reinvent the wheel". We just need to copy what they have done. We needed to simplt "trust them" as they have our best interests at heart and they would never lead us astray. Furthermore, we should not venture out and do things without checking upline because out downline needed to do what we do, thus anything an IBO does has to be "duplicatable". Looking back I find that ironic as many a diamond would speak about buying a home in cash, as if that was duplicatable.

My upline flat out lied about making money from the sale of motivational tools such as standing orders and functions. In fact they even lied about WWDB and claimed it was a non profit organization. Since then, the upline's lies were exposed, but to this day, uplines are less than honest about the profits they earn from tools. Sure, now that the internet has exposed this side of the Amway business, it cannot be covered up so upline will admit they earn money from the tools but how a rank and file IBO can actually qualify to share in the profits, and how much they can earn still appears to be a mystery. Some Amway advocates will make up obscure reasons why this topic cannot be spoken about, but I believe selling tools without any degree of transparency becomes a huge conflict of interest as some uplines make more money from tools than from Amway, while swearing that Amway is the key to financial success.

Another thing my upline said was that as IBOs, we are helping people and saving the world. I thought that was odd as we were always in meetings and we never did a thing for anyone unless they were interested in becoming an IBO. We were also told that it was important as IBOs to "submit to upline". If you are being taught this, then you have to wonder why you are called an "independent" business owner. Shouldn't final decisions be made by the business owner? This is also why some Amway groups are compared to cults.

Lastly (for now), does your upline diamonds and leaders display wealth? Do you see slide shows of fancys cars, mansions, jets, boats yachts and other fabulous goodies? In my former LOS, WWDB, they still have a function called "Dream Nite" where the diamonds display many of these kinds of trappings and tell the audience that you can have what they have if only you will do what they did. But try asking a diamond to verify his claims by showing you their business tax returns or earnings. You will probably get an answer like "none of your business". Sure, they may show you a copy of a check or something like that, but it shows you nothing about how much they keep out of that check.

So the question is, how honest is your upline?