Thursday, April 8, 2010

Amway - IBOs Must Justify Their Failures

Onw of the things I heard as an IBO was how as an average working man, we tend to justify our existence. For example, we will tell others that "I'm doing okay", at least with respect to our finances. We justify our apparent lack of finances that way. So my upline would talk about building the business so that the money is literally pouring in. But based on my observations and some tangible evidence, we know that many diamonds and certainly those below diamond do not have money pouring in. In fact, I suspect many diamonds are in debt, and possibly living month to month. As much of a diamond's income is from annual bonuses, it's possible that a diamond's monthly bonus from Amway is quite small. It is why I have often said that many diamonds are likely living very middle class lifestyles while trying to portray a fabulous jetset lifestyle. It is why I feel that many diamonds are actually broke or near broke.

And if diamonds can get into financial difficulty, then certainly IBOs are also in trouble. Many recruits are in financial difficulty, or do not earn enough income, which is why Amway appeals to them in the first place. It is why Amway appealed to me at the time I was involved. Many are convinced that Amway will make them rich. While uplines may have said Amway is not get rich quick, the prospect must have been fed the line that they will eventually get rich, else why would anyone sign up in the first place?

But in the big picture, IBOs are no different than other people. They also justify themselves. In fact, many are taught to justify themselves. It is why I still see IBOs claiming that Amway saves marriages. One IBO recently made the age old claim that the world has a 60% divorce rate and WWDB IBOs have a 2% divorce rate. Well, I am certain that is not true. I would guess that in many cases, Amway is the very reason some couples get divorced. And actually, this would not be an issue if IBOs and their leaders would not claim it. I believe the divorce rate amongst WWDB diamonds is already higher than what these IBOs are claiming. But upline just covers up scandals and downlines ignore the lies and cover ups.

Another funny one if when IBOs claim they are helping people by building the business. How do you help someone by enrolling them in a business where they are nearly guaranteed to lose money? What do IBOs do that is helpful to others? While IBOs are at functions or prospecting, other people are doing community service projects or feeding the homeless. I challenge an IBO to explain how recruitng others into Amway is helping them. Many IBOs also believe they are nicer people as a result of their involvement with Amway. If true, then it is a nice benefit, exept this is a business and a business exists to make a profit. How many would join if they were only going to accomplish everything but make money?

IBOs, are you succeeding or justifying yourselves?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

JoeCool you are a failure and you justify by blaming and and writing crap on your bathroom wall blog.

James Carlson said...

Hey Joey,
IF you would really like to know, let you and I sit down and discuss it. Where do you live? I'll come over, or you could come here to Liberty Lake, WA....or perhaps we could meet in the middle.
Should I bring testimonies of others, the people themselves, or just my factual stories?
Would you be willing to believe Truth if it were sitting right in front of you?
Are you married? If so, I would propose our wives come with us during our meeting (if you'd be willing to let it happen), for it is FAR easier for a "man" to lie (or even deny truth) eye-to-eye if you come alone, than it is when your woman is at your side.

Joecool said...

I live in Hawaii.

What truth do you speak of? The truth is that most IBOs lose money and they can lose a lot if they buy tools. The truth is that WWDB leaders lied to their downline at one time. about tools profits and teh truth is that they have never been held accountable for that.

Joecool said...

James, I moderate comments to weed out spam and needless comments. The blogger named "Tex" who wants to call you will put up hundreds of repetetive comments if not moderated and will take away from meaningful discussion.

Shaun said...

Joecool,

I can tell you without a doubt after about the first 2 months with retail profit and also transitioning our own shopping to our own store and paying the retail price we were able to cover the expense of running our business. If you want truths I'll give you truths. We run our business with WWDB and our monthly cost is around $120 CDN not including books, other marketing costs like a momentum box or table tents, and functions. I leave those out because we do not buy every week or even ever month and functions are up to the individual however we do stress the importance of them because they build belief (that's a whole different topic). If we do buy a book it's cheaper than going to Chapters or Barnes and Nobles. The $120 covers our premiere membership, digital download and Communikate.

So even if I bump it to $150 we've made that with retail success (which with the awesome products isn't hard to do) and have money set aside. I don't know what other LOS's do or what other Training Systems do but I'm telling you we've been taught to save and make money first and foremost so that business costs are covered at the beginning. Never once has business operating costs come out of my full time job money or my wife's full time job money. Maybe the first few months but we already paid that back.

However this business (in our area here in Alberta), is not built the same way where others have failed and so graciously post blogs about it. I've read the blogs and people's experiences in their area or their LOS and I'm very sorry for them however reading what they do and doing what we do is very different. So with MY own personal experiences we are doing just fine and not losing money.

Joecool said...

Hi Shaun, Amway itself admitted that less than 4% of their goods are sold to non IBOs. That means many IBOs do not sell a single product. That means the diamodns are making their fortunes from the pockets of their downlines.

And it makes sense. Amway products cost more than big retailers and then you factor in the standing orders and functions and it's easy to see where IBOs end up losing money.

Anonymous said...

joe, these guys are so funny it's no wonder you and i forgot to laugh!