Amway - Why Joecool Started Blogging

Recently, I've gotten comments about why I blog and what may have happened while I was an IBO. I was an IBO back in the later 1990's. I achieved the 4000 level and I believe I could have gone platinum had I continued in the business. What I found was that the business did not deliver on what my uplines had assured me of. When my uplines started becoming controling and wanting to dictate how I lived my life, I started to question them. That and the fact that I wasn't making any money at 4000 PV, I decided it was a wise business decision to quit.

After I quit Amway, my life went back to a normal pace. I reconnected with the friends that I had shunned while building my business. Fortunately, they accepted mt back into the "gang" and life went on. I joined a bowling league, attended BBQ's and pretty muc forgot about Amway. But later, I came across a Newsweek or some other business magazine (sorry, no link) and it had an article about the Amway tools business. It outlined how the uplines made a lot of money from the functions and standing orders. I had always suspected as much but I never could confirm it. You see, my upline diamonds stood on stage and swore that they didn't make a penny from the tools and functions. Even though a minor bit of anger passed over, I also forgot about this.

Then one day, I came across "Quixtar Blog Forum" where I learned a great deal about the tools and other problems with Amway. I created my Joecool nickname and became a regular commenter on the forum. I learned a great deal about Amway and how the systems worked. I also was able to learn some of the more inner dealings of the systems and the diamonds. Some former platinums and I had some interesting dialog where I also learned that you are lucky indeed if you make any money, even at the platinum level. You see, a hard core IBO dedicated to the system and to upline's advice can indeed suffer losses at that level.

I started my blog as a means to get information out to prospects so they can avoid the pitfalls I encountered, or to at least join with full disclosure of what they are getting into. Since then I have engaged in many debates with Amway defenders and when given respect, I reciprocate. I believe that the facts are quite clear. That success in Amway (making a nice income) happens so infrequently, that most people are better off not doing anything rather than Amway. Add in the expenses for Amway tools (voicemail, standing orders, functions) and it's possible for IBOs to lose a lot of money in a few years time.

That being said, Amway has "some" decent products, but I believe most are not priced competitively and the compensation plan is not fair to those who actually do the work. Thus the result is the "masses lose their asses". I blog to help prevent this from happening.