Thursday, September 1, 2011

Amway Makes Me Nicer?

When I was an IBO, I remember at many meetings, the speaker would talk about how IBOs are helping people by getting them in the business or at least showing them the plan. Looking back, I fail to see how inviting someone into a business where they are virtually assured of losing money (in the systems) is helping them. This is also how some IBOs think that they are suddenly "better" people because they think they are helping people by being an IBO. My upline used to talk about how IBOs were helping people. Yet when community projects were going on, we were in meetings and functions.

On average, Amway products cost more than big retailers so a prospect is not necessarily helped by purchasing Amway products. For IBOs purchasing Amway products, they are taking away from their local economy by purchasing Amway goods, although I guess you could argue that the IBO is helping Amway to succeed. But they certainlt aren't helping anyone.

IBOs who are actively building a business usually have many meetings to attend, and hard core IBOs are taught not to miss any meetings. Therefore and IBOO has less time to spend with his or her family. The IBO has less time to spend at church, and less time to help with any community projects. The IBO will probably miss someone's wedding or birthday celebration because of the hectic schedule of an IBO.

While all of this activity is happening, IBOs also have less money because the voicemail, standing order, functions and books and other expenses eat away at an IBO's resources. Thus IBOs have less to contribute to charity.

So an honest question. How do IBOs help people by building an Amway business? How are they better people by showing someone the plan?

Im my informed opinion, the nicer and better person is what upline teaches as a side note to distract an IBO from the FACT that they are losing money. Much of this is because of the defacto 100 PV and tools requirements. They also make it seem as if IBOs are "helping" people by showing them the business plan. When you think about it, perhaps just the opposite is happening. This is another tactic, IMO that uplines use to justify an IBO's lack of progress, much like how they tell downline that they are successful just by getting themselves to a function.

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

This idea is probably reinforced by the upline to help IBOs justify their participation in the face of financial loss. From the outside, it's astounding to think about the amount of brainwashing and distorted thinking necessary to soldier on as an IBO given the expense. Think about how often bills show up in your mailbox or inbox. Each time you pay one it's a little reality check about how much money you have in your account. Messages from the upline have to resonate at those moments to keep the faithful moving forward in the face of reality. "You're a better person" is probably effective at times when "you're a successful business builder" might be a harder sell, given your bottom line.

-Chelsea

Anonymous said...

My upline used to tell us that losing money was success. That IBO's are just paying their dues.

rocket said...

Amway doesn't make you nicer, in my opinion. I know the post is what IBO's say to justify losing money month after month.

Try telling an IBO that Amway isn't a great money making opportunity and see how nice they are. Anybody who opposes them is the devil, a dream stealer, a loser, someone without a dream etc.....

Amway people are the rudest, most arrogant people I know.

Don't believe me? Go ahead and disagree with one!

LOL. When they get into full damage control mode they all sound like a bunch of upline worshipping wankers.

Anonymous said...

Can you show us where success comes if not losing money is not an option? Failure is part of the road to success. There's no success without failure. You people are childish to believe that pursuing success comes with winning only. Ask any real success story person and they'll tell you too much that you'll say that it's impossible. For the average person it is that's why the average person sees success as a guarantee without acceptance of failure.

Joecool said...

Failure is part of the road to success only in Amway. There are ways to succeed without failure.

Anonymous said...

amway has made me want to bash in some real ambot skulls. anon @12:15, don't make me come hunt YOU down!

**proud Amway hater**

Tim said...

I think its 150 PV req now, and 300 PV/month volume is encouraged. Nevertheless, Amway is a load of horseshit. In fact, I'm planning to use its scams, lies, and crap they feed you and turn it into a research paper for school. I think that would make me a nicer person instead of buying the license, and "helping" downline/prospects. My only problem, is that I'm unable to find sources I can use that will legitimately criticize Amway and use as reference, since asking an unbiased opinion from the guy who showed it to me, his coach, his downlines, people like Dan Yuen, the Duncans and watever upline they have will get me nowhere. I really need some help.

Anonymous said...

GET OUT!

Anonymous said...

lol, the negative comments bloggers leave are hilarious. Like we are suppose to take bitter opinions of a people business as fact? And how on earth are you losing money when the startup fee is minimal, especially compared to a traditional brick and mortar business? You guys realize there are no guarantees in life and yes, a lot of successful people fail at a lot of businesses before they are successful. You get rewarded for the work you put in, just like anything in life, not by quitting after a few months and then whining like bitches because it didn't work for you. If it was that easy, everyone would do it. It is supposed to be a challenge, that way, only the people who are mentally tough, not internet tough-guys, become successful.

Joecool said...

You lose money by purchasing convention tickets and cd subscriptions that don't work.

Anonymous said...

You do realize that those are tax deductable right? I can take a good guess that you do not have a business mindset. Open any business and see how long it takes to recoup the overhead costs and loans it takes to run them. And if it doesn't work, how come more and more people cross the stages each function at higher pin levels? You probably got in thinking you were gonna get rich quick which is what typical E quadrant thinking people do. Just go buy a lottery ticket then. Home businesses are not for everyone, and just because you flunked Harvard, doesn't make the institution itself bad. You need to look inward and take some responsibility instead of projecting blame because it is easy to do that.

Joecool said...

So what if they's tax deductible? If I spend $200 on a convention, I only get back about $50 on my taxes. At least in most real businesses, you end up recouping the expenditures. Amway IBO's keep feeding a money pit call tools. Plus the tools don't work.

You obviously lack any business acumen and know little about how taxes work.

Anonymous said...

So I am supposed to take a blog from a guy named "Joe Cool" seriously? Look, you are not the first or last person to have a bad experience with a business. Whether it be Amway, or anything else, taking to endless blogs to whine makes you look like a crazy ex-girlfriend. The fact that you only looked to the bottom line results as the sole purpose for this business probably explains why you weren't successful. I know plenty of people that like the journey of personal growth as it has benefits outside the business, not just money. If you were really an Eagle then quit, who knows whatever happened to your downline who could have very well gone Platinum, you just never know.

Joecool said...

The vast majority of people seem to have a bad experience in Amway.

What have you accomplished? I bet you are netting loss yourself and you come here to whine because you want to validate and justify your decision to join Amway.

I left Amway because I was an eagle and I wasn't making any money despite having done everything my upline advised,

A business is for making money, not for channeling money upline via tool purchases,

Anonymous said...

I have no idea what organization you were in, but I don't spend all my money via tool purchases. I don't have to justify anything. You are entitled to be a negative person, I for one, am doing fine and I am definitely better off than before when I started the business.

Joecool said...

If you actually read my blog you'd know what organization I was with.

Yeah, I know, you don't spend money on tools. Blah blah. I've heard that before. You still aren't making money with Amway. You're just parroting what your upline taught you to say.

Losing money makes you better off? Good for you!

Good luck finding suckers, I mean downline. LOL

Anonymous said...

really? tell me how?
When you start a macdonalds franchise, which will cost you about a million dollars, if you didnt fail in producing the money to make up the cost (which would take years), what if you were not a success? Its not always guarenteed.
Have you ever started your own business - can you honestly tell me you didnt have falls, which you learned from and it helped you propel to success?
Read a book by/about ANY successful person - jack canning, nelson mandela, rudy,athletes, musicians etc etc -- they ALL failed in some regard. i would loooovvvveeee for you to prove me wrong on this.

Anonymous said...

first of all - those are optional. secondly, they DO work, if you do the work and USE what you learn from them

Joecool said...

A Mcdonald's franchise has equity. Even if you spend a million, you have the building and predictable revenue, unlike an Amway business.

I don't need to prove anything to you. Why don't you prove that even 2% of IBO's make any kind of profit?

Anonymous said...

With a little bit of brain in your head, it's actually impossible to lose money with Amway. Amway didn't work for you? Get your money back for registration...there I solved it. Products are too expensive and don't work for you? Return them and get your money back...problem solved. If you actually lost money trying to build an Amway business, you have no one to blame but yourself.

Anonymous said...

"With a little bit of brain in your head, it's actually impossible to lose money with Amway."

*Why do you need to lash out and imply this person is brainless?" Why are you getting defensive? Maybe because what he says makes sense and deep inside you know it? But you are so brainwashed you don't want to argue with your upline even inside your head because they have strung you along and gotten you to hope you can "get rich" like them. Well, I have seen plenty of the upline pretend to have more wealth and time than they really did. A golden leash, this business. They are not retired....this business consumes their minds and their lives. Don't be deceived. Without their vast downline buying the tools, they would have no profit. It's not the products that profit the upline, or you in your future; it's the tools.That's the scam of it.

"Amway didn't work for you? Get your money back for registration...there I solved it. Products are too expensive and don't work for you? Return them and get your money back...problem solved. If you actually lost money trying to build an Amway business, you have no one to blame but yourself."

There are no refunds for the tools. They say if you are not satisfied with a function, ask for your money back. Well, the 15 years of functions my spouse and I attended cost us a lot of travel money, babysitting money, hotel costs, not to mention the cost of the function. You may get your upline to refund your money for one function, but not for 15 years of functions. And the cost of the brainwashing took its toll on our marriage, too, as the pressure to perform in this business was too great (because you don't make profit, you also have to hold onto your day job). Your upline would teach you to call me a whiner, but just when we thought we had it made and were getting cheques of $5000 per month, then our upline said we had to stock our own warehouse, and all the residual profit went into stocking our shelves. Then Amway continually revised its product line, leaving us with old product that nobody wanted and we were using for years afterward. There are no refunds on old or revised products. It definitely cost us the money we spent, and the time away from our kids we can never recoup. We were so happy to leave that sinking ship, and we have seen many of our upline and crossline also leave to go and run "real" and profitable businesses. Yes we sang to the song "Freedom" by the Goads, and it was on the day we quit this unprofitable brainwashing business.

Joecool said...

You can't get a refund if too much time has passed while you are trying to build the business. In 15 years you spent tens of thousands of dollars on tools and products and even if you made some money, your downline lost their shirts.

Anonymous said...

You lose money, when you build the Business the wrong way. The thing is Amway is pretty another store you shop, but your own retail store. You buy what you need to live like laundry detergent, shampoo, toothbrush, bars, etc. Obviously, you don't buy what you don't need. Sure you lose money, but don't you lose money buying daily goods as well? Pretty much same thing because we're human, we need to buy daily stuff. When you buy your own Amway product and actually use it, you support yourself and your upline. There's really nothing wrong with it. Sure, some prices are more expensive, but you are buying in bigger quantity and the stuff is high quality and good for you. Also, the customer service is the best in the world, I can guarantee that because I bought prework out cubes what we call sport cube. They usually give an early expire date to make sure we consume, so I complaint about it and they gave me 2 free sport boxes with better expire date and I did not even have to return the original. There are no other companies that would do that. Once you sponsor 6 or more, the stuff you spent really become free for around 100pv, if the people you sponsor does the same and actually consume the products. Main lesson is buy what you need and look at the difference in quality and quantity!

Leo said...

I'd like to give my (hopefully) unbiased opinion. Amway is like a really, really expensive intro to business class. You pay to get a mentor helping you, you pay for the connections that they could introduce you with, and you also pay for doing the shitty homework that they give you. It's not a bad thing, maybe you find yourself more on time in completing tasks, wake up each day with purpose, and get experience you would not inside a classroom. Hell, maybe you become a better conversationalist and less risk-adverse. That's what you're paying for, with your hard earned cash, is social and people management skills.
Everyone is born thinking they are the shit, the truth is that no, you're not the shit.
Do Amway if you can't stand classrooms, it'll make you grow. But also keep the perspective that you are in a terrible market (MLMs) with terrible reputation and overpriced products. Please do a google search on your upline (Dan Yuen) before you worship the ground they walk on, they are not perfection. He once implied I was a pussy because I was considering the advice of the girl I loved. He was looking out for his downline and tried his hardest to strong arm me, I understand. I won't use the word "brainwashing" because that is incorrect. I will say that Amway uplines will utilize every nuance of sales psychology to influence you. Most people will be unaware and be unduly influenced. Amway members see the techniques working and not consider anything unethical because it makes them money. There is simply no checks and balances, and work is motivated purely on greed. Amway reps may say, of course not, I want to help people, etc blah blah. I guarantee if there is no payout, people wont do shit.
In conclusion, if you consent to join Amway, you are consenting to being motivated by greed, motivated by guilt (Why haven't you done this? Why didn't you come to meetings?) Motivated by your own contributions (bought training materials, attended events). You will still grow, and it sure as hell is better than spending your money on drugs.

Joecool said...

Great comments. Yeah there can be things you learn from Amway but you are nearly assured of losing money as well. It's sad when someone hangs on too long and ends up losing a lot of money though.