Looking back at my IBO days, I can now laugh at some of the weird stuff we did and believe it or not, I have reason to believe that my old LOS, WWDB still teaches some of this and some other major groups also teach it. I believe some of these practices were the reason why some people refer to the Amway business as cult or having cult like qualities. If you recognize some of these practices, you might be in an unethical group and you should ask your upline the tough questions and possibly reconsider or reprioritize your involvement in the business.
Submission to upline was one of the things we were told. Our group was told that upline would never purposely lead us astray so we should trust them and never try anything without checking upline. Afterall, upline had experience and probably had all the answers. Some of this checking upline included asking permission to get married, buy a car or a home, or even something as small as purchasing a camera. The upline said maybe someone upline might have advice on how to get a good deal on a camera so no harm in checking upline before making a purchase. It is my guess that upline didn't want your disposable income being spent on anything other than standing orders and functions.
Late meetings. Our upline was into late meetings, many occuring after midnight. I suppose it was a show of loyalty and dedication to the upline and the system. In reality, it made most people angry at their jobs because they had to wake up early to go to work. For me it made me mad at our upline because the meetings taught us nothing of substance and it just made us tired. Our upline used to talk about time being important but it was never important enough to make him show up on time for his own late night meetings. Another cult like factor - sleep deprivation.
Secrets. Anytime we asked about how much income uplines may have been earning, we were either told it's none of our business or shown a photocopy of a 5 year old bonus check that someone upline may have received. Our proof that the business worked was upline showing off pictures of sports cars and mansions. Of course we now find that some WWDB diamonds had homes foreclosed, and one prominent triple diamond had some dealings in bankruptcy court. Looking back, I suspect that many diamonds have mortgages, which would be nor problem except that these leaders scoffed at the sutpidity of having a loan. That diamonds pay cash for everything, including homes. My former sponsor still lives in a run down rented home beause he won't purchase a home unless he's got the cash. My former sponsor is a physician so I find his position on buying a home preposterous. His oldest child, a son probably grew up deprived of his parents because of dedication to the system and the functions.
Losing money is success. Many times, our group was told that losing money was a sign of success. It was success because we were investing in our futures. That the business really is not about money but about friendships. I suppose upline taught this because everyone was losing money so it was nice to hear that success was around the corner, and that we were all nicer people and on our way to success if we just attended more functions and bought more standing orders. People who sold off some of their personal property were edified if they did so to attend a function. Obviously these folks were not advised to run their business within their means. Upline even said that going into debt was okay, but only if the debt was to invest in the business or to buy extra function tickets.
While some of these practices seem bizarre, I believe it is because the upline advice was self serving and meant to channel their downline's dollars into tool purchases. It is the only conclusion I can make. What's your conclusion?
7 comments:
my conclusion is that you're not the only one to make the conclusion. =)
Hi Joe
I recently came across amway and network 21 after I have been introduced to it by a friend. I have to say, the people operating it are VERY persuasive. So I was persuaded to attend one of their seminars and afterwards I was fully hypnotised by the speaker and was ready to commit to get that passive income. But there is a voice inside my head saying "Do some background research on the internet before you commit!" repeatedly and so I did. BAM that really opened my eyes, this company have a dirty reputation and have been around for a LONG time. It has given A LOT of people a miserable experience and I'm just confused why there are still people being fooled by it right here right now in Australia 2012 where we all live in an information age.
You know what pisses me off the most about this whole thing? It's the fact that I'm willing to give this a try to satisfy the old saying "you never know until you try" but at the same time the logic in my brain is forbidding me to do so. Here's the reason:
Suppose I give this business a fair go and commit myself to it for 5 years. During those 5 years I attend the seminars, buy the motivational CDs and also the products just like how my upline told me to do so. If during the 5 year period I made an overall loss (like the vast majority of participants in this business) and decides that enough is enough, will the person on the top of my network give me back ALL the money I have spent on it? Of-course not! He/she will just cut me off and say to me behind my back "thank you for supporting my network for 5 years and farewell" and I will just get tossed away into the rubbish bin like a used condom. THAT is what pisses me off, that there is a person on top feeding off the extremely probable failure rate of the participants down below.
Now say if I open my own business. I inject a capital, it fails and I lose money. Okay, fair enough. At least then I know there is NO con-artist sitting at the top of a pyramid making a profit off my failure.
Probably, you should be willing to accept the negative pills when sweet lie was eaten too much! When you lose money with sweet mentality, you will go broke and you are made to swallow bitter realities of the world, niether the up-line comes to your help nor Amway/CDs/Books/Functions/Proven systems!
Okay few errors in your post and your comments. I have never once asked for permission from my upline to do or buy anything, as well the latest meeting I have ever been to ended at 10pm. As well, on a consistantly monthly basis my upline shares the income he is making, now, it isn't ALOT like a diamond level, but he is making more money a month than I make working my job and that matters to me. As far as diamonds foreclosing and such, thats their foolish choices with money. If you saw a doctor making a million dollars a year, forclose his house, you wouldn't say "Doctors dont make any money!"
So please people, before you decide to listen to some random person who is spewing about how he never succeeded in this business, just remember, we don't want the lazy and unambitious people like this guy. We want people who can actually work on their own and don't whine and give up when they hear "no".
Cody, do you believe everything your upline says to you? And what about yourself? Are you making a ton of money now? Youre probably in the negatives...
Cody, I was "successful" as defined by my upline. I was 4000 PV and had eagle parameters. I was also breaking even or losing money at that level.
Your upline shares his income? Care to elaborate on that?
Diamonds losing their homes doesn't mean they don't make money but why would you pay to see that diamond on a stage giving you financial advice?
*crickets*
again?
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