Over the years I have been debating with Amway supporters, I cannot see what is so great about the Amway opportunity. Are some of these Amway defenders that stupid or dense that they truly believe that a business where one out of a few hundred people might make a profit and most of the remaining IBOs will lose money is a good opportunity? I'm not talking about people who sign up and "do nothing". Many IBOs sign up and put in a great deal of time, effort and money, only to find out that the system simply does not work (especially in the US) and they make a business decision to quit and/or to do something else.
Of course there are some people who make money in Amway. If nobody made money, then the opportunity would cease to exist. But it is basically exploitation of the downline that accounts for upline success. Amway's admission that sales to non IBOs are low, confirms this. Thus certain upline make their income from their downline's PV volume, and on tool purchases. I mean even a lottery has winners. Even ponzi schemes and other questionable opportunties have some winners. This is not to suggest that Amway in not legal. Amway is perfectly legal, but the way the opportunity is set up, those who profit, primarily do so at the expense of their trusted downline.
There are no groups that I know of where all the IBOs can win and earn a profit. I would guess that there might be a few rogue groups who only focus on retail sales, and while these groups can be profitable as a group, they are few and far between. This is because most IBOs fall under an LOS such as WWDB, BWW, LTD or N21, and these groups all seemingly focus on recruiting of new IBOs. Yes, they may sprinkle in some suggeestions about selling goods, but generally speaking, their "training" materials consist of motivation speeches, feel good stories (whether true or not), and the theme of never quitting while continuing to purchase more tools.
Some upline have the nerve to start teaching downline that their Amway business is not about making money, but to save your marriage, make you a nicer person, or some other diversion to make you forget that you are losing money month after month after month. Some groups even mix in religion and politics into their functions and meetings. As far as I can see, the typical business buildiing IBO signs up, gets some of the tools and attends a few functions, and finds that the products are hard to sell because they are not priced competetively with other retailers, and that a damaged reputation is nearly impossible to overcome. These IBOs realize they are not going anywhere, and they walk away, chalking up the losses as a life lesson. But apparently, many uplines who lied and deceived in the past are continuing to do so today, often just revising history for their benefit (i.e. lying about making any profit on tools).
Many IBOs, prospects, information seekers and critics read this blog. My question is very simple. What is so great about the Amway opportunity? For most, it is just a bad use of time and money. While some may exist, I don't know of a single person who "did the work once" and sat back collecting barrels of Amway money while sipping Mai Tais on the beaches of Jamaica. I see crown ambassadors working as hard today as they did many years ago. Diamonds losing homes to forclosures, a prominent diamond in bankruptcy proceedings, and a hoard of WWDB diamonds apparently selling off mansions that they allegedly paid for in cash. (It os quite possible that their lifestyles are simply not sustainable).
Where is the benefit in the business for the typical IBO? Just as there are some diamonds, there are lottery winners. Displaying a lottery winner doesn't make it prudent to spend your money on lottery tickets. Displaying a diamond's lifestyle doesn't make Amway a good opportunity. While Amway is a business and not a game of chance, the results of either, sadly are eerily similar - that is a few winners and millions of non winners.
What is so great about the Amway opportunity? I don't see it.
Exceptional post and it sums up the whole Amway opportunity. Yes, I was one of such IBOs who followed the system and up-line to an extent, my up-line knew every hour of our lives for one and half years. But when there was no success for me still I was told that, up-line cannot do your business you have to figure out how you can succeed in Amway. I too have a question to Amway apoligists, how much false positives do you wanto to come up with? Sick of hearing non sense jargons and comparisons they make who cannot create one penny worth asset and they call themselves as business.
ReplyDeleteI was first approached by an IBO in 2001. He tried to get me in the Amway business (although he REFUSED to call it Amway; it was Quixtar...yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever), and he said I could be financially free in TWO YEARS! I thought this was interesting since he started his "business" in September of 1999 and yet he still had a J.O.B. Well, here it is 2012, and the poor guy still works the same J.O.B. with me. But he won't quit Amway. That would mean having to admit he was one of 95% broke loosers. Ha. "Fake it til ya make it..." I guess he's gonna have to fake it forever. Sad.
ReplyDeleteJoecool...
ReplyDeleteMaybe some people substitute Amway for their social club? Funny how the IRS considers all Amway losses not as 'business' losses, but 'hobby' losses where the erstwhile 'businessman' has no real expectations of ever producing a profit. The IRS knows that people following Amway's supposed plan to $ucce$$ are squandering their own money with no real expectations of ever turning a profit. Their money is extracted by crimongenic kingpins and the initiators of this pernicious cult.
it's a great lie; i'm sure you see THAT! =)
ReplyDelete