Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Amway Friends For Life?

I read on another blog recently written by an IBO, that your real friends would not walk away or cease to be your friends because of involvement in Amway. I do not believe your good friends would abandon anyone because of their involvement in Amway. However, they might avoid you for a while if you are always talking about Amway, or bugging them to join Amway. They might also feel that it is the IBO who has deserted the friendship in order to attend the endless number of Amway meetings and conventions.

As a former IBO myself, I know that I sacrificed many birthday parties and backyard barbeques. Our upline told us that these minor sacrifices would pay us back a hundredfold in the future. Looking back, not a single IBO crossline or my sponsor, ever got any significant payout from Amway. I believe that some IBO's relationships with friends and family may suffer, but not because of their involvement in Amway per say, but because the IBO is putting the relatiionships on hold while they pursue their Amway dream. It's almost like a friend who leaves home to attend an out of town college. Eventually they come home and your friendship is still there.

As an IBO, I remember our upline telling us that we needed to separate ourselves at times, to avoid negative. I believe this is still true today, based on what I see coming from current IBOs. IBOs might call it "association", where they think they are "hanging out" with successful people, but the reality is that the masses of IBOs are broke dreamers hanging out with each other.

Ironically, our upline taught us that we as IBOs were all friends for life. I recall a high level WWDB leader commenting that an IBO who "quits" is leaving their friendship, therefore the remaining group is not responsible for the failed relationship between current and former IBOs. When an IBO says friends for life, what they really mean for most is that you are friends for life as long as you never quit Amway. This is one of the reasons why Amway has been compared to a cult.

Shortly after leaving the Amway business, my father passed away. Not a single person upline or crossline called or visited to pay their respects or to express their sympathy. Friends for life indeed.

5 comments:

WinningDreamer85 said...

Wow really. You're going to judge an entire organization based on a hand full of people. Grow a pair Joecool. Take responsibility for your own success. You gave up on yourself.

Joecool said...

No,more like I'm judging the organization based on what the leaders are teaching the masses. Is that why so few succeed in WWDB? Is it because they don't take responsibility for their own success? How much do you make peddling Amway goods?

Anonymous said...

Joe, you are spot on. I spent 12 years as an IBO. I have a small handful of friends that are still friends. Of course, they a quit too. We all get a big laugh out of how full of ourselves we used to be. The friendships now are real, not plastic "all is well" amway phoney friendships.

Anonymous said...

I was once an ibo and I can relate to much of what is being posted. A person can make money in am way but there is a lot of deception, I believe. The one thing I can say is that I came to know Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour through all this and that is one thing I am forever grateful for. I believe with all my heart, that was why I was shown the plan. With that said, I certainly agree that the friendships are only for life if you stay in the business. When I got out, I basically didn't hear from anyone even though my upline were relatives so I would say that that is not true friendship. I have a good job doing what I like, I am able to pay my bills and save some money. It all has to do with being content in all circumstances. Just for the record, most of what they teach as Christian, is Word of Faith teaching or The Prosperity Gospel which is another Gospel. All of the tapes I bought ended up in the dumpster as well as all the books. I spent money i didn't have while being a single parent bit it is all good because God always provided. As far as friends go, I now have a friend who is closer than a brother and his name is Jesus. God bless everyone.

Joecool said...

It's too bad that some Amway leaders teach this friends for life business and then shun people who may leave the business or call them losers just because they choose not to spend money buying tools and losing money in Amway.

False friends indeed.