Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Never Quit!

"Never Quit" was one of the things I often heard when I was an IBO. To quit seemed like the kiss of death as an IBO. I believe that the never quit mantra can be useful if the saying was meant to read as never quit trying, or never quit trying to better yourself. But in the Amway business, when uplines talk about never quit, what they mean is never quit doing 100 PV and never quit buying tools. Sometimes a wide business decision is to quit and do something else.

I find it ironic that so many IBOs think of the diamonds on stage as being mentors to them. In fact, these diamonds don't know most of their faithful downline IBOs. They don't know their personal circumstances or whether they are progressing in building their business, thus a blanket "never quit" statement is insincere at best. It seems that the never quit saying is a self serving thought, especially since the upline diamond benefits financially by an IBO staying on board with the Amway and the tools program.

When you stop and think for a moment, your upline benefits financially from almost every aspect of the business. You move 100 PV and you get 3% while somewhere upline, about 28 - 30% bonus gets shared by your sponsor and further uplines. Your voicemail account is profit for upline. Your website profits upline, standing order, book of the month and functions all pour money into your upline's pockets. In fact, it seems that IBOs pay through their teeth for almost every bit of information they receive, regardless of any success in Amway.

If your upline truly had vital information that would make your business grow, why would they want to withhold that information from downline? Maybe your uplines don't truly want your success? Maybe they only want your money? Is that why the "never quit" battle cry is made? Does your upline diamond take the time to get to know as many IBOs as possible on a personal level? Do they know your individual circumstances? Do they truly care about your success? If they did care, how could they stand on a stage and shout "never quit"?

Ironically, many - a - diamond did not take their own advice. Many a diamond has quit in recent years. Makes you wonder why someone would quit after achieving diamond? Makes you wonder why someone would quit when you can "walk the beaches" and continue to collect an income. Maybe this opportunity is not all that you have been led to believe?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is a huge difference between quitting on yourself and your dreams and quitting Amway. People quit businesses and start new businesses all the time. There are entire businesses that do nothing but help entrepreneurs develop "exit strategies." Many business owners don't start a business expecting that to be their only business for life. Also, entrepreneurs start businesses that after a couple years aren't working out so they do the right thing and move on. This doesn't make them quitters, it makes them smart.

Something that the leadership in Amway tries to do from the onset of a new IBOs business is tie ALL of their hopes and dreams to Amway. They want the new IBO to equate quitting Amway with quitting on their dreams, which is reckless and potentially harmful to the new IBO. They KNOW that 99.5% of them will never even reach Platinum (which by their own admission is break even - at least in the inner circles). By tying all of an individuals hopes and dreams to a business that the leadership knows only .5% will ever see any profit is devious. Many people quit not discouraged blaming themselves for their failure. Most Diamonds would agree with that analysis. Like I said, most Diamonds aren't even self-aware of the programming they are putting on people - THEY ACTUALLY BELIEVE IT THEMSELVES.

When I quit, I did it with eyes wide open. No one should ever leave Amway feeling defeated or discouraged. Remember, even if you sponsored 1 person you did more than 80% of IBOs could do. I think one of the saddest things is to watch a person leave Amway feeling defeated and have it "haunt" them for life because someone has convinced them that the business is A+, the products are A+, the leadership is A+, and the variable for success or failure is them. This is not true at all. The business sucks, the products are overpriced, the leadership has a very narrow scope of competency, and to succeed you have to willingly allow yourself to be lobotomized into "Amway Mentality."

Joecool said...

Agreed. Quitting Amway to try other things or to do another business is not quitting. That would be changing venue. The Amway model is inefficient.