When I was first pitched Amway, I was invited to an upper scale hotel to see a presentation. The diamond arrived in his Mercedes Benz and was escorted by some people to the stage and was given a standing ovation. I thought it was od because the guy was a successful Amway distributor but I could not understand why he was deserving of a standing ovation. When he was introduced, the presenter said the diamond was in the top one tenth of one percent income bracket in the US. Looking back, that may have been a dicey claim now that we know the kind of income a diamond might make. Not to mention that diamonds likely have very significant business expenses if they are traveling to and from functions several times a year.
When the presentation went on, the diamond spoke about how he was able to capitalize on some business trends and was able to make his money. He spoke about waking up at noon and basically doing whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. He was financially free. No more clipping coupons or having to "just get by". He was now financially free and although he admitted not having "millions" (yet), he certainly had the freedom of not needing a job. He spoke about the options you have when you have enough time and money. He said he could travel, take care of his parents, care for his wife and kids and basically just enjoy life at a young age without having to work anymore. What I could not figure out is why all these diamonds kept working when the plan said they could "walk away" from Amway and collect willable residual income for life. The diamond said he "loved"his downline and kept working to help them. But surely there must have been a diamond somewhere that "walked away" and was collecting enough residual income to live in luxury. The mystery remains as there is not a single diamond that I know of who exercised that option. What's more bizarre is there have been diamonds and above who quit Amway altogether and some crown ambassadors who died while still working Amway.
My upline platinum was always pimping the tools on us and he and other leaders often taught people to get out of debt, which was good, but in stark contrast,, would say it was okay to go in debt if it was to buy tools. As if that was a good idea no matter the state of your business. Why should someone who has little sales and possibly no downline invest in tools unless the tools were helping to increase business? Instead the tools were the reason why so many IBOs ended up in debt and losing money. Had I not invested in tools, I would have had a net profit as an IBO but my trusted upline assured me that investing in tools would eventually lead to financial freedom. Of course these lies are crystal clear to me now but at the time, the upline advice made sense. Afterall, they had made it big and who were we to question their sage advice right?
I hope this post has unraveled some of the Amway mysteries. It certainly appears that there is no true residual income and there is not freedom. The diamond's job is simply Amway. While you can debate how hard a job it is to be a diamond, I believe it can be stressful knowingly misleading people who trust you because your livelihood depends on it. Without the downline consuming products and buying tools, a diamond can go broke very easily. Diamonds apparently do not walk away from Amway because they cannot. If they stop, their business will fall apart eventually and their tools income would stop immediately.
If you are seeking information, this blog is loaded with my experiences and analysis of the Amway opportunity. Seek information and ask questions. If your sponsor tells you to avoid "negative" information, that's a red flag that they have something to hide. If Amway is a great as they say, it will be around if and when you have done your research and can make informed decisions.
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