One of the reasons why I joined Amway at one time in my life was because a close friend of mine had joined, and had gone platinum and convinced me of how easy it was and that I could easily do what he had done. Additionally, I was sold by delusions of residual income flowing for the rest of my life. I honestly thought that the one day would come when there would be no job and life's toughest decision would be where to have lunch.
I got serious and started building the business and eventually reached various levels, eventually topping off at the 4000 PV level. At that point, my upline had assured me that my net income would be $1000 a month with the right parameters. I had those parameters but my net income was zero because upline expected IBOs to reinvest all of their earnings into tools (standing orders, functions, etc). At that point, I began to question why we would do all the work and get no financial reward. I was told that the money would be there if I just kept working the business.
Apparently, many IBOs get in for various reasons and I'm sure that the displays of mansions, jets and cars made some people salivate. Some really enjoyed the thought of telling off their boss and quitting their jobs because Amway was so lucrative. Many people believe it because they want to believe it. Many people would love financial freedom, especially when you have a 2-5 year shortcut to achieve it.
I recall some nite meetings where upline asked the group "why" we are building Amway. It was to spend more time with family, or to possibly gain financial freedom. A popular one was to retire the wife so she can be the one to care for the kids and eventually the dad wouold soon follow. In a nutshell, many people joined Amway as a means to have more time and more money. Money from your residual income and time because you won't need a job. The truly sad thing is that for the vast majority of people who try, even those who work hard at it, end up with less time and money as a result of Amway and the systems.
Rather than why you should build an Amway business, people would think about better and more realistic ways of securing their future. That hard fact is that only a fraction of 1% of people will ever make any decent money from Amway, and even those who might make some coin from Amway, much of that profit is rechanneled back into tools. IBOs would seriously be better off doing nothing than doing Amway.
Your comments made me remember my experience. I was told by my emerald there was a person in my upline who was close to platinum. He walked away cause he didn't like the breakaway leg situation. Then the emerald goes this ex upline is missing out on lifetime of residuals. This brought red flags right away. I thought if this was so great then why walk away. Few years later I read about the tool scam on the net. Now my entire wwdb upline diamond leg is whiped out and so long to lifetime residuals.
ReplyDeleteResidual income in Amway is a myth. Can anyone actually name 5 people who built the business then "walked away" to collect residual income? If someone went diamond and quit, they might get some bonus checks for a while but very soon, their business will fall apart. For that reason, the diamonds keep working, even until death.
DeleteI look at it this way - instead of spending $1000 a month on products, communikate, websites, tools, whatever Koolaid they are selling - for the hopes of making some measly profit after expenses (if that - most are at a loss!) - why not just put that money into a savings account or under your mattress. In the long run you would have more money after 2 years and way more after 10-20 years than nearly everyone in an mlm.
ReplyDeleteSpot on. You could also invest the money you save by not buying MLM products. But seriously, people working a minimum wage second job would make more money than over 99% of Amway IBOs.
DeleteI was under 20 before joining Amway. I never thought about investing or what would be more profitable. Back then I rather just spend it on eating out,movies,clothes,etc. Than to blow it on Amway cult. Just the trips and things can do with a couple of grand.
DeleteRight, when you're young, spend your money on fun or get serious and invest it. Do not waste it chasing a dream that has a small fraction of 1% chance of coming true.
DeleteWhen I know that I've seen people make over 150 grand in one month, I know that there is residual income that exists in this business. If you know the diamond couple Doug and Amy Wier, they used a 500 grand bonus and the money that they earned with Amway to build a school in North Carolina. That alone tells me that they used what they earned to help found the school.
ReplyDeleteOne of my other questions is: Why did you reinvest all of your money into your business? It seems to me that if you earned a thousand bucks that you wouldn't need to invest absolutely "all" of it to keep being successful. I mean, if I were someone who wanted to make money, I wouldn't just reinvest all of it just to come up with nothing at all. It seems to me that you just were too frustrated to continue with the business, or, to put it more distinctly, that you "hit a plateau" in what you were able to do. I've heard a lot of examples where IBOs hit a certain level and fail to go any farther in the business. I'm curious about why you weren't able to sponsor any other successful IBOs? I think that if I was on your team that I would want to do what you did. 4000 points is a real accomplishment, and I think you would want to help people make it to that goal, right? You only need 6 legs to go platinum, but you didn't. If you didn't make any real money, then just say you didn't, instead of saying that you just blindly followed the orders of your upline. They are supposed to help you out, but they are also not your boss. You could of had a few boundaries that told your upline to limit what they recommended for you to do. You don't have to spend an exorbiant amount of money to get PV for your business. I totally disagree with the other comment that states you would have to pay 1000 dollars to get any sort of profit from your personal use. You don't take shortcuts to make money in the business. If you want to work hard, then you can see results.
Your skepticism doesn't really make sense to me, but I need to be charitable. You are entitled to your opinions, which are valuable, because they help create dialogue and debate. Yet, even though you try to make yourself more credible by saying that you ran a 4000 point business, you still haven't convinced me that you have any credibility at all. You would ask for evidence. Well, besides your statement that you owned a business in Amway, it doesn't seem that you know anything about sponsorship or the residual income that successful IBOs have. Sponsoring is one of the most important things in Amway, and, to me, it looks like you were taught the wrong system of sponsoring and personal consumption. You don't need to buy a lot of product to be successful. You just need to change your buying habits. You also don't really delve into your own personal experience or the personal experience that your uplines had. In your case, I would of described a conversation that would consist of you questioning your upline about how they make their money. Wouldn't that of happened if you realized that you wanted to have the answers to your questions? I mean, as an upline, I would be stupid to tell you to reinvest absolutely all of your money back into your business. All you need is to change your habits. That's all... and how to duplicate yourself. If you can do that, then you can platinum. In the comments above, you're validating people who obviously don't know very much about they business.
Thanks for letting me comment.
I reinvested my profits because up upline who knows more than me, advised me to do so. They are millionaires and who am I to question their wisdom. I didn't know at the time that they made a fortune from tools. ow I know so I blog to inform unsuspecting prospects and IBOs about the scam.
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