One thing is clear. Many Amway recruits are shown fancy cars and toys, along with luxurious vacations and trappings. This is a way to get prospects excited and interested in signing up for the Amway opportunity. Many sign up, and the excitement fades and they quit. Many do little or nothing. But what many people do not understand or realize is that there is a reason for this. Many do little or nothing, I suspect because the business is much harder to build than adevrtised.
Because Amway has a stigma in the US (and growing in other locations), finding prospects is a daunting task. Add in the high prices of Amway products and you have major challenges that IBOs simply cannot overcome. Most simply quit and fade away into society. Some, like myself were lied to and abused, with upline leaders (WWDB)who were never held accountable for their actions. Thus I blog so others may share my experiences and can decide if they wish to climb insurmountable challenges for a miniscule chance of financial success. Maybe they will realize they are being fed the same lies I heard as an IBO. Maybe some little nugget of information will get through and help a prospect or ongoing IBO.
What many leaders do is evolve their teachings. They start to teach their IBOs that the Amway opportunity may have made them nicer people, better fathers or husbands and other nice to hear stories because it covers up the fact that these IBOs are not making money. Sometimes I wonder how someone can be a better person by deceiving others about the business opportunity, or how you can be a better father or husband when Amway meetings become a priority over your family and friends? Or how you can be a nicer person and leave threatening messages on forums with those who disagree about Amway being a great business opportunity?
Rather that justifying your involvement or looking ar side benefits, IBOs should be looking at their bottom line. If your Amway "Business" is not generating enough money to pay for your voicemail and other expenses and leaving you with a net profit, then what exactly is your upline teaching you that is worth the ongoing expense? If you are like most, you are told that Amway has no overhead and has little risk. Well, that becomes untrue after months pass by and you have spent hundreds if not thousands on support materials that do not deliver you a net profit. Are you being taught that you're successful simply by showing up for a function?
Are you new or a tenured IBO? Has your teaching from upline evolved away from making money as the bottom line? If so, what do you do next?
Another great article that is spot on. I would like to add one thing along the same lines as leaders covering up that an IBO isn't making any money. Leaders will say that the Amway business (or rather WWDB, The Yeager Group, whatever) will make you a better husband, father, employee (this one really makes no sense since the whole point of owning a business is to NOT be an employee). However, they make this and the point that you will help countless others be better people more important than the actual reason people join in the first place: to make money. While helping people is great, people want to make money. And as the author points out, people are not making money which is why so many quit. That is why he quit, that is why I quit, that is why such a high percentage of Amway IBO's quit. I would rather stay at a job and help those who I can and not lose money than stay with a business where I am losing money and only have the "dream" of helping lots of other people.
ReplyDeleteI was at 4000 PV and I was not making a net profit.
ReplyDeleteI remember being at these "dream building" meetings where my upline's wife said she had a dream of having enough money to set up a place to feed homeless people. Nice thought but it never happened.
And that's why Amway puts such an emphasis on "dreams". To steer people away from the reality of MATH. Actually having a spreadsheet to compare money spent on the "business" to the actual returns. Because there will always be more money going IN to the business than actually coming out.
DeleteAs for "helping" people, MLM's are basically a pyramid scheme since the majority of them have trouble selling the products as they are usually too expensive. Thus it all comes down to recruiting people to self-consume. And with all pyramids, those at the tippy top make money. From everyone below who LOSES money. Hardly "helping" people.
Have you heard the saying that "If the dream is big enough, the facts don't matter"? I heard that as an IBO and I find it laughable. The facts are all that matters in most cases.
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