Getting out of debt sounds like good advice. On the surface it is because people should not be racking up consumer debt or committing large sums of their income for cars they cannot afford. But what does it mean for an IBO? I know my former upline taught our group to get out of debt. However, I believe my former uplines had self serving intentions when they taught this. Let me translate what I believe they meant:
"You should not have any debt because it would affect your ability to buy more PV and tools. If you have debt, it affects my cashflow"
Ironically, for many, maybe most IBOs, although taught to get "get out of debt", the bottom line result is more debt. There is more debt because the cost of products and tools begin to mount. How many families actually spend $300 a month (approximate cost of 100 PV) on household products? And then to add onto that expense, IBOs who are trying to be "successful" need tools which cost anywhere from $150 a month up to more than $500 a month depending on whether the IBO is married, single and the level of commitment. Thus IBOs are now spending at least several hundreds of dollars that they never spent before.
Most IBOs, especially new IBOs, generally earn less than $50 a month. In fact, $50 a month income in this business would make you quite exceptional. Most IBOs earn less than $20 a month. With that kind of income and with the expenses I listed above (tools = voicemail, books, standing orders, and functions), nearly all "serious" IBOs operate in the red and never turn a profit. The only way an IBO can turn a profit is to sell Amway products like crazy (which I have never witnessed) or to sponsor enough downline to absorb the losses for them. The only true success stories are the ones who sell the tools.
The reason why I believe that my former uplines (who are still in WWDB and apparently teach the same things now as they did back when I was an IBO) are teaching self serving advice because although they said to "get out of debt", they made an exception to this and said it was perfectly okay to go in debt to attend functions or to buy more standing orders. IBOs were also told to do "whatever it takes" to get to the next function or to buy more tools. It is why I witnessed some crosslines go bankrupt, more than one couple lost their homes following upline advice. And these couples were told they shouldn't worry because they can pay cash for their homes when they go diamond. Another apparent lie told by WWDB leaders, especially those who had their own homes foreclosed.
Let's be perfectly real here. If you join Amway and participate in the system consisting of voicemail, books, standing orders and functions, you are far more likely to get into debt or increase your debt rather than making money and getting out of debt. The math bears it out if you are willing to look at it objectively.
6 comments:
Oh, it's the beginning of a holy nightmare of debt, IRS audits, IRS liens, lost family time, wasted over-priced products. The Scamway leaders are living a big lie and grand façade of deceit and heavy debt themselves. It's simple math and totally unsustainable. If you are an honest, hardworking individual, put your energy and money into something you are passionately going to pursue for yourself, NOT a Scamway lying fool that will ruin your life. Don't fall for the fake love, religion, mind control brainwashing. If you lack self-esteem, see a counselor. If you're seeking God, find a reputable church, synagogue, or walk in the woods. As the saying goes, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I've never fallen for it myself but have family members who did. Now they're just somebody that I used to know as Scamway stole their careers, home, money, and worst of all, their SOUL.
Your comment is spot on. These leaders act nice and friendly but the reality is they are ruthless and would take your last dollar if you let them. That's why you might hear skipping a meal to buy a cd or selling your car to attend a function. It's even more ironic that they say that Amway is a God pleasing business. These folks make me sick.
So Joecool, how long did it take you to recover from your financial loss, distress, and overall well-being after you left the cult? It must have been difficult to deal with the betrayal and figuring out how to make a clean break? I'd love to be able to do an intervention on my nephew and his wife who are in this cult. They just get defensive and rude when I try to tell them I don't want to buy stuff and that they are wasting the best part of their young lives chasing this scheme. They have 2 young boys, nephew works full time in great career with promising future yet he wastes precious free time on Scamway travel and functions. He's burning the candle at both ends and it's catching up with him. I soooo wish to see him get out of this, before he crashes and burns.....
Hey stop here from time to time and check things out. Was a distributor(my wife and I) about 25 years ago. It was a sham then and it looks like a more modern, sneakier, technology based sham now. I remember the upline we had harping constantly about how we should be getting ourselves out of debt, but in the next sentence saying we needed to do "whatever it took" to "build our businesses". Because any thinking person knows the only possible way under the sun to get oneself out of debt is thru Scamway. Any financial gain that you can attain through other vehicles is inferior. The money you earn from Scamway is the only good money out there. The income from a job or legit business doesn't spend as well as money gained in Shamway. Sorry got carried away there. Still pisses me off. Fact is, even as a young newly married couple, we never had any debt until we ran it up chasing the proverbial LOC carrot on a stick in Amway. We were gonna "get it done" "whatever it took" cause no "losers" or "slaves" were gonna "steal our dream". We went to weekly meetings, functions, special speaker events, and were at every "night owl" that that slimy weasel Roy King held. Sometimes we were treated to special wisdom from some one in his upline or crossline. Bottom line: After a couple years in the "business" we had a net gain of NOTHING. We were in debt, broke, angry, fought all the time, and it took almost five damned years to rebuild financially what Amway had cost us. And a long damn time o get our relationship back on track. We were quite fortunate that we didn't get a divorce . If it isn't a cult, I don't know what else it needs to qualify.
The upline basically promoted Amway as the only way. That it was our only hope. Amway was pleasing to God. What a sham. When you remove yourself from the teaching, you quickly return to normal and can see thru the BS that was taught. Amway did exactly the opposite of what I was expecting. I had less time and money as a result of Amway. Not more.
It's a big lie.
I started to suspect the scam after a few months even though my group was at 4000 PV. My upline sponsor told me to ditch my girlfriend (now my wife of 20 years) ad also told me to submit to him. That was the last straw. I quit and told my group why I was quitting. I recovered pretty quickly and realized how much time I had on my hands now. I didn't suffer major losses because I wa earning a bonus of about $1000 a month but the tapes, books and functions ate up all that bonus. I do live in Hawaii so we had major expenses for the big functions as we had to fly to Oregon or to California for the big functions.
Now I blog to share my experiences with information seekers and hopefullly they can avoid the pitfalls I fell into.
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