In the Amway business, most active IBOs are advised to trust upline. To think of upline as a coach or a mentor. These upline mentors or coaches are supposed to have your best interest at heart and they will guide you to success if only you will be open to learning. Many uplines, including my former uplines used to coin the term "copy" or duplicate. If you can do that you will be successful. Even the simplest of people can copy. The upline may crack a joke about getting thru school by copying. Thus, many IBOs follow exactly what their upline advises them to do.
But then uplines turn the responsibility away from themselves. Many Amway defenders will also claim that downline should not simply follow the advice of upline. They may make a ridiculous claim that standing orders and functions contain advice that must be discerned. That information is like a buffet. You pick and choose what you need and discard the rest. If you are a new IBO or prospect, let me tell you that is a load of guano (crap) that is being heaped on you. Your upline is touted as having experience and wisdom in the Amway business, which is why you are paying good money for voicemail, books, cds, and functions. So why would their advice be something you pick and choose? How would a new IBO know what to pick and choose?
Imagine hiring a guide for a trek in the wilderness. The guide is supposed to be an experienced outdoorsman, perhaps an expert. So if he recommends that you eat certain plants or fruits, you trust that he is going to guide you right. Imagine eating something that made you sick to your stomach, only to have the guide tell you that he just points out plants and fruits and you have to discern which is good for you and which is not. You would fire the guide and tell everyone you know not to use that guide anymore.
But here we have these "systems" such as Network 21, WWDB or BWW that have been "guiding" IBOs for up to 20 years or more in some cases, and the number of diamonds are negligible. Sure there are many new platinums, but many tool consuming platinums have been found to be losing money or making very little money for their efforts. What's more, it would appear that Amway is losing ground in North America based on sales. One can reasonably guess that any new platinums that break are simply replacing the volume for a platinum that no longer exists or a platinum that no longer qualifies. My former upline diamond appears to have all new qualifying platinums from the time I was in the business and here's the kicker. My former diamond had 6 downline rubies. As far as I know, none of these rubies are qualified as platinum anymore, although I have heard that some of these are still active.
Uplines also program their downline to take responsibility for the failure. Thus you have IBOs who did everything that was asked of them, only to fail. Yet these IBOs often blame themselves for their failure. It is my opinion that former IBOs who did everything asked of them only to fail should file a formal complaint against their LOS with the better business bureau. Amway defenders like to think that a lack of formal complaints means that the system works when clearly, there is no unbiased substantial evidence to suggest that the system works. It looks like some succeed in spite of the system, not because of.
The catch in all this is uplines skirting responsibility for the outcomes of those they "mentor" and profit from. IBOs should ask if upline really cared about their success, why do you have to pay for any help that you receive from your upline diamond?
9 comments:
I think more IBOs should file complaints against Amway with the Better Business Bureau. The more the merrier.
Amway is like any other smug, arrogant, big corporate institution. The only way you get its attention is to smack it hard in the face with a two-by-four. Formal complaints (especially a lot of them!) get Amway scared.
I agree. People who got ripped off should file complaints. Most people are too embarrassed to file complaints and also, upline teaches that failure is your own fault so many people will just quit and not bother to file complaints.
If people did complain, Amway would be up to their ears.
And people should know that even if Amway managed to get a good BBB rating, it can still be a crappy business opportunity.
Spot on!! Imagine that you and "your classmate" are preparing for a major exam. You are struggling to get an "A" in that subject, so your "classmate" presents you an idea on how to get an "A" in the exam and that is to "copy" his answers (cheating!!). You did as what he tells you and the result is that your "classmate's" answers are wrong or from a different test paper. You blamed your "classmate" and your "classmate" will just tell you that it's your fault you did not look at the test paper.
Or during the test. You are caught for cheating and you get a failing mark. Your "Classmate" will not take any responsibility and will tell you that it's your fault for copying.
The upline crafts it so they get credit for the few successes but make it clear that failure is your inability to work or to do exactly as they tell you. Most IBOswho quit, never file complaints and just chalk it up as a life lesson. If they did complain, there would be too many to count.
It's imperative for Amway up-line to take a "Blame the victim" attitude towards IBO failures and resignations. If they didn't, Amway would be forced to answer some real questions about the inherent flaws in their fake business plan.
Agreed. Prospects need to ask these tough questions and run away if they are answered honestly and with evidence to back it up.
the bbb could not care less or the ftc for that matter. They both reviewed the operations and move on. Only uk authorities did anything. They closed it down and forced major changes on recruiting and tools vefore alloIng it to continue.
The BBB rating has nothing to do with Amway's viability as a biz op. The FTC ruling is old and was made by an incompetent judge who didn't know much about MLM.
Agree , you should get better advise .
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