One of the things my upline taught us ad nauseum was that we needed to have faith in our business and in our upline. That we needed to believe that we were going to be successful. IBOs are told that they should act successful even if they are still working their way up the ranks in the business. It is why they ask (require) IBOs to wear suits and business attire to all meetings and functions. This is one of the weird quirks about the business in my opinion. I live in Hawaii and I remember a function they held in the middle of July in a high school auditorium and there was no air conditioning. I think my suit needed special cleaning because it was completely saturated with perspiration.
Anyway, with this part of the year, soon there will be thousands of IBOs shuffling off to a function called leadership, or in some cases, spring conference. The tickets are about $150 or so and might require travel plus hotels and rental cars depending on where you live. What IBOs are often unaware of is that many venues will allow you to run these conferences for $25 to $50 per person. The rest of that ticket prices goes directly into your upline's pockets. Anyway, the function will feature slide shows of mansions, yachts, jet skis, sports cars, fabulous vacations and other trappings of wealth. The speakers will generally be new platinums and/or emeralds.
What many IBOs don't realize is that this display of wealth is just that. There is no bonafide evidence to indicate that these diamonds actually own all of those toys and goodies. The diamonds probably won't verbally confirm it either, because these toys and goodies may not really be owned by them. It could be rented, or maybe some upline crown ambassador may own the mansion, but IBOs will assume that these trappings of wealth are common once you reach diamond. As an IBO, I never actually knew how much a diamond really earned. I just assumed it was a lot because we were shown all of these luxuries and just assumed all diamonds had these kinds of lifestyles. It was certainly implied that all diamonds were "free" with fabulous lifestyles.
If I posted a picture of a mansion and a jet and said I owe it all to my earnings as a blogger, people would cry foul, that I am lying or making things up. And they would be right. Well, I would guess that many diamonds are doing the very same thing if they appear on stage and implying that they have jets and mansions. As I said, someone may own a mansion and a jet, but to imply that this is a part of the typical diamond lifestyle is a stretch. The evidence is there. Some diamonds have lost their homes to foreclosure. My old LOS diamonds (WWDB) taught us that diamonds pay cash for everything, including homes. Now confirmed as a blatant lie. Who knows what else they may have misrepresented?
I ask IBOs and prospects who may be attending any big and hyped function, to watch with a critical eye. What is being implied with the display of wealth? Analyze if those luxuries can be purchased with a diamond income ($150,000 plus some tool income). Ask yourself if this lifestyle is truly sustainable? Ask yourself if you can live with yourself if deception is a part of earning your diamond lifestyle?
36 comments:
Joe, the more I think about it, the key to understanding the Amway mentality is to go to the New Age movement, and its weird idea of "mind over matter."
This idea, preached by every New Age guru and shaman, is that you can use your mind to create a new reality that will take the place of the old one. In other words, if the real world leaves you unhappy and dissatisfied, just imagine another one, more attuned to your needs. The silly Beatles' song "Imagine" is a perfect example.
This would explain why Amway freaks are so damned impervious to argument, facts, rational thought, and actual experience. They simply DON'T CARE about the real world. They are wrapped up in imagining their "dream." And the harder and fiercer they imagine that "dream," the closer it will come to fruition. They literally think that they can use "mind over matter."
I remember the Sixties, and the dopey therapies and mind-altering frauds that went on back then. If you were an unattractive woman, you were told to say to yourself "I am a lovely and beautiful woman!" And if you did this enough, men would be falling at your feet in adoration.
I think that Amway types are just like this, from the evidence that I see here on your blog and on others. Whenever an Amway freak shows up here to defend the business, his primary argument isn't based on any real facts or evidence, but on "faith" and "belief." If I believe that I'll become rich, then I'm bound to become rich!
It's stupid and pathetic, but it's very powerful.
Oddly enough, one thing that uplines teach is "if the dream is big enough, the facts don't matter". I believe they teach this because some IBOs find the numbers posted by Amway showing that only .26 reach the gold level and .0018 (or something similar) reaches diamond.
Also, IBOs mostly find losses on their profit loss balance sheet so they need to teach the downline stuff like this to deflect or hide the fact that they're losing money.
It's so sad. I recall a guy dying of cancer who was edified in front of the group because he could have been at home with his family while he was dying but chose to attend the Amway function so he could "better his life and leave his business to his family". Looking back, what a joke and the poor guy deprived himself quality time with family and friends while chasing an illusion that will never materialize. I don't know what happened to that guy but I'm 100% certain that the function didn't make his life better in the end.
New Age thinking is sometimes called "magical thinking" by anthropologists who study primitive tribes. It is the superstitious belief that if you perform certain rituals or incantations, a desired result will be obtained.
In the case of Amway, I suggest that we call it "Tinkerbelle thinking," after the Disney film Peter Pan, in which the fairy Tinkerbelle is saved by urging the audience to "wish hard enough" and "to believe."
If you are in the grip of Tinkerbelle thinking, the facts don't matter. Amway is all about dreams and self-delusion and fantasy.
Yep IBOs are deluded if fthey think they're going to go diamond in Amway. If someoe could step back and analyze what's going on without hype, they would see thru the scam.
What's interesting is the way in which Amway freaks get violently angry if you express skepticism about (or heaven forbid, make fun of) the Amway business. The evidence for that is overwhelming both on this blog and Anna Banana's. Why are they so touchy and defensive?
If they were really getting rich in Amway, they wouldn't pay the slightest attention to any criticism. But when they get angry, it shows that the criticism and the skepticism have hit a very sore spot.
They're not getting rich, and deep down they know it, but they can't possibly admit it to themselves or to others. And they certainly can't bring it up with anyone in the Amway racket. They'll be accused of "negativity."
Amwayers must live in an unbelievable state of suppressed tension and anxiety. Does anyone have any stories about nervous breakdowns among Amway types?
I believe they live in denial. I mean seriously, if they were earning 6 figure income with little effort, they wouldn't care one bit about this blog.
As I am sitting in Las Vegas and seeing all success samples around. I believe on what I saw . It have been couple months in business , I saw some fall out, some moved up, but most people just hanging there. It actually means it is a real business. Most start up business went down in a year or two and just few of them can really grow big. However , if you start a business, would you dream big and ask your partners to do the same? Should you not believe in what you doing?
You say you "see" success. What does that mean? If I show you a picture of a mansion, does that make me successful?
No picture of mansion was showed. We all know the composition plan and we know about the cost of doing the business as I am doing it , it is easy to get a good idea the income range. If you talking about facts , I visit the house purchase by the diamond I know and she had introduced the broker to me as I am considering getting one in the same area. When I said I saw , it means two things. Some of them we have been living and working for months and saw their income growing or even some of the pay checks . Some of them are being public award by Amway.
What about you? Have you be working close with an successful amway IBO in recent months?
Are your diamonds paying cash for their homes?
I am not sure about it but why have they should pay at cash ? With current interest rate it would make no sense to pay house with cash at all. You get much better return on invest money on stock or funds so getting 8-15% a year then pay those really low on house.
anyway, seeing someone making no money 5 years ago to have nice car and able to afford a house today, I think it means real money.
Diamonds often say they pay cash for everything, to imply that they are cash wealthy. They say paying interest is for broke losers who don't have the cash.
None of the diamond I known said so. Anyway , seeing is believing, you turn blind , you don't see , you don't believe .
So who are your upline diamonds?
My upline in US is a founder crown , FFA 40 . However who running out in Vegas is Zhou Jing Jing and she is new achived diamond on 2015 and she joined amway for only a little more than five years .
$150,000 is a decent income, Joe, Is the $150,000 income pre-tax or net? If it is pre-taxed then it is not sustainable for a luxurious lifestyle. It is only enough to pay your bills.
They are described as onion-skinned. Just prick a sore spot and you will see an ambot flared up with your "negativity." Makes me remind of a butterfly skin syndrome. Just prick and a bad reaction occurs.
$150K is gross income and it does not include taxes and business expenses. That $150K probably provides a middle class lifestyle at best.
LOL, that's funny
diamond make approximate 300k pre-tax, q12 diamonds made 550k to 2.2 million a year.
Where did you get the information that diamonds make $300K pre-tax?
Where did you get it as 150k? 150 K is the avg for just a Q12 emerald.
The diamond 300k is come from amway publish "money and reward" 2015 , you get it free from amway website or via the mobile app. It listed out the calculation of each one , total up 369,949 . Well it is a founder diamond list , so I took out the 40k founder diamond reward. Of course the number might vary each from one diamond. But 300k is a diamond commonly make in our system.
Okay, now factor in taxes, business expenses, travel, medical insurance. etc.
300K is not big money after all of that.
It sill good money. Amway provide business insurance to IBOs . It also provide a discount medical plan to IBOs. Travel cost is deductible from tax (while I don't consider there would a huge travel cost as all) I can safely said that a diamond could easily take home 200k net. How stable is diamond net work veries of course. But unlike you lose all income at once you get fired , if a diamond walk away, he would at very last able to collect some good money for one or two years without worry about anything. Once you built up such a big selling network and customer base , a stable income is possible if you have common sense in business.
A diamond would not take home $200K in the US. The tax rate is 39%. Also, diamonds travel a lot for business. They show the plan and attend functions. Even if the cost is deductible, it's still money out of pocket.
If a diamond walked away, if even one downline platinum fails to qualify, there is no diamond bonus.
That means the income is unstable....
Yes, that much is clear. Amway income is unstable.
A diamond can have 30-50 legs, only 6 of them have to be platinum. Legs grow itself , one drop , more might come out. Also, a diamond might have legs bigger than platinum.
we don't talk tax in detail .
More often, legs drop out and don't grow back. People who don't make money won't have a commitment to the business.
Since you are not in the business how you know that leg drops and don't come back? one leg might drop , another might grow. as platinum made petty well income part-time, they have a commitment to business .
I know this because Amway stats show that only 1 in 5 IBOs sponsor anyone. There's a good chance that a leg that drops out will not be back.
Platinums can make decent income if they do not participate in the training system. But I don't know of any platinums that don't.
Of course you don't know. Because you wasn't with them anymore . I am stay with diamond , platinum, new IBOs everyday . We paticipate in the training system in different degree but it don't see how can any of our platinum spend more than $100 a month with it . Diamond spend a little more but she also benifit more from traveling.
If someone can be a platinum without spending much on tools and functions, they might make some money. But I suspect you are highly understating the amount your group spends on tools and functions.
3 dollars per class and run approximate 10-13 class each month. Or you can get a monthly 20 dollars ticket for 20 dollars. workshop is free of charge or you pay 5 dollars if food is provided (or you bring a dish to share, or no charge if you don't take) .
You might have to drive around , however you also have to drive to work, this cost veries but it won't be so hight because we car pool a lot.
Then, there is fuction cost up to 100 dollars , and up to twice a year. We don't really push low pin members to attend the fuction , since we usually run out of ticket easily. But anyway, tools just a very small and reasonable spending in our system.
$100 is still expensive though, I think the cost is around $30 and the $70 goes to the profit of uplines. What you get from spending $100? Nothing, no business advice is given, all they teach is "if we can, so can you" mantra which is nothing but to "hype up" an individual.
Not to mention Quiran could not ever verify that sales went up as a result of the function. Only sales of seminar tickets to upline that is.
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