Monday, March 14, 2016

Does Amway Create Millionaires?

I have heard from IBOs that they believe that Amway has created more millionaires than any other company in the US. I call complete BS on that claim. I am not saying that Amway hasn't created any millionaires. Obviously, the Amway owners are worth billions of dollars. But what the IBOs are apparently implying is that the diamonds are millionaires. I'm sure there are some diamonds who might very well be millionaires, especially if they are long tenured diamonds, in particular the crowns and higher. But conversely, I believe that many high level diamonds are not millionaires. I believe it is just as common for a diamond to be in debt as it is for 100 PV IBOs. I also believe that many diamonds did not accumulate their alleged wealth exclusively from Amway. I believe many diamond's wealth is a direct result of the tool and function sales and not so much from Amway. It makes perfect sense because the tools have a much higher margin of profit than the Amway products and lower level IBOs do not get any share of the tool and function profits.

The reason why this is an issue is because these big pins will stand on stage and show off what looks like excessive wealth and imply that it is their Amway income that pays for these mansions, sports cars, jet skis, and in some cases, aircraft. In the US, I attended a function called "Dream Nite" where these kinds of luxuries are displayed, to the tune of the song "I wanna be rich". The diamonds would say that you can have what they have, if only you will do what they advise. These functions still go on today. The diamonds imply that they all wake up when they want and travel and do whatever they want with no monetary worries. I believe they are just performing as illusionists. A diamond's income as reported by Amway, cannot support the lifestyles portrayed at these dream nights. and certainly not paying for mansions and aircraft in cash.

Stanley and Danko's book, "The Millionaire Next Door"
http://www.personalfinanceplaybook.com/2009/08/the-millionaire-next-door/

This book makes some very interesting points which I believe applies to Amway diamonds. I will outline the significant ones and I will comment below:

**Predictably, the data shows that most people who you believe to be very rich are not.

**High net worth individuals, statistically, tend to be people that live within their means. They don’t spend a lot of money. They don’t waste money. They tend to be pretty frugal people.

**The authors point out that most of the richest people you know aren’t driving expensive luxury automobiles. That’s what the people who want everyone to think they’re rich drive. This is what the diamonds do. Give the impression that they are wealthy when in fact they may just be middle class

**** Joe's commentary. The book does say that about 1/3 of millionaires acquired their wealth thru a J-O-B and saved and invested, but did mention that many millionaires were also business owners, such as a pest control company owner, etc. But based on the points made by the book above, I can see where it is likely that diamonds portray a wealthy lifestyle as a recruitment tactic, when the reality is they may be living very middle class lifestyles off stage, or may even be in debt. I have seen evidence of diamonds having their homes foreclosed and being in debt (Ruth Carter's book: Amway: Behind the Smoke and Mirrors). In 2009, there was also a report that Triple Diamond Greg Duncan filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy. The report indicated that he could not make his mortgages, or something to that tune. Odd, because when I was in WWDB, most of the upline leaders said diamonds paid cash for everything because paying interest to the bank wasn't very smart.

My question is why IBOs continue to make up these claims? Try googling millionaire or Amway millionaire. There is nothing to indicate that Amway was responsible for creating the "most millionaires" of any US company. If this were true, wouldn't Amway state it on their website? If someone finds any veracity about this claim, inform me and I will post it. Alas, you won't.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Amway zealots continue to make these absurd claims for a simple reason: IT'S THE ONLY WAY TO GET FOOLISH PERSONS TO SIGN ON AS IBOS.

Would you even think of joining Amway if you were told the truth -- that even Platinums and some higher pins must labor incessantly for the rest of their lives just to keep afloat financially? Or that being in Amway is an exclusive commitment of 100% percent of your time, energy, resources, and thought? Or that you are expected to buy scads of useless products, month after month, with no real chance of selling them? Or that your every word, act, purchase, and idle comment is subject to the scrutiny of a censorious up-line?

Nobody would join such a ridiculous, fake, make-believe business like Amway, unless they were given the expectation of being rich some day. hence all the stupid lies about "Amway millionaires."

Joecool said...

I believe you're correct. Without the façade of wealth and an "easy" life, why would anyone join Amway?

Unknown said...

Because the soaps are AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!! NUTRILITE IS AMAZING!!!! EVERYTHING AMWAY IS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE LAMP!!!!! I LOVE CHAIR!!!!!!!!! I feel that I have overused my exclamation points...

Anonymous said...

Watch what happens next, Joe. Some brain-dead Amway freak will show up on this thread claiming that his second cousin's best friend's brother-in-law has retired at age 27 as a multimillionaire from the Amway business.

Of course, there will be no names or proof or tax returns to back this claim up.

Unknown said...

You are the only one that I hear this statements . Why you keep making up such statements ?

Joecool said...

What was made up?

Unknown said...

Qiunan your research skills are atrocious...type in Amway Scam to your google search bar, then watch the magic as thousands of links come up talking about what Joe is saying. You sir are either seriously delusional or a liar...

Joecool said...

To be fair, I think Quinan is not from the USA.

Unknown said...

Joe,

Not sure how that has to do with anything...I'm sure there are plenty of websites that come up about these things in whatever country he is located. Also, he found this American website so that shouldn't stop him from finding others.

The other problem with that logic is like saying I don't believe in the Holocaust because I'm not from any countries that were effected in Europe.

Joecool said...

True that. What's odd is hoq Quinan says he attends functions but claims nobody is making money off it. That just doesn't add up. He backpeddled when I point out that functions are useless if sales don't go up more than what it costs to attend the function and for most people, their sales won't go up at all no matter how many functions they attend.

Unknown said...

I have tried to follow Qiunan's entries for a while now, and every time I have refuted a point he is somehow changing the topic. He doesn't understand business, he doesn't understand numbers, he doesn't understand manipulation and deception (which he commonly tries to use in this forum). He is a relatively uneducated person in this field, and I don't know if he has any formal education because his English isn't very good. Regardless the guy clearly has some money in his pocket to keep throwing in the toilet or burning at the almighty Amway Cross, so clearly they haven't taken away his livelihood yet. It is only a matter of time until Qiunan changes his tune and becomes a supporter of your blog, and chances are he is already on a bad path in his Country and failing because he is finding a boom echo in his area from the implosions happening in North America.

Joecool said...

Of course Quinan could be parroting what he hears from upline or just using some other tactic that he learned at a function. LOL

Anonymous said...

If somebody is indeed making money in Amway either through the selling of products or by the recruiting new down-line, then he doesn't need to buy motivational tools or attend any functions.

So if Qiunan Tang is doing as well as he claims in his Amway business, why is he bothering to attend these silly functions?

When you're making a profit, you don't need to go listen to a lot of speeches.

Joecool said...

True, real profit would be motivation enough to keep working and making more.

Unknown said...

I am not going to name call or use foul language or belittle anyone's dream. What I am going to do is tell the truth as I see it. My 21 year old step child has been recruited by Amway. They saw a financially and emotionally vulnerable person and swooped in. She spouts the party line about being "FREE" in 2 to 5 years. All of her free time and her money is spent on attending rallies and listening to "communikates". When we question her business plan (she doesn't have one) or her profit & loss accounting (she doesn't do that) she gets angry and accuses us of being NEGATIVES. She is putting Quixtar (Amway) before family and she's digging a hole of credit card debt. Her upline created a budget for her that doesn't include paying rent to her mother because, hey, it's only her mother and family doesn't matter. Her dad and I won't buy from Amway and we're cutting her off our cell phone account because she's using up all our data,unapologetically, for her "communikates". She no longer wants anything to do with us. Perhaps one day she'll come around. Amway destroys relationships, families, & lives. Any doubts? Read Merchants of Deception. It's free.

Joecool said...

Thanks for sharing that story. It's amazing what uplines can convince their followers to do, even when it's obvious that the Amway business does not work.

Anonymous said...

He will get some shit kicking from upline if he refuses to attend those silly functions.

Joecool said...

The upline are ruthless when it comes to selling tools. They would even tell people to sell their cars and homes if needed to get to that next function.

Anonymous said...

Uplines don't want any downline to reach their level because if downline succeeds and reaches the same level then the tools profit would be split among them and uplines don't like profit sharing. It is upline's pure greed.

Joecool said...

Upline says they want your success but they really don't care as long as the tool sales are flowing. You're right, more diamonds means less tool profits.

Unknown said...

From what I understand, you have no choice but to attend the functions or you get shamed and ridiculed by your upline... that sounds like a sound business practice, yup yup... My step daughter, who I wrote about above, talks about how supportive they all are of her "business" yet they cut her off when her Visa is too racked up to buy another communikate... It is laughable (or would be if it weren't so damn sad) how she calls herself an entrepreneur yet cannot have an intelligent conversation about business. At what point do they teach a person how to actually run a business? NEVER....

Joecool said...

It's sad but the diamonds are ruthless businessmen who pretend to care about you and your success. The reality is they care about you while are making them wealthy by purchasing tools and functions. You won't hear from them once you stop attending functions.

Anonymous said...

To Tuesday'sChyldeB --

How old is your step-daughter? Maybe this is just a temporary youthful phase, and she'll grow out of it.

If she has a sensible boyfriend, maybe he'll be able to talk rationally to her.

Joecool said...

When someone is indoctrinated, it's hard to talk them out of it. Normally they must snap out of it by themselves.