Friday, August 26, 2016

Amway IBOs Fail By Design?

So many IBOs quit and fail, I think the Amway corporation might need a calculator to keep track. And of the IBOs who work and try hard, most of those IBOs also end up in failure and losing money. After years of blogging about Amway, I believe it is because the uplines and the tools they sell to help IBOs are ineffective. When I was an IBO, I don't recall many tools that contained information teaching me how to run a business or how to run an Amway business. There was no talk about tracking income and expenses. In fact, our group was advised to ignore the facts. The scary thing about this is that it is evident that some groups are still teaching this.

Many IBOs and prospects are lured into the business by displays of wealth and not because of bonafide and verified business credentials. A friend of mine sold his franchise business a few years ago and part of what he provided to the prospective buyer was the last three years of his tax returns, personal and business returns. But try asking an upline to even see a business profit loss statement or a schedule C business tax return and you are likely to be told it is none of your business. Instead, upline may show off a photocopy of a bonus check which may be an annual or a once in a lifetime bonus. Or upline may show off a sports car as evidence that they are successful. Sadly, some of these uplines might be broke, they may owe back taxes to the IRS and/or they may even be in debt but simply showing off wealth.

Some uplines have the nerve to discourage young people from furthering their education because they would rather they channel their money into Amway and tools. Some people are told to make family sacrifices to attend more functions or to buy more standing orders. I will grant that not all uplines do this but based on my experience, I would say more uplines do this than not. They will apply subtle pressure on new IBOs and the newbies probably don't know much about Amway or business so they basically have to choice but to trust a diamond who has allegedly achieved the pinnavle of success in Amway. Then uplines will often betray their disciples by saying that failure is the personal responsibility of teh IBO. That advice needs to be discerned by the new IBO and bad advice should be discarded, as if a new IBO would know what is good or bad advice.

I aso see experienced IBOs who don't seem to know how taxes work. I see IBOs who were given the impression that Amway is easy and that they will work once and enjoy the fruits of their labor forever. Oddly, I don't know of a single IBO who did the work once and sat back collecting residual income forever. I find it odd that even tenured crown ambassadors continue to keep busy work schedules. I suppose they could just enjoy this lifestyle but still I find it odd that nobody I know of could specifically name an IBO who achieved diamond and higher and sat back collecting income while enjoying the beaches of the world.

Seems that IBO turnover and failure is more common than not in the AMO world. It also appears that incoming IBOs are like fuel to a fire. Without continuous recruitment and replacement of IBOs who quit, the organization would eventually fall apart along with the bonuses that the higher ups enjoy. It is my informed opinion that many IBOs fail because they aren't taught sound business principles. Despite the constant flow of cds, voice messages and functions and meetings, it doesn't seem as if any practical information is passed from upline to downline. Only messages of never quitting and continuing to dedicate themselves to the system. The result is inevitable and the expected result is failure. That failure is by design, expect the IBOs don't see it.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The cds, voice messages, tapes, and speeches that are part of the Amway "Tools" racket say only one thing: "Rah-rah-let's-go-team!" You pay through the nose to get a pep-talk.

Imagine if they sold you a cd that showed you how to keep double-entry book-keeping for your Amway business.

But they'll never do that, will they? It would show IBOs how much money they're losing.

Joecool said...

Yes, the upline don't want you to realize that you're losing money. For that reason, they tell you no cross lining (speaking to fellow IBOs). Oddly, attending a functions and listening to a diamond other than your own is also cross lining but that's considered okay.

Anonymous said...

In short, they don't want you to compare notes. If you did, you'd find out from another IBO that you and he were both being ripped off.

That's why Amway wants every IBO to be like a snail in a shell, unable to communicate with anyone outside of the shell's walls. You can only communicate with your up-line, and in his case you're not allowed to question him about anything.

And they call this the "The American Way"? It's much more like the Communist Way.

Anonymous said...

This is very true. A friend who recently joined the WWDB told me about it and he said the best thing about this system is that they don't focus on the revenue model and business acumen because it is an unconventional business. No one learns how to do the real business stuff since the system takes care of it for them - but they all call themselves business owners. Empowering but also deceiving and almost delusional.

Anonymous said...

It certainly is an "unconventional" business. It's a business where you lose money month after month, but still claim that you're "doing great."

It reminds me of an old Mutt-and-Jeff cartoon. Mutt says to Jeff, "Why are you so happy?" Jeff replies "Because my business is going so well! I bought a horse for ten dollars, and swapped it for a used car, then traded the used car for a small printing press, and then I sold the printing press for ten dollars!"

Mutt answers, "But you didn't make any money on all those deals!"

Jeff says "Maybe not, but look at all the business I did!"

That's Amway for you. It's straight out of the comic strips.