One of the things I heard as an Amway IBO and still hear today, is that people who do not view Amway as favorable, or decided to quit and walk away from the Amway opportunity are "broke" or "losers" or "broke losers". As an IBO I remember one of the upline saying that IBOs are winners, and therefore, if you are not an IBO, you must be a loser. I still see much of that today. I'm not sure why that kind of teaching still exists, especially when most people who work for minimum wage earn more than most IBOs.
I suppose it's a form of subtle pressure used by upline to prevent people from quitting, as nobody wants to be labeled a loser. It creates an "us" versus "them" attitude. One of Amway's co founders, Rich DeVos, stated quite clearly in a speech that IBOs should not use the term loser just because someone doesn't agree that Amway is the greatest. And I agree.
Many people who are not IBOs are very successful and many people are simply not suited for or want to run a "side" business. Some people are not in need of an extra income and some people do not want to sacrifice family time. IBOs should respect other people's wishes if they are turned down when offering the opportunity to others. Also, because of previous unethical behaviors of IBOs, many people simply do not wish to get involved in an opportunity where such behavior exists. Sure, not all IBOs act that way, but enough of them still exists. And what's more, it appears that not much, if anything has been done about it.
But here's the biggest reason, in my opinion, why IBOs should not be calling anyone derogatory names just because the prospect does not wish to join Amway or purchase goods. There's no reason to burn bridges with a potential customer or future IBO. Let's say I entered a store but for whatever reason, decided not to make a purchase that day. As I exit the store, the store owner calls me a loser or broke, or not having guts. What is the chance that I would want to do business with that store or store owner ever again? Furthermore, many or most Amway business owners conduct business person to person and face to face. If I insult people who don't initially do business with me, then I am doing a lousy job of PR and chances are by business will fail. Yet that is exactly what many IBOs do.
IBOs and upline leaders should read this and think twice before using the term loser or broke loser. You could be burning bridges with potential future customers or IBOs.
13 comments:
Back in the 1970s, when I was briefly in Amway, one of the major figures in the racket was a guy named Charlie Marsh, who had gotten way up there in the Amway hierarchy. I think he had over twenty "DDs" under him (that meant "Direct Distributors," which I suppose is like a Platinum today).
Anyway, people in Amway used to rave about how brilliant Charlie Marsh was, and they told the following about him. Whenever he explained the "Plan" to somebody, if they turned him down he felt very happy and he smiled broadly. Charlie gave the following reason for why he did this: "I just found another person who is not as smart as I am! That makes me feel good!"
Notice the basically hostile and arrogant attitude? The driving force behind Charlie Marsh was not just greed, but a desire to have a sense of his own superiority to others.
It survives today among the Amway freaks who insist on calling anyone not involved in Amway a "loser."
It's ironic that anyone in Amway would call anyone a loser when the vast majority of Amway IBOs are operating at a net loss.
I have a close family member that went into Amway/WWDB about 4 months ago, thinking they will be able to "retire" from their J O B in 3 to 5 years. This family member is their mid twenties and made close to $60,000 last year in the health care field, and from what I have read on this blog it is very unlikely for an IBO to make that kind if money, and jf by chance they do the road to financial freedom will destroy their life on the way to the top, and then what is the person left with!
Hello Anonymous, not sure why, but seems to be the case very often, that various health care employees become victims of Amway. Personally I think it is because of lack of economic lessons during health care studies. In my country even many doctors falls victim to Amway and one doctor even had a scandal and had been fired as instead of prescription medicine he pitched Amway products hard to the patients.
If your relative is making close to $60,000 per year in health care, he or she would be INSANE to go into Amway or any other MLM racket.
For a new IBO, the great bulk of that $60,000 salary would be sucked up in all sorts of fees and functions and purchases of unsellable products. And without any significant down-line, your relative would go broke very quickly.
Also, the odds on your relative making anywhere close to $60,00 per year in Amway are practically nonexistent! Amway's published figures admit that close to 99% of IBOs make nothing at all in the business. They are simply bled dry by their up-line.
The $60,000 per year job in health care will become nothing but a cash-cow for supporting the fake Amway business. Moreover, if you relative becomes an Amway fanatic, pestering co-workers or other health care employees with the "Plan" and neglecting duties at work, he or she will be fired pretty quickly. And then what?
Tell this person to grow up.
Thank you for your reply I appreciate your thoughts and comments. Actually this close family member is my daughter. She was a wonderful human being the kind soul, humble and very giving. She has tremendous work ethic and has a need to always help others. I think that trade in her is what Drew her into this Amway thing. Being told that she will accomplish Financial Freedom to help people and make a difference on a wide-scale. This whole ordeal has been very Troublesome and heartbreaking for me, as I see it only two hurt her future and take away her spirit and the lovely person she is. I cannot seem to get her to reason with me or even look at anything other than what they are telling her. I'm at a loss if I should keep on her or hand it over to God and just pray. It is truly heartbreaking
I was very angry when they pried into her personal finances only to find out how much money she had available to dump into this business. That is exactly what I told her. It is very frustrating to say the least. If it was just a matter of losing money I would say well that's a lesson hard learned. But unfortunately it's not just a loss of money, it appears to be a loss of the person's whole self.
I think maybe the reason they become victims is because the people who are prospecting them are very good at picking out people that they suspect have the necessary cash flow to support their Amway business. And then once they sit down with them and come up with this budget and they know their income and expenses then they know that this person has the money to do this crazy thing! A lot of people in the healthcare field do make a decent amount of money. Not millionaires but certainly enough to live a comfortable happy fulfilled content life
I agree. Also, many professions in the healthcare field do require rigorous studies and commitment and I think that trait of work ethic Etc don't give up don't give up translates into amway's trick of getting people in that fall for the dream and will not give up until they reach it or go broke unfortunately, very sad
A very close friend of mine started off with Amway with a cautious, open mind and over time has more or less become a single-minded obsessive head-case about it, totally in thrall to her upline and their gilded tongues.
It is an evil cult that destroys peoples families, their finances and robs them of their free time.
She has by her own words admitted you need another job to fund the Amway "business" and the hypocrisy and lies that surround nearly everything about it is breathtaking. This cognitive occlusion bias that the Amway high priests push on their subjugates seems to have no bounds. While they are trying to capture others and lead them to the slaughter, they all say they are "helping".
I am so sorry to hear about your daughter, Amway is worse than a drug addiction of which at least society admits there is a problem and can provide support and help.
More and more an inescapable conclusion becomes clear to me. Amway isn't primarily a scam. It isn't primarily a pyramid scheme. And it certainly isn't primarily a business in any rational sense.
Amway IS A GODDAMNED CULT!
There's no other way to explain the astounding fact that otherwise intelligent and rational persons join the business and stay on in it despite being aware of the fact that they are losing money, will likely never make money, will never recruit any significant down-line, will never sell any substantial amount of Amway products to the public, and that what they are being told by their up-line is just exaggerated hype.
What kind of a person buys an endless series of silly tapes and CDs that do nothing but parrot the same empty rhetoric over and over? Or signs up for a useless and obsolete system like CommuniKate? Or attends expensive "functions" in far-off cities where nothing happens except hero-worship of aging Diamonds? Or spends hours at a brainless "night owl" when one has to get up at 8 AM for work?
Only persons with some kind of religious or cultic commitment would accept all of this overt failure and loss and futility without getting out of it. Only a cult can convince you to do something that you recognize to be self-destructive and ruinous. Only cultic loyalty can command that sort of obedience.
If people were in Amway just for the money, they wouldn't stay a second longer than it took them to realize that the whole thing is a rip-off and a racket. But what about the ones who stay, month after month and year after year, like Joe Cool's doctor friend? Only a cultic, religious impulse can explain such wilful blindness.
Some anti-Amway websites try hard to convince people with rational arguments and statistics that the thing is a bad idea. But I think that sort of approach is only going to work with a limited number of persons who are drawn to Amway. Many others are drawn to it as a kind of hypnotic dream or vision. And it is very hard to disabuse such visionary persons of their delusions. They will lose money, month after month and year after year, and their cultic, mystical faith will remain unshaken.
Let's face it -- when you deal with committed Amway freaks, you are dealing with robotic zombies.
I am at a loss and torn between what I should do. My children are my life, even if they are adults. It is breaking my heart. My gut instinct and mothers intuition is telling me this is not good, and I know it is not. If there was ever a time in my life I wish I was wrong it would be now. I feel like if I do nothing, she will slip away and deeper into this nightmare, and if I keep begging her to get out she will push me away. I dont know where to turn anymore. She has flat out told me she is doing this whether I support her or not and that she trusts her mentors. It doesnt matter what I say, think, or feel. Its her life and I have to watch it get destroyed? I never thought I would have conflict with my daughter like this. I hate waking up in the morning to have to worry about this for another day. I just want things the way they used to be ��
Anonymous @9:29 PM, It's very sad to say, but Amway, the way you describe your daughter's situation is very cut like. They get the prospect to agree on things such as a job is bad, a business is good, and Amway can make you rich. Amway can make you rich IF you listen and follow their advice. That's basically the hook.
Then the upline will tell their prospects that their families will try to drag them down, like how crabs allegedly pull each other back into a bucket when one tries to escape. They tell you that you need to expect your best friends and family to oppose Amway so the new recruit is defensive from the start. It's actually interesting psychology but it's also sad how trusted friends and family gets shunned unless they fully support someone in Amway.
It's like warning someone that walking off a cliff is a bad idea and the Amway person saying "how would you know, have you done it yourself? Or that you need to offer better ideas to make a lliving if you criticize Amway.
Sadly, for most, the only cure for Amway is to let it runs its course like a cold. The sat majority of people snap out of it quickly (a few months) but some get bitten hard like my former sponsor who is still in Amway since the 1990's. It's a waste of your life.
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