As an Amway/WWDB IBO, I was told that I "needed" to attend all functions. Attending all functions meant "all" is what I was told. Brad Duncan once had a tape in the true north series where he said that downline should not cancel standing orders even when IBOs quit, because there would then be an urgency to replace that person. I was in WWDB and while not everyone in WWDB may have taught this, our group was told that we should purchase 5-7 additional tapes/cds/audios in addition to standing order because we needed to listen to new material daily and because we should be passing out these materials as they will sponsor new people. To date, I do not know of anyone who passed out a tape or cd and had someone decide to join the Amway business as a result of listening to that tape or cd.
When I was in the business (In WWDB), our group was told that WWDB was a non profit organization. That was quickly retracted, but still, the WWDB leaders stood on stage in front of tens of thousands of IBOs and said nobody made a profit from tools. We now know that it was a lie. We also know that many of these leaders are still teaching, and as far as I know, not a single WWDB leader has ever been accountable for these lies. Some of these lies may have caused untold financial damage to downline. I'm certain I would have been less dedicated to tools if I had known that some uplines made most of their income from tools and that their advice was a conflict of interest. Some Amway defenders are currently talking about how some negative misinformation about Amway is hurting their business, but ironically, it would appear that most damage to Amway has been done by IBOs themselves, such as tricking people to meetings. As far as I know, not a single person has ever been held liable for the financial damages to downlines and former IBOs who lost money by being told lies about Amway.
Now I also would like to emphasize that I do not believe the tools work and do not produce any results. While Amway defenders will claim that most if not all new emeralds and diamonds are on the system, they fail to mention that there are also tens or hundreds of thousands of people who work the system without results. As far as I know, there is no bonafide unbiased evidence that suggests that the system produces any results. It is why IBOs end up later talking about being a nicer person of how their marriage was strengthened by joining the system. While these are nice side benefits (if true), these reasons are not why you started a business. A business exists to make a profit, yet uplines make all kinds of excuses as to why IBOs did not profit, even placing the blame on the IBOs who trusted them.
It brings me to the real purpose of having tools. The REAL purpose of tools is to make profits for your upline. I believe the tools were invented as a way to motivate and train new and distance IBOs, but apparently, GREED eventually set in and many uplines started emphasizing tools, not because they wanted downline success, but because their tool businesses were wildly successful with thousands of captive downline dedicated to the system. I believe it is why I saw many IBOs who worked hard, never missed a meeting or function, did nto sponsor any downline, but were still told they needed more and more tools.
I believe the real purpose of having tools is so your upline's tools business can be profitable.
This is so true, I say it by experience, I was faithful serious for 3 years that was a long ago,
ReplyDeleteYou know what is the most that I regret is probably $3,000 in additional convention and seminar tickets that my uplines encouraged me to buy supposedly so "I had to" bring prospects or brand new IBOs. I never did and I did contact and share the plan
But anyway
I was just thinking today: when the first cds or events at a cost I don't know who was the first, was it Yeager?
What was the real porpuse?
Even if it was to help others to become diamonds, it's clear that soon they realized of the REAL! Business
And the Golden question by me is.
Why the dishonesty and not say it openly, that the real business is the cds( cassettes) back then, books, seminars and conventions,
Well maybe the reason is because only the founders and probably a handful of people on the top!
I don't think that back then even the emeralds got part of that profit but who knows
When I first started the owner of the organization MDE LATINO, was a diamond and he became very rich at the cost of ruining so many families lives(he only had 9 emeralds in his organization of about 10,000) well my emeralds got tired of that and broke apart, founded their own organization so they could ¡fill their pockets too!
You see?
To give them a little credit they share with starting platinum and up, but I don't think it's much
You know that they are after that Green!
Anyway I'm not participating anymore in this game.
As far as "Oh this business save my life"
Now I know that I can read and change my life without wasting so much money in those organizations.
I apologize for my spelling, my first language is Spanish.
Why wouldn't just a few CDs or downloads be enough? Why on God's green earth would people need tools monthly (more often?) to schlep soap? It's mind boggling to an outsider. What the heck do the leaders say on these tools? Morbid curiosity leads me to almost want to listen to one.
ReplyDeleteThe leaders say you need to continually feed yourself fresh information to keep your business going. But what they really mean is that the leaders need a steady stream of income and the way for that to happen is for people to keep buying more audios and attending more functions.
ReplyDeleteThe more honest defenders of Amway will say that tools are necessary to keep IBOs "fired up" -- that is, filled with enthusiasm for the Amway dream.
ReplyDeleteBut what the hell kind of business needs to be pumped up with hype and enthusiasm every week?
The answer to that is easy: A business that is perpetually failing to show a profit.
This sounds silly to an outsider with common sense. I could see maybe a starter pack with 6 CDs and a book that a newbie could use for reference. The idea of being on standing order is ludicrous. How do the Amway reps fall for this? It sounds creepy, similar to mind control when combined with the functions.
DeleteThe irony of standing order is that the recording is usually made at a function. So IBOs pay to attend the function and then get to pay again for the recording of what they already heard live.
ReplyDeleteWhat most people don't know is that a diamond's monthly income can very small because something like 2/3 of a diamond's income from Amway is in the form of an annual bonus. So for example, if a diamond makes $150K, that means the monthly earnings might be around $4000 per month, which is poverty if you live in California or Hawaii. LOL
That's why the tools are a hard sell. They can make tens of thousands of dollar a month selling standing orders, voicemail, books and function tickets. A lot of smaller functions are cash only types so the diamond leaves with a suitcase full of cash.
And then there are 4 major functions each year which is where the diamonds make the real money. And one of these major functions happens every quarter. Depending on the size of the venue, they might earn six figure honorariums for these big functions.