Friday, May 24, 2019

Why Did I Join Amway?

For people who have already joined Amway and are trying to make a buck, only to see net losses month after month, you have to wonder at times why you joined Amway. As an IBO, I initially joined as it was pitched to me that I could easily earn a couple of hundred dollars a month, which could make a big impact on my life at the time. Of course it made sense that I needed to invest a little bit of money to get started and to learn about how to run a business.

When I got started, there was a lot of hype and excitement in my business. I sponsored people and my business was on its way. I was touted as a mover and shaker and even got to attend some home board plans with my upline diamond. Even though I did as I was advised, had the parameters in the business that were recommended, I noticed that any cash I had earned still resulted in a loss, or if I made some money, the "next major function" ate it up and then some. As you should know, there are four major functions and a bunch of regional ones. But for many, the major functions take place out of your area, requiring travel, sometimes by air.

It was at the function called "family reunion" where I started to figure out what was happening. My upline platinum was having us "hang out" after the function at about 1:30 am. He started talking about how the business has nothing to do with money. That we made friends, became nicer people, better spouses or parents, and that money was the least important aspect of the business. While many nodded in agreement, I was thinking what the heck??? I wouldn't have joined and "invested" that much time and money into a business where I was "moving and shaking" but not making money.

Many IBOs are at a point where it may be hard to quit. You may have invested some time, money, and effort into your business and you may have been programmed to think that quitting is failure or that success is right around the corner and you don't want to quit too soon. But I urge you to look at facts. What is your bottom line net income? It is red numbers? Is it a recurring loss, primarily because of tool and function purchases? If that is true, ask yourself why you joined. Was it to be a nicer person or to earn some money?

What are your prospects of making a net profit soon if you are breaking even or taking losses? Amway leaders themselves have often said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Where are you at?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Making friends? Becoming nicer people? Being better spouses and parents? Making money is not that important?

Here's an open question to all Amway assholes: Do you actually think that the Fortune 500 companies go where they are by following that business philosophy?

Anonymous said...

I find that there are so many contradictions communicated by leaders within the functions for Amway. The reason why this seems to be true is because there are no set objectives within the "business." They try to make it seems as though you're not a salesperson within the business by presenting the smoke and mirrors of making friends, becoming nicer people and being better spouses and parents. At the same time however, leaders also present different ways to communicate with different personality types. That would suggest to me that you're being encouraged to sell someone on an idea and also a product. If the business is about making friends, becoming nicer people and being better spouses and parents then why aren't these the only things that are being promoted? Why is it that in some circumstances people are being shown the untold wealth that you can achieve in the business if there's supposed to be more emphasis on the aforementioned aspects of the business. On top of the untold wealth that is being promoted through the business I also fail to see how Amway brings families together. The reason why is because they encourage people to spend more time with "like minded" people and not their own families that may not have the same vision. If an individual is convicted in their vision then detractors from that vision should have very minimal effect on that person's desire to succeed. Pushing all of the bs aside the main objective when running any business should be to come out with a net profit and not a loss. Many if not all IBO's are unable to show any empirical evidence that this is in fact the case when you participate in Amway. It's easy to show a picture of a cheque but it also begs the question. How much money was spent to earn that cheque. No IBO has ever been able to show me a profit loss statement which is elementary when running any kind of business. There's no evaluation for success.