One of the silly defenses that Amway supporters use to defend their business is that it must not be a pyramid or it must be legitimate because you have the opportunity to earn more than your sponsor. While many downlines in fact do earn more than their sponsors, it's likely because about half of all IBOs quit in a year or less those who stay for even a year, when you factor in the business expenses for those who are on tools, the reality of suffering business losses also causes people to exit the business. It's not that hard to earn more than people who quit. But even at that, someone who quits is often better off than IBOs who continue because those on the system are losing money.
An IBO at the 100 PV level will earn about $10 in bonus income from Amway. If they are attending functions, buying standing orders and voicemail, they will operate at a loss. Thus, unless their business grows each month (highly unlikely, even if they do as upline advises) then they will suffer losses each month and those who quit will be better off. It is why I have stated that doing nothing or staying home and watching television can honestly be better options than joining Amway and the systems such as WWDB, N21 or BWW. It is why reasonable people can conclude that working for minimum wage, even a few hours a week makes you better off than joining Amway and the systems.
The defense that someone can out earn their upline is silly. The true benchmark of this statement would be for a new guy to start a business, and in 2-5 years, out earn someone like Bill Britt. It will never happen because upline has direct influence over the fortunes of their downline, even at the diamond level. It is why you have seen diamonds quit, or split from their upline to start their own training systems. They cannot affects change from downline, without upline consent, thus the breaking away from their "mentors" or leaders. At times there have even been lawsuits over the tools income. Do people really sue their mentors? Don't diamonds teach you that suing people is wrong? That you don't get something for nothing?
You can surely out earn your sponsor. All it takes is for your sponsor to quit. However, your sponsor quitting might mean you don't out earn your sponsor. See my example above. Taking losses is not out earning someone. Keep in mind that everyone in Amway is equal. You are all unpaid commissioned Amway salespeople, bound to Amway's terms and agreements. You don't own your downline. You don't really own much as an independent business owner. You can out earn your sponsor, but that means squidly diddly when your sponsor makes nothing or takes a loss. Come back and chirp when you out earn your upline diamond. Do I hear crickets chirping now? :-)
Wonderful. I'd asked a couple articles ago about whether it was feasible for an IBO to earn more than their upline, and I'm grateful that you've made an article addressing the issue. I think you got it exactly right. When your sponsor quits you'll be able to pass them, except they will likely not be operating at a loss anymore, so who really wins? I imagine crickets will be all you will hear from IBOs when it comes to somebody actually passing their upline if their upline doesn't quit. It just can't happen because the basic structure of this is a pryamid!
ReplyDeleteEverything in Amway is designed to favor up-line over down-line. And yes, this applies even to Diamonds, who must follow the orders of their sponsors like everybody else.
ReplyDeleteAn IBO could make more than his immediate sponsor, if he managed to push a great number of Amway products through retail sales to strangers. But how often will anybody in Amway be able to sell Amway products to a big customer base? It just ain't gonna happen! Even the various LOS groups don't bother to encourage retail sales.
In any case, no matter how much product you manage to sell, a cut of your profit goes to everybody in your up-line. This is why CORE types in Amway strive to develop both "width and depth," as they say. They try to sponsor as many individuals as they can, but they want those individuals to sponsor and develop down-lines of their own. This "width and depth" idea is simply a fancy way to say "get plenty of other people to work for free to enrich you."
Will this work? Only if nobody drops out (highly unlikely), and only if the persons recruited are uniformly dumb, financially ignorant, emotionally weak, susceptible to rhetoric about "dreams," and sheepishly committed to cult control.