Many people pitch Amway as an easy, and somewhat shortcut to riches. It's all over the internet, it's what I saw as an IBO, and I have good reason to believe that many still pitch Amway in this manner. I believe that people want to believe that you can create wealth part time in 2-5 years. IBOs and prospects may be told "it's not get rich quick", but 2-5 years to quit your job and live off ongoing lifelong residual income sure sounds like the pitch of a get rich quick scam. It is what has contributed to Amway's current bad reputation.
A typical IBO (not counting those who do nothing), according to the "plan" will consume and possibly sell some goods on their way to 100 PV, which will earn them about a $10 bonus from Amway. There might be some profit from sales to customers, but there are also expenses involved in running a business. If an IBO is on the system, then their expenses might run from $100 or so to $500 a month, depending on level of commitment (brainwashing). In the end, a flawed system and generally non competitive pricing and products leads to most IBOs eventually quitting. The vast majority of IBOs on the system will wind up with a net loss, even with a tremendous amount of effort. Seems that effort has no relationship with success in Amway. Based on my experience, deception and lies seem to be a better way to succeed in Amway than by hard work.
But what if someone basically worked a part time job instead of Amway? If someone simply got a 20 hour a week job at $10 an hour (not that difficult), someone could earn about $800 a month gross income, or about $9600 a year. In ten years, even with no raises in salary, that person would have earned close to $100,000 more income. That money, if invested into a diverse portfolio can be the nest egg that would allow someone to retire early, or to retire more comfortably than most. And that salary is guaranteed if you work the hours.
In Amway, there are no assurances of anything, even if you work 40 hours a week. The only assurance if that you will help your upline earn more than yourself by moving products. If you are on the system, you are basically paying your upline (via tool purchases) for the privilege of boosting your upline's volume. It is why uplines teach you to "never quit" and to be "core". These virtues help assure your upline of profits, but does little for the rank and file IBOs. I write this blog post just to stimulate thought amongst IBOs and prospects. There are better and easier options than the Amway opportunity. If you are reading this, you are looking at one potential alternative. It's your job to decide.
Back in the 1970s, a story was told in Amway about some young kid in Florida who was not yet of legal age to sponsor any down-line. So all he did was go around his neighborhood and the immediate vicinity, selling Amway products at retail to customers. He managed to make a nice bit of change doing so.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if the story is true, or if it was just made up by Amway freaks to convince potential recruits that selling Amway products was easy. But let's assume for the moment that it is true.
The kid made money because he lived in an America that is now gone. It was a country where people knew their neighbors, socialized with them, lived pretty much in the same place all their lives, and were happy to cooperate with each other.
Today, even small-town America isn't like that. Most people live self-sequestered lives, wrapped up in themselves, their wide-screen TV sets, their computers, their video games, and their opioid drugs. They don't want to answer the doorbell to talk to a salesman.
So while this kid may have made money in 1959, he would not make any today, and neither will any other Amway IBO who thinks he can get rich by retail to non-Amway clientele.
This is why the up-line in all the AMOs de-emphasize sales to the general public, or spout a lot of gas about "internet business."
There's actually no such thing as working "part-time" in Amway. If you are CORE, your entire life and activity and thought are enslaved to the Amway fake religion.
ReplyDeleteEvery single moment of your existence has to be wrapped up in being obsessed with PV, with recruiting new down-line, with using only Amway products, with screaming yourself hoarse at functions, with going to all meetings (no matter how pointless or repetitive), and with "dreaming" about your future wealth.
It's really a kind of mental illness, like an obsessive-compulsive syndrome, or monomania. CORE members of Amway are in fact insane, and their insanity is what enriches their up-line.
Anonymous at 10:13, you are right. My spline said "serious" IBOs work 24/7 365 days a year on their business. Part time 10-15 hurt a week is to make it sound palatable but in reality, they want total dedication.
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