Amway Friends For Life?

I read something somewhat recently written by an IBO, that your real friends would not walk away or cease to be your friends because of involvement in Amway. I do not believe your good friends would abandon anyone because of their involvement in Amway. However, they might avoid you for a while if you are always talking about Amway, or bugging them to join Amway. They might also feel that it is the IBO who has deserted the friendship in order to attend the endless number of Amway meetings and conventions.

As a former Amway IBO myself, I know that I sacrificed many birthday parties, backyard barbeques and other important social events such as watching nieces and nephews play soccer or baseball.. Our upline told us that these minor sacrifices would pay us back a hundredfold in the future. Looking back, not a single IBO crossline or my sponsor, ever got any significant payout from Amway. I believe that some IBO's relationships with friends and family may suffer, but not because of their involvement in Amway per say, but because the IBO is putting the relatiionships on hold while they pursue their Amway dream. It's almost like a friend who leaves home to attend an out of town college. Eventually they come home and your friendship is still there.  

As an IBO, I remember our upline telling us that we needed to separate ourselves at times, to avoid negative. I believe this is still true today, based on what I see coming from current IBOs. IBOs might call it "association", where they think they are "hanging out" with successful people, but the reality is that the masses of IBOs are broke dreamers hanging out with each other while the diamonds associate with each other.  Going to a rock concert doesn't mean you are associating with the band right?

Ironically, our upline taught us that we as IBOs were all friends for life. I recall a high level WWDB leader commenting that an IBO who "quits" is leaving their friendship, therefore the remaining group is not responsible for the failed relationship between current and former IBOs. When an IBO says friends for life, what they really mean for most is that you are friends for life as long as you never quit Amway. This is one of the reasons why I believe that Amway has been compared to a cult.  

Shortly after leaving the Amway business, my father passed away. Not a single person upline or crossline called or visited to pay their respects or to express their sympathy. Friends for life is just something they say to impress prospects.