The Poor Sap?

 I recall being an Amway IBO.  When I started, I was excited about the possibility of making some extra money, but hadn't really thought about and grand ideas such as early retirement, or walking the beaches of the world while cash rolled in by the barrels.  But my sponsor and upline put these grandiose ideas in my head by constantly talking about it and making it seem that people who didn't desire such things weren't really dreamers or thinking big enough.  After a few of the rah rah meetings and smaller types of gatherings, I got on board to give it a try.  I was told by my sponsor that if you're going to put out effort, why not got all the way and try for the big score.  

But of course, looking back, it was just a scam and a lie.  Most IBOs don't know that the vast majority of IBOs fail and lose money.   Even those who put in an earnest investment of time and money will fare no better than those who do nothing and quit.  The ones who put in time and money into their businesses ironically, end up worse off because they expended more time and money to wind up with a net loss.  As I look back now, there are so few diamonds that are new.  It seems like the same old tired and ancient diamonds are still on stage, doing the same old schtick to talk downline into building a big business and to participate in the system of books, cds, audios, voicemail and functions.  The solution to Amway business failure is always to buy more tools and/or attend more functions.

The sage advice from upline to consume more tools and functions is simply because upline profits handsomely from these tools and functions so they are pimping it because there is no diamond lifestyle without augmenting Amway income with tool and function income.  If you get down and dirty and unravel all the potential Amway bonuses, you will see that Diamonds really don't make all that much money directly from Amway.  Not the kind of money that will sustain a lifestyle of excess and leisure without additional income from tools.  The insidious part is that Upline will pretend to care about your success and that they teach downline out of the goodness in their hearts.  Ever wonder why all their precious teaching you costs you money which they profit off of?

What's sad is I vividly recall attending some functions where the diamond is giving some inspiration speech about maybe he was broke an one time, until he got "serious" about Amway and now after all the sacrifices, they have made it and you can too.  I recall so many poor saps with tears in their eyes crying because they believe they can and will achieve diamond and join the luxurious trappings with the other diamonds.  All the while the diamond knows that the vast majority will fail and lose money.  What's more, downline that follow their advice will wind up worse off because they will have lost more time and money that they can never make up.  One of the sacrifices expected by upline is to make Amway your #1 priority, even if they might teach differently on stage.

The poor sap who believes and tries will give it their all but doesn't realize that going diamond is as likely as shoveling out of an avalanche with a spoon.   These are some of the reasons why those who quit come forward to share these kinds of horror stories.