A comment left on this blog stated that perhaps I had a bad upline, which may have led to my bad experience in Amway. While this may be true, I have to ask how anyone can possibly know who might be a good or a bad upline? As far as I know, all of the Lines Of Sponsorship such as WWDB or BWW or Network21 sell tools which consists of books, cds/audios, functions, meetings and voicemail. They all earn profits from the sale of these materials; thus they all promote these materials. I have heard that many uplines make more from selling tools than they do from Amway.
It makes perfect sense that some upline would make more money on tools than from Amway because the tools have a larger profit margin than Amway products and because to promote these tools, the uplines must travel from city to city to run functions, thus taking time away from running their Amway businesses. And while they may say verbally that tools are an optional expense, many groups promote them as a DeFacto requirement. For example, I heard that tools were optional but so was success. Or that nobody ever succeeded without tools, but I could be the first to try. My sponsor also told me that Greg Duncan was a multi-millionaire and he thought that tools were vital but if I thought I knew better, I could try it on my own. What is a new IBO to think? It sure sounds like only a fool would try to build the business without tools.What's also amusing in some ways, is to debate with Amway supporters or defenders who tell me that I simply had a bad upline, and then to find out that they have the same upline that I had! It amazes me because I was in WWDB and basically, the same leaders are on stage today. The same leaders who were on stage when I was an IBO. These leaders at one time told bold lies, such as nobody made a cent of profit on tools, or that WWDB was a non-profit organization. For some reason, IBOs don't seem concerned that upline leaders told these lies. They also mistakenly believe that everything upline tells them now is the truth.
IBOs even deny things that are of public record such as Greg Duncan's chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings, or Brad Wolgamott's divorce. It seems that uplines just revise history and downlines believe it and do not ask questions or hold upline leaders accountable for their actions. I believe that these leaders should be held accountable and to a higher standard because they have profited handsomely over the years from the sale of tools. But another concern is the utter lack of success from the proven system. Where are the new diamonds? I cannot even think of more than a handful of new WWDB (My former LOS) diamonds from the US since I left the business in 1998 or so. And it might be noted that some diamonds have left since my time in the business.
So I ask the question again. How would an IBO or a prospect know what a bad upline is? Most find out when they finally see the light or when they notice the losses mounting month after month. I hope this blog helps information seekers to see the light.
3 comments:
Since 99% of all Amway IBOs fail to make a dime in the business, it seems that ALL Amway up-lines are bad.
Amway says officially that tools for training are optional, but all of the AMO subsystems (WWG, BWW, Network 21, etc.) are very clear that they will not work with you if you refuse to buy tools and attend functions and meetings. And Amway can't enforce the rules because the AMOs are independent organizations.
If we imagine a perfect group with a perfect upline.
Everybody is friendly, supportive, hard working, goal orientated. They all make sure they are in possession of the best advice, trends and training materials, and let's imagine the impossible, that everybody is able to work 20 hours a day without tiring.
If everybody in this group joins to build business based on their own consumption of products and getting others to do the same (with these others also working to do the same). Guess what?
Even in this idealized picture, group members without downline will outnumber all the others. Always. They can of course recruit their own downline, but these new recruits will again outnumber all the others, all it does is making 100 people's problem, 1,000 people's problem. Wherever it ends, whether it ends with 1000 people, with 10,000 people, or whether the group ends when the world population is part of it.
As long as the purpose is making money from having more than one person under you, the majority will fail. Don't blame me, blame maths for spoiling the illusion. Most people in a group can't be someone else's boss.
This is true in a corporation with employment too, with the important difference that most don't need to be someone else's boss to get the salary they signed up for. I did well as a consultant and get big bonusses more than I expected, for many years in a company without being anybody's boss. It's because in that hierarchy, however pyramid shaped Amway defenders would claim it also was, there was no need to have someone under you to get what you signed up for. The problem with joining an Amway group as a business is that realistically (unless you're an exceptional door to door sales person, in which case there are more lucrative things to sell for higher commissions and less work), the whole point of almost everybody joining is to be someone's upline.
If people in this group sign up to make money, most won't get what they signed up for. No matter how nice the upline is. In fact a likeable upline may be bigger problem, because they keep downline in for longer before realizing that they are chasing shadows.
Still with this wonderful group, if any person fancies himself as the one person in a bunch who will succeed, that money will always ultimately have to come from other starry eyed, hard working, motivated hopefuls chasing the impossible.
The above is best case scenario. In the real world more people are doomed. The problem is not poor groups and poor upline, poor advice, most doing nothing, or the wrong mentality, though I'm sure of course they don't help. The problem is not even the tools systems, or WWDDB, or N21. The problem is a system that is inherently flawed in it's design, and in it's design guaranteed to fail most.
Any system where the success of a member is dependent on other members with similar goals joining thereafter, is by definition a pyramid scheme. Amway structures as a whole don't go bust because the bottom and middle replaces itself all the time.
Great comments! Spot on! It's clear that one can only succeed in Amway by exploiting the downline who trust and believe in you. It's mathematically impossible for large numbers of IBOs to succeed when they must all have a hoard of downline in order to even make a small profit.
It's like each diamondship is a company on it's own with a CEO, and layers of middle management, and a bunch of rank and file drones.
It is impossible for large numbers of people to go diamond.
Back when I was a really active blogger and participant in Amway related discussions, I once contacted a resort on the island of Maui to ask how many participants and guests were in attendance at the diamond club meeting in Maui some year back. The total number of guests, which included the diamonds, was about 160 people. You can try to extrapolate the number of spouses, kids, etc. What it tells me is that there are as many diamonds as you think. unless a lot of them skipped diamond club that year.
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