Sunken Cost Fallacy?

 One thing that many Amway IBOs likely suffer from is having invested too much into the business to quit. They may have spent months or even years working the system hard and diligently, and they start to realize that the system isn't working out or that the business is just not producing the results that were advertised. You see obvious problems in the business, but you reach a very tough fork in the road.  Your upline is telling you that you're doing great, or that success might be right around the next corner.  But each and every month, you spend your free time slogging to meetings and seeing expenses pile up with no improvement in revenue.  But upline's solution is often to spend more money on tools and functions even when there are no tangible results.

To quit would mean failure, as presented by many uplines. To quit is to be broke for life. To give up hope. Quitters are failures and are labeled as losers by the Amway IBOs. What hopes do you have of retirement and walking the beaches once you quit? Are your dreams of success shattered? This is a very difficult decision that must be dealt with by Amway IBOs, or maybe even those considering the business. Often the "sunken cost fallacy" plays a role, where you feel that you've invested too much to just walk away. although in many cases, making a business decision to stop is the only way to stop the financial losses. 

I encourage IBOs and/or prospects to completely take the emotion out of this decision. Do not think about dreams, walking the beaches and early retirement. Do not think about what you upline may or may not have promised you. Stop and think only about your Amway business and the results that it has produced or not produced. Has your business been increasing towards your goal of financial independence or are you seeing losses month after month? Do the math. Are you on target to reach your financial goals or are you headed towards bankruptcy? Don't think only about what happens if you quit. Think about what happens if you continue. Are there prospects of making a profit or is that next major function around the corner and likely to put you deeper in the hole?  Bottom line is this; what significantly is going to change that will make your results better?  If you keep doing what upline advises and no changes are made to your business plan, how will things improve for you?  Doesn't upline say that insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results?

This post is not about encouraging people to quit or to walk from the business. But certainly, business owners should think like business owners, and they should make an honest and realistic assessment about their continued participation, especially if their bottom line is red ink. If you are not making a profit now, what will change next month to make things better? If you repeat what your upline advised. your results are not going to magically get better. Use facts to make an informed decision.  Sometimes the best decision is either a pause from all activity to make a better assessment of your situation or to make a business decision to try something else.  If you make a facts based decision, then there's a good chance that it's the right one.