Over the years I have been debating with Amway supporters, I cannot see what is so great about the Amway opportunity. Are some of these Amway defenders that stupid or dense that they truly believe that a business where one out of a few hundred people might make a profit and most of the remaining IBOs will lose money is a good opportunity? I'm not talking about people who sign up and "do nothing". Many IBOs sign up and put in a great deal of time, effort and money, only to find out that the system simply does not work (especially in the US) and they make a business decision to quit and/or to do something else.
Of course there are some people who make money in Amway. If nobody made money, then the opportunity would cease to exist. But it is basically exploitation of the downline that accounts for most of upline success. Thus, upline make their income from their downline's PV volume, and on tool purchases. I mean even a lottery has winners. Even Ponzi schemes and other questionable opportunities have some winners. This is not to suggest that Amway in not legal, but the way the opportunity is set up, those who profit, primarily do so at the expense of their trusted downline.There are no groups that I know of where all the IBOs can win and earn a profit. I would guess that there might be a few rogue groups who only focus on retail sales, and while these groups can be profitable as a group, they are either nonexistent, or few and far between. This is because most IBOs fall under an LOS such as WWDB, BWW, LTD or N21, and these groups all seemingly focus on recruiting of new IBOs. Yes, they may sprinkle in some suggestions about selling goods, but generally speaking, their "training" materials consist of motivation speeches, feel good stories (whether true or not), and the theme of never quitting while continuing to purchase more tools. The primary purpose of the tools is to motivate you and teach you to recruit more IBOs, which is vital to Amway's existence.
Some upline have the nerve to start teaching downline that their Amway business is not about making money, but to save your marriage, make you a nicer person, or some other diversion to make you forget that you are losing money month after month after month. Some groups even mix in religion and politics into their functions and meetings. As far as I can see, the typical business buildiing IBO signs up, gets some of the tools and attends a few functions, and finds that the products are hard to sell because they are not priced competitively with other retailers, and that a damaged reputation is nearly impossible to overcome. These IBOs realize they are not going anywhere, and they walk away, chalking up the losses as a life lesson. But apparently, many uplines who lied and deceived in the past are continuing to do so today, often just revising history for their benefit (i.e. lying about making any profit on tools).
Many IBOs, prospects, information seekers and critics read this blog. My question is very simple. What is so great about the Amway opportunity? For most, it is just a bad use of time and money. While some may exist, I don't know of a single person who "did the work once" and sat back collecting barrels of Amway money while sipping Mai Tais on the beaches of Jamaica. I see crown ambassadors working as hard today as they did many years ago, and some dying while still working. Diamonds losing homes to foreclosures, a prominent diamond in bankruptcy proceedings, and a hoard of WWDB diamonds apparently selling off mansions that they allegedly paid for in cash. (It is quite apparent to me that their lifestyles are simply not sustainable).
Where is the benefit in the business for the typical IBO? Just as there are some diamonds, there are lottery winners. Displaying a lottery winner doesn't make it prudent to spend your money on lottery tickets. Displaying a diamond's lifestyle doesn't make Amway a good opportunity. While Amway is a business and not a game of chance, the results of either, sadly are eerily similar - that is a few winners and millions (or more) of non-winners.
What is so great about the Amway opportunity? I don't see it.
1 comment:
In terms of making money, you're absolutely correct. The vast majority of Amway IBOs (99%) make no money at all in the racket. And they are well aware of this fact.
The answer to your question is twofold: People stay in Amway because it makes them feel good, and because they feel that they must obey their up-line superiors.
The strength behind these two motives is essentially religious. Someone who is religious feels good because he believes he is on God's side, and that God is on his side. No matter what happens, the believer feels justified and protected. In addition, he is too frightened and cowed by authority (his religious superiors in the form of a priesthood of up-line big pins) to act any differently.
So he just remains in the racket until he dies.
You will never understand Amway (or any other MLM) until you understand that it is a religious cult, and that for the great bulk of its members the issue of financial profit or loss is inoperative.
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