Just A Common Thief?

 I was up watching a rerun of the original version of the movie "Die Hard" starring Bruce Willis.   The story is about some foreign terrorists who take over a building on Christmas eve.  They hold hostages and make demands as if they were involved in some political scheme or perhaps playing martyrs.  They had made various demands such as the release of certain terrorists as a condition for releasing the hostages.  During the process, John McClain (Bruce Willis) discovers that these alleged terrorists were simply thieves trying to steal hundreds of millions of dollars.   It sort of inspired me to come up with this new blog post.

The diamonds, in my opinion, put on these elaborate functions and flashy displays of wealth as a way to recruit and retain IBOs.  They love the adulation and the love coming from the downline.  They faithful downline treat the diamonds as deities, and they believe everything the diamond says because they truly want to believe it.  That you can build a financial empire working in your spare time at your own pace.  People at functions tear up because they want the alleged financial freedom.  They want to quit their jobs while barrels of money flows in.  This is the flashy side of the business that they use to pitch their wares upon unsuspecting prospects and downline.

But in the end, it seems as though as the movie, the diamonds are just common thieves.  Like conmen, their faithful downline believes what they upline says.  They refer to them commonly as mentors, and leaders who only want their success.  But what is the reality?  The reality is that the advice given is typically self-serving.   Are you struggling to build your Amway business?  Buy more cds/audios and attend more functions.    So, the solution for a failing business is to spend even more resources on non-income producing materials?   How does that solve the problem for the IBO?  How does that make things better?   It is a fact that uplines profit handsomely from the sale of tools and functions because these materials have a higher profit margin that Amway products, and they keep all the profits.  There is no kickback to the rank-and-file IBOs.

I have read accounts and had personal discussion with former higher up pins where the diamonds do not care about the downline.  The IBOs are expendable as far as they are concerned.  They are simply the source of their revenue.  Of course, they are happy to toss up and coming IBOs crumbs in order to keep them motivated.  They only care about selling more and more tools, because there is a great likelihood that the "diamond" lifestyle is primarily from the sale of tools and functions and not necessarily income from Amway.   Part of the reason for this is because there might be diamonds who once achieve diamond but are no longer qualified as a diamond.  However, once someone achieves the diamond level, they continue to hold the pin and may continue to make an income from tools and functions even if they might actually be a low-level IBO carrying high ranking pin.  Once a diamond, always a diamond, I guess.   Thus, all the glitz and glamor is just a show that rank and file IBOs pay for, even though it does little to nothing for their Amway businesses.   Just another non income producing activity, which is what upline sells a lot of.  

In the end, the diamonds, if you see through the facade, are basically just conmen.  Or if you will, are just common thieves, in my opinion.  If you look at the results from the masses or downline, the results are so poor that any success can be compared to that of winning a lottery.  A few winners, who win on the backs of masses of losers.   Happy New Year! 

How To Silence A Critic?

 There's been a lot of debate and activity on Joecool's blog over the years.  Amway IBOs come and go. They make interesting and sometimes dubious claims, but they never silence any of the criticism because they never prove their case. Or they make ridiculous claims or analogies such as comparing the Amway opportunity to a McDonald's franchise, or silly comparisons to colleges. The owner of Amway, Rich DeVos said in 1983, something to the effect that the tools business was basically an illegal pyramid. If the abuse of downline IBOs had been addressed back then, there might be little criticism of the opportunity today.  

Instead, it appears that Amway and the AMOs (such as WWDB or Network 21) created a symbiotic relationship.  The AMOs do the recruiting, teach product loyalty and a defacto 100 PV or more quota.  In return, Amway allows the AMOs to operate unfettered and the IBOs are the one who wind up paying.

I once had a discussion with an (apparent) IBO who claimed that Amway has created the most millionaires in the world. When asked for the source of this claim, that same IBO disappeared. Now I am certain that Amway has created some millionaires, but the most in the world? Also, based on evidence and simple math, it appears that most IBOs who participate with the tools systems lose money, so even if Amway did produce many millionaires (which is not verified), then we could also claim that Amway produced many bankruptcies and failures as well.   I might also add that diamonds and other higher up Amway leaders do not show any evidence that they are indeed millionaires so it's just an unverified claim.

Various IBOs have also claimed that because they are successful, that it serves as proof that the system works. But when asked for evidence of that success, or to show that their downline share some of that success, they disappear into the night.

You know what? Sweat shop owners are usually successful. They succeed by taking advantage of their underpaid workers. Basically, greedy tools kingpin diamonds are the same thing, maybe worse because at least sweat shop workers have a net gain, although it may be small. The only difference is that occasionally, an IBO might be able to break through and join the diamond ranks.

Some of the zealous IBOs dared a critic to post a real business profit/loss statement, and it was produced. After that, not a single IBO came forward to post the same, or to even discuss their business income and expenses. Why do IBOs avoid discussion about their business? Is it because it makes you look bad? I'm sure if it helped to prove their points, they would discuss it. Maybe the IBOs who post on blogs have nothing? It appears that the biggest defenders of Amway, do so without any ammunition?

How to silence an Amway critic? Simple, back up your claims and show mathematically how the business can work for the group. It's easier to silence an Amway defender, simply ask for proof that it works.

Examining Amway With A Critical Eye?

 The battle continues between Amway critics and Amway apologists. The apologists like to cite new platinums, but do not mention that just as many, and possibly more platinums dropped out of qualification. They like to cite Amway's growth, but fail to mention how the growth is apparently in foreign countries and not in the US and Canada. Even if there are more platinums or growth, it doesn't mean anything and I will go onto explain.

In a platinum group, there are in many cases, 100 downline IBOs or more. Most if not all of these downline are losing money or making nothing, and it is worse, especially if they are buying voicemail, standing order and other tools and function tickets.  An IBO who does nothing may still lose money on website fees, or at the minimum, registration fees. Yes, they might be refundable, but many IBOs are not aware of this, or are not interested in asking their sponsors, or simply write up the loss as a life lesson. Thus, the more growth, or the more platinums, the more downline there are losing money.  It's all a part of the business model if you view the business with a critical eye instead of rose colored glasses.

I also understand that Amway is not a game of chance, but your odds of achieving a significant income can be compared to winning a lottery. Even those who put forth an earnest effort are rarely rewarded with upper echelon pin levels and "passive income" rolling in while you walk the nicest beaches of the world. Amway supporters are wanting to show what is "possible", but showing the best-case scenario is deceiving and IBOs do not realize "what is likely" until they have already participated and wasted their hard-earned cash on tools that do not work.

There doesn't appear to be any connection with the amount of effort an IBO puts in with progressive amounts of income. While you can argue that succeeding takes hard work, there are probably more cases of hard work resulting in financial losses or possibly financial devastation. I personally witnessed a crossline losing their home to foreclosure and a crossline winding up in bankruptcy, all while following upline advice to keep pouring money into tools even while these IBOs made no progress in terms of sponsoring downline.

The Amway Apologists can continue to deny the shortcomings of the Amway opportunity, but for me, the results speak loud and clear.