What Other Conclusion Is There?

 When I was an IBO, I recall so many of the "rah rah" types of meetings and functions I attended.  Yeah, some of the big functions were glitzy and the diamonds paraded around in nice business attire while showing off alleged trappings just as jet skis, sport cars or fancy vacations that they attained from the Amway business.  To an unknowing or unsuspecting person, it seems like a great dream to be able to retire at the age of 29 with more money than you know what to do with.  No brainer right?  But that's only if you don't comb through the details with a discerning eye.

If you carefully go through Amway's own disclosures, you'll see that the "average" IBO or distributor earns $202 a month.  And that $202 includes the uber wealthy diamonds (minus their bonuses), but most importantly that the $202 average does not include distributors who signed up and did nothing.  So, it's not a true "average" because it excluded the least productive of the salesforce.  Thus, this average income includes the diamonds but not the one who didn't lift a finger.   That math is extremely telling.  The Amway defenders will say "diamonds make over $500K".  But they don't tell you that a diamond making that much is Q12 diamond, which is very rare because the diamond and his/her qualifying legs all need to qualify for all 12 months in Amway's fiscal year.   

So why do the Amway folks hype up the (in reality) "ho hum" business of moving household products and cleaners, vitamins, etc.?     Because they have to.  If you do the math behind the business and even if you consider that diamonds "augment" their income by selling audios, books, functions and yes, some even still sell "voicemail", you'll see that the hype and glitz is just a facade like the front of a fancy building on a movie set.   And it's because nobody in their right mind would want to sign up and do all the (time and expenses) activities associated with the Amway  business in hopes of living a mostly ordinary middle class lifestyle.   They show you mansions, cars and alleged wealth because those kinds of prizes make the possibility of wealth seem tolerable in exchange for a person's investment time, money and effort.   Would anyone join with all the hype in hopes of living a middle class lifestyle?    Looking at all of these factors, "what other conclusion is there"?   

What happens is many young and entry level types of workers get into Amway because they believe that Amway is a short cut to wealth and early retirement.   They want to believe.  These young and often motivated youngsters think that $100K or a bit more will solve all of their problems.  But do the math.  After taxes and business expenses, there won't be much left.   I live in Hawaii and flying from here to LA for example, first class can cost upwards of $5000 for two people.   Do you believe that diamonds and their families are shelling out $10,000 for first class ever time they fly to functions if they earn even say $250K   And that's just flights.  What about 5 star hotels and fancy restaurants?    The math is where the uber wealthy diamond's stories fall apart.   What other conclusion is there?