Is Lying Necessary To Promote Amway?

In the years I have been blogging about Amway IBOs and the opportunity, I've seen a lot of deception. As an IBO, upline leaders flat out lied and claimed they made no money off tools. They gave a lot of bad business advice and have never been held accountable for their lies. From what I gather, not much has changed and IBOs are still fed some of the same BS about the business. Amway's biggest defender, IBOFightback AKA David Steadson is a shameless liar wen it comes to defending Amway and MLM in general. When cornered with irrefutable facts, he will resort to personal attacks against myself or other critics. Ironically, the biggest defenders of Amway never seem to have made much of the business themselves. Do you ever wonder why diamonds never "walk away" from Amway to collect the mythical resdiual income?

Amway folks often must spin and justify their ridiciulous prices. Amway's flagship vitamin double X retails for nearly $80 for a one month supply. You can get 3-6 months worth of multi vitamins at WalMart or Costco. Defenders will cite quality or phyto nutrients as their justification, but cannot cite any neutral scientific evidence that their vitamins are better than others. They'll say their products are concentrated as another way to justify the high prices. (I hope you don't spill any while you mix Amway potions) What's also funny is that I don't see the term "concentrated" on Amway's products, Is this claim about Amway's products true or just another lie?

Even the claim of people earning residual income is dicey. While in theory it might be possible for someone to earn residual income, the reality is that the attirtion rate would quickly wipe out any residuals you might earn in the beginning. Like a sand castle at the beach, your income will disppaear quickly. I believe it is for that reason that diamonds and crown ambassadors never retire, but work until their death. The Amway owners however, might be enjoying resdiual income, but that's another story.

So why is lying and deception a part of promoting Amway (for IBOs)? Because the real picture is not rosy. Because without some deception, people would likely not be interested in the business opportunity or the products.

Why Amway?

One thing propsects of Amway should ask themselves is why Amway? If you've done due diligence on Amway and MLM in general, it's clear that the vast majority do not make any money with many many people losing money. The disclosures and information all points to that. Yes, some people succeed but they face overwhelming odds and even those who may succeed often find their success short lived. For that reason, diamonds and other hihg pins have quit, rather than "walking away" to collect residual income.

Ask your prospective sponsor how much he or she makes. If you are told "none of your business" or if you are told that how much they make will not affect what you make, it's a red flag. Someone asking you to be in business with them should be prepared to disclose some information. It's a normal business practice. If someone asked you to inest with them, you'd want to know whatreturns you can expect. And you'd want to know the likely return, not only the best case scenario. Yet, the Amway folks will only give you the rosiest possibilities and not the reality. Why is that? Because the reality is in contract to what they are claiming?

If you explore other venues to make money, there are plennty of low risk opportunities. A second part time job whhere you enjoyed the work, a part time business, buying and selling on ebay, craigslist, etc, crafts, handyman work, can provide you more than amway or MLM. Do your research and don't fall for the hype.

Is Amway Saturated?

Lots of people have opinions about the Amway opportunity and obviously, criticism and defenses of Amway. Amway's been around and in my opinion, is saturated. Saturaton doesn't mean every single person has gotten involved with Amway. When I say saturation, I mean many people have been involved, or have known people who were involved, and/or have been recruited or proepected by Amway IBOs. We also know that with saturation comes stagnation and thess of an ability to find prospects and to make profits.

Look at the US. While there might have been some new diamonds, my old LOS, WWDB hasn't produced any new diamonds in the US as far as I know. I also know that some diamonds have quit, died and left the business. Some Amway defenders might rebutt that by saying there are many new platinums, which may be true, but it is also true that many other platinums may not have qualified as platinum again. If there were truly all these new platinums, we should see new diamonds and other big pins but it seems these folks are quite rare these days.

One the defenses I've heard as to why Amway is not saturated is that there are hundreds of thousands of people graduating high school and becoming adult each year. While that is the defense which might be true, that is also the only reason why Amway hasn't almost completely saturatedm because new eligible people are added to the population each year. If we were to remove people under the age of 30 from Amway, who would be left? There would be relatively few people left if that were to happen.

What happens at saturation point is what we see now. You may get new people in the system, but for the most part, they are just replacing people who quit. Those who are successful in Amway are those who are able to successfully relace those to quit. Without the churn, your business will slowly decline until you cease to qualify for bonuses. Even some of the big leaders at times, see declines, but we might now know because Amway's policy is "once a diamond, always a diamond". Meaning once you qualify, you wear the pin forever.

It is possible to still succeed in Amway? Yes, it's possible, but it looks like it is getting harder and harder, because the opportunity, at least in the US in basically saturated.

Is The Truth A "Negative" In Amway?

One of the silly things many IBOs are taught is to avoid negative. I believe this is taught today by uplines and it was certainly a point of emphasis even in my days as an IBO. The upline diamond would say that the world of full of negatives and that we as people take in too much of these negatives. Therefore, the IBOs were told to avoid television, newspapers and other forms of communication with the outside world. The group was also told to avoid people who speak negatively about Amway. For this reason, many people have considered Amway groups such as WWDB or N21 as cultish or cult-like. (information deprevation or information control).

I can agree that you surely don't want to only take in only negatives as it can wear you down, but not seeing the news or reading about current events in the paper simply makes you apathetic and uninformed. For example, wouldn't you want and need to know if there was a storm heading your way? I live in Hawaii and we occasionally have hurricanes. Avoiding news could be very detrimental to your family and home. If you lived in the midwest of the US, wouldn't you want and need to know if a tornado was headed your way? Do you avoid the doctor because his assessment of your health might not be "positive"? For these reasons, I believe that many Amwayers walk around wearing a mask with a false smile, trying to overly positive.

Another important thing that many IBOs cannot distinguish is the difference between negative and the truth. If your wife asks you if her new dress makes her look fat, the truth might be that the new dress indeed makes her appear fat. That answer may be uncomfortable for you to deliver, but the truth is the truth. The truth at times can be positive or negative but it is still the truth.

Most IBOs earn less than $100 a month. That is the truth. Most IBOs lose money if they participate in functions and standing orders and such. That is the truth. Most IBOs will never even sponsor a downline. That is the truth. Most IBOs, filled with motivation and dreams, will never see those dreams fulfilled. That is the truth. Many upline diamonds, who advise IBOs to purchase tools and attend functions, and fill the IBO's heads full of dreams, make significant incomes from the sale of tools and functions. That is also the truth. In a 1 year timespan, approximately 50% of IBOs will quit. That is the truth.

Is it negative to tell the truth? Or can IBOs not handle the truth?

Justifying Amway?

I remember how our upline diamond used to talk about how people justify themselves. They'll compare themselves to a neighbor or a co-worker and justify that they are doing okay. Or they may say that they went to public school, therefore public school is good enough for their kids. Or a man might respond to a wife's request to see Alaska by telling his wife to look in the freezer if she wants to see ice. We justify ourselves by finding someone equal or worse off than ourselves. It makes us feel better to know that we aren't that bad off.

Then uplines will tell you that you should strive to bet better, which is good. Ironically, they'll also tell you that the way to do better is to join Amway and to dive into the tool system. While there might be initial excitement and euphoria, it wears out quickly, especially when the quick profits and advancement in the business never materializes for most. It is then that the uplines cleverly inject subtle pressure to keep you active by labeling people who quit as losers or failures. Their tools will tell you to never quit, or that you will eventually make it if you keep pressing on. The standing orders are filled with stories of guys who were broke, signed up for Amway, had struggles, but they never quit and now they are diamonds living large and only working functions out of the love for their downline. Don't you ever wonder why nobody can name people who actually built a diamond business, and then walked away, collecting hoards of cash and living happily ever after? I do not believe these people actually exist.

The sadly, but ironically, the IBOs begin to justify their business losses. The phrases are common. I am a nicer person, I am a better father and husband. I am doing God's work (Amway is God's work?). I learned about business from being in Amway. There are many nice reasons people give to explain their involvement in Amway and the systems, but making a nice income is rarely ever one of the reasons. I do hear some outrageous income claims, but not a single IBO has provided any evidence or proof of this income.

Another justification that IBOs make is that Amway products are the best, therefore they cost the most. They also justify the cost with the concentration factor (I hope you don't spill any). Of course, product quality is subjective and secondly, many people are not concerned about quality when it comes to ordinary household goods such as bar soap. Most people look at price and value, which is why WalMart and Costco are wildly successful. It's really humourous at times when you see IBOs in action justifying their products and their business opportunity.

Obviously, it's a tough sell in North American where it appears that Amway sales have gone down and even with the national advertising campaign, I'm not sure a significant impact was made. Here's food for thought. WalMart's slogan is Live better, save money. Amway's slogan is "Now you know". Nuff said!

How You Get Sucked Into Amway?

If you have ever sat through an Amway presentation and the follow up teachings as I did, you can get a clear picture of how the uplines slowly suck people into the system. The speaker will be introduced as a picture of success. Possibly introduced as being in the top 1/10 of 1% in income (But with no proof). They will talk about how taxes, insurance, and inflation eat away at your paycheck. More than likely they will say they suffered the same way until they figured out how to defeat these issues by making more money. Of course they will eventually drop the "A" bomb on you and say it's Amway. Very likely they will say that you should not care what it is if it gets results.

You are then shown the plan and many people think that 2-5 years and "finding six" is something very manageable for the results they promote (walking the beaches while residual income flows in). At the very least they say, you will make some money and save some money. Who can argue with that kind of logic? They will also likely mention that Amway is low risk or no risk with little or no start up costs. Again, how can you argue with that logic?

You finally convince yourself that you can do this. You sign up and you are likely told that it is important to get some tools because after all, a carpenter can't build homes without a hammer and saw and that any business owner would have to make some investment into their own business. So now because of the tools, you are operating at a loss. You may then be told that business owners normally operate at a loss for years and that it might also be wise to channel your bonuses back into your business by purchasing more tools.

Before you know it, months or years may pass before you start to realize that you are on a treadmill. You keep walking but end up going nowhere. Then your upline may tell you that the business is not about money but more about making lifelong friendships.

In my opinion, this whole system is a cleverly designed systematic way for uplines to slowly drain your resources and making you think that you are successful despite showing no profits. Your upline may edify small things like showing the plan or making a sacrifice to attend a function. Sadly, you will rarely see someone edified for actually making a net profit.

It's a slow process, but most people slowly get sucked into the system, just like quicksand. I hope IBOs and information seekers are able to recognize the scheme if and when it happens to them.

The Mysteries Of Amway?

When I was first pitched Amway, I was invited to an upper scale hotel to see a presentation. The diamond arrived in his Mercedes Benz and was escorted by some people to the stage and was given a standing ovation. I thought it was od because the guy was a successful Amway distributor but I could not understand why he was deserving of a standing ovation. When he was introduced, the presenter said the diamond was in the top one tenth of one percent income bracket in the US. Looking back, that may have been a dicey claim now that we know the kind of income a diamond might make. Not to mention that diamonds likely have very significant business expenses if they are traveling to and from functions several times a year.

When the presentation went on, the diamond spoke about how he was able to capitalize on some business trends and was able to make his money. He spoke about waking up at noon and basically doing whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. He was financially free. No more clipping coupons or having to "just get by". He was now financially free and although he admitted not having "millions" (yet), he certainly had the freedom of not needing a job. He spoke about the options you have when you have enough time and money. He said he could travel, take care of his parents, care for his wife and kids and basically just enjoy life at a young age without having to work anymore. What I could not figure out is why all these diamonds kept working when the plan said they could "walk away" from Amway and collect willable residual income for life. The diamond said he "loved"his downline and kept working to help them. But surely there must have been a diamond somewhere that "walked away" and was collecting enough residual income to live in luxury. The mystery remains as there is not a single diamond that I know of who exercised that option. What's more bizarre is there have been diamonds and above who quit Amway altogether and some crown ambassadors who died while still working Amway.

My upline platinum was always pimping the tools on us and he and other leaders often taught people to get out of debt, which was good, but in stark contrast,, would say it was okay to go in debt if it was to buy tools. As if that was a good idea no matter the state of your business. Why should someone who has little sales and possibly no downline invest in tools unless the tools were helping to increase business? Instead the tools were the reason why so many IBOs ended up in debt and losing money. Had I not invested in tools, I would have had a net profit as an IBO but my trusted upline assured me that investing in tools would eventually lead to financial freedom. Of course these lies are crystal clear to me now but at the time, the upline advice made sense. Afterall, they had made it big and who were we to question their sage advice right?

I hope this post has unraveled some of the Amway mysteries. It certainly appears that there is no true residual income and there is not freedom. The diamond's job is simply Amway. While you can debate how hard a job it is to be a diamond, I believe it can be stressful knowingly misleading people who trust you because your livelihood depends on it. Without the downline consuming products and buying tools, a diamond can go broke very easily. Diamonds apparently do not walk away from Amway because they cannot. If they stop, their business will fall apart eventually and their tools income would stop immediately.

If you are seeking information, this blog is loaded with my experiences and analysis of the Amway opportunity. Seek information and ask questions. If your sponsor tells you to avoid "negative" information, that's a red flag that they have something to hide. If Amway is a great as they say, it will be around if and when you have done your research and can make informed decisions.