Level Playing Field?

 The Amway business is a level playing field. At least that's what my upline told us when I was an IBO. That everyone starts at zero. While that is somewhat true, there were other factors that existed, that most IBOs did nto know about. That factor is the possibility of PV manipulation. I believe that groups that are not on direct fulfillment (Groups still calling in and picking up) are able to transfer PV around. Thus, certain groups or favored downline could be manufactured into higher pins. I believe most groups are currently on direct fulfillment, but I did confirm about less than a year ago that some groups still are on call in and pick up.

But let's examine the concept that everyone starts at zero. While this aspect may be true, certain people are simply better at selling, or better and more adept at socializing and talking to others. So while your PV count may be zero, the skills needed to start and run a business is not a level playing field for most. I believe uplines state this to give prospects the idea that everyone has an equal chance at succeeding in Amway. I just cannot believe this to be true. Even current diamonds, while having achieved a certain level, probably could not "start at zero" again and build a diamond business.

Thus, when you really think about it, the "old timers" of the diamonds should actually be given less credibility than the newer ones. Do you really believe that a diamond or higher pin who built his business in the 1970's can really teach people in 2016 how to build the business in a way to address people in 2016, and the fact that the business is mostly internet based as opposed to the old days, not to mention the advance of social media, text messaging and other modern forms of communication.

It is easy to stand on stage, tell people how great you are, show off material wealth and then tell prospects that everyone starts at zero and that anyone can build the business. I do not believe that it is true. I also strongly suspect that very few (if any) of the current diamonds would be able to "start at zero" and build a new diamond ship here in the US, where the reputation and shrinking sales would be handicaps too great to overcome for the vast majority of prospective IBOs. I recall back in 2005 or 2006, WWDB had a commitment for personal growth amongst the diamonds and above. I do not believe much fruit was grown out of that effort. The diamonds had committed to duplicating their groups to prove it could be done. Not a single one of them, as far as I know, advanced to a significantly higher level (i.e. diamond to double diamond).

A Million Dollar Business?

 So many IBOs mistakenly believe they will work for 2-5 years, own a million-dollar business and retire from their jobs walking the beaches of the world while cash rolls into their bank accounts. Sadly, most IBOs won't get anywhere near to the dreams they were sold as prospects in the Amway business. This in my opinion, is the crime in all of this. To fill someone's head with false dreams and hopes and then profit off them by selling them tools that will not help to fulfill those dreams. In fact, the cost of tools is what sometimes leads to financial ruin for some IBOs.  This is why I felt that Amway diamonds were insidious as they fill their down's minds with false hopes and dream and use that hope to profit off them by selling them tools and functions as the "key" to success.  Thankfully the FTC finally took a decisive action against Amway and WWG/LTD and if properly enforced, will lead to fewer horror stories about the tools and functions.

The fact is, most IBOs will never sponsor a downline and many IBOs will not even have a single customer. What kind of business can become wildly successful and profitable without a lot of customers? It seems that only in Amway and some other MLM offshoots do we see this warped teaching of buying from yourself as a means to become successful in a business. Many people, desperately wanting it to be true, will buy in and give the business a try. Then after a while when progress stall or it becomes painfully obvious that things aren't working out as promoted, they get discouraged and quit. Most quit and never complain, partly out of shame, or perhaps these former IBOs don't want to complain about the friends and family who sponsored them.

I would challenge prospects to go and look at a million-dollar business. Go to the mall and see what some bigger businesses look like. Does your Amway business resemble it in any way? Do you have customers in proportion to a million-dollar business? Heck for that matter, does your upline diamond really have what looks like a million-dollar business or is their real business selling you standing orders and function tickets? It would appear that standing orders and functions are a million-dollar business. Many unsuspecting IBOs are the customers of the tool and functions. Unfortunately, there is no unbiased documented evidence that the tools do anything other making your upline wealthy.   It will be interesting to see how things play out with restrictions on tools and functions now.

Do Nothing?

  I see and hear this quite frequently, that most IBOs do nothing and quit. Quite often, it's some Amway apologist using this as a defense as to why the average earnings of an IBO is so low. Even if many IBOs "do nothing", they are still registered Amway IBOs and therefore count if you are measuring an "average". What Amway apologists like to do is exclude those who achieve nothing, but at the same time, count the high achievers in the average, thus giving a false impression of what the earnings are for a rank-and-file IBO. A better way in my opinion, would be to exclude the lowest and highest earners. That will give a more accurate idea of what someone can expect to earn in Amway.

But let's look at the term "do nothing". I cannot accept that most people do absolutely nothing. They were open enough to talk to someone about a business. They were motivated enough to be looking for something. They were motivated enough to (likely) attend a presentation and they were motivated enough to spend money on a starter kit. I would add that in many cases, groups such as BWW, WWDB or Network 21 for example, will add on some charges to that starter kit, which may include some tools or possibly a ticket to the next function. If you actually visit the Amway website, you will see that actual enrollment costs less than $100. With the motivational groups tacking on fees, startup kits might cost several hundreds of dollars. That being the case, I can't accept that people did all of the above, paid to join and then let the starter kit sit there collecting dust.

It would be my educated theory that many people "achieve nothing". but they don't "do nothing". A more likely scenario in my opinion, is that people sign up, and they do contact others, try to sell the business or some products, but because of past IBO behavior, they encounter the term scam or pyramid, and an extremely low rate of people open to joining or seeing the Amway plan. Knowing that you can't "go diamond" without sponsoring, many or possibly most IBOs try to get others to join. Because a lot of Amway products are not competitively priced and because of previous reputation issues, it is a very tough sell for new people. In my opinion, this is why Amway is growing faster in foreign countries, because IBOs have not yet damaged the name of Amway. Keeping this is mind, it is my guess that the real-life average income is about $100 a month, not the $200+ that Amway recently reported, as they conveniently excluded over 50% of the IBO sales force.

If people are saying that all these folks "did nothing", ask them how they could possibly know if someone "did nothing". The answer is that they don't know. In my time as an IBO, I saw people come and go, some doing little, some doing a lot, but I never saw a single person sign up and not even open the starter kit or at least try to prospect and/or sell. I believe the Amway system is simply flawed and the low achievement levels of IBOs in general is a product of that flawed system. You're welcome to try and prove me wrong (but you can't).

Walking Away (From Amway)?

 One of the things that many Amway IBOs mistakenly believe is that they will build their Amway business and then they will have the ability to "walk away" from the business while the income continues to flow in. I believe if there was such an incredible benefit such as lifelong residual income that could be achieved from Amway, I'm fairly certain that Amway would advertise this as a benefit of being an IBO. But Amway does not. It is very likely that your LOS such as WWDB or BWW or one of the others will promote this benefit while telling you that your best chance to achieve it is by subscribing to their "system".

One thing that goes unnoticed all too often is that there seems to be nobody who is actually retired and living off the efforts of having built a big Amway business once upon a time. Seems that even the crown ambassadors still have busy lifestyles running from function to function and participating in other business related activities. While many of these leaders may claim they love their downlines or some other bunk, it is my belief that these leaders keep working their Amway businesses for one reason only. That is they need to keep working in order to keep the income flowing in.

The diamond lifestyle that is often portrayed may seem like a great goal or dream to achieve, but the fact of the matter is that a "diamond lifestyle" cannot be sustained on diamond income. The average diamond, according to Amway, earns about $150,000 a year (Amway now says 600k but that is for Q12 diamonds which is quite rare. Most diamonds are not Q12). While that may seem like a great amount of income, it's not nearly enough to sustain the kind of lifestyle portrayed by diamonds. Even if that income is supplemented by income from the sale of tools, you can't fly your family around the country first class to do all kinds of functions and still end up with much leftover to own fancy homes and cars.

If I deposited $1000 in the bank and never touch the money, the bank would pay me a certain amount of interest each year, guaranteed. That is residual income. In Amway, you can basically earn income in two ways. You can sell products for a profit, but there are problems with this. First off, Amway products in general are more expensive than local retailers. It is why you hear so many justifications about quality and concentration, because you are hard pressed to argue cost. Secondly, you are severely restricted from advertising, thus selling can be difficult. The other way to generate more income is to build a downline in hopes that the downline will help you to leverage your volume. But then your downline will have the same problem that you had in moving products. That being said, even if you achieve some level such as emerald or diamond, your business will immediately begin to fall apart once you stop working because attrition will take its toll. It is why there are hordes of "former" platinums. If platinums are not sustainable, then neither is any other level.

There are many many instances of diamonds quitting, resigning, or falling out of qualification. People come and go in this business every day. Do you really think you can bank on retirement and residual income under these circumstances? If you believe that, I have some swamp land in Florida to sell you.

Bait And Switch?

 Many prospects an even Amway IBOs are apparently unaware that the Amway business along with the insidious "tools" business is a bait and switch scam. Prospects are told that with some part-time effort, they can achieve untold wealth and retire early. Many people get "fired up" at the thought of a shortcut to early retirement and wealth beyond their dreams. If the prospect gets excited enough to actually sign up, that's when the bait and switch scam occurs.

You see, if you register to be an Amway IBO and get involved with purchasing support materials such as books, CDs, voice mail and seminar tickets, you think you are on the road to riches as an IBO. Don't feel bad, many people have made this mistake, including myself. But when you register as an Amway IBO, you think you will be an "independent business owner". But nothing can be further from the truth. This is just an illusion that the upline will use on prospects.

When you register for Amway, you actually become a customer of Amway and a customer of the tools business run by upline. You purchase products from Amway, and if you purchase enough product, you might receive a rebate of sorts. 100 PV, roughly $300 in cost, will get you a rebate of 3%, or roughly $10. Your 100 PV actually generates about $100 in Amway bonuses, but the remaining $90 goes to your uplines. If you can sponsor downline who also use and/or move products, you can earn a greater percentage of a rebate, but in the end, you are still basically an Amway customer. As an Amway business owner, you can't easily advertise or do things to generate more sales without Amway's permission. You are also at the mercy of Amway in the event of a dispute.

As an Amway IBO, you are also a customer of the tools. Your upline will sell you an endless supply of materials which I listed above. What IBOs also don't know is that these products/tools also carry and larger profit margin than Amway products and, the rank-and-file IBOs don't get to earn any bonus of the volume of tools. And I might add that the tools may cost more than the cost of your 100 PV worth of products. So you buy in and you get nothing. I might add that the tools are ineffective, otherwise there would be a constant movement of people achieving higher levels.

Sure, Amway apologists will point out all of the new platinums, but they fail to mention that there are also thousands of people who were, but no longer qualify as platinum or higher. Amway sales were at 11.8 billion in 2013 but sales have dropped more than 25% since then, with Amway doing in the neighborhood of 8.5 billion last year.

So for prospects and current IBOs, I hope you realize that you're not really an IBO, but a customer of Amway and a customer of the tools. How many customers do you know of that became wealthy by purchasing things? I can't think of any.

Sucked In?

 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 startup 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.

Stealing Dreams?

 Some debates over Amway in my blogging tenure has churned up some accusations once again about critics being "dream stealers". I thought I would address this but first I wanted to print the definition of a dream from dictionary.com:

dream  
[dreem] Show IPA noun, verb, dreamed or dreamt, dream⋅ing, adjective
Use dreams in a Sentence
–noun
1. a succession of images, thoughts, or emotions passing through the mind during sleep.
2. the sleeping state in which this occurs.
3. an object seen in a dream.
4. an involuntary vision occurring to a person when awake.
5. a vision voluntarily indulged in while awake; daydream; reverie.
6. an aspiration; goal; aim: A trip to Europe is his dream.
7. a wild or vain fancy.
8. something of an unreal beauty, charm, or excellence.

–verb (used without object) 9. to have a dream.
10. to indulge in daydreams or reveries: He dreamed about vacation plans when he should have been working.
11. to think or conceive of something in a very remote way (usually fol. by of): I wouldn't dream of asking them.

–verb (used with object) 12. to see or imagine in sleep or in a vision.
13. to imagine as if in a dream; fancy; suppose.
14. to pass or spend (time) in dreaming (often fol. by away): to dream away the afternoon.

–adjective 15. most desirable; ideal: a dream vacation.

—Verb phrase
16. dream up, to form in the imagination; devise: They dreamed up the most impossible plan.

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Based on these definitions, I do not see how it is possible for anyone to steal a dream. This dream stealing verbiage is just more upline propaganda designed to get IBOs to shut off their critical thinking skills and to blindly commit themselves to buying more standing orders and function tickets, whose profit goes into the pockets of your beloved upline leaders.

I believe #6 is the most appropriate definition for an IBO. A long-term goal. But if an IBO's long term goal is retirement and riches, they should analyze their involvement in the Amway business and determine if that is the appropriate vehicle to achieve their goals. For the vast majority of people, this is not the appropriate vehicle and facts confirm this. It's a matter of whether or not an IBO was told to ignore the facts by his/her upline.