One of the things that my upline taught, and I believe is still taught today in various groups is that winners join Amway and losers do not. Or that you were a winner because you were doing something to better your financial future and those who didn't were losers. or broke minded. Of course the upline who said this had no knowledge about those who were not in Amway. Some of them may already have been financially sound or may have been doing something to better their financial future. I'm not sure why these uplines, who promote "positive", had to resort to calling people losers simpy because they did not agree that Amway was the greatest thing since sliced bread. It's only positive if it's Amway related and anything non Amway is negative. Anyone see a problem with this?
In many games or sporting events, there will be someone or a team that wins the game and someone or a team that loses the game. Losing a game doesn't make you a loser and certainly, a team that wins the game would not say the losing team were losers. Can you imagine a Superbowl winning team's coach taking the podium after a game and saying his team won because the other team was a bunch or broke minded gutless losers? That would never happen, yet we see that frequently in the Amway/IBO world. The owner of Amway, Rich DeVos had once said in a recorded message that just because people do not agree with you (paraphrased) about Amway, does not make them losers and that IBOs should not call people losers. I believe this has been crafted by upline to apply pressure to downline IBOs to "never quit'.
In all of this, people's jobs are also criticized. That a job stands for "just over broke" or "jackass of the boss" and other insults. Many IBO's goals and dreams consist of ditching their job so they can sleep until "the crack of noon" and live a life of luxury. Ironically, it is most IBO's jobs that continue to produce income so they can pay their bills and feed their family. It is also an IBO's job that funds their Amway and AMO expenses such as product purchases and functions and voicemail, etc. Without having a job, most people could not even join Amway or pay for any tools. Sadly, most IBOs won't make any money in Amway either, and will have to continue to work at their jobs. I do not believe that someone earning an honest living working a job is a loser. Ironically, many of the folks calling people losers and broke are not even netting a profit from their Amway business!
Yes, in this business or the sports world, there will be winners and there will be losers. The question is whether you are the one who is allowed to be the judge of who is and who isn't. I would also suggest that IBOs are completely shutting down potential future business by their behavior. What if I went to a store to purchase something but the item was not available on that particular day, so I don't purchase anything and leave. As I leave, the store owner says I am a loser for not buying something there. Will I go back? Very unlikely. If an IBO truly sees themselves as a store owner, all prospects should be seen as potential business, whether future or present. If your upline tells you that people not interested are losers, you should hand him a mirror. Or inform your upline that when you point a finger at someone, there are even more fingers pointing back at you.
I'm not judging but your right. The world needs broke guys to do the work so us rich guys can enjoy life. Someone's gotta polish my car. Someone's gotta clean my toilets. JoeCool cleaning my toilets sounds appealing.
ReplyDeleteYou can't afford to pay someone to clean your toilets.
ReplyDeleteAh, more amway/wwdb insult-tapespeak. Bert, you're gonna feel foolish when you finally come to your senses and get out of the amway cult.
ReplyDeleteYour post is exactly how they speak to you from stage. Things haven't changed a bit since 1995.
I'd wager the average janitor makes more than ten times what the average IBO makes ... and it's honest work!
ReplyDeleteah HONEST. that is the key word!
ReplyDeleteJoe, I appreciate what you're doing here. Please continue to educate on the Amway motivational organizations (AMO).
ReplyDeleteThe reason that AMO's propogate this message is for mind-control. They must develop an us-versus-them mentality with regards to the rest of the world. This is a common cult tactic, and it is just one of the many ways to sustain the alternate reality with which they brainwash their downlines.
I'm a physician, which is still the highest paying profession, on average, in the US. Should everyone follow my "proven 7 year plan" (med school plus residency) to a 6 figure income? Of course not! Medicine requires significant sacrifices, and even though it has produced more millionaires than any profession but law in this country (sorry Quixtar), the money alone is not worth the sacrifice to most people, and they'd rather do just about anything else. It also requires a certain set of attributes to get through the training, and it is often said that if you have what it takes to excel in medicine, you could've made more money in business or law. The same could be said for Quixtar/Amway. While it's true that some people can achieve significant financial success in it, the odds are extraordinarily long for the new IBO (and we're talking 1 in a million here). The truth is that to beat those odds requires extraordinarily hard work over years, significant talents/skills, and good old-fashioned luck, on top of being willing to deceive (yourself and others). If you have those attributes, you'd have a much greater chance to succeed in almost any other business. And if you don't have those attributes, you have virtually zero chance to make an adequate wage for your time invested.
But even if all that I said weren't true, go back to my medicine example...some people just don't want to do it. Even if the money were truly there for anybody (as it is for anybody who sticks to the medical training "system"), some people wouldn't enjoy "building a business" if it involves prospecting friends and family (just as some people don't enjoy taking care of sick people). Some people would find it nauseating (just as some people feel about blood). If someone doesn't want to do Amway, considering the time investment and type of work involved alone (even if it were profitable and honest), then its his God-given right to choose to do something else. That's not being a loser, it's being FREE. That's the mantra you Ambots chant at rallies, so why don't you recognize it when someone makes the FREE choice not to become another faceless drone in your empire?
John, thanks for your spot on comment. The reason why I started this blog was to probide information so others could avoid the trap i wasn once led into. Now I consider it a public service to help unsuspecting prospects and exsiting IBOs. I believe what I saw and hear from upline is still taught.
ReplyDeleteJoe,
ReplyDeleteI was never in Amway/Quixtar, but I was conned into attending an "e-commerce" seminar by my boss before I started med school. When I showed up and was love-bombed, something inside me said "My God, this is Amway". I'd heard of their tactics, so I smelled it out. Well, my boss assured me it wasn't Amway. It was Quixtar, a company where you can make money just making everyday purchases. He told me that I could develop a "side income" of, say $1500-$2500 per month within 2 years at 10-15 hours per week that could help me pay for med school. He refused to tell me how much he was making in his own "side business", as that was "personal".
Needless to say, I thought that even if I wasn't going to make any money, I could benefit from all that "savings"! I was quoted 30% savings over what I would spend at Wal-mart. I thought I'd be a fool not to do it. However, my boss made one fatal mistake, that I now understand they're trained not to make. He gave me a copy of their current catalog. I flipped through the pages and kept rubbing my eyes at the prices on things I could indeed buy at Wal-mart...sunmaid raisins, Tang, Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce. The products were wholesale (you had to buy 24 bottles of BBQ) but the per unit prices were far higher than even retail. I went to Wal-mart and did a comparison of about 70 items. I made a spreadsheet and found the average mark-up was 65% over Wal-mart...and this isn't even considering that I'd have to buy bulk!
When I met with my boss again, I showed him the excel sheet. He immediately backtracked.
Me: you said i'd save 30%
boss: well you won't save money on every little thing
Me: but every item I checked is grossly overpriced
boss: well you haven't taken the 30% off yet
Me: even after that, they're still overpriced by 20%! and that 30% doesn't even apply to these non-Amway branded items! and that's not to mention I'd be paying over retail for wholesale items!
boss: well, you have to factor in gas money going back and forth to Wal-mart
Me: but I'd still have to pay for shipping, and I'd still have to shop for perishables (milk, eggs, meat) and make just as many trips
boss: look, you have to change the way you think. You can't get rich saving money
Me: First, yes you can, and second, that's not even the point. You told me I'd be saving all this money over Wal-mart prices. This is deceit. You can't go on telling people these things. It's deceitful, and I know you're a Christian.
boss: well, Quixtar has helped me in my faith so much, and I've met so many good people
Not only did I not join, but I talked 2 of my co-workers who he'd sponsored into quitting. Boy, did he hate me. He knew he couldn't fire me for that, but he never missed an opportunity to mock me for "saving money" or shopping at Costco ("those guys make money of you hand over fist") going to med school bc "doctors are in debt til they're 40 and dead when they're 50".
I never spent a dime on Quixtar, but I started researching it then, a decade ago, and whenever the opportunity presents itself, I tell people the truth about it. I've led a few out of Quixtar, and that maeks it worth it. I just hate to see good, hard-working people defrauded of their hard-earned money, and worse yet, it's all done under the guise of Christianity.
I would be glad to contribute to your blog, and I'd love to see a post on the whole "savings" myth. Please use my dialogue if you ever do that. Having never been in Amway, I don't have the same credibility of a former IBO, but I stay up on the developments.
John, I believe evrything you wrote but I am still flabbergasted.
ReplyDeleteJohn, I welcome your contributions to my blog. If you look over on the right hand side of my blog, just above my profile picture, my 5 most popular posts are there. The most popular post I have ever written was an Amway price comparison with Costco. Check it out.
ReplyDelete