Monday, November 23, 2015

Amway Recruits?

One thing is clear. Many Amway recruits are shown fancy cars and toys, along with luxurious vacations and trappings. This is a way to get prospects excited and interested in signing up for the Amway opportunity. Many sign up, and the excitement fades and they quit. Many do little or nothing. But what many people do not understand or realize is that there is a reason for this. Many do little or nothing, I suspect because the business is much harder to build than adevrtised.

Because Amway has a stigma in the US (and growing in other locations), finding prospects is a daunting task. Add in the high prices of Amway products and you have major challenges that IBOs simply cannot overcome. Most simply quit and fade away into society. Some, like myself were lied to and abused, with upline leaders (WWDB)who were never held accountable for their actions. Thus I blog so others may share my experiences and can decide if they wish to climb insurmountable challenges for a miniscule chance of financial success. Maybe they will realize they are being fed the same lies I heard as an IBO. Maybe some little nugget of information will get through and help a prospect or ongoing IBO.

What many leaders do is evolve their teachings. They start to teach their IBOs that the Amway opportunity may have made them nicer people, better fathers or husbands and other nice to hear stories because it covers up the fact that these IBOs are not making money. Sometimes I wonder how someone can be a better person by deceiving others about the business opportunity, or how you can be a better father or husband when Amway meetings become a priority over your family and friends? Or how you can be a nicer person and leave threatening messages on forums with those who disagree about Amway being a great business opportunity?

Rather that justifying your involvement or looking ar side benefits, IBOs should be looking at their bottom line. If your Amway "Business" is not generating enough money to pay for your voicemail and other expenses and leaving you with a net profit, then what exactly is your upline teaching you that is worth the ongoing expense? If you are like most, you are told that Amway has no overhead and has little risk. Well, that becomes untrue after months pass by and you have spent hundreds if not thousands on support materials that do not deliver you a net profit. Are you being taught that you're successful simply by showing up for a function?

Are you new or a tenured IBO? Has your teaching from upline evolved away from making money as the bottom line? If so, what do you do next?

14 comments:

  1. When anyone tells you that you are in Amway not primarily to make money but to "be a better person," then you know that what you are in isn't a business, but a form of religion. Only cults and religions tell you that your primary aim is salvation or self-improvement or "gaining a higher consciousness." A business isn't for that purpose!

    Naturally, if IBOs are losing huge sums of money in Amway, their up-line has to convince them to stay on. So by turning a financial commitment to Amway into a religious commitment to their personal betterment, up-line can distract IBOs from their money losses.

    Always remember what that criminal prick, Dexter Yager, whispers into the ears of everybody at his stupid "functions": DO YOU BELIEVE? DO YOU BELIEVE? That's pure religion, and nothing else.

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    1. For the reasons you mention, Amway is often considered a cult or cult like where the leaders are worshipped and you need to have faith to continue in a business where the numbers don't add up.

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  2. Hi Joe Cool:
    I've been a recovering IBO since 2008. Reading your blog helped to answer the nagging questions I had about "the business" and finally quit. I'm much happier and productive now. I hardly think about my "Amway Experience" now, as I have been able to recover financially and emotionally. However, I do enjoy reading yours and Anna Bannana's blog from time to time.
    I ran across an article about how "The Emergent Church" has been equated to Amway functions and thought it might make a good topic for a future blog post. The point about big name motivational speakers like Zig Zigler who praise the Amway opportunity, but are not IBO's I thought was very revealing. It was also something that bothered me while I was an IBO. Take care and keep getting out the word about the truth about Amway.
    http://themessedupchurch.blogspot.com/2015/10/when-did-church-turn-into-amway-by.html?m=1

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    1. Thanks for your comments. I'm glad you were able to get valuable information from my blog. I lived Amway up close and personal for a while and was considered an up and coming IBO at one time. Even getting to ride with the diamond to a house plan.

      I'll check out the blog. Did you author the blog?

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    2. No, I didn't author the blog. I saw it on a Facebook post of Chris Rosebrough's Fighting for The Faith.
      As I reflect on my Amway experience, the nondenominational "church sevice" held on the Sunday mornings of the function were all about the prosperity gospel. Toward the end, I refused to go to them. That must have drawn the ire of my upline!

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    3. Isn't it convenient that the diamonds also serve as pastors in the non denominational service and then preach the properity gospel? I now wonder where the tithes collected went to?

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    4. Have you heard that Amway now actually has its own church? It's called The Amway Christian Fellowship.

      This thing is sounding more and more like the Church of Scientology every day.

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    5. Yes, the diamonds and emeralds did serve as "pastors" in the non-denominational church services held at the major functions. I also wonder where those CASH offerings went to, once they got done passing the hat.

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    6. The sickest and most outrageous thing about The Amway Christian Fellowship is their belief that God wants you to be Dives, and not Lazarus.

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    7. From what I recall, the diamonds didn;t have much Bible knowledge but pieced together a prosperity gospel.

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  3. Hi Joecool. Wow that rings a bell! I remember when I was sucked into a different MLM years ago when I was young, trusting and gullible (I actually thought I was going to make a decent living at an honest retail business). My upline was praising me on how I had become a "better man" since I had joined. I now realize why they were heaping that praise on me. They were encouraging me not to quit and wanted me to keep feeding my money into it because I was starting to get concerned since I hadn't made a nickel at it nor had anybody else but the ones selling the "tools" and teaching the "business training seminars" as they were called. The sales pitch in Amway or any other MLM is always future based. "You will be rich someday" they tell you even though they have no realistic plan about HOW it will happen.

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    1. Exactly, they heap praise on you for listening to cds, or attending functions, or bringing guests to meetings and functions but when you analyze it, they praise you when you make money for the upline who sells tools.

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    2. Remember Dexter Yager's insane remark: "If the dream is big enough, the facts don't matter!"

      If you go around saying (and believing) absurdities like that, you are usually diagnosed as a psychotic.

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    3. Yes, I remember that. The Amwayers sure have some funny sayings!

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