One of the crazy things that our upline taught the group was that the facts don't matter when you have a dream. There is evidence that this is still taught today and in particular, I have heard that from IBOs who claim to associate with WWDB. IBOs are taught to ignore facts because the facts make their Amway businesses look like a joke. Spend $300 a month on products to gain a $10 rebate when you could have bought the same or similar products at WalMart for a fraction of the cost. Then many IBOs spend another $200 or more so they can be taught to ignore facts and be taught that this is somehow a great deal.
Any real business owner would never ignore facts. A real business owner makes decisions based on facts. IBOs are being duped into making business decisions on emotions and hype. The Amway opportunity already is already saturated with handicaps and challenges, particularly in the US and Canada, where the repuations and previous antics of fellow IBOs has so stained Amway's name that it appears to be negatively affecting sales and preventing any meaningful growth. Despite what Amway apologists claim, Amway is very likely shrinking in the US, and will continue to do so unless improvements and corrections are made, in my opinion. It's also possible that it is too late to right the ship at this point.
It is also why many IBOs talk about how Amway saves marriages, or Amway made them nicer people. Uplines will teach this because it takes a business owner's focus away from their bottom line, the profit or loss. Or IBOs are taught that a loss just means they are investing in their business, despite being told upfront that there is little or no investment needed and that a profit can be turned quickly in Amway. These uplines have gone on for years with no accountability placed upon them by either Amway or their downlines. Any "incidents" are simply ignored or history revised by uplines.
There is one blog on the internet, where a WWDB IBO is writing about buying homes in cash, and Amway IBOs having a 2% divorce rate compared to more than 50% in the rest of the world, yet you have amway defenders like IBOFightback claiming this isn't being taught, when clearly it is. Cover it up all you want, the evidence is right there but these folks aren;t interested in the facts. Some of them even create fake blogs under fake personas to make Amway look good.
Why are we ignoring facts?
I believe the psychology term is called projection. This is a well known defense mechanism to help alleviate traumas, and avoid disrupting their narrative. The issue with the facts, is that they are damning to their cause and can't be intelligibly refuted. Therefore, they must project their own personalities onto you because they are unsavory. If you can't dispute the heart of the matter, go after the person presenting it. Call it opinions, call them ignorant, call them unaccredited, or any other stupid thing that is a direct reflection of themselves.
ReplyDeleteFacts are difficult to take, especially when you are unable to accept when you are wrong. It is much easier to project yourself onto others in an effort to keep out cognitive dissonance.
LOL, I recall IBOs saying that if your dream is big enough, the facts don't matter.
DeleteThat is because facts, most of the time, does not paint a rosy picture.
DeleteYes, don't let those pesky facts get in the way of your dream. LOL
DeleteUntil you wake up and realize there's nothing left in your savings.
DeleteIBO Fart-back will say anything at all to defend Amway, regardless of its truth or falsity. But that's true for all paid publicists, so I suppose we can't blame him for it. A shill is a shill.
ReplyDeleteMore to the point, however: Does anyone here know of the book "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill? It was first published in 1937, and has remained very influential in many "motivational" enterprises.
The basic gist of the book is that, in order to grow rich, BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE you have to psych yourself into becoming totally and passionately obsessed with the very idea of becoming rich. You have to make it the cornerstone of your life -- and you have to disregard anything and anyone who might cast the slightest doubt on the reality of your future success. And even more importantly, you have to DISREGARD ANY FACTS that might cause you to doubt the sacred truth that you will become rich.
Combined with the stupid Dale Carnegie book ("The Power of Psitive Thinking"), this book by Hill sounds like it is a part of the DNA of the Amway racket. In any case, it certainly would explain why so many IBOs shut their eyes to the simple truth that Amway is a losing proposition.
There's an article on my blog (sorry, not sure where) from 2009 or so, where an Amway corporate blogger referred to IBOFightback (David Steadson) as cyber bully. You can probably find the original article by googling Beth Dornan Amway cyber bully.
DeleteI think that book "the power of positive thinking" was written by Norman Vincent Peale, not Carnegie. Sorry about that.
DeleteYes, you are right. It was Norman Vincent Peale. Sorry about that mistake.
DeleteI read that book as an IBO. LOL
DeleteThat is because the truth will hurt you like sword. Telling the truth to an IBO is like piercing their soul with a double-edged sword.
ReplyDeleteYes, the truth hurts because when you add up the numbers, all you find is business losses.
DeleteAnd that's where those fake smiles come from.....
DeleteYes, you fake it because behind the scenses, they are losing their shirts
DeleteTelling the truth hurts an ambot
ReplyDeleteTelling something negative hurts an ambot.
Therefore, telling the truth is negative to an ambot.
LOL, so true
DeleteI read a blog from mlm skeptic about the truth of positive thinking.
ReplyDeletePositive thinking has been taken out of context by many uplines.
What is positive thinking? Positive thinking ONLY WORKS when you have KATE!
What is KATE? Knowledge (education, facts), Ability, Training and Experience
In other words, positive thinking does not mean that you can do anything. It will only help you do better when you have KATE!
Ignoring facts is not positive thinking, it is teaching those downlines to be deceptive, impulsive and reckless with their choices and that's not positive thinking, it is putting their necks on the line.
The upline taught that you should always be positive to the point where it's creepy. I remember someone telling me he had caught a "warm" and I didn't know what he was talking about. He actually caught a "cold" but warm is the opposite and was more positive so they called it a "warm".
Delete