One of the things Amway promoters use to entice prospects into joining is to get them to think about financial dreams and goals that they would like to accomplish. After all, who wouldn't want to be retired at age 35 and walking on the exotic beaches of the world? Or who wouldn't want to live a life of leisure and excitement with unlimited barrels of cash rolling in to finance all of the fun and frivolity?
Of course most people get excited by this. The promoters try to make it appear that everyone in the audience can achieve this goal but the reality is they can't. The numbers provided by Amway and shown in "the plan" confirm this. In the common 6-4-2 plan, you have a platinum and 78 downlines who aren't. Factor in people who do little or nothing and you're likely to have 150 or more non platinum IBOs for each platinum. Amway's numbers show that about 1 in 400 reach the Gold level.
Sadly, the things that people get excited by, or the things that people join for, often become less accessible because of people's involvement in Amway. Not due to Amway itself, but because of the leach organizations that attach themselves to the Amway business. These organization will promote their materials (tools and functions) as the key to success in Amway, but in reality, these organizations reap handsome profits while basically bankrupting the downline IBOs. What is also sad is that the system does not deliver the success that is touted. Less than one half of one percent even reach the platinum level, which is allegedly the level where you break even or make a small profit.
During my tenure in the business, uplines taught us to buy all the materials. Books, standing order tapes/cds, functions, and other materials. In fact, in addition to standing order, upline wanted IBOs to purchase an additional 5-7 tapes or cds each week. Afterall, you should be listening to new material every day right? In fact, upline wanted people to "invest" or spend all of their income on these materials. In an open meeting setting, a diamond said that your family could skip a meal to get another tape/cd because the information was so valuable that you might hear the one thing that propels you to diamond. Almost as if buying a tape/cd was like some lottery ticket.
And sadly, some IBOs did go "all in". They bought tools like there was no tomorrow. In my crossline, there was a couple who went bankrupt and a couple whose home was foreclosed. Now was this financial difficulty all due to their involvement in Amway? I don't know, but certainly, buying hundreds of dollars of materials on a monthly basis can certainly contribute to someone's financial problems. And these IBOs did this on upline's advice. Thus upline advised this even when they likely knew that these IBOs were in financial difficulty. If they would tell you to starve your kids, then surely they will not be concerned about your other issues. I also sat in a function where a diamond taught about how long you can put off paying a mortgage before foreclosure would occur. Probably so people could go in hock to attend a major function.
It is a sad thing indeed when uplines will try to sell you dreams. What's worse is when they are actually selling you broken dreams.
They're selling a con, buddy, plain and simple. It's organized conning, a form of organized crime, and they're the ConMafia.
ReplyDeleteYes, I honestly believe the diamonds conspire to rip off downline by using strategies that slowly but surely drain IBOs of their money.
DeleteThey not only destroy your dreams, they are capable of breaking personal relationships, financial standing and drain your time and youth.
ReplyDeleteI think sometimes, the relationships and lost time are the worse damage. You can still make up the money but not the lost relationships and time.
DeleteAnd yet the bigshots in Ada, Michigan refuse to deal with the rip-off of the tool scam, and the scandal of the "functions." They simply don't care that IBOs are being cheated.
ReplyDeleteIt's a symbiotic relationship. Amway looks the other way and the diamonds recruit new IBOs, teach 100 PV minimum, product loyalty and all the other "dirty" things that Amway can legally distance themselves from because distributors are "independent".
DeletePlaying the lottery can be fun as long as you keep it in perspective that you are very unlikely to win and it would be ridiculous to plan your future based on it. But Amway is much worse. They actually promote the false dream and want you to hope and believe it will come true if you just keep feeding your money into it. The poor sucker Amway IBO is feeding his hard earned money to the top of the pyramid, promoting the scam itself, wasting his time and damaging his relationships with friends and family. Another dangerous thing about Amway is that believing in it will cause people to not make realistic plans they need to make to prepare for their future because they falsely believe Amway will make them rich. It's an insidious scam.
ReplyDeleteYes, at least people know they are very unlikely to win the lottery.
DeleteIn Amway, you essentially have the same odds as the lottery but it also takes time and work. And people falsely believe they can succeed thanks to upline lies.
Joe, when you were in Amway/WWDB, how were you prospecting people? Were you telling them upfront on the 1st meeting that it was Amway, and all the pros and cons, including high product prices, the monthly expenses they can expect, and how much you were personally losing/making at the time? Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI was upfront with people but I told them that in my experience, the business works and because my group was growing and excited, I could demonstrate that I was succeeding and "moving up". We taught that even thought prices were higher, it was due to quality and that we did it anyway because Amway the financial vehicle was going to make us money.
DeleteI was making money but I didn't let on that my net was basically zero because of the tools. At the peak I made over $1000 in a month but the tools and functiions ate it all up.
Thank you.
DeleteJoe, suppose you had said to your up-line that you weren't going to buy tools anymore, and were simply going to sell Amway products (in order to keep your $1000 monthly profit).
DeleteHonestly, what would their reaction have been? After all, tools are "optional," according to Amway propaganda.
My upline (and the higher up diamond upline) really pushed tools. Even to the point where they would tell people to skip a meal to buy an extra cd or to skip paying your mortgage so you can get to the next function. They even assured people that nobody will foreclose a mortgage on one late payment. Looking back, these uplines really had they nerve and they really should have been sucker punched for that kind of advice. I saw people in our group go bankrupt and at least two couples I know of lost their homes to forclosure.
DeleteMy upline is a physician (and was a good friend). I bought a house in 2001 and my real estate agent also knew my upline. My upline was also encouraged to buy a home but declined because he wanted to buy a house in cash like the diamonds told him.
Well, I bought my home for $300K and today it's worth $800K. (google median homes prices on Oahu). My upline is still renting a place (as a doctor). I thinm my investment, despite having to pay all of 4% mortgage interest, was still a good one. I wonder if my upline will ever purchase a home?
You know, when I was in the business, I was told to never listen to people who I now realize give sound logic, not broken dreams. I would silently read blogs like this, and scoff and think that my upline was right and that these people just gave up. From a former IBO of three and a half years, please listen to me when I tell you that you are being lied to by the system. The business principles such as making reading the daily habit should continue in your pusuit of success in the area of your passion, but going broke buying the materials and tools will do nothing but ruin you. Much of my Consumer Debt is due to buying function tickets and other materials. My mindset had also been tainted to block out anyone who questioned the business, including some very dear friends who made the decision to stop hanging out with me because I became unbearable to be around.
ReplyDeleteIf you are a current IBO reading this struggling to achieve new PIN levels while following all instructions to buy all materials and attend all events, I encourage you to take the skills that you've learned and apply it to what really drives you. You know that deep down the business is killing you. Don't stay on long enough to let it ruin you.
Thanks for your comments. I can relate to what you're saying. I too somewhat stayed away from friends who were not supportin=ve of Amway, although I never told them they were not my friends because of Amway. Other had done that before.
DeleteI'm sure I was difficult to be around at times too. I was myopic and I only saw Amway.
I just hope that some IBOs can find and extract information and some of my experiences to self discover the fact that upline is sytematically scamming them one book, one cd or one function at a time.
Wow! David George, thank you for coming forward with your statement. I hope that your message spreads to other forums and threads, because it is important for people to understand where our mentality is coming from. Kudos to you for stepping up and taking responsibility for your mistakes...I know that can be one of the hardest things to do.
DeleteAmway does indeed kill people financially. It's important NOT to join the scam, or if you are in it, to drop out real fast.
DeleteMost people realize quickly that they aren't making progress and quit. The ones that suffer most are the ones who are dedicated and stay on board and suffer major losses.
Delete