Just The Facts Please?

If anyone's been involved with the great Amway debate, you'll notice that the "pro Amway" aruments are full of anecdotal stories and best case scenario situations, or showing off a guy who allegedly made millions. After all, even an MLM scam must have some success stories, or you couldn't recruit enough people to sustain the scheme. But in the end, even the most staunch critics of Amway don't claim there is no success in Amway. They mainly claim that the success of the few, comes at the expense of the masses. What the pro Amway arguments never contain are logical and reasonable explanations, math included, on how more than a tiny percentage of people can reasonable be expected to succeed.

Recruits are shown copies of large checks, or pictures os mansions or the latest sports cars. They are alleged examples of what you can attain with a part time effort. The success is allegedly attainable to all. Anyone can join, work hard and follow your upline advice and you simply can't miss. If you fail, it's because you didn't work hard enough, or didn't do things "just right". But at the same time, the business is promoted as "simple" or "duplicatable" (just copy) and that "anyone" can do it. "Anyone" can do it, just as "anyone" can win the lottery. What they never mention is that "everyone" can do it. In a job, you may not make a lot of money, but everyone who does some work will receive a paycheck and have a net gain.

In Amway, the masses (including those who work hard) make nothing or lose money. It's a product of the MLM system. In Amway's common 6-4-2 plan, it shows 79 IBOs. One IBO is a platinum and the rest are not. The plan also assumes that ALL IBOs did enough to earn a bonus. In reality, a platinum would likely have much more than 100 downline. Some do little or nothing and some work hard. The result is a few winners and a mass of those who make nothing or suffer losses.

But to this date, not a single Amway defender has delivered a reasonable explanation of how someone can work the business and actually make money. They may say to gather 20 customers who buy $25 of stuff a month, but in all my years, not a single IBO has demonstrated that they have that kind of customer base. And Amway products are so overpriced that a lot of customers seems implausible to begin with. Most purchases come from sympathetic friends and family, at least that's my take (and experience) on the matter.

So while the debate goes on, the critis support their claimes with math. Such as the average income of all Amway distributors is about $100 a month and if you disregard "inactive" distributors, then it's about $200 a month. But think about this, how do you build a residual income empire with a downline where about half of the IBOs are "inactive" and the "average" income of the "active" IBOs is about $200 a month. And that $200 average includes diamonds and crown ambassadors. Food for thought. The diamonds skew the averages because they have higher earnings. Most IBOs who earn a bonus move 100 PV, which qualifies them for about a $10 bonus. That's the likely scenario for most IBOs who give the business an earnest try. What is not told is earning $10 a month while spending hundreds on cd, functions and books is not a winning proposition.

Even at my 4000 PV level, I was only at break even when factoring in the average cost of the Amway tools. So what is the inevitabke result for the rest who never reach 4000 PV? The answer is business losses. I still haven't heard a logocal response explaining how I am wrong.