One of ths things I take issue with is how uplines will create an us versus them mentality in the business. Thus friends and family who care about you suddenly become "negative" and association with them should be limited. In some cases, people are discouraged from excellence in their jobs or professions because it takes the focus off of their Amway business. What I was told was to do my job, but my radar should always be on for new prospects. Some crossline IBOs turned down promotions at work because they did not want to have to work longer hours or take the focus off of their Amway businesses.
In some cases, the speaker at open meetings or functions will put down people's jobs. A commonly used acronym was J-O-B = "Just Over Broke". Some leaders also would say that my job was a pyramid because you will never earn more than the boss. A completely ridiculous comparison because someone's job has no relationship with how people view the Amway business (i.e. an Amway pyramid) and in a job, every employee gets paid and has a net gain at the end of the month. Not true in Amway. If IBOs only use KATE for example, an IBO at 100 PV or less will already be at a loss, and that is not considering any other expenses that IBO may have. And while a job may have a hierarchy, or chain of command, the business owner and CEO or manager earns their salary from customers, not directly from the pockets of their employees.
Some uplines will laugh about people's jobs, stating that they wake up at the "crack of noon". What these same uplines may not tell you is that they wake up at noon because they are up at 3:00 in the morning doing nite owls for their groups and looking for recruits. These same uplines possibly can't do much with their downlines since their downlines mostly tend to have 9-5 jobs.
So if you are of the opinion that nobody should criticize the Amway opportunity
or IBO behavior, maybe uplines and IBOs should not criticize family and friends who disagree with or are not interested in the opportunity, and maybe the same uplines and IBOs should not criticize people who choose to work jobs. Don't most IBOs rely on their jobs as their Amway income is not sufficient to even pay for their Amway business related expenses?
Nobody is perfect, people don't get in Amway and become superior beings. What about the IBO's that actually have a great definite of purpose in life? I'm pretty sure there are plenty of them since there is over 3 Million active IBO ships.
ReplyDeleteSomehow, people think joining Amway somehow transforms people, One IBO I know of wrote how AMway IBOs have integrity so he was asked if joining Amway somehow gave you integrity. As if you could be an s.o.b one day, then join Amway and have integrity.
ReplyDeleteWell, does it? God is working through this business & it surely has changed my life. All glory to Him. Everybody has different perspectives though.
DeleteYes, by deceiving the ones below you and tell them that you have integrity.
ReplyDeleteTo play and to be played. No! To fool and to be fooled, that is the life of an IBO.
And I can see that (i.e. My sponsor, I tried to tell him that we should meet by day but he insisted that we should meet at night for a meeting) I know that he needs his day job to support his "business".
ReplyDelete@joecool. You are right. There are many disadvantages about building the Amway business, but in my honest opinion. The advantages outweighs the disadvantages. There are many teachings done throughout the Amway business. There are many systems that teach different things. Some are successful and some are not. The argument could be made that jobs are a scam depending are where you work, but honestly its all personal opinions. I am sorry and feel bad that your "upline" left a negative taste in your mouth about the business. Every business could be a bad business or a scam if it is being misused by the manager or leader.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous @ 8:39 PM, there are advantages to the Amway business, but the advantages belong to the upline diamonds. It's pretty cleara, based on the income disclosures, that the vast majority of Amway IBOs lose money. The average income of "active" IBOs is about $202 a month (gross income, not including business expenses). But only about 53% of IBOs are active so the average income of all IBOs is about $100 or so. When you factor in business expenses and keep in mind that Amway "millionaires" are in that average, it's easy to conclude that the average IBO loses money when business expenses are included.
ReplyDeleteEvery business can be a bad business if it is misused by the manager or leader. True, any group selling tools, cds, voicemail and seminar tickets are misusing the business. I don't know of any upline diamonds who don't sell tools and functions so you could accurately say all leaders in Amway are misusing their downline,
Joe, many of these defenders of Amway seem to being saying the following: "Even if you don't make money in Amway, it teaches you all sorts of helpful things and positive approaches to life."
ReplyDeleteIf that were the case, then Amway isn't a business, but a philosophy.
But you don't have to hemorrhage money every month in order to learn a philosophy. All you need is to buy a few books and read them, and then decide for yourself if the ideas in the books are worth following.
None of these defenders of Amway can get around this simple and well-attested fact: Amway almost guarantees that anyone who joins the racket will LOSE MONEY!!! And the longer they stay in Amway, the greater their financial losses will be!
Somebody who presents you with a philosophy of life isn't out to empty your wallet.
It's part of what upline teaches. That Amway is more than about money. That's BS, a business is there to make money. But since most Amway businesses lose money, they need to feed the downline BS to keep them motivated and to keep them buying tools and functions.
ReplyDeleteIf you just want to be positive, join a church or you can read positive thinking books without running an Amway business that bleeds money.
By comparison, the unemployed are more smarter than these mlm defenders.
ReplyDeleteI always would metaphorically scratch my head listening to speakers tell how this business was great for their children's college funding....WAIT!!!!....... Education = J.O.B !...... Hypocrisy!.... Ain't it great
ReplyDelete