One of the ways that upline diamonds would put down jobs was to toss in the phrase that a job was simply trading hours for dollars. As if it were demeaning to have a job where you got paid for your time. I believe it's all relative. Being that many IBOs are young and maybe working in more entry level types of jobs, then yeah, your hourly wage might not be that great. If you earn say $10 an hour, then you might be struggling financially and it may take time before your skills and knowledge increase to a point where your experience is worth more money. What if you had a job paying $1000 an hour and earned $160,000 a month? Is that a lousy deal trading hours for dollars? I don't think so.
Conversely, having a business can be good or bad also. If you have an Amway business earnning less than $50 a month and you spend $200 on functions, standing orders and other training and motivational materials, then you are losing money. You would be better off doing nothing or working for free. That is still a better alternative than working a business where you are losing money. I think most people agree that a platinum group typically has a 100 or more IBOs. Thus a platinum is in the top 1% of all IBOs. I have heard that the platinum level is where you start to break even or make a little profit, depending on your level of tool consumption. If platinums are barely making a profit, then the other 99+% of IBOs are likely losing money. How much is that worth per hour?
I think uplines cleverly trick IBOs into thinking that a job is bad. Trading hours for dollars, afterall, sounds like some kind of indentured servant of sorts. But in the ned, what matters is your bottom line. If you are an IBO with little or no downline, and/or not much in terms of sales to non IBOs/customers, then you are losing money each and every month if you are attending functions and buying standing orders. Your 10-12 hours a week of Amway work is costing you money! But if you spend 10-12 hours a week, even at minimum wage, then you might be making about 300 to 350 a month groww income. After taxes, you make about 250 to 300. At least trading hours for dollars gets you a guaranteed net gain at the end of the month.
Uplines trick you into a "business mentality" where you think that working for a net loss is just a part of business. IBOs should realize that a business promoted as low risk and no overhead should be one where you can profir right away. Instead, IBOs are taught to delay gratification, or to reinvest any profit back into their business in the form of tools and functions, which results in a net loss. If that's the case I would choose a job where I am assured of a paycheck for my efforts.
Remember, trading hours for dollars is not a bad deal if you are making enough dollars per hour. And even those who make less, are better off that those who "run a business" but end up with a net loss. It's all relative and hopefully, this message will help new or prospective IBOs who are being enticed to join the Amway business opportunity. Good luck to those with jobs and those with businesses. You can be successful either way. Remember that!
2 comments:
Amway, like all MLMs, is essentially a cultic religion, and religions have fixed doctrines that have to be accepted by all believers.
One doctrine at the heart of Amway is the idea that a job, by definition, is always bad. If you work at a salaried job, you are always a loser and a fool. This is absolutely central to the Amway faith, even if (as frequently happens) an IBO has to maintain his regular job to pay for his Amway hobby.
The basic idea behind this Amway belief is really a Communist one. For Communists, salaried labor is always being exploited by business owners, so if you have a "job" you are being bled of your labor and time for only a small part of that time's actual value. Or, as the Amway freaks put it, "You are trading hours for dollars."
In other words, Amway is just recycling Marx's theory of "surplus value" -- that is, the notion that salaried workers are being cheated of what they produce by the man who owns the business. Amway's central religious doctrine is borrowed from the Communist Karl Marx.
Amway's answer to "trading hours for dollars" is that you should "work for yourself," by owning your own business. In this way you don't have to answer to a boss, and what you earn is totally your own.
But look at the reality:
1) In Amway you don't own your own business. You're just a non-salaried salesman working on commission. And your so-called "business" is completely regulated and controlled by your up-line and by the Amway Corporation. You can't sell it, and you can be fired at any time.
2) In Amway you are still under the control of a "boss." He's called your immediate up-line, and you can do nothing without his permission. He can force you to buy products that you neither need nor want, and which you cannot sell. He will insist that you purchase "tools" and function tickets that are of no use to you in building your so-called "business."
3) In Amway you still trade hours, but you don't get any dollars for them. Your up-line will command you to be present at all sorts of stupid meetings and night owls and gatherings, where you will waste plenty of time but get nothing in return. You will waste endless time in malls and coffee shops and bookstores trying to rope strangers into listening to "The Plan." You are not compensated for any of this lost time.
In short, being in Amway is just like a job, except that you don't get paid for what you do. You just work like a slave for your up-line, with the forlorn hope that you too will develop some down-line that can be exploited in the same way.
Amway is much, much worse than a job. And it is based on a Communist idea of labor.
Your comments are spot on!
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