Many people see the Amway plan, and get unrealistic dreams of attaining incredible material wealth and retiring in a few years. I find it strange that nobody has been able to point out anyone who actually got in, worked a few years and then walked away from the business and is now enjoying buckets of cash rolling in while they spend their days on exotic beaches sipping mai tais. The more likely scenario will be debt, higher credit card bills, and boxes of unused cds and other various unused Amway products.
So why would someone joining the business become annoying? It's because to the average person, it beomes clear that to achieve this, you need to find "six" people. Thus to find six people, you need to make contacts to show the plan. Cold contacts of people on the street would be unlikely, even for the boldest of people, so new IBOs start lookin at people they know. They start with people they are familiar with, or family and friends. They may also think their family and friends will want to get rich with them.
Sadly for most new and enthusiastic IBOs, they will find that they are shunned by family and friends. Over the years, IBOs have done too much damage to Amway's reputation and overcoming this challenge is too much for the rank and file IBOs. They will hear stories of failures and opinions that Amway is a pyramid and/or a scam. Of course, IBOs will have "canned" answers to respond to from their upline. One of the humorous ones is that Amway is praised by the BBB or the FTC and is the shining example of an MLM. To those familiar with this line of reasoning, it can become side splitting humorous. Other silly comparisons will be comparing Amway to gym memberships or that 90% of small businesses fail. They forget that more than 99% of Amway businesses fail.
At first, the family and friends may humor the new IBO, but relentless persistence can eventually turn ugly. This is where uplines will teach the new IBOs to avoid "negative" and to shun these family and friends. This is why some people charge the Amway leaders with being cult - like. It's at about this point where IBOs might realize that Amway products are costly and try to sell off some of them to reduce their own costs. Often times, sympathetic family and friends might make a token purchase to show support. but that can get old in a hurry also. Most IBOs will eventually quit and make amends with family and friends, but some lose friendships for good.
To information seekers and new IBOs, hopefully this message is food for thought......
There's no question at all that Amway is a cult. It is just as much an evil, soul-destroying cult as the Church of Scientology.
ReplyDeleteConsider the characteristics:
1) In Amway, you must "never question up-line!" Your up-line is your cult leader, like an ayatollah or a pope. He's infallible.
2) In Amway, you must tithe (pay monthly fees and make forced purchases) to the Amway Corporation, just as you would do to some church or temple.
3) In Amway, you must never think for yourself (that would be "stinking thinking") because it might make you question the cult's dogma. Cults believe that rational thought and honest questioning are a menace to orthodoxy.
4) In Amway, you must repeat the exact arguments and phraseology of your cult leaders when discussing the business, just as you would repeat catechism answers in a religious organization. That's why Amway freaks all sound like programmed robots.
5) In Amway, you must dress just like everyone else ("dress for success," in cheap business suits), exactly as required in some religious orders. A mindless conformism is required.
6) In Amway, nothing in the world matters in comparison to your devotion and loyalty to the Amway cult and its beliefs. This is no different from what is expected from every fundamentalist fanatic in a cult.
7) In Amway, you MUST proselytize constantly, convincing new people to join. This is exactly what cultists do -- they try to recruit new members all the time.
8) In Amway, you are forbidden to "be negative" or to "think negative," which is just like a religion's commandment that you should never entertain the possibility that your orthodox faith might be wrong or subject to criticism.
9) In Amway, people who leave the cult are called "losers" or "quitters," and you are supposed to shun them completely. This is exactly what happens in a cult, where those who escape it are considers heretics and traitors.
10) In Amway, the organization constantly screams at you "You gotta BELIEVE! You gotta BELIEVE!" That kind of thing is no different from the frenzied irrationality of a cult.
Let's see if any Amway assholes can show up here and argue that these ten characteristics don't describe the Amway cult perfectly.