Over the years, I have encountered many IBOs and they often have a common theme. They trust their upline and in some cases, consider them "mentors". Now in a business venture, it might be good to have a mentor or someone to teach and guide you, but in the Amway opportunity, most of the upline mentors make money off those who they mentor. That is a major conflict of interest but IBOs simply fail to see it. Just about any "help" you receive results in compensation for someone upline. A true mentor relationship in my way if thinking would be perhaps a grandfather teaching his grandson how to be a good man or how to have a good work ethic.
When an IBO sees the plan in a big meeting or function, the speaker will often be built up as a financial guru, and possibly as an expert on how to succeed in Amway. An IBO may hear something about the trail was already blazed by upline and you just need to follow the trail. Don't re-invent the wheel, just copy what upline did. But as I have said many times before, duplication sounds easy and looks good on paper, but in real life, the vast majority of IBOs run into problems that they simply cannot overcome, such as the bad reputation that the Amway name has in the US. High prices for products don't help either. And since most IBOs don't do much and most can't sponsor a downline, how can you build a growing business?
What is troubling however, is that IBOs are taught to trust upline and do as they say (defacto requirement), but they are also taught that failure is their own shortcomings, even when they do exactly what upline (their mentors) told them. It is also troubling that many uplines will tell their faithful followers that they need to purchase more and more tools (voicemail, cds, seminar tickets). In some cases, an upline may advise their downline to sacrifice basic family needs to buy these tools. I saw some IBOs who were advised to skip meals to buy a cd, or skip paying the mortgage to be able to attend the next big function. The results are devastating for some.
I might also add that as a newer IBO or prospect, you may have heard that "everyone starts at zero", or that it's a level playing field. It is not. As a new IBO, you will likely be in the 100 PV bracket. Since Amway pays out about 33% in bonuses, your upline(s) will split up about 30% in bonuses off your efforts while you get a 3% bonus. That doesn't sound very level to me. In addition, you as an IBO are paying for this priviledge when you buy tools. You are being taught that this unfair distribution of bonuses is a level playing field when clearly it's not. Why should people upline get the lion's share of those bonuses simply because they signed up before you?
So each IBO should look at things objectively and see if your upline is actually helping you or simply helping himself by giving you advice that ends up in profit for himself with little or nothing for you. Has your business and abilities been carefully assessed? You certainly won't receive that kind of help in a function or on a cd or in a book. When your upline advises you to do more PV or to buy more tools and functions, they are simply helping themselves to your money.
2 comments:
All genuine businesses give their employees real training, without any charge. They know that this is profitable in the long run, since a well-trained employee is productive and useful for the company. And it isn't a major expense to train an employee thoroughly for a few weeks or months.
When Amway insists that the IBO pay for his tools and CDs and functions, this is a dead giveaway that Amway is a racket. The fact that these so-called "tools" don't work, and that you have to keep on buying them for year after year, is positive proof of the fraudulence of Amway. If the "tools" actually were useful, they would be limited in scope, like any other training manual or program. You'd buy them once, study them thoroughly, and then carry out their instructions. Why the bloody hell does an IBO need to keep on getting new tools, month after month?
The only real purpose of the "tools" is to enrich up-line by keeping a steady flow of cash from IBOs going upwards to him and his Platinum. That's why your up-line (in contradiction to official Amway policy) says that he "won't help you or work with you" if you refuse to buy tools from him. Why do you think he says that? It's because the goddamned "tools" are the main source of his income! He's certainly not making a lot of money selling those stupid Nutrilite pills or energy drinks or Perfect Water.
In any business, a mentor should be at arms length. It would be (in any business) particularly conflicting if a mentor has a vested interest in turnover, but not in profitability. Not to mention interest in maximising expenses (tools). The advice you mention is consistent with such a conflict of interest.
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