One of the things Amway IBOs "think" they posssess, but in reality they are far from it, is "Business Mentality". It is not necessarily the fault of the IBOs. Many are sponsored into Amway by trusted friends or family and lacking real business experience. They will "submit" to upline as they are advised and will try to learn about the Amway business. The problem is that many upline leaders teach self serving business practices such as hard core dedication to their tools system, from which they often handsomely profit. Let's examine some of the questionable practices.
"Buy from yourself". If you have a business owner mentality, you only buy from yourself if it's beneficial to your business. Many IBOs talk about ridiculous things like a McDonald's owner would never eat at Burger King. That's baloney. Just because I own a McDonald's doesn't mean I am eating Big Macs the rest of my life. You cannot spend yourself to prosperity. If I sold pens for $1.00 and my cost was .50, and my competitor had a special on the same pens at 3 for $1.00, I'm buying them from my competition. Also, buying from yourself makes you a customer, not a business owner.
"Ignore facts if you have a dream". This is probably the biggest heap of guano taught by many upline. I have seen this spouted in particular by IBOs downline from WWDB and BWW leaders. A business owner studies the facts, not ignores them. Any REAL business owner wants to know how much he is bringing in and how much is going out. That's how you detect the heartbeat of your business. A site visitor named Gina on this site, at one time, posted a profit/loss statement from her real business. Naturally, IBOs were at a loss to discuss it because it was foreign material to them. A profit/loss statement is the most vital part of running a business.
"Submit to upline" Another load of hogwash. Why should someone submit to upline simply because they "sponsored me" or whatever? You take advice from someone based on when you signed up for Amway? A real business owner would think independently and make business decisions based on facts and numbers, not on the advice of someone upline who hasn't taken the time to assess each IBO on a personal level to be able to give advice on an IBO's "Indepdendent Business", or worse, advice on their personal lives".
"Dedication to the system". Silly advice as well. What dedication does the system have for an IBO? If an IBO succeeds (which is very rare), the system takes credit, but for the more than 99% of people who never make a significant income, it is their own fault if they don't make it. Amway apologists will defend this by saying that many may not have signed up wanting a significant income. While that may be partially true, tell me where people show "plans" designed for the guy who wants an extra $100 a month? The plans shown are always (AFAIK) to go platinum or diamond. The functions and other meetings bear this out as the truth.
IBOs and information seekers, does any of this sound familiar? Is this a part of your experience? If so, I encourage you to ask questions here and get more information before proceeding with any more "business" activity.
2 comments:
Amway has a definite mentality, but it isn't a business mentality.
Businessmen are profit-oriented, and will maintain careful records to see if their profits are increasing or decreasing. They keep track of all expenses, and try to limit those expenditures that are cutting into profits.
Amway deliberately tells its IBOs that they are forbidden to keep such records. They are simply to pay whatever their up-line tells them to pay for, and not keep track of profit or loss.
The commands to "Buy from yourself," "Ignore facts," and "Submit to up-line" aren't even intelligent from any ordinary human point of view, much less in a financial context. They are, in fact, the maxims of a lunatic. And the final command of being "Dedicated to the system" is profoundly stupid -- the only dedication you owe is to yourself and your need for a profit, not to a "system" that fails nearly 100% of those in it. If a "system" doesn't work, a real businessman drops it.
The fact that very few people want to admit is this: Amway is a RELIGION. The mentality behind Amway is the religious mentality of blind obedience to an ideology despite all facts to the contrary. So even persons in "Core" Amway who have been losing money for years will not give the racket up, because they "believe."
I recall some of the ridiculous stuff that the upline taught. Don't worry about the mess (not keeping records), you can figure it out when you go diamond. Another lame one is how a business owner never buys from a competitor. It my competition has a sale where they sell below their cost, it might be wise to buy from a competitor, to take advantage of a loss leader.
But Amway isn't a religion, it's basically a cult, which tries to use religion for an unworthy cause.
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