One of the things my Amway upline taught us ad nauseum was that we needed to have faith in our business and in our upline. That we needed to believe that we were going to be successful. IBOs are told that they should act successful even if they are still working their way up the ranks in the business. It is why they ask (require) IBOs to wear suits and business attire to all meetings and functions. This is one of the weird quirks about the business in my opinion. I live in Hawaii and I remember a function they held in the middle of July in a high school auditorium and there was no air conditioning. I think my suit needed special cleaning because it was completely saturated with persiration.
Anyway, with this part of the year, soon there will be thousands of IBOs shuffling off to a function called dream night, or in some cases, winter conference. The tickets are about $60 to $80 and includes a dinner. What IBOs are often unaware of is that many venues will allow you to run these conferences for $20 to $25 per person. The rest of that ticket prices goes directly into your upline's pockets. Anyway, the dream night function will feature slide shows of mansions, yachts, jet skis, sports cars, fabulous vacations and other trappings of wealth.
What many IBOs don't realize is that this display of wealth is just that. There is no bonafide evidence to indicate that these diamonds actually own all of those toys and goodies. The diamonds probably won't verbally confirm it either, because these toys and goodies may not really be owned by them. It could be rented, or maybe some upline corwn ambassador may own the mansion, but IBOs will assume that these trappings of wealth are common once you reach diamond. As an IBO, I never actually knew how much a diamond really earned. I just assumed it was a lot because we were shown all of these goodies and just assumed all diamonds had these kinds of lifestyles.
If I posted a picture of a mansion and a jet and said I owe it all to my earnings as a blogger, people would cry foul, that I am lying or making things up. And they would be right. Well, I would guess that many diamonds are doing the very same thing if they appear on stage and implying that they have jets and mansions. As I said, someone may own a mansion and a jet, but to imply that this is a part of the typical diamond lifestyle is a stretch. The evidence is there. Some diamonds have lost their homes to foreclosure. My old LOS diamonds (WWDB) taught us that diamonds pay cash for everything, including homes. Now confirmed as a blatant lie. Who knows what else they may have misrepresented?
I ask IBOs and prospects who may be attending dream night, to watch with a critical eye. What is being implied with the display of wealth? Analyze if those goodies can be purchased with a diamond income ($150,000 plus some tool income). Ask yourself if this lifestyle is truly sustainable? Ask yourself if you can live with yourself if deception is a part of earning your diamond lifestyle?
8 comments:
Hey JoeCool, I live in Hawaii too, and my boyfriend has been sucked into Amway for about two years, and has been trying to get me to join too. He is sort of holding the marriage thing over my head by claiming he doesn't want to marry someone not in the business, but I am busy trying to save for marriage and kids. Anyway, I would love to meet you if you and I are on the same island! I need help. His mom and friends are watching him basically change into a moron.
My contact information (email) is on my profile located on this blog. Feel free to contact me and ask any questions.
Dear Unknown at 3:17 PM --
Does your boyfriend really love you if he won't marry you unless you join Amway?
I can see hesitating to marry someone if they are of a different religion, and if religion is an important consideration for the couple. But AMWAY? It's a dipshit little soap-and-vitamin racket. Not marrying the woman you love because she won't join up is indeed the sign of a moron.
Anyone that says they won't marry someone if they don't join their so-called "business" is making it very clear that - and most people who have been married to Ambots will confirm this - the spouse to be will always ALWAYS be secondary to Amway. Period. Amway meetings and upline will get first priority for everything. You have a birthday coming up? Well, if upline says they attend a meeting that night as opposed to taking you out for dinner, forget it. He goes to the meeting.
Amway is a cult that brainwashes it's followers. Marrying somebody involved in ANY cult that has taken over their mind/personality is almost certainly a road to pain, heartache and financial ruin.
I understand you fell in love with this guy. But the thing is, once a cult gets it's talon's into it's victim they change. In so many ways, he is not the same person you were drawn to. Family and friends and future spouse ALL become the "enemy" if they are a threat to a cult's meal ticket. They will poison his mind against you and his family. It's what brainwashing does. They isolate them mentally from anyone outside of the cult. Unless you are a member of the cult, he will never listen to you.
If I were you I would NOT even consider marrying this guy unless he can break free of the cult and it's brainwashing.
Don't let him hold marriage over your head for you to join the cult with him. It should be the other way around. You won't marry HIM unless he gets out of that dangerous, finances-destroying cult.
Good luck!
Thanks guys! Yeah, I already decided that it would be smarter for me to just not marry him until he is out, if ever, just in case he does something that would ruin my credit. He just got hit with the tax rule that states you cannot deduct business expenses if you take a loss for three years, and he was a wreck. But the solution was to "keep doing the business--that is the only solution." Pretty nuts. I would have chosen the work less/invest more route, but what do I know?
I'm hemming and hawing about sticking it out. We (his family, my family, his friends, my friends) aren't sure if he has two more years (when the 5 year hobby rule gets applied for taxes), one more year, 10 more years, or if he is going to go until he is dead. He's kind of old to have been recruited in, I think...about mid-30s, started when he was 30 or 31. Everyone that I saw at the recent "open house" was super young, couldn't have been in the "business" for more than 3 years, probably only a few of them over 30. I have been to a few of the Dream Nights, and most everyone there is pretty young, so my thought is most of these people will drop out within the next 3-4 years. Or is there a large precedent for people staying in until they're 60?
By the way, I should mention, my bf spends about $1400 a month on Amway stuff and receives a paltry $300 in profit. He's been in for 3 years now and has not recruited a soul. His best friend, a very successful salesman who actually USED to sell Amway but knew it was a scam after a few months, says he has almost zero chance of recruiting anyone.
With all this info, what do you guys think are the odds that in 5 years he is gonna be out? He'll be 40 by then and will have been in Amway for 8 years at that point.
In the meantime, I live relatively cheaply and am able to save a sizable amount of my take home pay, so financially I'm probably good. We have a house to live in that is not dependent on his income or lack of it. And I'm not in a rush to get married. I'm more into traveling. But I can travel with or without him.
Someone will get out of Amway when they "snap out of it". Most people do it quickly, but some people like my former sponsor, is still active in Amway today, and he's been in it since 1993. 25 years and he is no closer to diamond than he was 24 years ago. But I believe I saw a stat that 95% of all IBOs never last 5 years so there's that hope I guess.
To Anonymous at 6:37 AM --
If your boyfriend is losing $1100 per month in Amway, the situation is very serious. He cannot maintain that kind of financial hemorrhaging for much longer. That's over $13,000 per year down the toilet.
You mention that you own a house. BE CAREFUL! It is a well-known thing for persons in Amway to pressure their spouses or partners to sell a home and use the money to support the Amway racket. If you marry this guy, he may try very hard to convince you to sell the house and rent some cheap place. If he's desperate for money to spend on Amway junk, he'll want to dispose of your house. In fact, his up-line will be the real ones putting the pressure on him.
Also, be careful about something else. Most persons are smart and get out of Amway within six months or maybe a year. Someone who has been in it for three years (and looking forward to another five years) is dangerously close to being a confirmed cult member. It might be best to drop this guy now.
To Joecool...
You are absolutely correct. My friend just left the business because he was miserable. I saw him decline rapidly after he was having trouble completing the monthly volume. He was always put in a guilt trip to skip events with his family and be a part of their nonsense meetings and seminars. I actually went to three meetings and decided not to get involved because i saw people up there who had been in the business for over 20 years and still had not reached the diamond ship level but somehow were convincing the crowd that they would get there in 5-7 years!
Please stay away from these people. They are professional sweet talkers.
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