One of the things I heard as as IBO was that you can basically copy your upline and ride their coat tails to success. The diamonds would say that it was like in school, you could copy someone and become successful. Easy enough right. Anyone can copy or duplicate their upline and it’s simple and anyone can do it right? It certainly sounds like any Joe off the street can do it and be successful. That is a selling point for the Amway opportunity.
But can you really copy your way to success? I mean you don’t have a diamond pin, you don’t get income from the tools and functions. You don’t have the kind of credibility to be able to speak as confidently as someone who’s recognized as a diamond. You aren’t involved in top level meetings with higher ups. It’s like a rank and file employee trying to rub noses with the company CEO. Yeah you might get a smile and a greeting now and then but you aren’t going to become CEO. Yeah, there are some rags to riches stories but they are the exception and not the rule.
I have a proven track record on my side. How many new diamonds have emerged from the US in recent years? Oh there are a few. I won’t deny that but over the last 12 years or so, how many new diamonds have qualified? I can think of one female diamond who came from Hawaii and 1 or 2 new ones on the mainland US but you must know that likely hundreds of thousands of IBOS have cone and gone in the Amway business during that same time frame. To be honest, the lottery has had a lot more big winners than new diamonds in Amway.
Does that mean that nobody can succeed in Amway? Of course not but if the likelihood of success is less that winning a lottery, I’d say it’s not a viable business opportunity. I know Amway defenders love to cite the hundreds or thousands of new platinums, but being that Amway’s sales have either declined to fell flat for most of the last handful of years, I can only conclude that there are just as many former platinums as there are new ones. Also, if platinums fall out of qualification, then certainly some diamonds likely fell out too.
Bottom line is you can’t copy your way to business success anymore that I can copy LeBron James and become a great basketball player. But your upline certainly wants you to think you can. Their income depends on myths like this.
Sunday, June 28, 2020
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
Doomed To Failure?
It’s no secret that the vast majority of IBOs wind up with a net business loss and eventually quit the business because they see no chance of turning a profit. But a valid question might be why so many IBOs fail? The answer is quite simple. There are too many handicaps and problems with the Amway business for people to overcome. While many Amway IBOs might be motivated and eager, they simply cannot overcome the staggering odds.
First off the Amway business has a poor reputation. Many people are turned off simply by the name. It makes it next to impossible to recruit and entice potential recruits. And you can’t build an Amway empire without down line. That is the focus of most starry eyed Amway recruits, to sponsor as many down line as possible. Sadly, most IBOs will never sponsor a single downline.
Another aspect is that the upline diamond makes their living off down line. Any help received from the diamond has a cost to the down line. Standing orders, functions, meetings, books, voice nail. This system extracts cash from IBOS monthly which is most often the reason why IBOS suffer net losses in the business. The system is also inefficient which is evident by the massive amounts of failure seen in Amway.
But another big reason is that Amway products are basically generic like a plain whits can with the label of “pepper” on it. But the Amway products come at premium prices as if they are designer types of products. This alone is a massive handicap. Imagine trying to sell a Ford Escort for the sane price as a Mercedes Benz? I suppose it’s possible but it explains the general idea that IBOs appear to consume their own products instead of selling them to actual customers.
For these reasons and many more that I haven’t touched on yet, Amway IBOS are doomed to failure. It’s no surprise and quite predictable. It would be more surprising to see IBOS actually succeeding. LOL
First off the Amway business has a poor reputation. Many people are turned off simply by the name. It makes it next to impossible to recruit and entice potential recruits. And you can’t build an Amway empire without down line. That is the focus of most starry eyed Amway recruits, to sponsor as many down line as possible. Sadly, most IBOs will never sponsor a single downline.
Another aspect is that the upline diamond makes their living off down line. Any help received from the diamond has a cost to the down line. Standing orders, functions, meetings, books, voice nail. This system extracts cash from IBOS monthly which is most often the reason why IBOS suffer net losses in the business. The system is also inefficient which is evident by the massive amounts of failure seen in Amway.
But another big reason is that Amway products are basically generic like a plain whits can with the label of “pepper” on it. But the Amway products come at premium prices as if they are designer types of products. This alone is a massive handicap. Imagine trying to sell a Ford Escort for the sane price as a Mercedes Benz? I suppose it’s possible but it explains the general idea that IBOs appear to consume their own products instead of selling them to actual customers.
For these reasons and many more that I haven’t touched on yet, Amway IBOS are doomed to failure. It’s no surprise and quite predictable. It would be more surprising to see IBOS actually succeeding. LOL
Sunday, June 21, 2020
My Upline Cares About Me?
One common thing that Amway IBOs believe is that their upline has some deep rooted love and caring for them. I suppose they might care about you while you supply them with in one month after month. But miss a few meetings or functions and see how much love and caring they show. My diamond used to say that someone who misses meetings and functions hasn’t held up their end and therefore responsible for the friendship ending.
Basically your upline is a conditional friend. They will befriend you as long as you help pay for their diamond lifestyle by attending all functions and buying their educational materials. But friends typically hang out together. Do you hang out with the diamond or must you earn that time by competing in some contest to sell or consume the most goods and/or tools? I recall our group once had a function for IBOs at 1000 PV or higher and one person and his spouse attended even though they had no down line. Turns out they bought 1000 PV worth of Amway stuff so they could attend.
As you can probably tell, this Amway upline downline relationship is sort of like unrequited love. One person will do almost anything for the attention and/or affections of someone but the other person doesn’t reciprocate because they don’t care. Oh, they will toss you a crumb now and then if you keep on loyally buying tools and functions but if you go missing, they won’t blink an eye. They might even refer to you as a quitter or loser once you’re no longer around.
Meanwhile hoards to people come and go. There is little actual success to speak of because the system is inefficient and requires the churn of new people coming and going because there are so few people who last more than a few months or a few years. And that’s expected when the vast majority of IBOs operate at a net loss. Your upline just tosses you some platitudes to try to keep you motivated because they know they ate sustained by large groups of faithful but unsuccessful IBOs.
Don’t believe me? Go analyze your profit and loss statement. If you claim you made a profit, congratulations are in order, you are in the top fraction of 1% of Amway IBOs who make a net profit. The rest suffer losses until they snap our of their Amway trance and quit.
Basically your upline is a conditional friend. They will befriend you as long as you help pay for their diamond lifestyle by attending all functions and buying their educational materials. But friends typically hang out together. Do you hang out with the diamond or must you earn that time by competing in some contest to sell or consume the most goods and/or tools? I recall our group once had a function for IBOs at 1000 PV or higher and one person and his spouse attended even though they had no down line. Turns out they bought 1000 PV worth of Amway stuff so they could attend.
As you can probably tell, this Amway upline downline relationship is sort of like unrequited love. One person will do almost anything for the attention and/or affections of someone but the other person doesn’t reciprocate because they don’t care. Oh, they will toss you a crumb now and then if you keep on loyally buying tools and functions but if you go missing, they won’t blink an eye. They might even refer to you as a quitter or loser once you’re no longer around.
Meanwhile hoards to people come and go. There is little actual success to speak of because the system is inefficient and requires the churn of new people coming and going because there are so few people who last more than a few months or a few years. And that’s expected when the vast majority of IBOs operate at a net loss. Your upline just tosses you some platitudes to try to keep you motivated because they know they ate sustained by large groups of faithful but unsuccessful IBOs.
Don’t believe me? Go analyze your profit and loss statement. If you claim you made a profit, congratulations are in order, you are in the top fraction of 1% of Amway IBOs who make a net profit. The rest suffer losses until they snap our of their Amway trance and quit.
Thursday, June 18, 2020
Just The Facts?
It is my strong and informed opinion that the Amway business as run by IBOs can’t be promoted and stand on its own merits based on facts. Facts are facts but the problem is the diamonds who run recruiting meetings often leave out important details or tell the entire story. The business is made to seem dependent on the continuing education supplied by upline but of course at a cost. This ongoing expense is usually the downfall and the cause of must business losses suffered by IBOs who try to build a diamond business.
Let’s look at facts, many that are provided by Amway.com. Most IBOs will never sponsor a down line. Most IBOs will never earn a bonus. The average active IBO earns around $200 a month. If all IBOs are counted, the average income is about $100 a month and that includes the diamonds, although it does not include the diamond bonuses, etc. Most IBOs will not last a full year in business and nearly all IBOs will not last 5 years. Amway products are generic in nature but premium in price. These are facts that you can look up.
How can you build a long term sustainable business that will pay you forever (residual income) when most IBOs don’t do anything and most quit within one year? How can you get residual income when nearly all IBOs quit within 5 years? How do you sell generic products for premium prices? The answer is that you can’t build a sustainable long term business based on these facts and it’s very likely that diamonds are not sustainable either.
What makes the diamonds income stable and sustainable is selling weekly standing orders, book if the month, voicemail, open meeting tickets, monthly small functions and large major functions test are run quarterly. Without the tool and function income, it is likely that many diamonds would also be out of business. As you may or may not know, someone could qualify diamond one time and never qualify again but could be speaking on stage as a diamond 20 years later as Amway considers them a diamond for life.
Food for thought. But what I have presented are verifiable facts.
Let’s look at facts, many that are provided by Amway.com. Most IBOs will never sponsor a down line. Most IBOs will never earn a bonus. The average active IBO earns around $200 a month. If all IBOs are counted, the average income is about $100 a month and that includes the diamonds, although it does not include the diamond bonuses, etc. Most IBOs will not last a full year in business and nearly all IBOs will not last 5 years. Amway products are generic in nature but premium in price. These are facts that you can look up.
How can you build a long term sustainable business that will pay you forever (residual income) when most IBOs don’t do anything and most quit within one year? How can you get residual income when nearly all IBOs quit within 5 years? How do you sell generic products for premium prices? The answer is that you can’t build a sustainable long term business based on these facts and it’s very likely that diamonds are not sustainable either.
What makes the diamonds income stable and sustainable is selling weekly standing orders, book if the month, voicemail, open meeting tickets, monthly small functions and large major functions test are run quarterly. Without the tool and function income, it is likely that many diamonds would also be out of business. As you may or may not know, someone could qualify diamond one time and never qualify again but could be speaking on stage as a diamond 20 years later as Amway considers them a diamond for life.
Food for thought. But what I have presented are verifiable facts.
Sunday, June 14, 2020
Fruit On The Tree?
When I was an IBO, a buzz phrase was how our diamonds had a lot of fruit on the tree. In other words there were some new diamonds, Amway was growing and there seemed to be a lot of momentum in the World Wide organization at the time. So as a prospect, to see growth and excitement made Amway enticing at the time. After all, if the business was growing, perhaps achieving something seemed very possible.
But at the time there were many things I didn’t know about Amway such as the fact that once you achieve diamond, you keep the recognition forever even if your group eventually disappears. If course you don’t earn the diamond bonuses without being qualified but it is possible to earn a decent income from speaking at functions and selling audios, and charging fir recruitment meetings, etc.
Now I’m not that well connected to Amway people anymore so I’m not in constant contact with IBOs anymore but I’m really not aware of many or any new diamonds. Sure there might be some here and there but you mostly see the same old long tine diamonds still milking the down line for tools and functions income. I know that the diamonds will state that there are many new platinums which is a sign of growth.
But wait a minute, Amway sales and revenue was sliding backward and us mostly stagnant right now. That means there can’t be hoards of new platinums unless the previously qualified platinums no longer qualify. The numbers don’t lie. So if there aren’t a lot of new “net” platinums, meaning in addition to last years new platinums, what w you have is a churn of new ones with last years platinums no longer qualified. Thus we can conclude that with no new net platinums, it is unlikely that there are many new diamonds.
So where is the fruit on the tree? It appears that the tree is barren and withering. If you are in IBO and have been one for a while, have you seen new diamonds at functions or just the same old same old? There’s little to no fruit on that tree.
But at the time there were many things I didn’t know about Amway such as the fact that once you achieve diamond, you keep the recognition forever even if your group eventually disappears. If course you don’t earn the diamond bonuses without being qualified but it is possible to earn a decent income from speaking at functions and selling audios, and charging fir recruitment meetings, etc.
Now I’m not that well connected to Amway people anymore so I’m not in constant contact with IBOs anymore but I’m really not aware of many or any new diamonds. Sure there might be some here and there but you mostly see the same old long tine diamonds still milking the down line for tools and functions income. I know that the diamonds will state that there are many new platinums which is a sign of growth.
But wait a minute, Amway sales and revenue was sliding backward and us mostly stagnant right now. That means there can’t be hoards of new platinums unless the previously qualified platinums no longer qualify. The numbers don’t lie. So if there aren’t a lot of new “net” platinums, meaning in addition to last years new platinums, what w you have is a churn of new ones with last years platinums no longer qualified. Thus we can conclude that with no new net platinums, it is unlikely that there are many new diamonds.
So where is the fruit on the tree? It appears that the tree is barren and withering. If you are in IBO and have been one for a while, have you seen new diamonds at functions or just the same old same old? There’s little to no fruit on that tree.
Wednesday, June 10, 2020
Once Upon A Time?
“And they lived happily ever after”. That’s the cute ending in many fairy tales and children’s stories. And that’s what the diamonds want you to believe, that they go diamond, take up residency on easy street and walk the beaches of the world while cash flows in. Based on my experience and observations, nothing could be further from the truth. Can anyone actually name a diamond who dud this?
Once you achieve diamond in Amway, you get the diamond pin and possibly recognition forever. Of course you only get the diamond bonus and free trips if you continue to qualify. But the fact remains that many many platinums are unable to remain qualified because of attrition. And if platinums don’t requalify, then diamonds can just as easily fall out of qualification. Not many diamonds have extra platinums to spare.
My former diamond fell out of qualification although I heard he later did requalify. But in speaking to an IBO privately, none of the platinums he originally qualified with were currently qualified and most were not even in Amway anymore. Does this sound like financial security to you? More likely diamonds have rough patches where people quit and they have to sweat things out until they can recruit more suckers to keep them afloat.
I urge people to review and analyze the diamonds with a critical eye. Their lives are not fairy tales as they would have you believe. They might not work 9-5 but I guarantee you that they put in a lot of time to maintain their business. Also, the majority of a diamonds income comes in the form of an annual bonus. Thus a diamond income might actually be quite small. An average non Q 12 diamond earns less than 200k from Amway and that’s gross income, no fringe benefits and no retirement plan.
Diamonds in my opinion do not go diamond and live happily ever after.
Once you achieve diamond in Amway, you get the diamond pin and possibly recognition forever. Of course you only get the diamond bonus and free trips if you continue to qualify. But the fact remains that many many platinums are unable to remain qualified because of attrition. And if platinums don’t requalify, then diamonds can just as easily fall out of qualification. Not many diamonds have extra platinums to spare.
My former diamond fell out of qualification although I heard he later did requalify. But in speaking to an IBO privately, none of the platinums he originally qualified with were currently qualified and most were not even in Amway anymore. Does this sound like financial security to you? More likely diamonds have rough patches where people quit and they have to sweat things out until they can recruit more suckers to keep them afloat.
I urge people to review and analyze the diamonds with a critical eye. Their lives are not fairy tales as they would have you believe. They might not work 9-5 but I guarantee you that they put in a lot of time to maintain their business. Also, the majority of a diamonds income comes in the form of an annual bonus. Thus a diamond income might actually be quite small. An average non Q 12 diamond earns less than 200k from Amway and that’s gross income, no fringe benefits and no retirement plan.
Diamonds in my opinion do not go diamond and live happily ever after.
Sunday, June 7, 2020
The Greatest Showman?
Since I’m still at home often due to covid 19, I’ve been watching TV and movies quite often. I recently saw The Greatest Showman. I saw it at the theatre but saw it again and the title inspired me to write this blog post. While the actual movie isn’t really related to this post, the title is. And in reality, the diamonds are the greatest showmen.
They take a five and dime soap/vitamin business and get people to think it’s a multi million dollar business that they can easily transform into lifelong untold wealth in 2-5 years but also stressing that it’s not a get rich scheme. When you stop and think about it carefully, virtually no business is going to deliver you lifelong wealth in 2-5 years, let alone an Amway business. The real business of the diamonds is selling an endless supply of audios, books, functions and voicemail. In my informed opinion, that is where the diamonds get their lifelong source of income as long as they can attend and speak at functions. Yes it’s not a 9-5 job but they need to be somewhere at a particular time for money.
The fact that diamonds have been able to perpetuate this scam for decades makes them great showmen. I was fooled for a while as an IBO myself but after a number of months I saw thru it. I didn’t see it right away because I was an up and comer who got “special” time with the diamond. Soon after my upline really tried to squeeze the life out of me and I snapped out of the Amway trance and quit. I had achieved the 4000 PV level so I was above average in the business. But looking back I realize that the functions were just a dog and pony show to entice and inspire IBOS and recruits.
Now the diamonds are making even more profit as they charge full price for an online function. The greatest showman indeed. 🙄
They take a five and dime soap/vitamin business and get people to think it’s a multi million dollar business that they can easily transform into lifelong untold wealth in 2-5 years but also stressing that it’s not a get rich scheme. When you stop and think about it carefully, virtually no business is going to deliver you lifelong wealth in 2-5 years, let alone an Amway business. The real business of the diamonds is selling an endless supply of audios, books, functions and voicemail. In my informed opinion, that is where the diamonds get their lifelong source of income as long as they can attend and speak at functions. Yes it’s not a 9-5 job but they need to be somewhere at a particular time for money.
The fact that diamonds have been able to perpetuate this scam for decades makes them great showmen. I was fooled for a while as an IBO myself but after a number of months I saw thru it. I didn’t see it right away because I was an up and comer who got “special” time with the diamond. Soon after my upline really tried to squeeze the life out of me and I snapped out of the Amway trance and quit. I had achieved the 4000 PV level so I was above average in the business. But looking back I realize that the functions were just a dog and pony show to entice and inspire IBOS and recruits.
Now the diamonds are making even more profit as they charge full price for an online function. The greatest showman indeed. 🙄
Wednesday, June 3, 2020
Amway And Charity?
I recall sitting in the audience when the diamond would talk about how they have the ability to help charity and give $10,000 checks to help charity. I’ve seen some diamonds take photo ops when they went to help our at a charity but it wasn’t made clear how often they help or how much they donate. The idea was to go diamond so you have the option of giving your time and money.
But the Amway business is about constantly recruiting downline and that includes the diamonds. The diamonds may not have a 9-5 job but their schedule is quite busy going to meetings and function, counseling down line and motivating up and coming promising IBOs. I’m pretty sure the diamonds do not have the freedom that they portray. They are busy because Amway is a high maintenance business demanding constant attention.
And with the busyness, you have to wonder how much time they can devote to helping out with charities and how much they can give. I’ve seen diamonds flash a $10,000 bonus check but I’ve never seen a picture of a diamond forking over $10,000 or more. In fact a triple diamond filed chapter 7 bankruptcy about 10 years ago, thus his financials became public record. While I don’t have copies now, that diamond had zero charitable contributions on their tax returns.
So do diamonds help with charity and make generous donations? I’m not sure but based on what I’ve seen, I believe that diamonds are too busy to help charity on a regular basis and who knows if and how much they can afford to give? But if they are like many Americans living in debt, I doubt that their donations are as big as they want you to believe.
But the Amway business is about constantly recruiting downline and that includes the diamonds. The diamonds may not have a 9-5 job but their schedule is quite busy going to meetings and function, counseling down line and motivating up and coming promising IBOs. I’m pretty sure the diamonds do not have the freedom that they portray. They are busy because Amway is a high maintenance business demanding constant attention.
And with the busyness, you have to wonder how much time they can devote to helping out with charities and how much they can give. I’ve seen diamonds flash a $10,000 bonus check but I’ve never seen a picture of a diamond forking over $10,000 or more. In fact a triple diamond filed chapter 7 bankruptcy about 10 years ago, thus his financials became public record. While I don’t have copies now, that diamond had zero charitable contributions on their tax returns.
So do diamonds help with charity and make generous donations? I’m not sure but based on what I’ve seen, I believe that diamonds are too busy to help charity on a regular basis and who knows if and how much they can afford to give? But if they are like many Americans living in debt, I doubt that their donations are as big as they want you to believe.
Monday, June 1, 2020
Sorry, It Doesn’t Add Up?
As local economies begin to open up a bit from the covid 19 pandemic, it looks like upline diamonds are going about their business but instead of in person functions, they have switched to online or streaming functions and meetings. It got me to thinking that these online functions are basically cost free for upline and since they are wealthy from Amway residual income, why do they need to charge full price for functions.
After all, doesn’t upline say they have your best interest at heart and they want your success? But despite their desire for your success, they can’t offer a free function which would help you succeed? Especially since online functions probably have little or no cost to operate. Wouldn’t upline want to give away that information since it would ultimately result in more income to the upline diamonds?
To me it’s obvious and clear why upline will not run an online function free of charge or at a greatly reduced price. It’s because the functions and other educational materials they sell is their Amway business that likely supplies them with a very significant portion of their income. If you really do the math and look at how much a diamond can earn, it’s not an income that can sustain a duMond lifestyle without the income from tools and functions.
Do the math, you’d income and expenses as an IBO doesn’t add up. Spend about $300 to buy Amway products to reach your 100 PV defacto quota. Then you spend another couple hundred dollars per month fir tools and functions. If you have no down line, you probably get $10 or so from Amway. That is typical for many. If you do the math, that is a net loss of income. Even if you have some down line, you still have losses. You will always have losses until you sponsor an army if downline who will incur the losses for you.
Do the math, the Amway business doesn’t add up unless you have an army of down line. Most IBOs never sponsor a down line. Please process what I’m saying and you’ll see that Amway just doesn’t add up.
After all, doesn’t upline say they have your best interest at heart and they want your success? But despite their desire for your success, they can’t offer a free function which would help you succeed? Especially since online functions probably have little or no cost to operate. Wouldn’t upline want to give away that information since it would ultimately result in more income to the upline diamonds?
To me it’s obvious and clear why upline will not run an online function free of charge or at a greatly reduced price. It’s because the functions and other educational materials they sell is their Amway business that likely supplies them with a very significant portion of their income. If you really do the math and look at how much a diamond can earn, it’s not an income that can sustain a duMond lifestyle without the income from tools and functions.
Do the math, you’d income and expenses as an IBO doesn’t add up. Spend about $300 to buy Amway products to reach your 100 PV defacto quota. Then you spend another couple hundred dollars per month fir tools and functions. If you have no down line, you probably get $10 or so from Amway. That is typical for many. If you do the math, that is a net loss of income. Even if you have some down line, you still have losses. You will always have losses until you sponsor an army if downline who will incur the losses for you.
Do the math, the Amway business doesn’t add up unless you have an army of down line. Most IBOs never sponsor a down line. Please process what I’m saying and you’ll see that Amway just doesn’t add up.
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