Amway Zombies? Sometimes it happens to the very nicest of people and it often happens slowly and subtly. These are the signs that you are becoming indoctrinated, and you are likely annoying your loved ones at this point. One thing Amway uplines are good at is indoctrinating their downline. They use clever psychology and get you to agree with them on small things. For example, they'll get you to agree that taxes are too high, and inflation and other expenses such as taxes eat away at your income. In doing this, they are building up your trust and then when a degree of trust is installed, then they toss in some of the crazy teaching. Many folks quit after seeing through the scam but some bite hard and follow blindly. My former sponsor is still in Amway after 25+ years and while he was once upon a time a platinum, he is no longer close to that level. I hope this helps someone:
*You're driven to recruit everyone you know. You call all your friends and family. You may even resort to deception or outright lies to get people to meetings to "see the plan". Before you know it, your family and friends avoid you like the plague. You do this because it's the only way to achieve "diamond" and "residual income". Very little matters to you other than getting people to see the plan or to register as a downline.*You're encouraged to develop an unreasonable, irrational zeal for the products. Even so far as to justify the quality of toilet paper or to call the household products prestigious. You may even argue the quality of energy drinks or about phyto nutrients, something you may not even know about. You'll justify the higher prices of Amway products by talks of concentration or some other means. Even when faced with the simple math, you'll continue to believe your upline instead of your own eyes.
*A whole bunch of demands, promises, subtle threats of failure if you don't try hard enough are made in the promotional material and motivational seminars. i.e. If you quit, you are a loser destined to die broke and unhappy.
*Because the system is touted as the way you're going to make yourself fantastically rich, you're under pressure to drop any conflicting or competing interests such as your bowling league or golf club. Nothing else in life has importance except for the quest of financial freedom. All activities in your life must enhance your Amway business and have an effect on your financial future. Even friends and family are shunned. IBOs who skip their brother's wedding is touted as a hero doing "whatever it takes" to achieve the Amway dream. Eventually, these missed and/or skipped family events become a source of regret for many IBOs.
*Your upline soon becomes your most trusted friend. Your thoughts and feelings are shaped in part by the cds, meetings and functions. You ask upline permission for many personal decisions such as buying a new laptop, a new car, having kids, getting married, etc. As if someone who signed up in in Amway before you is suddenly qualified to counsel you on these decisions. And what is the basis for this nonsensical hierarchy? That person signed up for Amway before you, regardless of past experiences or education.
Do you recognize these behaviors? Hopefully you aren't displaying these behaviors.
All of these behaviors are symptoms of a cult -- in this case, a business cult that keeps you as a tithing member by means of promises of eventual riches, and by psychological browbeating.
ReplyDeleteAll MLMs have some of the aspects of a business cult. They need to, in order to capture new members and to hold on to them. The entire structure of Amway is based on self-deception and mindless enthusiasm in low-level IBOs. Because 99% of these IBOs make no money at all in Amway, the cult must retain them in the ranks by dominating their life and their thoughts, thus making it very difficult for the IBOs to quit.