I often get a bunch of silly comments from anonymous commenters. Sometimes the imply or make veiled threats to stop me from blogging, as if that will happen. It sort of made me wonder why so many IBOs, most of whom are losing money, defend Amway so fiercely. It made me realize that for many of these IBOs, they have no choice but to defend Amway. Let me explain.
Many IBOs and prospects, are not where they want to be financially in life. It is why they get lured into Amway, as they truly believe that Amway will make them rich. Sure, upline will toss in the disclaimer that Amway won't make you rich "quick", but certainly they must give enough of an impression that you will get rich somehow. Then the bait and switch occurs.Once an IBO signs up and decides that he or she wants to give an effort towards making the opportunity work, upline will then speak about the system. How the system is the key to success. That nobody "makes it" without the system. Or that the system is optional but so is success. The system becomes a defacto requirement for many IBOs. Some IBOs do not realize that some uplines make most of their income from the system tools such as websites, voicemail, standing order cds, and functions.
Uplines will also teach that you only fail if you quit. Or you are now a winner for joining Anway and all others are losers. You will eventually succeed if you never quit. Upline may recommend that you listen to or watch inspiring stories of people who never quit. It raises subtle pressure on IBOs to keep going. To walk away would practically doom you to failure in life. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth.
At this point, an IBO has to defend Amway to justify his decision. To quit would place you in the category of "loser" or "failure". An IBO starts to wonder how he or she will accomplish the dreams and goals without the elusive Amway residual income. So now you have IBOs who will fiercely defend Amway because the alternative is to admit that it was a mistake to join Amway. It may mean quitting and cutting losses. The longer an IBO stays in, the harder it can be to quit. My former sponsor has been fully active for 18 years now and he has never gone beyond platinum. I believe his ego will never let him quit at this point.
For me, quitting was just a wise decision, business wise. I was at 4000 PV (with eagle parameters) and I did not earn what upline said I would earn. I also had my upline continuously adding pressure on me to give him control of my life, such as asking permission to buy things, get married, etc. It was becoming very cult - like and I thought it was getting bizarre. I quit and never regretted it.
But many IBOs and Amway zealots defend Amway. Why? Because they have to.
2 comments:
The wisdom dispensed in Amway groups has a low view of people who quit, but that is not surprising. Of course they would say that, an upline feels it in his pocket when they quit. So spreading the word that quitting is bad, well it is. He just needs to be more honest about bad for whom.
Now most distributors don't really make much money (it's Amway who reports that, not me). So we do end up with a lot of people not making money, that has not seen Amway working for them, that defend it.
That is clear from browsing through hot topic questions in Amway and MLM in general, namely the issue of how to answer the question of "how much money have you made?". In fact the topic is often treated under "objection handling". Objection? In most business, a prospect being interested and wanting to know more specifics is a good thing. But in Amway it's an objection, ostensibly because the specifics are embarrassing.
Contrast that with, say, if you intend to buy a fast food franchise, where prospective franchisees are provided a breakdown of expenses and income, and where they would land based on the average of other outlets. A realistic accurate as possible range of how much the business would probably earn, is an expected question. In fact, those vetting outlet owners will be concerned if an applicant appears uninterested in the numbers of how the experience has panned out for others!
In MLM world (easier to google due to the anonymity) it is sad browsing through the recommended replies, where there are gems like "only getting started, but this 'business partner' of mine, wow.. and he is showing me exactly what to do. I'm so excited and want to share it with you" or "I don't know yet, I'm still counting. I don't know how much past efforts would be rewarded" (many business put in effort that bear fruit later, but that is not an excuse not to report earnings that have been realised). Or "You won't believe me if I told you. Besides the question is not how much I earned, but how much you could earn" or "Really? Is this appropriate, I don't ask how much you've got saved for retirement." (as if that is the same thing). Many of those who ultimately dish out this advice are experts who monetize their advice, like supplying materials through training through BWW or WWDB or N21. People like Eric Worre, Matt Morris and others. And all these recommend replies are, really, excuses not to answer a simple, extremely relevant question.
People who are loosing money get psyched up, learn these template answer, defending an activity that don't work for the vast majority, and that has not worked for them. Not stopping to ponder the obvious, namely if these were really realistic business opportunities, this issue would not have been a topic of conversation! The last time someone tried to invite me, I asked this question on purpose (along with some others), and got a canned response to every one of them. It was sad because it was a single mom spending her energy in the wrong place, she was in a good career where performance gets rewarded. Fortunately she bowed out quick enough.
But many people defend this opportunity rather than quit, as you say, for their ego. That is not facing being humble in admitting a mistake, to avoid the pain of being honest with oneself, and often not to face the prospect of the cold treatment from the group. Quitters are characterised as taking the easy way out, lacking ambition, being lazy, and are met with disparaging remarks about their J.O.B (parroted by many who are absolutely dependent on their job for supplying the money to run the Amway hobby). But quitting can often be difficult, just like many destructive habits are. People defend it because they can't or won't quit. That is why the defend, even if it gets absurd.
Once you are in a cult, it becomes very difficult to get out. Your entire psychology and mindset have been twisted and manipulated to create very painful guilt and remorse -- so much so that it is less painful to stay and defend what you know is a rotten system than to admit your error and cut your losses.
Amway IBOs aren't totally blind. A huge number of those who stay are well aware that they are losing money steadily, and will continue to do so for as long as they remain in Amway. Also, the length of time you have been a member will be an obstacle to you. How can you turn your back on twenty years of working and hoping? If you don't have the character to break free, you will acquiesce in hanging on forever, sending money to your up-line, buying useless Amway products, and going to those utterly stupid functions.
The most evil thing about Amway is this: the company and the AMO subsystems DEPEND ON THIS FACT. They are never happier than when an IBO hangs on, for year after year, even when he isn't making a profit. That's where the real money in the Amway racket is -- in those helpless and hopeless sheep who hang in there paying dues. This, in fact, is the REAL "residual income" that they talk about -- the money that up-line collects endlessly and regularly from beaten and cowed IBOs who are afraid to quit.
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