Joecool Headed To Europe For 2 Weeks

Joecool is headed to another nice vacation, without any Amway income.  I hope to start blogging again sooner than 2 weeks, but enjoy the following story until I return.  :) 

One of my thoughts when I finally left the Amway business was that it was actually a bad idea to begin with. I joined because a good friend of mine had joined and had reached (at the time) the level of direct distributor. I didn't know exactly what a direct distributor was, but I knew that it was a fairly high and significant level. My friend told me that it was a lot easier than he thought and that he could easily teach me the secrets of how to do the same thing he did. I started to think that perhaps I could also do the business and hopefully make a few extra dollars, which seemed desirable as I was still young and fairly new to the full-time workforce.

So, I eventually joined, and I had pretty quick success, being able to sponsor some of my good friends and the excitement of the growing business made it seem as if everything was going just the way my friend mapped it out. That I would show the plans and people would join, and my business would grown. And on the surface, it looked like I couldn't miss.

But as a few months passed by, I started to see cracks in my upline's teaching, although I didn't pass my "negative" thought to my downline. I saw the upline tell us to get out of debt, which was good advice. But then they would say it was okay to go in debt, but only to purchase Amway products or Amway training as it was an investment in our business. That began to raise red flags. Later, in a "movers and shakers" meeting, I heard some teaching about how you could miss 3 mortgage payments and not have your home foreclosed in case you needed cash to attend the next big function. I was starting to wonder if our leaders were interested in our success or just squeezing money out of downline.

Later on, in a smaller but intimate meeting, as Amway leader taught that we could even have our families skip a meal in order to buy another standing order because it might contain the one thing you need to hear to propel your business to diamond. When I heard this, I really started to question upline's credibility. The end finally came for when my upline told me to dump my fiancé' because I could focus on my business better without her. That was the last straw, and I left the business. Being that I was taught well, I never complained about it and just forgot about it.

Then I saw a magazine article exposing the tools scam. I eventually began researching about Amway and shortly later, Joecool's blog was born. I had concluded based on my research and personal experince that Amway was a bad idea and a scam.

The Amway Cult?

  One of the interesting things that is noticeable to a neutral eye is that Amway groups and leaders have some resemblance to a cult.  The main difference is that you can come and go, but still, there is peer pressure (sometimes subtle pressure, sometimes not so subtle) to keep going and not quit the group because quitting would give you the label of being a quitter, loser, or broke loser.  This pressure might be subtle but it’s real and the IBO would feel as if they have little to no hope if they drop out of Amway, despite the fact that the IBO would likely be much better off financially.    

The diamonds are given undue adulation.  I recall my first open meeting as a prospect, the diamond was treated like royalty and was given a standing ovation as he entered the room.    And his claim to fame?  Achieving a level in Amway.  Sure, achieving diamond is no easy feat but surely not worthy of rock star status.  But worshipping a leader is a cult like trait.  They hand on every word from the diamond, even so much as they tape/record everything the diamond says in case the one missing piece of information they need might be forthcoming.

The Amway IBOS all have a common cause.  They all seek financial freedom thru the Amway business and they all plan to do it in a relatively short amount of time.  The IBOS dress alike in business attire, and they act similarly and they use many of the same products.  They all fall in in line and try to “ earn time” to spend with the leader.  These are also cult like traits.   I mean who really needs to wear a suit to learn to buy stuff, sell stuff and recruit others to join?  The rank and file think they are just acting successfully because they will eventually make it if they just keep going.  (AKA - fake it till you make it)

But in the end, the upline just uses their position to force the down line into compliance with their teachings.  They sell them the hope of a better life by convincing them that you need an endless supply of training and Amway education via tools and functions.  In my informed opinion, the diamonds don’t give a hoot about the down line.  They are just there to be exploited so the diamonds can enjoy the diamond lifestyle.  

For this reason, the diamonds have to charge full or nearly full price for useless tools and functions even though many IBOs can’t build a business right now because the system is deeply flawed and designed for the masses to fail.  Good luck to you if you read this and join Amway anyway, but you can’t say you weren’t warned.   😃

Exploit Family And Friends?

Many prospects see the Amway plan and get unrealistic dreams of attaining incredible material wealth and retiring in a few years. I find it strange that nobody has been able to point out anyone who actually got in, worked a few years and then walked away from the business and is now enjoying buckets of cash rolling in while they spend their days on exotic beaches sipping mai tais. The more likely scenario will be debt, higher credit card bills, and boxes of unused cds and other various products. The alleged wealthy people in Amway are often spoken about but have you ever heard of or known someone who was retired and living a luxurious lifestyle because they made so much money in Amway? I know Amway IBOs hear about it, but they believe it without any kind of actual evidence. I could say I am retired because I make millions by blogging, but is that believable? In the same train of thought, do you believe that people join and work hard for 2-5 years and then enjoy life with financial freedom and live happily ever after?

So why would someone joining the business become annoying? It's because to the average person, it becomes clear that to achieve this, you need to find "six" people. Thus, to find six people, you need to make contacts to show the plan. Cold contacts of people on the street would be unlikely, even for the boldest of people, so new IBOs start looking at people they know. They start with people they are familiar with, or family and friends. They may also think their family and friends will want to get rich with them. So, the IBOs start making phone calls and contacts. Pretty soon all your family and friends know about your involvement in Amway, and most will not be interested. Where do you recruit now? That's when the cold contacts begin, which makes it nearly impossible to succeed in Amway.

Sadly, for most new and enthusiastic IBOs, they will find that they are shunned by family and friends. Over the years, IBOs have done too much damage to Amway's reputation and overcoming this challenge is too much for the rank-and-file IBOs. They will hear stories about failures and opinions that Amway is a pyramid and/or a scam. Of course, IBOs will have "canned" answers to respond to from their upline. One of the humorous ones is that Amway is praised by the BBB or the FTC and is the shining example of an MLM. To those familiar with this line of reasoning, it can become side splitting humorous.

At first, the family and friends may humor the new IBO, but relentless persistence can eventually turn ugly. This is where uplines will teach the new IBOs to avoid "negative" and to shun these family and friends. This is why some people charge the Amway leaders with being cult - like. It's at about this point where IBOs might realize that Amway products are costly and try to sell off some of them to reduce their own costs. Often times, sympathetic family and friends might make a token purchase to show support. but that can get old in a hurry also. Most IBOs will eventually quit and make amends with family and friends, but some lose friendships for good.

To information seekers and new IBOs, hopefully this message is food for thought......

Build It Right, Build It Once?

 I believe that Amway IBOs have approximately a 50% attrition rate for the first year alone. If you look at a 5 year window, I believe the attrition rate is something like 95%. So what we're saying is that out of 100 IBOs, only 5 will be around in 5 years, or out of 1000 IBOs, 50 will remain after 5 years. This is extremely significant because if you are a business builder, you will need to replace half of your IBOs every single year. For this reason, I am very doubtful that there are IBOs who "built the business right and built it once", who no longer do Amway related work, but still collect significant residual income. I would guess that significant income could be defined as being enough to live a lifestyle in the top tax bracket (for the US) without having to report to a J-O-B.

Now I understand that some IBOs take it personally when I bring up subjects like this. It is because they have been deceived by some upline diamond or big pin who has sold them on a dream of financial prosperity for life if they will only work hard for 2-5 years. I once thought so too, but realized that there isn't a single diamond that I know of who built the business right and walked away to enjoy the beaches of the world while truckloads of money rolls in. Kinda makes you wonder why you see Crowns still working, and diamonds actually quitting or resigning. I have asked the question many times and it has never been answered. Can anyone name a few people who built their business right and built it once who is currently enjoying these lifelong residuals? Also, if that were a benefit, why doesn't Amway say so?

Instead, you have a constant and endless flow of motivation being sold to IBOs. This motivation comes in the form of cds, books, meetings, functions and other things like voicemail messages. It's sad that IBOs have to continue to pay through the nose for motivation and "teaching" about the Amway business when there are cheaper and more efficient means of communication. For example, why would you need an expensive voicemail when a facebook group account can disseminate messages to your group in seconds at no cost? It is because the uplines want to extract every possible sent from their downline. Because of the internet, I believe people are starting to figure things out and avoid the systems altogether. I hope Joecool's blog contributes to this.

All the motivation IBOs truly need is to see a net profit at the end of the month. If IBOs actually earned an extra $200 a month, or $50 a month, or $600 a month as advertised, there would be no need for motivational speeches. The IBOs would simply look at the growth in their finances and they would keep going. The poor retention rate is easy to explain. IBOs are losing money because of the system expenses and they lose their motivation to continue. If you are an IBO or a prospect, stop and think for a minute. If you are making an extra $200 a month with minimal effort, would you need functions and other materials to motivate you? Or would you have intrinsic motivation from the profit? All the motivation you will ever need is a net profit. Take that to the bank.

Attack The Messenger?

 Recent comments on this blog have been quite interesting lately. Some heated, some inflammatory and some just silly. But what many Amway defenders fail to understand is that I am simply sharing my experiences and observations. I feel that it serves as an information highway for prospects who are looking into the Amway business. When I was in the business, the internet was not quite as accessible as it is now. Thus, this blog is an easy way for people to gain information about my experiences and informed opinions about Amway.

Information seekers are free to ask questions, or even dispute what I have written. I do not disallow comments that are pro or con with regards to Amway. I allow both sides of the story to be expressed here. I moderate comments to prevent spam and sabotage, which I experienced in the past. In about 15+ years, Joecool's blog has had millions of site visitors. It's clear that my message is getting out there. But I say that commentators should question the message and not the messenger.

Quite often I see people leaving comments that I am lying or wrong but the comments never seem to specify what is wrong or inaccurate about what I am writing. Plus, how can my experience be wrong? It's my experience and that has been confirmed by the many other bloggers and by current evidence that is available on other websites on the internet. For example, I still see (in particular, WWDB) IBOs talking about buying homes in cash, and how the world has a 60% divorce rate while WWDB members have a 2% divorce rate. Where do IBOs get this garbage? They are taught this crap by WWDB leaders. And guess what? IBOs pay good money to learn this crap.

The truth is that Amway people and the world probably have the same divorce rate, but it surfaces as an issue because IBOs make these silly claims. It's also ironic that some WWDB leaders who spoke of buying homes in cash had homes foreclosed and one of them was in bankruptcy proceedings recently. A WWDB leader who said that Amway saved marriages is now either separated or divorced. These same leaders at one time SWORE that not a penny of profit was made from tools and function sales. We now know the truth and these leaders were never held accountable. Who does better? Someone who provides information so people can make an informed decision. Or someone who is deceptive which leads only to the "best case scenario"?

That is the truth. Attack the message, not the messenger.

Critical Mistakes?

 In a few weeks, another Superbowl matchup will occur.   In recent Superbowls, the games have been somewhat close. In close games, a critical mistake made will cost your team the game. A good example of this would be the reason why some teams are watching the Superbowl on TV instead of playing in it. A critical mistake.

In my opinion one of the most critical mistakes that many IBOs make is to ignore the bottom line when analyzing their Amway businesses. I recall, in my experience, business building IBOs, sadly, taught by their uplines to ignore losses, or to view losses as investments into their businesses, or that money is really not important, because you keep building the business and the "money will be there", which is not true. Some uplines may teach that the business is more about making friends or being a nicer person. All of these things may be nice side benefits of reading personal development books, etc., but when running a business, the most important goal should be to turn a profit.

For many IBOs, their businesses consist of listening to standing orders, attending functions and meetings, but not focused on selling products and earning a net profit. And for most IBOs, nobody can blame them as upline may give them bad advice and because the Amway business is person to person selling, it is so inefficient that many groups end up teaching IBOs to simply buy their own volume and get others to join the business. For groups who operate primarily in this manner, you are probably running an illegal business because new and existing IBOs can profit only by continuing to add more downline IBOs in the hope that they too, will buy their own volume and sponsor others.

When you look carefully at the business plan, whether it is 6-4-2, 9-4-2 or some other variation, the majority of these business building IBOs will have low volume and likely to earn only about $10 a month. But to earn that $10 a month, you are likely to have to spend $300 on products, and if you are on standing order, voicemail and functions, then you likely spend anywhere from $150 to $250 monthly (or more) to participate in the teaching system. Thus, these IBO's bottom line is a net loss! It is only when you are able to sponsor many downlines that your losses will get smaller, and you will only profit when you have a sizable downline. That means your bottom line is a loss. And while Amway defenders will argue that Walmart doesn't even give you $10 a month, you can certainly get more products from Walmart for $300 than you can get from Amway for the same price. Walmart will match any advertised price on a product that they and a competitor may carry. Also, Walmart's advertising reaching millions of people, which is much more effective than person to person. While Amway runs some ads now days, they do not directly drive customers to IBOs. The vast majority of IBO business is still to themselves and their downline, and not to non-IBO customers.

I challenge IBOs to look objectively at their bottom lines. It is likely a new loss. If it is, ask your upline how long this is expected to last. Set hard goals and if you are doing what is advised by upline and results to not improve, you may have to ask yourself what will change to make your business profitable. Basically, if you aren't adding active downlines and customers regularly, you aren't going anywhere and are likely to be running your business at a loss month after month after month. It won't take long before you realize that you have lost thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars.

As a former IBO with a 4000 PV business with eagle parameters, I was not making a net profit. I saw my bottom line and although doing and achieving what my upline advised, there was no money. I decided the effort, time and money invested wasn't worth it. Plus, my upline started to interfere in my personal life. I saw my bottom line and wasn't satisfied, and I left Amway. I later discovered the lies my upline had fed me to keep me in the business and to keep me buying tools. It is why I started blogging. For now, my bottom line is to get the truth out about the tools scam run by upline. That is Joecool's bottom line.

Edification?

 Edification. During my time in the Amway business, we saw many IBOs get edified, including myself. Of course, it felt great when your upline platinum or diamond would say something that made you stand out in the crowd. For example, I remember an IBO being exalted because he quit his job to attend a major function. His boss wouldn't allow him to use vacation time, so he quit to attend the function. I remember Brad Wolgamott telling people it's just a job, attend the function and get another one (job). I remember at a family reunion function, a man was edified by the diamonds because he was diagnosed with terminal cancer but instead of being at home and bitching and moaning, there he was at an Amway function, making a difference in the world they would say. But looking back, I truly believe that the upline's intentions were to uplift those who went thru extraordinary efforts to spend money on tools or functions.

In other words, you are buying your edification. Of course, when I say you are buying your edification, you are not necessarily doing so in dollars. It can either be in dollars or in time. For example, you may have been edified for listening to 15 standing orders in one day, or you may be edified for driving the miles to show plans, even if the guest was a no-show. I also recall some IBOs in the group being edified for 1000 PV personal use in a month. I honestly don't know who anyone can possibly do 1000 PV in personal use without the purchase of some big-ticket items. I mean how much SA8 or LOC can anyone use in the month? I suppose that you could make Nutrilite vitamins your main source of food or something like that and move a lot of PV, but it's ridiculous to spend that much on personal use.

So, to what extent are you willing to go to get edified? For my upline sponsor, it was what he lived for. My sponsor was/is a physician and he therefore could have a nice lifestyle without Amway but he was more interested in the recognition and edification. He ate it up when he was asked to speak at a function once. He told the group in a nite owl that the dream of being on stage as a diamond was more important to him than the money. Sadly, he never got beyond the platinum level as far as I know and last I heard, he was below 4000 PV. Whatever your dream or reason for building Amway, I honestly believe you need to look at the cost of it. For example, you wouldn't sell your soul to the devil in order to go diamond. I actually wonder how my former sponsor feels these days now that our upline diamond (his hero) has moved to Washington and he cannot spend much time with him anymore?

The cost of edification in Amway is high. Are you willing to foot that bill? I'm glad I woke up and decided that there are much better ways to spend my time, money and efforts. Joecool's blog is one of the better things. :-)