With the benefit of hindsight, some of the bizarre things we did during my IBO days are now laughable, yet believe it or not, I have reason to believe that my old LOS WWDB still teaches some of this, as do some other large groups. Some of these activities, I believe, are the reason why some people characterise to the Amway business as a cult or as possessing cult-like characteristics. As a result, if you recognise some of these practises, you may be part of an unethical group. You should raise these concerns with your upline and consider whether you should reconsider or reprioritize your involvement in the business, particularly if you do not receive straightforward answers to your questions.
One of the things we were informed was that we have to submit to our upline. The members of our group were instructed that upline would never intentionally lead them astray, so we should put our faith in them and never try anything without first consulting upline. After all, upline had years of expertise and was likely to know the answers to all of your questions. Some of the things that were checked uplined were seeking permission to get married, purchase a car or a home, or even something as simple as acquiring a camera, among other things. The upline stated that it would be pointless to check upline before making a camera purchase because someone upline might offer suggestions on how to obtain a good price on a camera. Your upline probably didn't want your disposable income to be spent on anything other than standing orders and functions, so he restricted your spending.
Meetings that start late. Our upline was big on late meetings, with many of them taking place after midnight. To some extent, it was a demonstration of commitment and dedication to one's upline and to the system. In truth, it made the majority of people resentful of their occupations because they had to report to work early in the morning. When it came to me, it made me resentful of our upline because the meetings didn't teach us anything useful and instead made us exhausted. We used to hear our upline preach about the importance of time, but it was never essential enough for him to make sure he showed up on time for his own late-night meetings. Another aspect that resembles a cult is sleep deprivation.
Secrets. Every time we inquired about the amount of income our uplines may have been making, we were either told it was none of our concern or handed a photocopy of a bonus check that someone upline may have earned five years ago that we had no knowledge of. It was upline who showed out photographs of sports vehicles and mansions as proof that the business was successful for us. Of course, we now know that some WWDB diamonds had their homes foreclosed on, and that one renowned triple diamond had some business ties with the bankruptcy court. Looking back, I assume that many diamonds have mortgages, which would not be a problem if these leaders hadn't sneered at the supidity of taking out a loan in the first instance. That diamonds may be used to purchase anything, including homes, in cash. My former sponsor continues to live in a dilapidated leased property because he will not purchase a home unless he has the necessary funds. Because my previous sponsor is a physician, I find his attitude on purchasing a home to be completely absurd. Because of his dedication to the system and its functions, his oldest child, a son, is likely to have grown up without his parents' involvement.
Losing money is considered a victory. On numerous occasions, our group was informed that losing money was a sign of success. It was a success because we were making a long-term investment in ourselves. That the business is truly not about making money, but rather about making friends. I guess upline taught this because everyone was losing money at the time, and it was comforting to hear that success was just around the corner, and that we were all nicer people who were well on our way to success if we just went to more gatherings and purchased more standing orders. People who sold aside some of their own belongings in order to attend a function were edified if they did it for the right reasons. Obviously, these individuals were not encouraged to operate their firm within their financial capabilities. Indeed, Upline stated that it was acceptable to incur debt, but only if the debt was used to invest in the business or purchase additional function tickets.
While some of these behaviours appear weird, I believe that they are the result of upline counsel that was self-serving and intended to divert their downline's funds towards the purchase of tooling. It's the only conclusion I can come to at this point.
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