Over the course of my Amway and blogging experiences, I've arrived to a decision that I intend to stick to. And this, in my professional view, is a significant flaw in the Amway business potential as a whole. Rich Devos, the owner of Amway, acknowledged the problem in his "directly speaking" audio from 1983, but regrettably, little appears to have been done to address it, and the problem continues to exist today.
The Amway opportunity is one aspect of the problem; the other aspect is the tools and methods. Amway's business opportunity and tool systems have developed a mutually beneficial partnership over the course of many years. It's as if Amway is dependent on the system, and the system is dependent on Amway. What I'm getting at is that Amway provides the chance, and then the system takes use of the opportunity to market itself. Between now and then, the system leaders teach 100 PV, promote product loyalty, and handle the most, if not all, of the new IBO recruitment. A benefit to Amway is that the system teaches PV movement, whether through sales or self consumption. A benefit to system leaders is that they have a captive audience to sell their CDs, books, seminars, voicemail messages, website fees and other products.
When uplines advise their new IBOs that they "need" to attend a given function or that they "need" to use standing order in order to succeed, they are committing a conflict of interest. The upline is wise enough not to state that the system is "required," but they will undoubtedly create a de facto requirement by stating things such as "No one has ever succeeded without the system, but you can try to be the first," or "No one has ever succeeded without the system, but you can try to be the first." They may also state that the system is optional, but success is not. While it is possible for someone to claim that so and such diamond (insert name) is a multimillionaire and that he supports the system, you have the right to disregard his counsel if you believe you are in the know.
It is a larger problem because these upline leaders would claim that without these tools, you will not be able to prosper in your business. At the same time, the more products you purchase, the more money these uplines make. Some Amway apologists would argue that a college lecturer has the right to sell his or her own books to students, which is true. However, this is not the same as the previous situation. A college professor may spend years conducting research in order to produce that one book. He will be imparting his knowledge and skills, which is detailed in the book. There is no one expert directing you when you attend seminars or listen to audio CDs, and there is no clear record on how they achieved success. You have extremely general, generic experiences that have come from a variety of speakers who may or may not have any previous experience with IBOs in common. As a result, these upline leaders will profit from the IBO volume generated by their downline as well as from the tools that they recommend to their downline, regardless of the success or development of their downline in the business.
Consider the following as examples of these unethical behaviours by upline: If your upline actually has "important" knowledge that could assist you in your endeavours, they would make every effort to get that information to you as quickly as possible. Whether it's through voicemail, MP3, YouTube, or whatever else. If they were truly interested in your success, why would they withhold trade secrets? Has it ever occurred to IBOs that their uplines may not be interested in their success? Perhaps this is the reason why you must pay for any advise or support you receive from a third party. Maybe upline is perfectly happy with people coming and going as long as there are tool purchases because then there are no new IBOs (platinums and up) to share the tool profits with.
When lucrative uplines advise you to purchase tools, there is an unmistakable conflict of interest at play. You have to decide whether you are going to notice or not.
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