The issue of Spring Leadership came up on another site, and I was moved to write about my own experience with the organisation. I attended a leadership function as an Independent Business Owner (IBO) and remember it fairly clearly, despite the fact that I've been away from Amway for several years. All of the new leaders (platinums and above) would be invited to speak at the leadership function, which took place once a month. It makes me wonder how this role is doing these days, given that it doesn't appear that many new leaders are emerging, at least in my old network of friends and colleagues. According on what I can see and hear, I don't believe that anything has changed since then.
These new leaders would talk about their struggles and how they remained committed to the system, never giving up or quitting, and how they have finally arrived at their destination. Others talked about how they were able to retire their spouses, who now remain at home to care for their children as a result of their financial success. It is an honourable task. I had assumed that this was the most exciting aspect of the company. Those who read this blog may be interested to know that not a single one of those leadership speakers from my IBO days is currently at the platinum level, and in fact, all but one or two of these fine guys are no longer actively involved in the business. The sponsor of my prior team was a platinum, and he is one of the few remaining members from the early days, but he is no longer at the platinum level. He was somewhere around 2500 PV at the time of my last check, which suggests he is most likely working at a loss assuming he is still dedicated to "core."
Spring leadership marks the beginning of a series of functions that have the potential to bring IBOs to their knees. As a resident of Hawaii, I attended the leadership conference held in March, which was followed by a family reunion (summer conference) in July and Free Enterprise Day (FED) in October. All of these functions are conducted during peak travel times, requiring IBOs who need to fly to these events to pay a higher than normal airfare rate to attend. Unfortunately, there was no discernible or significant growth in the groups as a result of these events. Looking back, the most important functions were simply quarterly payouts for the diamonds in the upline. With a little bit of math, it's easy to see that these jewels may have made millions of dollars for a weekend of speaking and displaying their "diamond lifestyles." It appears to have had little benefit for the large number of IBOs who went.
In the aim that this information will assist a prospect or an IBO in better understanding how some of these things work, and that this will allow them to make more educated judgments about whether or not to join Amway or whether or not to attend the next activity. When it comes to making these decisions, IBOs must be realistic about the risks and rewards they face.
0 comments: