This comment was posted on my blog by a recent site visitor. It demonstrates how pursuing an Amway dream can lead to less-than-desirable outcomes:
I came upon this webpage while doing some research on Amway. My storey begins approximately 14 years ago. My parents became involved with the Amway organisation. When I was 22, they recruited me, my girlfriend (now wife), and my elder brother and his wife to join the 'business.' My older brother and his wife also joined the 'business.' They encouraged us to attend a large number of seminars and house meetings, meet with their Directs on a regular basis, and were taught that this was the only way to break free from working for someone else while still earning real money. Because we were destitute at the time, I couldn't afford the recordings or seminar entry fees, so my parents agreed to cover the costs.
I would make phone calls to friends and coworkers, organise meetings, and recruit new employees, all of which I thought was fantastic. My parents began to direct their own lives, and my brother and I were making steady progress as well. Given that I was still a teenager, I felt that my parents' influence and life experience were holding me back, which is when I began to ask questions. I could picture my parents purchasing tools on a regular basis and having to purchase a significant amount of merchandise to maintain their direct sales status on a monthly basis. There was always a new craze product line available as well, including makeup, jewellery, water purifiers, air purifiers, and healing magnets, to name a few examples. It appeared to be a series of gimmicks one after another.
I saw the costs of travelling all over the state for meetings, phone calls, and other activities. The final straw came when their laundry door was checked and I couldn't go in there any longer. I later discovered that they had purchased six air purifiers solely for the purpose of staying direct and didn't want anyone in their downline to know, thus locking the room. I resigned but continued to work at my previous position, which gave me more time to look into alternative options. My brother has continued to work his day job while also doing Amway on the side to this day.
My guess is that he and his wife have spent a significant amount of money, time, and effort on it over the course of 14 years and are still not anywhere close to generating a livelihood off of their efforts. My parents gave up after around 5 years because they felt they had wasted valuable time and money on it, and they are now nearly bankrupt at the age of 60.
My parents' excellent upline, whom we everyone adored, decided to leave at the same time as my parents. They were rumoured to have a powerful organisation below them, but I was told that everything came crashing down. My brother is no longer in contact with anyone who was present when I was involved since they have all left. He is continuously on the lookout for new employees because the turnover is so high.
The irony of the whole situation is that I was informed that being an independent business owner in Amway was the only way to get ahead in life, which turned out to be false. It all started with a little business in the back bedroom of my house ten years ago, and it has grown to include offices in various states across Australia, with profits of more than a million dollars in the most recent financial year. Ironic, I think, that I left Amway and built something so profitable while my parents are living on the edge of poverty and my brother is still doing the same job and following the same dream he did 16 years ago.
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