Everyone have a wonderful Easter!
While driving by a Starbucks today, I noticed someone "presenting the plan" at a location close to my house. Normally, I don't blog on weekends, but today was an exception. The first time I saw the idea, it was a bit overwhelming. When I was in college, I was invited to a "beer bust," and when I arrived, I noticed that my friend who had invited me was dressed in a suit, and I thought, "WTF?" So I got duped into coming to see Amway for the first time, and to make matters worse, I was under the impression that we were going to drink beer!
However, having worked in Amway for many years and having personal experience with the company, I can say that Amway may be dangerous. I don't mean dangerous in the sense of an electrician's job or any other potentially hazardous work, but dangerous in the sense that if you become involved in Amway, the leaders will attempt to gradually gain your trust and subtly persuade you to do things that you would not normally do if you were not involved in Amway.
In my experience, new Independent Business Owners (IBOs) come and go, and many people are hesitant to spend their money on parties and other high-ticket items. Due to the fact that I am from Hawaii, IBOs who commit to being CORE are expected to travel from Honolulu to the western coast for key functions (4 times a year). Take, for example, the Summer function (which used to be known as Family Reunion) that was hosted in Portland, Oregon at the (then) Rose Garden, where it is estimated that 15,000 to 20,000 people were in attendance at the time. The whole cost was $250, which included two nights' hotel accommodations as well as meals. The ticket was approximately $700 round trip, plus you'll also need a rental car and a few other miscellaneous expenses.
The problem in all of this was that some people were merely in it to make a little money, while others were hoping to strike it rich in the long run. The upline will ask everyone to check it out, and eventually you'll be pressured into purchasing cds/tapes and other equipment from the company. That these materials are essential to make money in Amway is well established. Surprisingly, there was no individual examination of one's firm before they recommended that you purchase these tools, which is unusual.
They surely appeared to be supportive and genuinely interested in your success because they stated as much and they frequently liked bombed new IBOs. It's as if IBOs were members of some sort of exclusive "brotherhood." That is where the danger resides. If you buy into the concept of "team" or "family," it's very impossible to refrain from participating to your fullest capacity. However, what IBOs don't realise is that as soon as you stop moving PV or begin to miss functions, you are forgotten and may even be referred to as a quitter or a loser. Because, according to upline, you are no longer lining their pockets with your money. In other words, when you purchase cds and function tickets, you are considered an important "client" by the company's management. It's for this reason that they're so polite to you. However, many independent business owners (IBOs) fail to realise this and falsely feel that their upline genuinely cares about them. They don't have any.
As evidence of this, my father passed away less than a week after my involvement with Amway came to an end. All of my friends who had abandoned me in order to work for Amway were there for me, calling to express their support and to offer assistance in any way they could. At that time, not a single Amway buddy or "brother" reached out to me or offered any kind of assistance. Because I was no longer valuable to my upline, I was as out of date as the news from last week.
As a result, Amway can be a potentially hazardous game. In actuality, an IBO is simply a customer of toll systems such as WWDB, Network 21, or BWW. You may believe you are doing something special to help people or that you are a member of a team or brotherhood, but the reality is that you are not. You are neither more nor less than you appear to be. It is possible to be successful, but you must first overcome huge obstacles and then trick your downline into believing they are a dedicated team in order to achieve this goal. The vast majority of customers quickly understand this and snap out of their Amway trance and leave the company. I was a slow learner, and it took me several months before I realised what was going on in front of me. In order for people to avoid the possible trap that Amway has the potential to be, I've started a blog.
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