Wednesday, February 16, 2011

The Clunker Brigade!

Part of the bullshit taught at our Amway meetings was “fake it till you make it”. And always lie. All good little IBO’s must lie about how good business is going even when they’re losing hundreds of dollars each month. If they tell the truth they’d never recruit anyone.

IBO’s were also taught to look the part of successful business men and women. This meant putting on business suits, owning a cell phone with texting capabilities, attending all meetings, and driving high end cars to give off the appearance of a successful business person.

I’ve never been much of a car person. I like safe, reliable cars that don’t break down. Good gas mileage is something else I look for when buying a car. High end or low end, makes no difference to me. I’m no snob. 

In our group IBO’s were told to drive upper end cars like Cadillacs, Jaguars, and BMW’s. And most IBO’s did buy them - vintage 1970’s and 1980’s rust buckets. Cars that broke down all the time but what else do you expect from cars that have over 300,000 miles on them and probably only got regular engine maintenance for the first few years when they were owned by people who could afford them brand new and kept them in good shape.

I never saw so many junker cars than what our upline were driving. When there was a board plan at someone’s house the street would be littered with these old heaps so we knew we were getting close to our destination.

But that was what IBO’s were brainwashed into buying by our Platinum. He even insulted some people’s cars and called them “pimpmobiles” though they looked OK to me, just weren’t the "successful image" the bastard wanted the IBO to portray. The sack of shit Platinum wanted me to sell my newer model Toyata Matrix and buy an old BMW so we could say we owned one. I had zero interest in buying an older car that would probably cost me a lot in maintenance. I'd bought my car 3 months before Ambot signed up again with Amway and it took me awhile to find it and I was happy with it so I was NOT going to spend more time looking for another car so soon. At least I own a reliable car manufactured in this century. That’s more than the rest of you assholes can say! The sack of shit was especially annoyed one day when he looked in my car and saw we were carrying business supplies in there - our business that is, nothing to do with Amway. He told Ambot that my car was supposed to only be used for transporting people and Amway tools and products. I told Ambot to give him a message from me: “Tough shit.”

Somehow I doubt that message got passed along!

Amway meetings must have brought down the neighborhood’s house values with all the clunkers parked down the street thanks to the army of Amway warriors driving to business meetings in their IBO specials like Lincoln Town Cars with leaky sunroofs and bumpers held on with twine. IBO’s would carefully get out of their cars hoping the door with the rusty hinges wouldn’t fall into the street.

Driving a Beamer or Caddy that’s seen better days, dressed in a business suit, and clutching a cell phone doesn’t make a person a sharp, successful businessman no matter what fake image they are using to impress others. No matter what the sack of shit Platinum tells you it makes you look even worse driving an ugly gas guzzler that has a good chance of not starting when you turn the key in the ignition.

Yup living their fairy tale lives in the Amway land of make belief. A clunker of a high end car, the latest cell phone with huge monthly fees, and a business suit. Bunch of immature fools marching off to the latest Amway business meeting, ready to listen to more fairy tales and play “fake it till you make it” in a phoney business venture.

19 comments:

  1. Anna, you crack me up.
    I saw exactly the same thing when I was in the business. It is ridiculous the lengths the Ambots go to look like they are real successful business men. The funny thing is they actually think they are business owners.

    ***Former WWDB Lemming***

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  2. 20 years ago before I met Ambot my boyfriend had to go to Florida for a few months. He decided to fly there and buy a cheap car to get around on. He bought a 15 year old Cadillac for $300. Air conditioning didn't work so that's why it was so cheap. Big boat like that was a huge gas guzzler too. It looked good, no rust, and didn't break down. He must have fought off a bunch of IBO's for that deal! For all I know some IBO on the east coast might still be driving around in that big sucker!

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  3. Hi Anna,
    Nice reading your blog. I have never been in Amway, but I have an interest in cults. I think what the AMO's get away with should be put to an end. In the meantime, I think that as many people as possible should spread the truth. I've had many, many discussions with bright people who were taken in by this cult. I've shared the benefit of my extensive research on this "business". The frustrating thing is that instead of considering what you say, they spit back tape-speak. No amount of losses can convince them that they won't be that 1 in 1,000,000 who goes diamond. Anna, I can't imagine what it must be like to have those same frustrating discussions with a spouse. Thanks for doing this blog and turning that frustration into something that might help people and open eyes to this destructive, life-wrecking cult. Keep it up!

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  4. Hi John! Thanks for stopping by. I've always had somewhat of an interest in cults too though it never would have occurred to me that participation in Amway is belonging to a cult until what happened to my husband. Smart people can be brainwashed by cults too. The leaders take great pride in bragging about how doctors, lawyers, policemen, and other professionals are IBO's and therefore it must be legitimate. This cult destroys marriages, families, friendships and finances. The more people who can get the word out there hopefully we can slow down the people being recruited. The Internet is turning out to be Amway's worst enemy!

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  5. My former upline Emerald who is now back at a J.O.B. (see my story on the Leaving an Ambot page) makes everyone on his team drive old used beat up Lexus cars. Granted, a Lexus is a sweet ride, but not circa 1982! Anna, literally EVERY meeting we went to the parking lot was over 80% used Lexus'. The remaining 20% are the newbies or the IBO's who have no money left over to buy a "new" used Lexus:)

    John, I wrote a bit of my story on The "Leaving an Ambot" page and I would be so interested to talk with you about cults. Everyday that I'm out I have more and more revelation on the things the Amway cult robbed me of. So glad to be a Former Ambot...

    I have a very high profile job in NYC as a performer, and my upline Emerald ALWAYS used my credibility to convince other IBOs this was a good opportunity. He would always get me up in front of the whole team to talk about my background and my training as a kid growing up(I was home schooled and would train up to 30 hours a week and understood the need to eliminate distractions to have my dreams come true at a very early age). So naturally, he would use my background to confirm that we all had to be complete freaks and never talk to anyone or do anything that didn't have something to do with "the business"....little did I know I was not only being raped of all my money but manipulated into convincing hundreds of people to do the same. So sick!

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  6. Anonymous,
    I'd be happy to discuss cults, hear your perspectives, and answer questions. Don't have an email addy for you, though.

    Cult-like organizations are more prevalent than most Americans realize. They think the heaven's gate and Branch Davidians are once a decade type occurrences. Perhaps those extremes are rare, but more insidious cults can fly under the radar and wreck even more lives, though through less severe measures.

    I am glad you feel relieved to be out of Amway. Many who were in cults feel that they've lost their identity when they leave. Indeed, cults prey on people who are marginalized and have poor social support with their "love-bombing" techniques. Even IBO's who were financially ruined by Amway will think longingly about the false family they gave up when they left.

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  7. Anonymous - our Platinum didn't like Lexus. That's the one he referred to as the pimpmobile!

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  8. John - about 15 years ago my aunt owned a 2 bedroom house rental property in Newport Oregon. She found out 26 people were living in there and set about evicting them. A year later they were in the news in Arizona - Heaven's Gate suicides. Though we don't know how many of the 26 were part of the suicides. Some of her former unwanted tenants must have been waiting for their space ship because the investigators traced back to her house and she was asked what she knew about them.

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  9. Anna: I really enjoy reading your blog and find that I have no problem "making time" to read it and JoeCool's blog. This is quite the antithesis to making myself listen to those dumb tapes(oops! CDs) sold by my upline!
    I too thought of cults as only being associated with religious organizations, until I quit Amway and became aware of cults' characteristics, during my "deprogramming". I just got sick of faking it and not being myself. I also got sick of losing money! This "prosperity gospel" that is preached at the functions and nondenominational "church services" is farcical. But people eat it up.
    I don't ever recall being called upon to lend credibility to the biz by my upline, though I am a registered pharmacist in three states. I guess I didn't buy enough tools and paid my mortgage to not have earned that high privelege.
    I am assuming you have seen the Amway ads on TV touting "The Power of Positive" and telling you to contact an Amway distributor for more information (more information on what?). Maybe you can use this as a subject for a blog post. I'm curious about your reaction is to this ad.

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  10. David, thanks, I appreciate that you enjoy my view of our upline. Its kind of horrifying spectacle in some ways. In other ways its almost the same story that other former IBO's have. Our upline Platinum was also fanatically religious - a not so mainstream religious sect. Combined with Amway and brainwashing and he is a good cult leader. I'd put him on the same level as Jim Jones. He'd have no problem getting his followers to drink Kool Aid. Or maybe that would be XS! Joecool does a really good job of analyzing why the Amway opportunity is a bad one. But surely you've heard the rumors that Joecool and I are one and the same?

    I don't watch that much TV so I can't say as how I recall seeing any recent Amway ads, though I have seen some of their TV commercials a year or so ago maybe.

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  11. John,
    It's so true. I know logically that leaving the Amway cult was the best decision I ever could have made, but I still find myself missing these supposed friends I invested so much into. It kinda makes me want to vomit. No, not kinda, it definitely makes me want to vomit. Gross! How in the world did I ever get involved with such sickos?

    So my question is, do these upline cult leaders know they are cult leaders, or are they just as brainwashed as I was? When I was in, I definitely didn't think I was in a cult...

    I'm working on getting a blog of my own started so that I can really get my story out and use my journals as a way to cope. If I can help one person then it will be worth it.

    Former Ambot

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  12. Anonymous - we are looking forward to your blog when you are ready to start writing. Yes it will be a good way for you to cope, to get everything out, and of course it will help others. That will be a good thing!

    I did not miss anyone in our Amway social club seeing as how I didn't like most of them anyway so my experience is different from yours. I don't have that experience of friends who are only interested in being my friend due to the money I bring them. Most people would tell you they were never your friends at all...

    That's an interesting question and I wonder if John has looked into it. I think the upline considers themselves "leaders" drop the word cult. They consider themselves "business leaders".

    Its where they are leading us to that is frightening....

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  13. Anonymous 2:07,
    Your story and others like it sadden me, but how blessed you are to now be able to make real friends and not be deluded by wolves in sheep's clothing!

    You ask a terrific question, "do upline leaders know they're cult leaders or are they brainwashed"? I have pondered this many times in the 10 years I've been researching Amway and other cults. My conclusion has always come back to this: yes and no. The truth is, we all have a mix of positive and negative motives, and our consciences prick us when the negative motives are at work. The most righteous of us still have negative motives but are honest with themselves about them. The unrighteous just lie to themselves about them. Every now and then you find a person who just revels in being evil, but those are very rare.

    Bill Britt wants to be a good person (or at least viewed as such), but he also wants to be rich and powerful. The latter wins out. He lives with cognitive dissonance, wherein one part of him tells him it's wrong to exploit people, but another part of him that wants to be wealthy invents clever lies to silence his conscience. He tells himself he's "helping people", and if some people miss out on that, it's their own fault, and even if they don't get rich, they make friends and get closer to God. Those lies, repeated over and over, are believed. In cult psychology, we'd call that being self-deluded, but it's just self-brainwashing.

    Birdie Yager said to Mike Wallace on 60 minutes in the early 80's about Dexter, "When I look at him, I see Jesus". Sickening? A man who once said "if your friends don't see this business, they ain't your friends". A man who told people to cut off social ties for Amway. A man who told people to miss weddings and graduations for functions to line his pockets. A man who built his own factory to make tapes at the lowest possible cost to extract the maximum dollars from his downline. A man who was accused of multiple cases of sexual harrassment. When you look at this man, you see Jesus, Birdie? Sure does. And it's not because of any resemblance, physical or spiritual. It's because Birdie has worked awfully hard to delude herself, too, and it's worked. It's just a whole lot easier to convince yourself of a lie than to live with the truth that you've brainwashed hundreds of thousands, severed untold friendships, and wrecked countless marriages...all in exchange for money, the root of all evil.

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  14. John,

    Thank you so much for your extensive answer. I wonder if maybe my upline Emerald and Diamonds just didn't realize what was going on until they were at those levels. By then I would imagine it is so hard to walk away from the tool money because of your pride. I really believe that deep down they are good people somewhere in their hearts, but when they have ridiculed people for years for having jobs they can't imagine actually doing the right thing and walking away. Because then of course they would have to go get a real JOB. Oh, wait....my upline did that! He just isn't telling anyone on his team that he's working again! So, yeah, the money and the pride just make you evil apparently. I'm so glad I was strong enough to stand up for myself and say FUCK YOU SCAMWAY!!!!

    My good friend quit and became a FORMER AMBOT around the same time I did and she has panic attacks now. I feel so bad for her. Please pray for my friend. She's having a really hard time.

    Anna, I'm pretty sure you and I should go to Ada. Maybe egg the headquarters or something. Or my uplines house. We could spray paint: CULT LEADERS LIVE HERE. COME GET YOU SOME! WE'LL GIVE YOU KOOLAID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  15. Anonymous - as fun as that sounds I'm afraid I am always the one who will get caught! Better to fight them in the media and bring the lies out to the public. Perhaps Anna Banana will be coming to a TV station near you soon!

    I'm sure there are decent, good people who get involved in Amway thinking it might be the answer to a better life for themselves and their family. Usually after a few months of losing money and abuse from upline the IBO quits. Its the IBO's who stay in for the long haul who turn evil, driven by greed and the threat of "you can't quit now not when success is right around the corner". Brainwashed.

    All our upline have jobs too, except for our Emerald, but his wife has a job.

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  16. That's ironic. The upline Emerald has his "freedom" but the wifey for lifey gets farmed out to a J.O.B.......bwahahahahahaha!!

    True freedom is in the cult exodus:):):)

    I'm gonna keep stocking up on eggs just in case you change your mind!

    I CAN'T WAIT to tell everyone on the World Wide Web what really goes down.......

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  17. They have an Emerald income - what's that in reality, not in Amway speak and what you're lied to you'll be making. Between $2000 and $3000 a month according to former Emeralds. They have a mortgage so they can't afford that on an Emerald income. Therefore wife works.

    Maybe you know someone who can create a computer game like the one for throwing shoes at George Bush. In this case it will be for throwing eggs at Amway headquarters while Diamonds duck!

    http://www.sockandawe.com

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  18. Freakin love it! Computer nerds?? Anyone? Help a sister out!

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  19. From the book "Cleaning Up" by Barry Minkow, perpetrator of one of the biggest SEC frauds in history, a book that really helped me understand how 'leaders' could continue with the lies and fraud:

    "The most powerful deception is self deception".

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Comments are moderated but we publish just about everything. Even brainwashed ambots who show up here to accuse us of not trying hard enough and that we are lazy, quitters, negative, unchristian dreamstealers. Like we haven’t heard that Amspeak abuse from the assholes in our upline!

If your comment didn’t get published it could be one of these reasons:
1. Is it the weekend? We don’t moderate comments on weekends. Maybe not every day during the week either. Patience.
2. Racist/bigoted comments? Take that shit somewhere else.
3. Naming names? Public figures like politicians and actors and people known in Amway are probably OK – the owners, Diamonds with CDs or who speak at functions, people in Amway’s publicity department who write press releases and blogs. Its humiliating for people to admit their association with Amway so respect their privacy if they’re not out there telling everyone about the love of their life.
4. Gossip that serves no purpose. There are other places to dish about what Diamonds are having affairs or guessing why they’re getting divorced. If you absolutely must share that here – don’t name names. I get too many nosy ambots searching for this. Lets not help them find this shit.
5. Posting something creepy anonymously and we can’t track your location because you’re on a mobile device or using hide my ass or some other proxy. I attracted an obsessed fan and one of my blog administrators attracted a cyberstalker. Lets keep it safe for everyone. Anonymous is OK. Creepy anonymous and hiding – go fuck yourselves!
6. Posting something that serves no purpose other than to cause fighting.
7. Posting bullshit Amway propaganda. We might publish that comment to make fun of you. Otherwise take your agenda somewhere else. Not interested.
8. Notice how this blog is written in English? That's our language so keep your comments in English too. If you leave a comment written in another language then we either have to use Google translate to put it into English so everyone can understand what you wrote or we can hit the Delete button. Guess which one is easier for us to do?
9. We suspect you're a troublemaking Amway asshole.
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