10 Warning Signs of a Dangerous Amway Leader

This is an excerpt from the Rick Ross web site. The original can be found here. http://culteducation.com/warningsigns.html 

 

This page is worth a read. In addition to warning signs of a leader it includes a list of warning signs that people might be involved with a dangerous leader. Interestingly there is also a list of 10 signs of a safe leader. Ha ha! Nothing on the safe list can be said about our former sack of shit Platinum! He’s the complete opposite!

Anyway Rick Ross’s list is called Ten warning signs of a potentially unsafe group/leader but it could just as aptly be named Ten warning signs of a dangerous Amway leader. The comments in black are Rick Ross’s warning signs. The comments in red are mine. Get it. Red is a color warning of danger.

1. Absolute authoritarianism without meaningful accountability. This was mostly clear to me from our sack of shit Platinum who we heard speak more than we heard any other speaker, Emerald or Diamond. He demanded everyone in his downline to “ask permission” before doing anything. Constantly telling us to “submit to upline” and never question upline.
2. No tolerance for questions or critical inquiry. “Never question upline! Who do you think you are asking me something like that! Everything I say is the truth!”
3. No meaningful financial disclosure regarding budget, expenses such as an independently audited financial statement. The sack of shit never showed us his budget, his profit and loss statement, tax returns, etc. though he wanted to see all of ours.
4. Unreasonable fear about the outside world, such as impending catastrophe, evil conspiracies and persecutions. All the time! What else is out there except Amway? The answer to everyone’s prayers. Financial security for the rest of your life. Everyone else is doomed to have a J.O.B. and work for someone else. Nothing but negativity at Amway meetings with all the talk of doom and gloom and businesses shutting down and social security won’t be there when you retire, etc.
5. There is no legitimate reason to leave, former followers are always wrong in leaving, negative or even evil. The ones who leave are quitters, losers, broke losers, negative, dream stealers, etc. Nothing but insults for those who have quit Amway and current IBO’s are not allowed to associate with them anymore.
6. Former members often relate the same stories of abuse and reflect a similar pattern of grievances. Our stories are all over the Internet. They’re all the same story: upline abuse, brainwashing, financial losses, house foreclosures, bankruptcy, emotional distress, destroyed marriages, alienation from friends and family.....
7. There are records, books, news articles, or television programs that document the abuses of the group/leader. Again all over the Internet are blogs written by former IBO’s. NBC Dateline did an expose. Many former Amway cult followers have written books. Abuse from the upline and lives that have been destroyed by Amway is well documented.
8. Followers feel they can never be "good enough". A good example of this was the attempt our WWDB group made to sell Amway items for Christmas and rented a community hall for the event. Ambot had several friends show up and one person made purchases. Ambot had the only sale there all day and was rather pleased with himself. When it was over the Platinum highlighted Ambot who was expecting praise but instead he was criticized that only one of his friends purchased Amway products and that meant they weren’t his true friends. It was a constant cycle of abuse where the Platinum would punish, scold and berate and then say “but we still love you”.
9. The group/leader is always right. The sack of shit Platinum is always right. Pompous son of a bitch even told us once that his wife never wins an argument with him because he is always right. Oh gee, one of the top criteria for a happy marriage. According to Amway cult leaders that is.
10. The group/leader is the exclusive means of knowing "truth" or receiving validation, no other process of discovery is really acceptable or credible. Its all about information control. Our Platinum wanted to control the information the IBO’s received. Cult followers are brainwashed to believe the Platinum is always telling the truth. He gave his version of the news and told IBO’s not to listen to the news or read the Internet because it was wrong and could not be trusted whereas he would always tell the truth. Discrediting an information source is easier for the Platinum than debating the truth. By controlling the information the Platinum removes the IBO’s ability to think for themselves. Sleep deprivation also helps the cult leader in the brainwashing. Keeping IBO’s up to 1 or 2 or 3 in the morning and they are so tired that they’re willing to agree everything they hear at that hour is the truth.

Of course we can see it now. I’d say I saw this within a month of knowing the Platinum and getting involved in Amway. Too bad for the bastard that I wouldn’t drink the kool aid. Like we need any further proof that Amway leaders used cult techniques to brainwash their downline.

And then these same cult leaders claim Amway is not a cult. Deny, deny, deny. Lie, lie, lie. That’s the secret to success in Amway.

I’ll just send out another big old fuck you to everyone in our upline.