Wednesday, June 8, 2011

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.

12 comments:

  1. These leaders will quickly take credit for the insignificant number of success stories, but for the masses that do not make money in Amway, they are blamed, or called lazy, not having enough guts to sitck it out. Many of these leaders have been exposed as liars and having given bad or even harmful advice to downline but they have never been held accountable. Many of these leaders are still around, teaching the same bad advice now as they did many years ago and they have never been called on the carpet. It is why I have refused to stop blogging as a means to expose the lies and deceit.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Joecool - that's pretty typical playground behavior - if you're 5 years old that is!

    I think some of these leaders have been sued by their former downline so some have been held accountable. Or at least I would hope so. We never seem to hear the outcome when downline sues upline.

    ReplyDelete
  3. There is no freedom when you have to submit to the demands made by your upline.

    If the rate of downline quitting is greater than the downline recruited, then a diamond's income would decline at a significant rate.

    It is for the very reason that diamonds would do everything to keep their "babies" inside the crib such as "brainwashing" these baby downlines not to "question their upline", "ask permission" from upline on anything even to the smallest decision, "not to quit" because success is around the corner and force these babies "buy tools" and to attend "all functions." The downlines on the other hand, are treated as "slaves", by their uplines, who are desperate to maintain their bonus level.

    Ask your upline for a salary and see if your upline will pay you for your dedication.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous - there is no freedom in the Amway cult. Ambots must submit to their upline's wishes. If these Amway losers actually owned a real business then they'd know the only person they have to answer to is themselves.

      Good one. Amway should pay US not the other way around. That's the deal most employees have with their employers. Most staff don't have to purchase from their boss as a condition of working there.

      Delete
  4. Hi Anna

    Number 8 hit very close to me....my ex was an ambot and one red flag that this business was cult like was that she couldn't just relax ever. One Sunday I had to stay home to prepare a lesson and she suddenly had to leave because " I have a responsibility to my mentors to do all I can to succeed, they've invest so much in me" . She was so obsessed with pleasing them she wasn't ever able to just relax and enjoy life. It's sad when this cult makes people so dependent on them for validation

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Anonymous - yeah that's a sick one for sure. The devotion the Ambot has for the sack of shit Amway cult leader and will drop everything if the bastard says get your ass over here now. Constantly seeking out his praise and cowering at the punishment. Amway is a sick cycle of abuse. And as you said you couldn't relax - ever. I couldn't plan things not know if some fucking asshole in Ambot's Amway upline would demand his presence. I put my foot down one night when 2 arrogant pricks in his upline called a "business meeting" and I said fuck it we're going grocery shopping cause we hadn't been in a month. You know for real food. Not cat piss water and shit food bars and useless vitamins so you don't have to eat. Those 2 bastards followed us to the grocery store and made assholes out of themselves sniping prospects! So embarrassing! But everything in Amway was. Yup being an Ambot is all about pleasing your upline and ignoring the people who should matter more to you than a bunch of fucking Amway assholes.

      Delete
  5. This is why Amway up-line types will tell you (privately, of course!) that they don't really want independent, self-confident, and actively intelligent people in their organization. In their view, such persons are "uncoachable," and "indocile" to directions and orders.

    Amway wants stupid, robotic people who will do whatever they're told to do. Anyone else threatens them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous - our sack of shit Platinum was constantly bitching about me to Ambot that I was uncoachable. I told the fucker that the day I met him and this was a surprise to him? Fucking arrogant asshole! Yup people who can sniff out a scam and bunch of miserable shitheads should be a big clue to Amway assholes that they should steer clear. And yes I'm part of a group that threatens them now by getting stories out what real life in Amway is really like.

      Delete
    2. Agreed....they want you to take only there advice and not ask anyone else for there opinion because they know how bad there reputation is and that there only chance is to sell people on a dream, isolate them from anyone who is even somewhat concerned, and then bombard them with counting is love bombing and brainwashing tactics till the person can't think for themselves and believes Amway equates to salvation for the entire world and anyone that doesn't think so is missing out....missing out on scamming other people, truly blessing others, and REAL love and affection based on reality not a dream!

      Delete
    3. Anonymous - there's pressure put on the Amway prospect right away if they say they want to think about it. In other words, get online and do some research. The sack of shit Amway cult leader says "now's the time to get in, the business is about to explode" or something similar. Create a sense of urgency that if you wait a few months you'll be shit out of luck at making any money. Get in now or later over 99% of participants won't make money in Amway.

      Delete
  6. Hi Anna B. This is a current link to Rick's list of warning signs. http://culteducation.com/warningsigns.html. The one in the original post is not available or its broken so I googled the article.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for noticing. Updated. I guess people change their websites around. This piece is back in the rotation in a few weeks so we have the new link.

      Delete

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.
10. Your comment got caught in the spam filter. Gets checked occasionally. We’ll get to you eventually and approve it as long as it really isn’t spam.