I joined a retired businessman for lunch the other day and we got to talking about how nobody operates their business the same way. Take a gas station for instance. Some of them are open 24 hours. Others open at 6am and close at 10pm. Some gas stations have grocery stores, coffee, and fresh baked snacks available. Others just sell oil and car products and have a mechanic on site. Two people could run a similar business very differently. That’s not to say one is wrong and the other is right. They just have different business plans and different ways of doing business.
At every Amway meeting I attended the sack of shit Platinum would brag about Amway’s “proven” system. The old guard had blazed the trail for new IBO’s. They’d made the mistakes. The knew what worked. All we had to do was follow their “proven” system and we’d all succeed in Amway and be bazillionaires like the Diamonds.
Amway’s “proven” system is a system set up for failure. 99% of IBO’s do not make money in Amway. Most quit Amway within a couple of years - there’s only so long you can go into debt and keep losing money. 99% failure rate. Yup that’s a “proven” system for sure!
So what were some of the things this “proven” Amway system consisted of?
1. Duplicate your upline. - Yup that’s a good one seeing as how most of the people in our upline didn’t own their own homes and were renters we really want to step back in life and our lifestyle and become renters too. Good one. Mostly duplicating your upline meant attaching yourself to their ass, going where they went, observing, and doing what they do. Fuck that. Nobody in our upline was going places I wanted to go. Namely the poorhouse.
2. Submit to upline. In other words become a brainwashed slave and do whatever they tell you to do. Scrub their kitchen floor. Mow their lawn.
3. Buy at least 100 PV of Amway products each month. Cha ching. $300 minimum. Most ambots buy more than that.
4. Attend all Amway meetings. Gotta keep with the brainwashed flock and spend all your time with them. Brainwash patrol! Can’t spend free time with friends and family the way you used to because they might knock some sense into you and tell you to get out of this pyramid scheme. Cost for Amway meetings fluctuates. For living room board plans at someone’s house usually free. For other Amway meetings $10 to $25 to buy a ticket to get in.
5. Buy Premier Membership to WWDB. That’ll cost $50/month. Very important because well shit I don’t know why it was important. It gives you a web portal to your own Amway shopping page so you can refer customers to go directly there and buy Scamway products. You can also access their web page to buy tickets to major Amway functions and hotel rooms. You also get a small deduction buying Amway books and CD’s. You can also view your Amway statements from here too I think. There is also a calendar and contact list so you can keep track of your customers and events. The problem is if you put any customer information in here WWDB spams them. Is this worth $50? Hell no! But it is part of Amway’s “proven” system.
6. Sign up for Communikate. Cha ching. About $35/month. Dumb ass voice mail system. Every ambot is packing a cell phone that probably has this kind of feature as part of their plan. Those dumb fucks have been brainwashed to believe that Communikate is a personal assistant. Yeah bring me a Pepsi! Personal assistant gotta be good for something.
7. Attend all major Amway functions. Cha ching cha ching. Tickets, transportation, hotel, food. Plan on about $1000/couple depending on how far you have to travel and if you’re driving or flying. Maybe double it. How about skipping this “proven” system. Its just a bullshit brainwashing session where these Amway assholes gloat about their riches and don’t give any useful information about how to make money in Amway. That’s because its a scam! Very few scammers are good enough to climb to the top of the pyramid!
8. Listen to at least 15 minutes of an Amway CD every day all the better for brainwashing! Also read at least 15 minutes of an Amway recommended book daily. That’ll set back most ambots at least $25/week.
9. Show the Amway board plan at least twice a day to new prospects. Yeah good luck with that. Most prospects will tell you they’re not interested when they hear its Amway. Others will tell you to fuck off. Its very difficult to find people who will take time to listen to the plan.
10. Bring a new prospect every week to an Amway meeting. People will tell you they’ll come to the meeting just to get you off their back but at showtime they’re nowhere in sight. Stood up! Get used to it if you’re in Amway. Sane people don’t want to listen to some lying scamming piece of shit Amway cult leader for two or three hours. They especially are pissed off if they’re lied to ahead of time and told the meeting is only an hour. Its just about impossible to get someone to come to an Amway meeting.
11. Get 10 customers who will consistently buy $200 worth of Amway products each month. Yeah that’ll really happen! Customers really want to buy overpriced shitty products!
12. Invest all your profits back into your Amway business buying more tools and Amway products. What profits???!!!!
13. Be a dreamer. If you dream you can have it your dreams will come true. Yup ambots sit around with their thumbs up their asses dreaming of their future riches thanks to Amway.
14. Sign up a new IBO every month. Again a nearly impossible feat. Amway’s bad reputation with aggressive salespeople and known for its cult ties and being a pyramid scheme precedes itself. Smart people stay away. Some ambots might be able to occasionally sign up a new IBO but they usually do nothing or quit within months.
Just today I had a visitor come to my blog after searching for “how to get Amway off your ass”. I see lots of similar searches none that are complimentary. There are a lot of people out there who don’t like Amway for one reason or another.
Amway’s “proven” system involves things that are near impossible for ambots to accomplish. I’m sure I’ve forgotten some more of the things we had to do as part of Amway’s “proven” system for failure but that’s the general gist.
And from marriedtoanambot let’s just send another big old FUCK YOU out to Amway Scamway and their scammer army of Ambots.
And from marriedtoanambot let’s just send another big old FUCK YOU out to Amway Scamway and their scammer army of Ambots.
Good post Anna. I'm still struggling with the idea that people can get pulled into this. I just don't see the appeal.
ReplyDelete-Evan
Evan - people get pulled into Amway gradually. Mostly it starts with the promise of riches. They show or tell new recruits the Diamond's lifestyle - or perceived lifestyle. Then they tell the new recruit that they can retire in 2 to 5 years and have bazillions of dollars rolling in each month and can buy everything they want. Or use that money to "help" others or "bless" others. Some people get in Amway to get rich. Others so they can make other people's lives better. The only lives they make better are the owners of Amway and the Diamond cult leaders!
DeleteEvan, I agree! I for one can't believe people are this stupid. I mean, do you really believe someone out of nowhere is going to introduce you to 'easy-riches' just because? Do you really think you can retire in two to five years with a surplus of income that you have no idea how you built and or where it’s coming from? Money is more than just commerce, it’s a system which very few have the ability to maneuver and manipulate. I for one could never be a business owner, I just can’t imagine myself going through the same struggles they have to face to get out there and make that investment evolve into a wealth-empire! Being a REAL business owner is not something you can learn, it’s something you were born to do…it’s your talent. It’s like my father used to say, “you can’t teach someone how to sing, you just have to hope they have the voice to make it on their own”! I understand some of us have dreams, and some of us dream big too, but let’s face it…sometimes you can’t be something you weren’t born to be. Many were raised in poverty and died in wealth, and many were raised in wealth and died in poverty! Please people, I now times are hard right now, and I know many of us would love to live like those fancy people on TV, but sometimes we should be happy with what we have and use what we’re good at to develop a future for ourselves. Let’s stop dreaming about an employment-free future and start working hard like we used to to make this country a great American-dream, like it’s always been! I mean, seriously, think about…if everyone were wealthy, who would do the medial tasks we all depend upon to keep society going?
DeleteAnonymous - I've written posts in the past about how not everyone has what it takes to be a business owner and I'm not just talking about having the financial backing. There are many other things that you have touched on whether or not you're born with it or it can be learned is another thing. Amway attacks people who in the place where they probably never will own a business and pumps them up with this pretend business and gives them a dumb ass title of independent business owner. Bragging rights but whoever you brag about it too probably thinks you're a fucking moron when they hear its Amway!
DeleteIts funny how anybody can just write anything about anythimg on the Web. Usually these BLOGS end up being incredibly negative and ends up loosing all credibility by using profanity to show there childish emotions. This obviously is no different. Everyone I read something like this about any business its ALWAYS on how it didn't work for me. Why should people listen to the failures they read about on these blogs rather than listening to the people that actually get things done. This is my first and only time I've ever written on a blog, however, I choose to have a little fun with this. Perseverance is what creates success, ask anyone who is successful at anything. Giving up is what gets you away from winning. I know many children who've started something and have quit. Did they ever succeed in these activities? Not until they were told that they had to work hard for it. So children, success isn't built on complaining and whining, no matted if its Amway, legal shield, Starbucks, or even the superbowl. It doesn't matter what it is, if I want to complain and criticize everything you come in contact with in life, by all means go ahead. Just don't expect people to take your opinion seriously, that would be harmful to there success. Hope you had a great time reading my blog. As if a "blog" actually did anything except prove that the internet is 99% useless. Have a great day! :-)
Deletessjj - it's funny how assholes in Amway can lie about everything they want and then screech when people tell the truth about what it's like being in Amway. Nice going with the 99% thing. According to Amway - read the small print in their literautre. Over 99% of IBOs won't make money. You should read one of my recent posts about how ambots are all schizoid paranoid about all things negative. Or make that the truth!
DeleteIs it lying? Or are they just telling you facts that you don't want to be believe! There is no such thing as an ambot and for your information amway products work but your negativity is too high for you to believe any of this! A family member of mine had cancer and found that the amway products helped so if you haven't tried it then how, please tell me how you can judge
DeleteAnd its lying little Amway bastards that convince others that Amway snake oil can cure cancer. I don't even think Amway's head office marketing department makes the outrageous claims that ambots make.
DeleteHow do you know when someone in Amway is lying? When their mouth is moving. Or in the case of the Internet - when they're typing.
To asking: I would rather be TIGHTING all credibility rather than LOOSING it
DeleteI don't know what the fuck that's supposed to mean. Is TIGHTING and LOOSING something people do when they get up in the morning or is TIGHTING and LOOSING something people do before going to bed? Do you suppose TIGHTING and LOOSING is something people eat? There's nothing I enjoy more than tossing some good old TIGHTING and LOOSING on the grill and smothering it in BBQ sauce. Mmmm yummy! Like what the fuck????!!!
DeleteGreat job putting the Amway system into perspective as viewed from the world of reality. Of course, that is why they work so hard on your point # 13. Sure, having dreams is good, but they have to go hand in hand with reality, as well. But that is not the "Amway Way". They start off with "dream-building", getting a newbie to become obsessed in a fantasy land of mansions and servants and yachts and exotic trips and to not think too hard about the nuts and bolts "details", instead just giving in to generic anecdotes about other people who supposedly became wealthy in 2 - 5 years doing the "plan". They brainwash the flock to depend on their upline as their only path to riches, so not to insult them with negative questions about details and logic. Thus we end up with daydreaming, sneering Ambots thinking they have found the magic trick to reaching wealth that the rest of the world isn't smart enough to realize yet. Of course, the reality to 99% of this glassy-eyed bunch is a path leading nowhere while those at the top of the pyramid suck them dry. But, hey, they have a dream!
ReplyDelete~Dave
Dave - ambots also go places to do dreambuilding such as travel expos and then they write the dreambuilding off as an expense on their taxes too! Gotta have those dreams. The facts don't count!
DeleteIf ambots put at least half of the energy they spend at these pointless meetings, retreats, talking to people, cds, books, and so much more into their jobs/schools/private business, then they would achieve the success they want in 2-5 years and the rest will follow. Instead, they choose to live in delusions of grandeur.
ReplyDeleteSimply amazing. I have a friend who used to work on cars(mechanic) for Ferrari and is now a supervisor at a communications and firmware infrastructure company who is the type to fall for anything(he's fallen for MLM's before and swears this is the one). He hates his job(although I think its pretty cool what he does) and decides to complain and just "talk about the dream" like he has earned it or something. Not too long ago you were a mechanic scraping together food and working 3 jobs and now you have a solid career but you think you're somehow entitled to a life of luxury because you show up 9-5? Really? Thats the problem with all of these ambots.
Louis C.K. said it best. People feel entitled today, even if they havent done anything besides suck the life from society as they sit on the couch and say everything is lame. I dont wanna go to school cause "its gay" or I dont want to work that crappy job because its a crappy job. Thats why we gave it to YOU! You havent contributed at all, so why not help out and move up!(not my words, his, but my belief as well).
I did roofing, marble, painting, landscaping, construction, and so much more while I was in high school to save for college. Did the jobs suck? YES. Did I learn many different traits? YES. Now Im off to med school and I will be debt free when I am finished. My house is paid off, my german car I bought new is paid off, I have no debt/bills, and I did this with hard work, not selling people expensive crap they dont need. Why? Because you start at the bottom and work your way up./rant over/
Please, these ambot morons need a reality check.
-Sammy
Sammy - you're on the right track. Paid off house? Most ambots are renters. The ones who own a home are treating it like a bank machine. If they stay in Amway long enough they'l lose it to foreclosure.
DeleteI've always said that if someone has what it takes to make a few bucks in Amway then they have what it takes to make a lot of money in a legitimate business where they don't have to lie and scam others.
Most people have to work their way up. Except ambots with a sense of entitlement. All they have to do is spend 2 to 5 years in Amway buying at least 100 PV/month and buying motivational material and attending meetings and Amway will reward them with bazillions of dollars in residual income rolling in for the rest of their lives just because of their undying devotion to their pyramid scheme.
Ambots are winners just for showing up!
But they're losers in the game of life!
Anna
ReplyDeleteI thought that it was about time I made some more comments on your Blog.
The following statement (by an insightful Northern Irishwoman who was married to an Ambot), is for the benefit of your new reader, Evan, who is apparently still struggling to believe that intelligent adults can fall for the absurd 'Amway/MLM' fairy story.
The statement was sent to me by a journalist:
'My husband is a big Amway convert on a mission to convert the world. He has a good university degree. He had lots of friends, and I once loved him and shared everything with him. But he has sold his soul to the Amway devil and he barrelling down a highway to hell convinced he is on a highway to heaven. My husband has his foot hard on the accelerator and the brakes don't work.'
____________________________________________________________
I'm sure that Evan would readily accept that billions of people around the world are completely convinced that, if they believe totally in Paradise and obey a set of rules, eventually one day they will get there (when they are dead). All that the bosses of pernicious cultic groups like 'Amway'and 'Scientology' have done, is re-write the 'religious' Utopian myth, using up-dated words and images. They have also attached a progressivey-expensive price tag to achieving and Earthly paradise.
Ambots are deluded victims of an unoriginal advance fee fraud. They have been exposed (without their fully-informed consent) to co-ordinated devious techniques of social, psychological and physical persuasion.These have conditioned them to stop using their critical, and evaluative, faculties, on the pretext that only total belief in 'financial freedom' brings 'financial freedom.'
Sadly once certain individuals (usually egotistical males) enter this closed-logic labyrinth, there is no way out for them. They will commit financial suicide rather than admit that they have been duped. Sadly the very worst examples of deluded Ambots have actually lost everything and killed themselves.
David Brear (copyright 2012)
Hi David - long time no hear.
DeleteEvan is a recent reader to my blog so you would have missed his story. His girlfriend signed up to Amway and wanting to be supportive he accompanied her to a few meetings but saw through the scam. In typical Amway cult fashion of separating ambots from their friends and family who do not support their business, she recently broke up with Evan and her new boyfriend is an ambot. Evan struggles with how a person can be brainwashed by a cult to the extent that they can put soap and vitamins as more important than long term relationships.
No different than many other stories of relationships that Amway has destroyed including your account of the Irishwoman. And not just a plain old Irishwoman but a northern one. ?????
I understand what she's saying because I lived through it too and that's an accurate description of anyone who's married to an ambot.
I think the thing that most people have a problem with in trying to understand the power of brainwashing is just how complete of a personality change will take place. Someone that we may have known for years - if not our whole lives - seems to almost overnight become a completely different human being altogether. A person who was once logical, reasonable and with their own unique perspectives suddenly becomes closed-minded, irrational and unable to discuss anything logically outside of their new learned reality. Instead, all the words that come out of their mouth sound rehearsed and foreign to what that person would have once said. Rarely do their arguments defending their new positions make sense, instead using bizarre apples to oranges gobbledygook and doublespeak while keeping a solid brick wall up to block out anything but what their new "friends" tell them. Everything becomes black and white, us versus them mentality.
DeleteAnd you are right about the almost superstitious belief in positive thinking in terms of fearing that just even momentarily stopping to use critical thinking to weigh what they are being told by their cultmasters will magically break the spell and ruin their chances of reaching their wildest dreams. Sort of like when a pitcher in baseball is throwing a no-hitter the announcer won't say the word "no-hitter" under the superstitious belief that it will magically "break" the no-hitter.
~Dave
Hi Anna,
ReplyDeleteI'm very grateful to have come across your blog. A couple of weeks ago, I was approached by a couple offering "online business mentoring skills" when they found out I was trying to kickstart a living by doing freelancing. I gave them my name and phone number (stupid move) and see where it goes. When I asked for a business card or website in return, they said, "We prefer to contact you over phone - it's better that way." If you run an online business and refuse to produce an email or website, that's a big warning sign!
I eventually wound up meeting with the husband for this coffee shop meet-and-greet ("we share offices with the rest of the world") to learn more about me and whether I was a good fit. Of course, nothing is guaranteed. At this point, I knew it was an Amway pitch because I had the misfortune of previously being invited by a friend to a product line meeting where we were fed the dreams of private jets, luxury cars and financial independence. Along with that, he mentioned "board plan" and "$10.9 billion profits", which also set off warning bells. When I showed resistance, he said that skepticism comes from lack of knowledge but all my questions will be answered in the next meeting.
Not happening.
I'm writing in hopes that my story will educate others and provide some useful warnings if someone gets duped into this. I'm also hoping you can give me advice since I'm working on creating presence for my future career and do not want anyone from Amway to hassle or disrupt me since they have my name and number. What can I do to disassociate myself from them and ensure that they don't contact me ever again?
- CL
Hi CL - I'm glad you found my blog too! Thanks for the kind words! I had a lot more to write in the first year I wrote my blog with stories still fresh in my mind but when a person is inside the Amway cult for a year there is only so many stories! My blog is more to curse out my Amway upline who are everyone's upline! Expose the lies. The lines ambots used when prospecting. Give others a heads up to know an Amway line when they hear one and to know the hell that lies ahead should they get involved with this evil cult.
DeleteI don't know what type of freelancer you are so lets just call you a freelance landscaper. People who already operate their own businesses are open to other ventures. Doesn't hurt to have a few pans in the fire. Make a little extra income. So someone like you would be of great interest to be prospected by ambots.
That is a warning bell when someone tells you they have an online store and won't give you the link to their website. There must be a reason why they're embarrassed by it.
How to get rid of an Amway ambot who is prospecting you? And yes they have your phone number you will hear from them or someone in their upline again. How good are you at keeping a straight face? Ambots are prudes. They won't come outright and admit it but they are not friendly towards same sex relationships. Amway is a "family" business based on their definition of a traditional family. Male chauvinist pig husband, obedient wife, 2 well behaved kids. The next time you get prospected and asked to come to an Amway meeting - which will be disguised as an entrepreneur training session or maybe even a BBQ - ask if you can bring your gay lover with you. They'll probably lose interest in you real fast. Or tell them you're looking for investors in a porn film project you're working on that will be available for sale on the Internet because you also want to start your own online business. Offer them roles in the porn movie and tell them how much you love filming orgy sex scenes. You probably won't hear from them again!
Anna
ReplyDeleteThe original 'Nutrilite' racketeers were prosecuted in the 1950s by the FDA for making false claims about their $20 a pack 'Double X supplement.'Qualified FDA experts discovered that 'Double X' was at best a harmless placebo, whilst they estimated that it cost virtually nothing produce. The list of ailments that the racketeers claimed it cured could have been taken off a bottle of snake oil.
One of the latest 'MLM' rackets is 'Xango.'In this, adherents are brainwashed into believing that if they drink quantities of blended fruit juice (priced at around $40 for 70cl)they will never become sick.
For a while, a few years ago, there was a video available on You-tube which featured a good-looking, young, Italian 'Amway Diamond' couple, speaking in English (through an interpreter) to a large gathering of French Ambots in Versailles. Strangely, many of the French Ambots were enthnic Chinese.
The male 'Diamond' broke down in tears on stage when he explained how the 'business opporunity' had enabled him to pay for his father to be cured of cancer.
David Brear
OK thanks for that info. I have a feeling you meant to leave that comment on today's ppost!
Deleteinvolved 20 years ago with lying cheating bastards. They should all die horrible death for tool scam and function
ReplyDeletecrap.I lost 30/40 k over 10 year period. I am a loser for
not trying to reach the top and scam thousands like
Executive Diamond Combden. When he went Diamond Atlanta
1993? he said he had 160 people at 7500 pv or above in his
downline legs. He is out of business(divorce?) and might
have an Emeraldship left with no tool money?Amway doesnt
mean American Way. It means Any Money Will Attract You.
You know" Do you ever look at ways to make extra money?"
Anonymous - and 20 years ago 30/40k would go a lot farther than it would today. 10 years is a lot of time and money to invest in the Amway scam. These days most ambots lost between 5 and 15k a year and most don't last more than a year or so.
DeleteYup the proverbial diamonds are not forever Amway scam. So much for build the business once and you'll have bazillions of dollars in residual income rolling in each month!
Any
Money
Will
Attract
You
I hadn't heard that one before!
Yup, heard "do you ever look at other ways to make extra money" at every Scamway meeting!
Thanks for stopping by!
Selling the idea of selling = UNSUSTAINABLE
ReplyDeleteBrett - what you say applies to most MLM.
DeleteHi Anna, yes true, it can be. However, I’m afraid unsustainability can be applied to capitalism?
ReplyDeleteInfinite growth in a finite world = Impossibility…lol but that’s another topic.
Faith however is the real problem. One comment above also mentioned ego. Faith and ego, although having different definitions, lead to the same outcome. They both prevent people from the acknowledgment of failure. Far from me wanting this to become an ecclesiastic debate, the truth is, “dreaming”, having total faith in one’s self, is utterly dangerous, simply because the reality is, everything is fallible. “You can do anything if you believe”, is a common catch cry droned into our children, and at a very dear cost sometimes, as some literally grow up believing this garbage (quick note, I am not a pessimist, I’m a realist). The quicker people realise that failure and dealing with it, are as much a part of succeeding, the better off they will be.
Regards
I am not from Amway but I think this post (obviously from someone who failed in the Amway [or MLM business]) totally fails to show the whole picture. It's highly focused on the negative aspects (which by the way really happen as a lot of people quit MLM and become broke, etc). However, this blog fails to mention why those people quit. Is it really because of the 100 PV? Did those people really duplicate the proven system? As far as I know in Network Marketing there are 3 main reasons why people fall out, fail or quit:
ReplyDelete1. The company is a total bogus - there are thousands of MLM companies in the world. Most of these won't really fly in the long term. Amway (as well as a handful of others) have been around for more than half a century. So in the case of the 99% IBO failure mentioned above, Amway is not the cause of that failure.
2. The upline's system being used doesnt work or hasn't been proven to work. This is highly unlikely with a lot of Amway's teams globally as there are thousands who have achieved success using those proven duplication systems. Sure you can complain about buying the 100 PV per month. But hey, don't you need to be users of the products first before you try to market it to your friends? You can complain about listening to the CDs and attending the functions and meetings, but hey dont you need to keep learning and growing yourself? Dont these CDs and functions do that job of growing you some more into a better person? But well yes, a lot of upline organizations, not just with Amway but in all MLM companies, are really using systems that are unproven
3. The networker (IBO, distributor or how your company calls their independent partners) didn't really have enough drive to do the business - a)not big enough goal b)easily discouraged with challenges associated with being in MLM (which by da way is 100% normal to have problems) c)they just didnt follow the proven way of doing things.
So perhaps the question that should be asked. Which of these three is the reason those 99% failed? Im sure 1) and 2) are candidates but Amway is a stable company so it's not 1) and if any or all of those 99% belonged to the big organizations from Amway surely it isnt 2). Why not look at reason 3)?
Anonymous - all the reasons you mentioned plus many more. And the only reason that Amway the company is stable is because IBO's are bullied and abused by the assholes in their upline the Amway cult leaders that they worship who tell them to buy overpriced Amway products bullshitting eminto thinking the high prices are due to high quality.
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