A question I’ve often asked myself is how did Ambot get
involved with a shitty organization like Amway?
The next question I ask myself is how did Ambot get involved with a shitty
organization like Amway twice?
Ambot is hardly alone. There are stories on the Internet where former IBO’s
have tried Amway multiple times. I don’t know what the record holder is for the
person who has tried and quit Amway over and over. The term we heard during
round 2 of WWDB Amway hell for multiple attempts at being an Amway IBO was “retread”.
Just some dumb ass Amway slang comparing IBO’s on round 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 to car
tires that have had some work done on their rubber. Wikipedia says some tires
can be retreaded up to 10 times. What about IBO’s? Are there some people out
there who are dumb enough to sign up and quit Amway 10 times? I hate to think
such a possibility exists but it wouldn’t surprise me. That would be the person
with the scarlet G on their forehead - gullible.
On the other hand I think its very likely that an IBO is recruited on all the
hype, pays the Amway membership, and then does nothing. A year or two goes by
and he gets prospected by another Amway IBO, gets all excited again about the
perceived business opportunity, buys another Amway membership, and does
nothing. That might repeat itself a few times. Its possible.
I wonder if IBO’s believe that if they stick it out in Amway for two to five
years buying Amway products and buying Amway tools and attending functions that
their reward will be money rolling in from Amway for the rest of their lives
even if they have no customers and no downline. Our sack of shit Platinum told
us at the board plan meetings that we were winners just by showing up. Is the
message that nothing else is required other than simply showing up and having
your attendance recorded? In return IBO’s live off the hope that Amway rewards
all winners who show up with lots of money rolling in forever?
The first time Ambot got in was probably for 2 reasons. The son of the
Platinums who signed us up was a business colleague and Ambot thought the Amway
business opportunity looked good though maybe he should have asked himself if
it was such a good opportunity why wasn’t the son an IBO. Find 6 people who can
find 6 people and so on and so on. I told him the numbers looked good on paper
but what was the reality of pulling it off? Could we actually find 6 people who
would religiously buy $300 worth of Amway goods each month and could they in
turn find 6 people and so on? I didn’t think so. Ambot got caught up in the
hype and excitement. He went to Family Reunion and got fired up and motivated
and all the other bullshit that goes along with it. I joined him to Free
Enterprise Days and I wasn’t impressed. All those Diamonds parading across the
stage had pretty much the same story. They’d been working minimum level jobs, a
dear friend showed them the plan, Amway saved their lives and they roll in
dough now. They’re some of the biggest bullshitters around, most of them had
annoying voices, and they were boring as hell.
After a few months Ambot finally figured out this Amway business opportunity
was bullshit. We were spending money, not making money, and no one we knew were
interested in buying overpriced Amway products and we couldn’t convince anyone
to come to meetings or sign up with Amway.
OK over and done with. We lost some money. Bad experience. Move on with life.
Which we did for several years.
Anyone who’s been following this blog knows it’s about the last time we were in
Amway and WWDB and the fucking assholes in our upline. I’ll try not to rehash
about how our sponsor is someone I’ve despised for many years. I don’t know how
he thought sponsoring us in Amway when I had no interest in getting involved in
the Amway scam again would improve my opinion of him.
So let me just stop for a minute and say fuck you to that arrogant prick!
Captain Fuck Up sneaks around behind my back and introduces Ambot to the
pompous sack of shit Platinum. A very charismatic person. Strong personality. A
good people person. An excellent cult leader. He convinces Ambot that his group
is much better than the last group he was in. Um, it was World Wide Dream
Builders the last time and aren’t you with WWDB too? He promises better
leadership and mentorship the things that Ambot was lacking the last time. He
is a very convincing liar. Scary. Frightening. If Hitler, Charles Manson, and
Rev Jim Jones could be rolled into one person, the sack of shit is him. Someone
to be both worshipped and feared by his cult followers. Terrifying!
Ambot actually likes the sack of shit Platinum. He wants to impress him. He
wants to spend time with him. The only way he can accomplish this is to sign up
with Amway and spend lots of money on the scam because the sack of shit won’t
be friends with anyone who doesn’t give him money. I tried to convince Ambot
that nothing had changed in Amway including the business plan. We still had to
buy lot of Amway products every month. They were still overpriced. The products
weren’t as good as name brand or generic brands we can buy at Walmart for much
cheaper. We still had to find 6 people who had to find 6 people to find 6
people to find 6 people, ad nauseum puke city over and over....
Our friends base hasn’t changed all that much in the past 10 years. So who is
Ambot going to prospect to become an IBO? The same people. They’re still not
interested. Who is he going to chase down to buy shitty overpriced Amway
products? The same people. They’re still not interested.
Nothing is different this time except the lies told by the fucking assholes in
our Amway upline.
As I see it some people can sign up for Amway and then quit again (and again
and again and again) because they meet different people who are very likeable
people and lie about how things are different now in Amway than they were the
last time the IBO was in. They lie about how their LOS group is better than the
last one they were in: better training, better leadership, better counselling,
better mentorship, better people, etc. They offer friendship. They promise the
moon. They promise your dreams will come true. These professional liars do
whatever it takes to convince anyone to sign up with Amway. Ex-IBO’s at one
time believed that Amway was going to be their path to financial freedom. The
better the upline are at lying the easier picking the ex-IBO for round 2. Round
3. Round 4......
Fuck Amway!
Anna, I'm starting to get the picture about your husband Ambot. From what you say here, it seems that the guy was desperately looking for a hero to worship. He wanted someone to look up to, and to take as a model. And he needed that hero-figure's approval and praise.
ReplyDeleteHe gave up his first attempt at Amway fairly easily, as you point out, and certainly should have been inoculated against ever joining it (or any MLM) again. What made him join again was the Svengali-like influence of that charismatic Platinum, who became his hero-figure.
All your arguments against rejoining were perfectly logical and reasonable: you had tried it, it didn't pan out, you had the same friends, and the plan itself was essentially unworkable. But your husband signed up anyway. Why?
The answer is simple: Ambot was being driven not by reason, but by emotion and feeling. He needed a hero to look up to. He needed a god to worship. He needed a king to be loyal to. And that's where the Platinum asshole came in.
The deepest and strongest drives in human beings are not based on reason or logic. They are based on primitive emotional needs. Examine your husband's childhood history, and you'll find a profound longing for a hero-figure.
Anonymous - a good Amway cult leader must be charismatic, a good liar, and a good scammer. An Amway cult leader can come off as your best friend who's a hot shot business owner and they want to mentor you and show you how you can be a highly successful business owner too.
DeleteIf someone like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, or Oprah took a liking to you and wanted you to hang out and happy to share the secrets of their success - most people would jump at the opportunity.
So Ambots in training think they're really lucky that this fucking Amway cult leader aka phony business owner is taking an interest in them and fills their head with byou're a winner bullshit and a bunch of love bombing.
Yup as you pointed out all good cult leaders try to find out what their mark needs and promise it to them. And then they start robbing them of money, dignity, friends, family, career, and anything else they got. An Amway cult leader's job isn't done until they destroy the Ambot.
Amway is like a franchise opportunity for wanna be cult leaders and a scam to fleece gullible people who can be fooled into believing it's an honest good business opportunity. "Just find six people who each find six people who..." which is like code for telling them to find six people who are gullible enough and can also afford to waste $300 a month on overpriced Amway crap every month in perpetuity (which is virtually impossible) and hope that they each find another six people to do the same (we're getting into the odds of winning the powerball lottery here) and then squaring the powerball lottery odds times itself by hoping THEY each find six suckers to do the same. The real opportunity in Amway is a structure in place by which a greedy ruthless dishonest and charismatic psychopath can open up his or her own cult franchise for money and power over their Amway cult followers.
DeleteI like that Anonymous. Amway is a good opportunity for scammers and wannabe cult leaders to learn a trade.
DeletePeople probably have a higher chance of winning money in the Powerball with less money invested than at Amway.
Hello Anna.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of screwing people over, I wanted to post costs as to one may incur if they join my old organization; URA (specifically in the Northern Virginia/Washington DC/Maryland area). The costs for other organizations around the country and around the World may vary.
I am submitting this in two parts are this post was too large to submit in one.
Feel free to post this information in its own post so that potential prospects can see the financial commitment they are indirectly being asked to make. Of course Upline will never tell people the actual costs and; in fact, they tell IBOs concerned with their finances are often told to "not count costs." What business owners do not count costs? Bad ones, apparently.
These were the minimum annual costs as of about three years ago so mileage may vary. I will also mention hourly commitment but not associate costs as some people value their own time differently.
Here we go (prices as of December 31, 2018):
Annual Amway Membership - $62
Monthly URA Membership - $53.75 (There is a cheaper option at $39.95 plus processing but Upline isn’t allowed to sell you that as they don’t get credit. IBOs can select the cheapest option but might catch crap from their Upline for doing so.)
Quarterly Conferences - $93 per conference (Winter Conference, Spring Leadership, Summer Conference, Free Enterprise Day)
Hotel Room for Conference - Minimum $60 per conference (if you are jammed five people to a room)
Parking per Conference - Minimum of $20 per conference
Weekly Meetings (Business Briefings) - $5 (however, depending on some meeting locations, they can range as high as $10 per week)
Biannual Seminars - $15 per (Upline will encourage people to attend multiple seminars)
Biannual Team Meetings - $5 per meeting (just a way for URA to squeeze in another meeting to offset quarters where seminars are not held…usually done for “conference prep” but “conference prep” is generally done during the business briefing prior to conferences)
Total out of pocket costs before buying any Amway products: $1,699
Now here comes the fun part…buying products!
URA used to push the, “URA Standard” of 300 points by the 5th of the month. Leadership openly told us at a conference that they could no longer use that term anymore so they were going with, “URA Recommendation.” Plus, they tinkered with different phrases such as, “500 by the 5th” and then “500 by the 1st”. Oh, and you will get ripped if you don’t process a Ditto on the 1st of each month or even a small Ditto on the 1st of each month.
So with no customers and even a small Ditto and/or do a total 100 points a month, that’s at least $300 a month for $3,600 a year. If you go buy 300 points worth of product, that’s at least $900 a month and $10,800 a year.
In addition, you will have to buy books and audios to hand out or send out to your prospects. When I was in URA, we would have to send out a Greg Duncan (yes, THAT Greg Duncan from WWDB) audio called, “Financial Stability in the 21st Century.” After being able to send out a free version audio to your first potential IBO, you have to start buying them at $3 a pop in order to send them out.
As far as time goes (and I gauge these timeframes really conservatively). This does NOT include driving or travel time:
Weekly IBO Meetings - Minimum 3 Hours = 780 Hours
Weekly Phone Team - Minimum 3 Hours = 156 Hours
Biannual Seminars - Minimum 4 Hours = 8 Hours
Biannual Team Meetings - Minimum 4 Hours = 8 Hours
Quarterly Conferences - Minimum 25 Hours = 100 Hours
Various Meetings at Upline’s Place (Nuts & Bolts, Covered Dishes, Summer Games, Christmas Project) = Minimum 25 Hours Annually
Total Minimum Time Commitment (does not account for showing the plan and prospects meetings and followups): 1077 Hours (just over 27 40-hour work weeks.) This doesn’t even account for the time to go out and prospect IBOs.
Hi Anonymous. Thank you for that very comprehensive breakdown of Amway costs and time commitment if you sign up for the URA cult sect.
DeleteThis is how Amway Ambots fuck people over - by not disclosing the actual monthly costs to sign up to their cult and the many hours that must be invested in Amway cult activities. Who's got time to recruit new prospects if they have a full time job on top of all this.
Sorry, I had a typo. 160 hours full of weekly meetings and not 780. That's a substantial difference of 620 hours.
DeleteThis makes the minimum yearly time commitment 457 hours which is still almost 11 and a half 40-hour work weeks.
Sorry for the typo and bad math on my end. But still, that is a substantial amount of time that could be used doing other things that are more valuable.
Anonymous - 780 is not unusual either for Amway Ambots LOL!
DeleteThe Amway cult leaders have this bullshit about only "working" 10 to 15 hours a week part time on ScAmway. A person needs to understand they will spend more than 100 hours a month on Amway activities. And if the Ambot doesn't make that time committment? The upline will rip him a new asshole. Like Amway needs any more assholes LOL!
So overall, you’re looking at a minimum financial commitment in the range of $5,133.40 to $12,333.40 to be in Amway as a part of URA as of 2018 (and that’s if you only do 100 points a month with the lowest cost membership) while (if you attend all events) having a minimum event time commitment of 1,077 Hours (not all-inclusive as this doesn’t include prospecting or gas in the car, or wear and tear for your car…but you must “attend all events”).
ReplyDeleteThis also means that at the absolute minimum once you break down the numbers, you need to make $427.79 a month from Amway just to cover the costs that I mentioned (a small Ditto of yourself buying product along with the event costs) and that does not include the costs of extra audios and extra books they want you to purchase.
So there you have it. A large time commitment. I encourage those who read this to put a dollar figure on your time (maybe equate it to the hourly rate at your normal job). And the financial commitment is considerable as well even though you will be told that “no one else can own a business for ‘$62’ a year.
And finally, I remind you that these are numbers for one group from late 2018. Who knows what falling membership numbers and inflation have done to that group and others?
Thanks again Anonymous for taking the time to run down all the costs and time commitments if you sign up to the URA cult sect in Amway.
DeleteThis is important information for anyone thinking of joining the Amway cult but usually people don't start looking until it's too late and they've already signed up and put their money down.
In the WWDB cult sect it costs between $500 and $700 a month just for the basic monthly costs - buying minimum 100 PV Amway shit plus the related WWDB cult costs each month. But those costs can go much higher because some asshole in the Amway upline will start badgering the downline to buy more Amway shit because some upline fucker needs to meet PV/BV goals. And when you reach that level someone below you will be doing the same thing for you bullshit!
If you have an extra 100 plus hours a month to spend on Amway cult activities and at least an extra $500 month to spend and are gullible enough to join Amway then go ahead. That's money and hours you will never get back - no matter how many lies the Amway cult leaders tell you.
Imagine that in a normal business operation you had an overhead of $500 to $700 a month. Sounds reasonable, right? But then imagine that you were NEVER able to meet that overhead by retail sales, because no one wants to purchase your overpriced, crappy products.
ReplyDeleteInstead, that overhead becomes a perpetual tax on you. That's the reality of Amway for most IBOs.
Anonymous - that's the reality for a brainwashed Amway Ambot.
DeleteFor a real business owner you have income minus expenses equals profit.
If the expenses are always higher than the profit then that's not a sustainable business. A business owner can't consistently operate at a loss.
For over 99% of Amway Ambots the Amway expenses will always by much higher than the income. Equals no profit.
But then Amway cult leaders tell the Ambots at every Amway cult meeting the way they make their money is by getting a tax refund. Uncle Sam pretty much disagrees but when you're a brainwashed Amway loser you follow the Amway cult leaders orders.