Amway Duplication Means Duplicating A Failing Business

A reader shares their Amway experience from 20 years ago. Apparently back then Amway cult leaders didn’t sling out insults to the downline and call them losers. What’s stayed the same? The Amway tool scam and losing money. Does anyone know if this Amway cult sect is still around or did they move over to another scam MLM?

 

It doesn't sound as though much has changed in 20 years. We were in from 1997-1999 (INA, West Coast) and faithfully attended every major and local function for those 3 years.

There was mention in an earlier post about "the company" providing accounting services. Sure they will-- yours and your downline monthly PV/BV and bonus checks. You want to keep track of your "real" business expenses-- travel, tools, etc.-- you do it yourself.

I'm enjoying your site very much. But I am going to share with you three positives that came out of my all-too-typical money-losing experience with Amway.

1. Education in the school of hard knocks. No classroom, no professor, no curriculum can possibly match the real-world experience of going into strangers' homes and showing "The Plan." You learn to do this without fear, you can do ANYTHING! When you are confronted eye-to-eye by the 6'3" boyfriend of your prospect, who says, "If I think you're scammin' my girl, I'm'a drag you out on the front lawn and kick your ass," -- and you end up sponsoring them both!-- after that you can stand up in front of a crowd of a thousand people and do a professional presentation with no fear.

Less than a year after leaving the business, I took a job in professional presales that boosted my income by 40%, and I was successful at it. This was nothing compared to Amway!

2. The business, as originally conceived, can indeed provide you with a steady residual second income. But YOU MUST SELL PRODUCTS, and so must your downline. I can't count the number of times I heard a Diamond or Emerald say, "Shoot, all you gotta do is buy from your own store, show others how to do the same, and you can retire in three to five years." That is bullshit. Our LOS constantly talked about "duplication": "Your downline will hear what you say, but they'll DO what you DO." How true! And unless you are making a profit, even a small one, on retail products every month, you are duplicating a money-losing business. You have to move enough product at retail to cover ALL your expenses or you are losing money! The failure to emphasize sales-- heck, the word "sales" is mentioned even less than the word "Amway" at functions-- has killed this business. The genius of the original model is that even a small retail profit can and will multiply into a much larger steady income IF your downline retails like you do.

3. Our upline LOS was always supportive, we never took any abuse or were called "losers" by them even though we struggled and never got above 600PV. Some remain our friends to this day. All have either abandoned the business or started additional businesses or taken jobs (even the Diamonds).

To sum it up. We lost money. We were disillusioned by the "tools" scam. We were never taught to retail and build a profitable business. We saw evidence of corruption and conflict of interest at the top leadership level. But overall the experience was positive. The personal growth was worth the money we lost.