When Pretending To Be In Love With Your Amway Upline Becomes Too Much

A reader shares their story about being brainwashed into Amway and the WWDB cult sect. When fake it till you make it becomes too much.

 

My husband and I were involved in Amway/WWDB for 3.5 years and only 6 months ago truly decided not to pursue it anymore, but honestly my heart was not into it the last 1.5 years we were in it. I knew deep down that something wasn't sitting right with me, but because of the constant repetitive phrases and concepts that are repeated over and over, we stayed because we were made to believe this was truly the best thing on earth and we would never be successful any other way. In reality, my husband and I were spending hundreds of dollars a month on things we never would have bought otherwise like energy drinks and freaking expensive water that taste no better than what comes out of your tap.

The last function we went to was FED 2016 in which my husband and I got into a huge fight in the car in the parking lot because I told him I wasn't into it anymore and I couldn't believe how much money we had wasted on all the products, wwdb membership, communikate, functions (hotels, function tickets, car rental, food, etc.) and we weren't any further ahead, but in fact further behind. Of course, they tell you that you aren't building your business or working hard enough and that's why all this isn't paying off. Also, I just could no longer pretend that I wanted to be there and be at every function and event with the idolatry and people worshipping. I felt so fake at every amway meeting pretending that I was in love with my upline and wanted to breath in everything they said. After every amway meeting, you’re expected to stay and crowd your upline and ask a ton of questions and drink up their answers like they are liquid gold. I also found those “motivational lifestyle videos” showing their penthouses, cars, properties, etc very off putting. So much flaunting, especially for an organization that claims they are not materialistic.

For the past 1.5 years in the business, I unfortunately supressed my “negativity” because I was beginning to see all the jargon and cult like language, activities and deceptive practices, but again was made to believe that this was the only way to be successful. They would make you feel like you were in a very exclusive special group by using phrases like “the one percent” or “You’re in the A game” or “If you’re in this room, someone thought highly enough of you to bring you here.” And truly, the recruiting processes (they would never say recruiting even though that is truly what it is) is very plainly deceptive. They believe they are “taking leadership of the process.”

We were told to always put ourselves in the “drivers seat” by saying that you’re not free for a meeting (even if you are) if a time is suggested by a prospect because the prospect should never set a time and date because you should give them a time and place and the prospect should make themselves available to you and work around your schedule, even skipping work or school or anything to see how far that prospect will go. Also one thing that pissed me off is how they say they will “SAVE YOU A SEAT” at an event or house meeting to make it seem like you are special and that it is very exclusive and there isn’t room for everyone, but the truth is it is complete BS and they just want to “add value” to the opportunity by making you feel like you need to come because they are saving a seat for you. The truth is, they don’t turn people away. The point is to recruit people and build their business. There is so much more that I could go on forever. They would say I never “built the business” but the truth is I couldn’t bring myself to deceive people using these tactics.

One more thing, we had a family member who was terminally ill around the time of one of the functions and we were not sure when they were going to pass. We weren’t sure if we were going to make the function, but upline advised us to go to the function even if it meant missing the last moments of our family member’s life because apparently, that’s what they would do. Of course it was worded more sympathetically and came off as like they truly cared. Fortunately, we didn’t have to face that dilemma, but looking back, how truly sad and infuriating would it be to have missed our family member’s last moments of life because we followed that advice?? See, the business comes before everything, even before family, but they truly believe they are doing this business for their family. I can’t fathom.

After 6 months, I have finally found words for my feelings and have de-brainwashed. It truly is crazy how they wholeheartedly believe they are saving lives. Sure, maybe people have made money in this business, but the cult like practices and deception truly put a bad taste in my mouth I just cannot put myself behind an organization that claims to be saving lives and also lying to people. Also, prospects were told not to google Amway, specifically not to click on this actual blog, yes...they named this blog “I married an Ambot” because they can weave their logic and make you feel dumb for even thinking about it.

Anyway, I could go on and on, but it took too long and took too many dollars, but we’re finally out and I’m glad my husband realized it was never going to happen too.