Facebook and Amway

Seeing as how Facebook stock is released for trading today I thought I would bring it up and how I remembered or don’t remember Facebook being talked about at Amway meetings.

I remember at Amway cult meetings our sack of shit Platinum would talk about Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg. I’m a little foggy on what the Amway asshole was spouting off on because he often went off on rants for an hour or so getting distracted constantly and heading off on a new rant as something else to bitch about crossed his mind.

Facebook started trading on the stock market today May 18 2012 at $38 except it shot up to an opening of $42. It hit a high of $45 before settling in around the $40 mark. If its typical of most stocks opening day will hit a high and then it will go down so often its a good idea to wait a few weeks or months before buying.

When Facebook first started many employees were offered stock options so today many of Facebook’s staff are now worth tens of millions of dollars. Many of them are in their twenties. Many of them will walk away and never work again for the rest of their lives.

A concept that is pretty much foreign when it comes to Amway. The only people who don’t have to work for the rest of their lives and have millions of dollars rolling in would be the heirs of the founders.

Ambots go around bragging that Amway made $11 billion in sales last year. I’ve had brainwashed ambots leave those comments on my blog. That’s great for the owners of the company but not so much for employees. Well unless any employees are given profit sharing options. I doubt it because I’ve had employees show up here to say that Amway gives them fuck all in benefits.

Take that 11 billion in sales. That’s not profit. That’s sales. Now comes overhead - cost of production, cost of maintaining Amway buildings, payroll, taxes, etc. I’m not sure how much is leftover after all financial obligations are met for profit for the Amway owners. Maybe a billion or so? The owners ain’t splitting their profit with the lowly employees/IBOs. They’re donating to charity so they can take less of a hit on their personal income taxes and they are living in mansions and jet setting around the world. The heirs are not showing up at Amway functions flogging their wares.

The majority of IBO’s get a commission check of around $10/month from Amway if they bought the required quota of 100PV about $300 worth of Amway products that month. That’s how Amway makes that $11 billion in sales. An army of brainwashed ambots who will keep buying these overpriced products until they get tired of losing money and quit. Its bad enough losing all that money buying Amway products when the same products can be purchased at grocery and drug stores for less, therefore saving money. I might not be getting a $10 commission check from Walmart but if I spend $75 buying the same products that it costs me $300 to buy from Amway then I’m coming out ahead. Especially since I’m buying better quality products from Walmart. I mean nothing pisses me off more than spending 3 to 4 times more money for Amway’s shitty dishwasher soap that doesn’t get my dishes clean when I can buy a better product at Walmart for a fraction of the price and I don’t have to wash dishes a second time around by hand.

I would say Facebook has probably created a lot more millionaires than Amway when it comes to people in their 20’s who can now retire and never work again.

I would say that Facebook doesn’t get called a scam or a pyramid scheme nowhere near as much as Amway does.

I would say that Facebook created a lot more people than Amway who were able to work for two to five years and then walk away and retire on their riches or have residual income rolling in for the rest of their lives.

I’d say Facebook doesn’t get accused of brainwashing and using mind control techniques as much as Amway does.

I’d say Facebook doesn’t get accused of followers losing tons of money the way Amway does. At least not yet! Who knows what the stock market will do!

I’d say Facebook doesn’t get accused of destroying marriages and causing as many divorces as Amway does.

I’d say Facebook doesn’t get accused of causing as much emotional distress as Amway does.

I’d say Facebook doesn’t get accused of ripping people off like Amway does.

So just what did our sack of shit Platinum say about Facebook? Its starting to come back to me now! Mostly he bitched about this 22 year old founder who is worth billions of dollars. The fucker was probably jealous! The typical WWDB doctrine of destroying what other people have because nothing makes those World Wide Destructive Bastards happier than when they’re destroying other people’s relationships and finances.

Mostly the sack of shit Platinum talked about using Facebook to snipe prospects into Amway. Not a good idea because Facebook will suspend your account if you’re spamming recruits.

It costs $300/month minimum to invest in “your own” Amway business. For that you get back a $10 commission check. Take that same $300 and buy 7 shares of Facebook stock. Or if you’re a CORE ambot you spend closer to $700/month investing in “your business” and you can take that $700 and buy 17 shares of Facebook stock. Even if Facebook drops in half overnight and you sell, you still make more money than that $10 you get back from Amway! And you probably have a whole lot more fun losing that money than you do losing even more money in Amway! Because when you’re losing money in Amway you still have to put up with being abused from the assholes in your Amway upline. At least when you lose money in Facebook nobody is abusing you and calling you a loser quitter negative unchristian dreamstealer when you decide to quit and sell your shares.

I know I’d rather go around bragging that I own shares in Facebook stock than bragging that I’m an Amway “business owner”. One of them gains respect in the eyes of the person you told that too. The other sinks you a few notches down the old shithole that you’re a dumb ass for putting your money into a pyramid scheme.

Hey Rohit! Go Peddle Your Spam Somewhere Else!

I usually publish comments that come through my blog unless they're racist or otherwise offensive promoting hatred towards any non-Amway related group. When I don't approve the comment I'll probably post a comment paraphrasing the troublemaker and that I won't publish the comment. Rarely happens.

I had some clown named Rohit copy and paste the same message on a few of my recent posts. Basically offering a link to a blog run by someone who has no life and is paid by Amway to run amok over the Internet making himself and Amway look like a bunch of assholes. Good money if you can get that kind of work I suppose!

The blog had something to do with whatever is happening in Amway in India. Didn't interest me enough to click through.

Rohit's message also contained a plea if you wana (sic) start a part time business to contact him through his gmail account.

Yeah right. We've all heard that one before!

Or one just like it. How would you like to earn a hundred thousand a year working part time ten to fifteen hours a week for the next two to five years when you can retire a millionaire and have residual income rolling in for the rest of your life.

Rohit if you want to leave a comment here I'd prefer that it involves cursing out my upline or your upline. That's the fun of writing this blog. Not promoting businesses that can destroy people financially and destroy their relationships and leave them facing foreclosure, bankruptcy, and divorce. Amway only brings misery. Seek and destroy. Brainwashed cult. Fuck 'em all!

Amway proganda spam is not welcome here.

Amway in Disguise

Someone did a search on Google for “Amway in Disguise” and ended up at my blog so I thought it would be a good topic.

Amway in disguise sounds like something full of intrigue the stuff that mystery and suspense novels are made out of.

It could also describe something that is so fucking disgusting that it must be hidden and disguised.

When we were in Amway and prospecting potential IBO recruits we had to do our damnedest to avoid saying the A word. Deny that it has anything to do with Amway. Instead promote it as a business opportunity where one can have full financial freedom in two to five years by working part time ten to fifteen hours a week and have residual income rolling in for the rest of your life. Hook them and get them to an Amway meeting. Get the prospect in front of an Amway cult leader and they’ll do the rest of the work and reel in the prospect for you.

Here are some of the lines that we had to use to snag unsuspecting recruits. If they seem familiar I’ve used them in other posts:

1. I know a really successful businessman who likes to help others start their own businesses. Would you like to meet him?
2. I was wondering if you could give me your opinion on a business I’m looking at. I really value your opinion and could use your input.
3. I’ve been spending time with some really sharp businessmen. One of them is giving a speech tomorrow night. Would you like to come and hear about the awesome business he’s involved in.
4. How would you like to be your own boss?
5. Have you ever thought about starting your own business?
6. Don’t you want to be free and not punch a time clock?
7. Are you tired of working a J.O.B. and making your boss rich?
8. Do you ever look at other ways of making money?
9. I’m in the process of expanding my business in the area and I’m looking for a few sharp guys who are interested in being financially free within the next two to five  years. Would you like to learn more.
10. I work with a team of multi-millionaires developing business online with over a thousand companies. We’re looking for ambitious guys who want to create a secondary source of residual income through a proven mentorship program.
11. Do you know anyone who might be interested in making a couple of thousand extra dollars a month working part time only 10 to 15 hours a week?
12. Don’t you want your wife to come home from work and be there for your children?
13. I know a really sharp businessman who has some great ideas. I can’t promise you anything but how would you like to meet him for coffee?

But then every now and then you prospect someone who asks “Is this Amway?” Gotta have some responses for that one!

1. No its not Amway. Its World Wide Dream Builders
2. We do sell Amway products but that’s only about 20% of what we sell. Everything else comes from over 2000 other companies most of which are Fortune 500 companies.
3. No its not Amway. We work with Benny the Bastard who owns Benny the Bastard Enterprises out of Miami. He owns his own consumer distribution company. Maybe you’ve heard of him?

Is it just me or does anyone else wonder why our Platinum brags about how 2000 companies can all be Fortune 500 companies???? Obviously math ain’t his strong suit!

So there you go. If anyone strikes up a conversation with you and brings up any of those lines it is Amway in disguise so tell them to fuck off.

Keeping Up with the Ambots

A take on the old phrase about keeping up with the Joneses. From Wikipedia:

"Keeping up with the Joneses" is an idiom in many parts of the English-speaking world referring to the comparison to one's neighbor as a benchmark for social caste or the accumulation of material goods. To fail to "keep up with the Joneses" is perceived as demonstrating socio-economic or cultural inferiority.

Living beyond one’s means can end in disaster. Financial ruin. Debt. Bankruptcy. Foreclosure. Divorce.

Kind of like being in Amway.

In Amway the pressure is there all the time to have what everyone else has. Even in our case. We were abnormal in our line of sponsorship. One of very few who actually owned their house, drove nice cars, had retirement savings, etc.

So with us the upline had to go a different strategy and mostly target Ambot because I wasn’t too interested in what they had to say. The upline put the pressure on to reach certain levels: Platinum, Emerald, and then Diamond. All of this to be accomplished in 2 to 5 years. The pressure was put on Ambot to get to that level because everyone else in the WWDB line would be reaching those levels at the same time and we didn’t want to be left behind did we.

Then of course there are the Amway functions with slide shows of the Diamond lifestyle. Mansions, sports cars, yachts, private jets, luxury vacations.

To reach that coveted level we had to buy Amway products and motivational tools and find others to do the same. Ambot always bought more than enough Amway products each month to make over 100 PV but the upline still phoned and badgered him. Upline Asshole has this much PV this month. Surely you want to beat him and get to Platinum before him. That kind of bullshit.

The pressure was always on Ambot to buy things like motivational tools that others in the WWDB group hadn’t bought so he could be one up on them and that meant the rest of them had to keep up with us.

It was just a crazy roller coaster and maybe keeping up with the ambots gets worse the higher up you get. Other bloggers have commented on Diamonds who have declared bankruptcy and gone into foreclosure and provided links to where the documentation can be found online. No doubt in my mind that those Diamonds have to keep up and surpass each other when it comes to material possessions which has led to their financial downfall.

There were other things that Ambot purchased during the time we were in Amway that had nothing to do with the pyramid scheme but were general purchases for things around the house. Things that pissed me off because we had no need for them but he had to buy them so he’d look good in front of the other ambots.

To sum it up when we were in Amway we spent money buying things we didn’t need (both Amway products and material possessions) just so Ambot could impress people I did not like.

Yup real mature. Real good reason to be involved in the shitty Amway business. Gotta keep up with those ambots!

Amway Vampires Sucking the Money Out of Us

Halloween is coming up so it seems a good time to talk about vampires.

Amway vampires that is.

Vile creatures of the night the Amway vampires congregate at 8pm to worship their cult leader and hear their tales of greed. After 11pm, after midnight, into the early morning hours the Amway vampires are learning how to suck money out of their victims. They’re learning how to destroy relationships of any cult followers who have family and friends who are not “onboard with Amway”. The cult leaders chant familiar phrases. “People who are not in Amway are stupid. They’re losers. They’re negative unchristian dream stealers. Stay away from anyone not involved in Amway because they do not have your best interests in mind like we do. We love you.” The more tired the cult followers the easier it is to  brainwash them. Another familiar mantra: “Buy more tools. Buy more Amway products. That is the secret to your financial freedom. FREEDOM! Flush that stinking job!”

For people like myself who venture out into a moonless night into the grim dungeon of horrors of an Amway meeting it seems like we are caught in hell. No friends. No money. No hope. No future. Only despicable Amway vampires who want to destroy us. We look out the window into the dark night where a few stars twinkle in the sky, as unreachable and untouchable as the Amway promise of spending ten to fifteen hours a week for the next two to five years and bless the Amway gods with thousands of dollars of our money and we will be rewarded with residual income rolling in forever while we walk the beaches of the world and hang out with Diamonds on Peter Island. Coyotes howl in the distance. Something smells really bad in this room. The unmistakeable stench of Amway vampire B.O. and some son of a bitch Amway vampire is drinking XS piss water.

We want to leave but we can’t just get up and go and abandon the person we arrived with. Trapped! Finally the Amway cult leader shuts up and we can get out of this hell hole. “Why are you leaving so soon?” An Amway vampire taunts us. “Fuck you. Its one in the morning. Not everyone around here keeps witching hours.” The Amway vampire hisses and sneers “Guess you got a J.O.B. to get to in the morning.”

There’s just something about these Amway creatures of the night that makes you want to run and hide. Turn the lights on. Get away from these demons!

Amway vampires and their greedy goals. Amway vampires and the their evil intentions of sucking the money out of us. Sucking the life out of us. Someone ought to put a stake through the hearts of Amway vampires except that they don’t have any.

Oh yeah. One more time I’d like to send a big old fuck you out to my upline.

Amway Ambots and Smoke and Mirrors

At sometime in our lives, we have been or are likely to be approached by recruiters of Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) and Network Marketing (NM) organizations, promising a great new business opportunity that only takes a few hours a week and yet will eventually net you a thousand dollars a week to put you on the road to becoming financially independent.  As many of us know, the biggest of these organizations is Amway, followed by many smaller copycats, each with their own variations, all trying to make you think they're better than the other. 

MLM's are notorious for presenting to you a barrage of smoke and mirrors that mislead you with hype and emotionalism that feeds on your deepest needs while subduing your reason and common sense.  They usually start with catchy lines like "Are you tired of working for someone else?" and "Would you like to be your own boss?" followed by "How would you like to earn an extra thousand dollars a week in your spare time?" and "What if you could do this part time while keeping your regular job?" 

Nope those are not my words but they could have been written by me or just about anyone else who has been screwed over by some ambot and Amway.

A good article, though long read http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/MLM.htm

Yes I’ve heard all of the above that I quoted. We’ve been harassed by fucking Amway IBO’s to join their scam except the liars neglect to tell you there’s a less than 1% chance of making money. Instead they feed you that bullshit about working 10 to 15 hours a week and making thousands of dollars. Put in two to five years and the residual income will be rolling in forever and we’ll be financially independent for the rest of our lives.

I’ve heard all those lines, though I still have never been able to grasp how my Ambot fell for being tired working for someone else and would you like to be your own boss seeing as how he hasn’t had an employer in many years. I’m  not really sure what line that fucking arrogant prick sponsor got him on other than the part about working only a few hours a week for a couple of years and never working again for the rest of your life while residual income rolls in forever. When people near retirement age they often look for other forms of income and investments to help make the retirement years a little nicer.

Anyway, that’s my contribution today. A link to a thought provoking article that does not entirely focus on Amway.

101 Reasons to Hate Amway

I had a visitor show up at my blog using the search criteria “reasons to hate Amway”. Nothing really extraordinary about that. I get many searchers who end up here with variations of the “I hate Amway” theme.

Seeing as how I already wrote a post about 101 Ways to Piss of an Amway IBO I thought I’d take it a little further and do 101 reasons to hate Amway. This is going to be too easy. All I have to do is look at their catalogue and list each product one by one. But that would probably end up being something like 2000 reasons to hate Amway but I’ll still put in the products that I personally hate.

So here goes. 101 Reasons to Hate Amway:

1. I hate throwing my money at the Amway scam.
2. I hate the horrible people we have to associate with in Amway.
3. I hate the overpriced substandard laundry soap that doesn’t get my clothes clean
4. I hate that every time I use Amway’s dishwasher detergent I still have to wash half the dishes again by hand.
5. I hate Amway’s dish soap because the bubbles don’t last long enough to clean for the second time around all the dishes that didn’t get clean in the dishwasher.
6. I hate that Amway allows cult leaders to brainwash IBO’s.
7. I hate that Amway does nothing to help IBO’s who are abused by their upline.
8. I hate that Amway customer service has a who-gives-a-fuck attitude when you phone in for assistance.
9. I hate that I have to read dumb ass books that don’t interest me because our Amway upline bullied Ambot into buying useless tools to “grow our business”.
10. I hate it when some fucking Amway IBO says “fired up”.
11. I hate attending Amway functions.
12. I hate that Amway makes us pretend we’re real business owners.
13. I hate pretending to be nice to people who don’t give a shit about me except for the money they can make off me.
14. I hate that Amway turns IBO’s into liars.
15. I hate overpriced Amway towels that fall apart.
16. I hate that Amway allows XS Gear to rip off IBOs by sending wrong products and then refusing to exchange or refund after bullshitting for 30 days and then saying their 30 day refund policy has passed.
17. I hate that everything about Amway is so secretive.
18. I hate that Amway makes us pretend to be interested in people we’re not.
19. I hate that Amway doesn’t encourage their cult leaders to hold meetings earlier in the day.
20. I hate that Amway is creepy.
21. I hate that Amway’s marketing literature doesn’t tell the full story when it comes to compensation that IBO’s can expect to receive.
22. I hate that Amway keeps it top secret which Diamonds are still active and which Diamonds fell out of qualification but are bullshitting their downline into believing they’re still Diamonds.
23. I hate that Amway doesn’t stop its cult leaders from lying that the corporation owns the Amway Arena when the city of Orlando is the owner.
24. I hate that Amway’s cult leaders tried to counsel us to take out a home owner equity line of credit.
25. I hate that Amway forces us to be what we’re not.
26. I hate that Amway makes us trick people.
27. I hate that Amway makes us lie about the company’s financial state. Made billions and billions of sales last year!
28. I hate that Amway makes us lie about how well we’re doing.
29. I hate that Amway makes us look at everyone as a potential recruit.
30. I hate that Amway makes unqualified people pretend to be “counsellors”.
31. I hate the side effects from Amway’s Double X vitamins.
32. I hate that Amway makes us manipulate everyone we meet.
33. I hate that Amway makes us worship money.
34. I hate that Amway makes us believe being wealthy means we’re better than everyone else.
35. I hate Amway XS Energy Drinks - aka cat piss water
36. I hate that Amway makes us treat upline like they’re royalty.
37. I hate that Amway takes advantage of people who can least afford to lose money.
38. I hate that Amway encourages us to make stupid choices.
39. I hate that Amway Glister toothpaste nearly makes me puke when I’m brushing my teeth.
40. I hate having to wear business attire for dumb ass late night Amway meetings.
41. I hate that Amway fills our heads with dreams.
42. I hate Amway CDs and tapes that we’re forced to buy and listen to.
43. I hate spending money on Amway meetings.
44. I hate that Amway uplines pretend they’re helping us and helping others.
45. I hate that Amway is the devil in disguise.
46. I hate listening to our Amway sack of shit Platinum.
47. I hate that Amway has us believing we’ll have residual income rolling in forever.
48. I hate how embarrassing it is to tell people we’re involved with Amway.
49. I hate having Amway assholes poking through my house to see if I have any “illegal” products.
50. I hate that there’s so much pressure to buy more and more Amway products.
51. I hate those nasty shitty Amway food bars.
52. I hate that Amway preys on people going through a difficult time in their lives.
53. I hate how fast we lose friends thanks to Amway.
54. I hate how we’re told that everyone will get rich in Amway.
55. I hate how Amway creates trouble in marriages when none previously existed.
56. I hate trying to find a parking spot at Amway meetings held in crowded neighborhoods.
57. I hate how Amway doesn’t disclose how much it costs to produce each product and how much profit they’re making.
58. I hate how Amway controls your life.
59. I hate trying to convince others to take home an Amway tape and listen to it.
60. I hate having to deny that we have anything to do with Amway.
61. I hate trying to beg people to go to Amway meetings.
62. I hate how Amway shampoo makes my hair oily.
63. I hate how because we’re in Amway we have to “ask permission” from our upline before we buy or do anything.
64. I hate how the upline forces us to buy Amway Nutrilite vitamins when we never used to take vitamins.
65. I hate how we spent hundreds of dollars on Amway Nutrilite vitamins that are sitting unopened on the shelf because nobody in the house will take them.
66. I hate how late at night we have to stay up for Amway meetings.
67. I hate how Amway makes everyone lie about their wealth.
68. I hate that I can’t buy lower priced, better quality products if Amway sells something similar.
69. I hate how Amway has us believing we’ll be millionaires in 2 to 5 years.
70. I hate wasting my time going to Amway meetings listening to lousy bastards.
71. I hate that Amway doesn’t make more of an effort to tell us that 99% of IBOs won’t make money.
72. I hate that when we’re in Amway we have to call everyone else “losers”.
73. I hate that we have to bullshit others to believe that Amway has a good rating with the BBB and approval of the FTC.
74. I hate how nobody loses weight on the Amway Trim diet system lose weight plan.
75. I hate trying to convince people that the reason Amway products are so high priced is because they’re high quality.
76. I hate that Amway makes us lie to others about their chance of succeeding.
77. I hate how we’re told that everything in Amway is tax deductible.
78. I hate that Amway makes unqualified people pretend to be financial advisors.
79. I hate how Amway makes us sell the hope not the soap.
80. I hate that Amway makes us poke fun at people who have jobs.
81. I hate how we have to convince everyone Amway is not a pyramid scheme.
82. I hate how we have to leave our children with babysitters because we’re too busy with Amway to spend any time with them.
83. I hate how Amway forces us to take advantage of people.
84. I hate that being in Amway means we have to alienate our friends and family.
85. I hate that no authority seems capable of shutting down the Amway pyramid scheme.
86. I hate Amway’s high shipping fees.
87. I hate in Amway that we must “submit to upline”.
88. I hate how Amway only sells cereals in multiple packs.
89. I hate that Amway makes us tell others we’re better than them because we’re in Amway and they’re not.
90. I hate how Amway charges an annual membership fee for the privilege of being ripped off by them.
91. I hate that we were lied to that we only have to spend 10 to 15 hours a week working on our Amway business.
92. I hate hearing the lies about how Amway’s Perfect Water is a miracle cure for everything that ails you.
93. I hate how Amway sucks the life out of us.
94. I hate going into credit card debt thanks to Amway.
95. I hate when Amway sends us expired food items and refuses to refund or replace them.
96. I hate how expensive Amway Artistry cosmetics cost.
97. I hate how Amway dog food caused our dogs to become shit machines.
98. I hate how Amway cleaning products come in these huge refill containers and we have to buy little spray pumps to put them in and then we don’t know what’s what.
99. I hate trying to convince people that Amway sells “prestige” toilet paper and that’s why it costs 4 times more than tp in the grocery store.
100. I hate that Amway doesn’t take some of its soap and clean up its act.
101. I hate that Amway is a cult.

OK I’ll stop now!

People Springing Amway on them at Dinner

I had a searcher come to my blog after googling “people springing Amway on them at dinner”.

Man that has got to suck!

So I imagined up a scenario about this nasty dinner surprise.

You’re at home one day and friends give you a call and invite you to dinner. You have no reason to suspect anything other than what it is a fun evening get together. Spending a few hours visiting friends, enjoying a meal and their company and afterwards maybe watch a movie, go for a walk, or do some other activity.

You arrive at your friend’s house. Things seem a little different than the last time you were there but you can’t just quite put your finger on it. There are pictures cut out of magazines that are stuck to the fridge: sports cars, the late Aaron Spelling’s mansion, the Eiffel Tower, a cruise ship. Seems a little weird but whatever. There are little yellow sticky notes posted around the house with messages handwritten on them: dream, grow your business, become a millionaire in 2 to 5, jobs are for losers. Weirder and weirder. You go in to the bathroom to wash up for dinner and there’s a small soap dispenser called Body Series. You’ve never heard of the brand but soap is soap. You squirt some out on your hands and its a nasty yellow brown color that stinks. Yuck. But oh well. You wash your hands and dry them on a towel on the counter. Damned towel has fluffies that are coming off all over the place mostly on your wet hands. You stick your hands under the cold water to wash the fluffies off and wipe your hands off on your pants this time.

The host invites everyone to sit down at the dinner table and asks what you want to drink. Choices are water or energy drink. What the hell? Every time you get together with this couple the choices are usually wine or beer. You decide on water and the host produces a product called Perfect Water. He tells you about the health benefits of this miracle water: it cures blindness, it cures cancer, quadriplegics can walk again after drinking it. Host blabs about the powerfullness of this water stems from the fact that its been oxygenated 14 times. Seems bizarre. Surely once would suffice. You take a sip. Tastes like any water that might come out of the tap. Not bad but nothing exceptional about it either no matter how wonderful the host thinks it is.

And speaking of the host what has happened to your friends? They are being overly nice and polite tonight. She’s wearing a dress and he’s wearing a business suit. Uh what happened to a casual night out? They didn’t need to dress up on your account.

The hostess brings the dinner out of the kitchen. She’s a great cook and you wonder what it is tonight. Chicken and roast beef are her specialities served with little baby carrots on the side, asparagus, new potatoes, and cornbread  She’s carrying a serving bowl. Inside is ---- macaroni and cheese? Hunh? Not even the nice homemade kind like mom used to make in the casserole with cheese she’d freshly grated and bread crumbs on top. This just looks like the nasty quick dinners that come out of a box with the cheese powder.

You take a bite and it tastes like shit. The macaroni is bland and the cheese powder mix has a sickly sweet taste to it that does not resemble cheese at all. Nasty! You force some in all the while wondering where the cornbread is. Or any bread. Anything to help push this meal down the throat. You wonder what went wrong with your friends because this is so unlike them. Perhaps they were running late tonight and they stopped quickly at the bargain basement shop and bought some of those ten cent boxes of expired macaroni and cheese. Gross! Definitely have to stop at McDonald’s on the way home for a burger because you’re refusing seconds and you’re famished. You count the minutes until you can politely leave all the while thinking your buddies are just having a bad day.

Hmm, maybe you can make up for it at dessert time. The hostess makes a delicious red velvet cake. Unfortunately that’s not what’s up for dessert tonight. She brings out a platter with four individually wrapped bars on it - one for each of you. Granola bars perhaps picked up at the bargain shack? Nope. The package says Nutrilite chocolate protein bars. Whatever. You’re famished after that nasty macaroni and cheese. You can eat anything chocolate. You rip the wrapper off and take a bite. Oh fuck! Nasty! The host is beaming at you and asks how you like it. You tell him. “Tastes like shit.” Oops he doesn’t look too thrilled at that review. “No seriously,” you tell him. “Don’t buy this one again its fucking gross.” You finish off the rest of the Perfect Water washing down that shitty food bar and trying to get the nasty taste out of your mouth.

Normally now is the time when you’d head into the rec room and watch a DVD but instead you want to leave and go out for junk food. The hosts aren’t making any move to get up from the table even though they’ve cleared the dinner plates away. The host tells you they’ve started their own business, Internet sales, and announces that everything you ate for dinner tonight can be purchased through their online store. Moreover the soap and towels you used in the bathroom can also be purchased through their online store.

All you can think is holy shit you’re going out of business real soon with shitty products like that! Instead you nod politely and wish them luck. They’ll need it!

But the host ain’t done. He says he’s looking to add a few sharp people to his leadership team and he whips out a brochure. You glance at it and realize  you’ve seen this business plan before when you got tricked into going to a BBQ that was really an Amway event in disguise. “Hey that’s Amway!” The host covers his surprise. “No we’re World Wide Dream Builders but we do use Amway to move our products for us.”

You’re still suspicious but decide to play along. “Well I’m glad you’re not with Amway because its a pyramid scheme and you’re going to lose a lot of money.”

“You’re wrong,” says the host. “We’re going to retire in the next two to five years and have residual income rolling in for the rest of our lives. We’re going to be rich by working part time ten to fifteen hours a week in our spare time.”

“Well good luck with that,” you tell them again.

But the little devil is persistent and tries to show the plan again. “All you need to do is eat one food bar and drink one beverage each day and find 6 people who can do the same. Its easy.”

“If its so easy everyone would be doing it,” you point out. The host tries again to get you to look at his plan yapping about PV and BV and once again you tell him you’re not interested. He looks pissed. “You don’t want to be a loser working a job for the rest of your life do you? Don’t you want to get your wife free from her job so she never has a boss again?”

“Not interested in a pyramid scheme,” you tell him again while he argues that its not a scheme and some bullshit about a 1979 FTC ruling that you don’t care about it.

“Oh look at the time. We’ve got to leave.” You hustle out and go to McDonald’s for a better meal.

You try to invite your friends over for dinner a couple of weeks later but they turn you down. “Sorry we don’t associate with people who aren’t in Amway.”

And you don’t hear from your friends ever again.

The end.

Why Get Involved in Amway More Than Once?

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 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 my blog knows I write about the second time we were in Amway and WWDB and the 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. 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 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 our 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......

The Lunch Box

Last year - or maybe it was the year before, time flies past so fast for me - some friends gave me a designer lunch box for my birthday. Interesting choice especially since I haven’t worked an outside job for a long time and have no need to pack a lunch anywhere. I’m not sure if it was a joke or maybe they were trying to tell me something? Hmmm. Oh well, its the thought that counts. I pretty much forgot about it.

A few days ago I was going out long enough over mid day and I thought I might get hungry so I decided I’d pack myself a snack and put it in a lunch box. I figured I must still have one or two lunch bags hanging around from my working days but I couldn’t find them. Then I spotted the new one my friends gave me in the cupboard where I keep flashlights and candles. Ah ha! So that’s what happened to it! I clipped off the tag still held on by a zap strap - its called Fit Fresh. Has a website too. http://www.fit-fresh.com/ Big enough to hold an ice pack, a slice of pizza left over from the night before, and a can of 7 Up. Actually had plenty of room left over for more food but that was all I was taking with me.

Off I go around 11:30am with my lunch bag packed like I’m heading off to work!

Then it got me thinking about ambots who leave comments on my blog and on other bloggers pages. In addition to being told we didn’t try hard enough and that we’re quitters and broke losers, we always seem to get accused of holding down a job, working for someone else, having an employee mentality, and similar Amway sneers directed at people who work for living and pack a lunch bag before leaving for the day.

Why do workers pack a lunch bag? The first thing that comes to my mind is that its probably cheaper than eating out. Packing leftovers from the previous night’s dinner or slapping a sandwich together, throwing in yogurt, a piece of fruit, and cookies, and eating in the staff lunchroom is more economical than going to a restaurant.

I bet most ambots don’t even pack a lunch when they go off to their job. Their mentality is they are “business owners” and therefore entitled to buy their lunch each day or at least pretend they can afford to buy their lunch everyday and keep that image up to others of being a successful business person. Yeah! Make those coworkers jealous! Lazy ass broke losers that they are!

Lets estimate $10 a day for lunch and that includes a beverage and tip for the server. $50/week or about $200/month. Egads! That’s already more than the average IBO grosses in a month. Totally ate up the business profits! Ha ha!

Another reason I can think of for people pack a lunch is to make healthy eating choices. Someone heading to McDonald’s or Wendy’s is going to get a greasy meal and likely pay over $5 for it. Both these chains have a dollar menu and you can buy a burger, small fries, and small drink for a buck a piece, maybe even dessert for another buck. Cheaper meal than a sit down restaurant but how healthy is that every day?

But you know what else those ambots are doing? They are holding on to the receipts for the restaurants they go to on the lunch breaks from their job and then write them off as business expenses on their tax return. They’ll claim they talked Amway during their lunch - maybe phoned their upline - and that its a legitimate expense.

Yeah, well good luck with that if you get audited and your boss can prove to the auditor that you were on the clock that day during the lunch hour period.

Occasionally my husband and I eat lunch out because we’ve had to take care of business in another town and were gone longer than expected and got hungry. We have legitimate business receipts to prove we were engaged in business related activities before or after lunch. The last time I can think of that we did that was about 2 months ago so its not like we're doing anything to grab an auditor's attention plus we have invoices to prove we were in that town conducting business if it came down to that.

Can an ambot on lunch break from their day job prove they were engaged in business related activities? I’d say probably not.

Contrary to what the upline brainwashes them into thinking, Ambots won’t be living a life of luxury in 2 to 5 years while residual income rolls in for the rest of their lives.

Save money. Eat healthier. Pack a lunch bag.

When it comes to Amway there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

Get Rich Quick in Amway?

At Amway meetings I attended the speaker was very careful not to use the words “get rich quick”. Those particular words make most people wary. The old saying about how if it sounds too good to be true comes to mind.

The Platinum or Diamond speaker avoids saying the actual words “get rich quick” but everything else they say implies that a person will get rich in Amway fairly quickly.

Take a popular phrase at Amway meetings “two to five years”. What can happen in two to five years? Why - you can go Diamond of course! The Diamonds show all these videos at Amway functions with mansions, sports cars, private jets, and exotic vacations. The message is that in two to five years that’s the lifestyle all the IBO’s in the audience will be living. Anyone remember that TV show called “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”? That’s the perception we’re getting with the Diamond’s videos. That type of lifestyle. The people that Robin Leach was interviewing were earning millions of dollars a year to sustain that lifestyle. The same lifestyle that Amway Diamonds show that they’re living even though Amway literature says average Diamond income is about $150K/year. Here the skeptic in me comes out. Its a lot cheaper to rent a house, cars, airplane, etc for a few days for a movie shoot than to actually own the stuff. I have no way of verifying one way or the other that the things the Diamonds are jumping all over in their videos are actually owned and fully paid for by them or staged for the video.

Is two to five years a long time? Or is that a reasonably quick time to be earning millions of dollars a year?

OK I’m going to pick on Nicolas Cage here. And not in a mean way. Only because he’s been in the news. I like him as an actor. I’ve seen a lot of his movies. “Gone in Sixty Seconds” he made $20 million dollars. The “National Treasure” movies he made $20 million each. Here’s a guy who works lets say maybe a year on a movie and he earns millions of dollars. That sounds pretty “get rich quick” to me. On the other hand this man has lost 2 homes - probably mansions - in New Orleans to foreclosure and his Las Vegas home to foreclosure. He’s having all kinds of money problems. He can’t even sustain an Amway Diamond lifestyle and he earns millions of dollars a year more than those Diamonds. I think Nicolas Cage better make another National Treasure sequel before he gets prospected by some Amway IBO!

Our Platinum says if you are CORE then in 6 months you’ll be earning $80,000/year. Although that might not be “rich”, 6 months is still a reasonably “quick” time to make $80k. Our Platinum also said if you get 20 friends to buy $25/ month from Amway you’d be earning $1000/month. Hunh? Let’s do the math. Amway is earning $500 from those 20 friends spending $25 each. How the hell can the IBO earn $1000/month from that??? That sounds pretty good to me too. Earning double what Amway takes in. Our Platinum claims he works 8 hours a week and earns $100K a year. To a person working a cash register for minimum wage 40 hours a week, I would say working 8 hours a week to earn $100 thousand a year sounds like “get rich quick”.

I realize its all about perception. Some people out there will think $80 or $100 thousand a year is dog chow while someone else will think they’ve hit pay dirt.

Perception. Illusions. Its all part of the Amway scheme.

Residual Income

So why did Ambot really get involved with Amway?  

Bottom line is he was brainwashed. He believed the lies he was told by his sponsor and upline. He liked these people and wanted to impress them, dropped out when the money wasn’t there, and got involved in Amway again a few years later. The second time was the dangerous time with the cult in full swing.

I think the lie Ambot liked the most was the one about residual income for life. Work hard at Amway for two to five years and then spend the rest of your life collecting residual income and never work again. Walk the beaches of the world with your upline who also are collecting their lifetime residual income. The money will just keep coming in after the IBO has put in the required two to five years investment in Amway.

Sounds nice. Looks good on paper. Unrealistic unfortunately.

Every Platinum, Emerald, and Diamond that I’ve seen claims they’re earning big bucks, at least $100,000/year. But why are they still working J.O.B.’s and putting in tons of hours speaking at Amway meetings? Motivating (threatening) IBO’s so they don’t quit. If the upline stopped speaking at meetings, their downline would forget about them, drift away, lose interest, and quit.

There are other ways to earn residual income and keep money coming in that have nothing to do with Amway. Here are a few I like:

1. write bestselling novels and live off the royalties

2. invent something like a Chia pet and sell the rights to it

3. buy real estate and rent out the houses or office buildings

4. save and invest your money and live off the interest

There are other ways to acquire residual income, some requiring more effort than others, those samples are the ones that appeal to me.

Amway requires lots of effort and yields residual income to only a tiny percentage - less than 1%. Probably even less than 1% of 1%. Can anyone actually name one person - other than the families of the Amway founders - who do nothing in the Amway business, have stepped off the stage and never show the plan, just do whatever they want, and have lots of money rolling in to fund their lavish lifestyle?

Ambot is working on accomplishing some of my residual income suggestions. If he invests just a fraction of the time invested and effort at trying to build an Amway business, he’ll find a lifetime residual income from a more honest venture.