At almost every meeting I
attended that the sack of shit Platinum instructed the IBO’s to prospect people
under the age of 35. That’s where the best prospects are he’d claim. Those were
the movers and the shakers. These are the people who are going to make it big
in Amway. He also said this was the age group who were most unlikely to have
heard the name Amway. He pointed out that people older than 35 probably had negative
opinions on Amway because they or someone they knew had already tried the
business and failed.
Under 35 huh? Did Ambot have his ears on? We were past that moving and shaking
demographic. Our time had come and gone. According to the Platinum - and
everything he said was unquestioned by Ambot to be the gospel truth - it was
too late for us. So what were we doing wasting our time and money is all I
could think when I heard the “don’t prospect anyone over 35” speech at the
Amway meetings.
The Amway business opportunity is presented in a tantalizing manner by a
charismatic cult leader to appeal to kids recently out of school, new
immigrants, the unemployed, the disabled, and stay at home parents. Its also
appealing to people looking to expand their circle of friends. Attending
Amway meetings is belonging to an expensive social club.
The problem with most of the people in the above groups is that they usually do
not have money to invest in Amway. They might be able to scrape together the
join up fee that will give them membership to the social club and let them
attend Amway meetings several times a week. What does it cost these days? Must
be $200 or more by now! Sometimes they can find money or use a credit card to
invest hundreds or thousands of dollars in the Amway scam. They spend long
hours attending meetings and trying to find prospects and earn a tiny amount of
money if they earn anything at all.
We didn’t really know anyone in those groups mentioned above. A neighbor in her
50’s had been injured at work and was off on disability and said money was
tight. Ambot was all over her telling her Amway was the answer to her financial
problems. Fortunately she didn’t believe him. Ambot would “counsel with upline”
about her and get “lines” to use to overcome her objections. Ambot would get so
angry that she wasn’t listening to his tirade on starting her own Amway
business and he was quoting a bunch of bullshit from his upline that there was
nothing else out there for her and she was missing out on a great business
opportunity that was going to give her residual income forever and she’d never
have to worry about money again.
I was uncomfortable belonging to a business that preys on the disadvantaged. In
good conscience I could never badger anyone into attending an
Amway meeting or buying overpriced shitty products.
IBO’s are given a demographic list of people to prospect. Bottom line is they
prey on everybody not just the disadvantaged, but that group seems to be the
easy mark. The relatively gullible prey are people who are in financial straits
and could use money and/or could use friends.
I feel so much relief that Ambot and I did not ferret out these people and
bring even more grief to their lives.