Here’s a comment left by a former Amway Ambot who claims to no longer drinking the Kool Aid. But I suspect somehow is still hanging on to the Amway fairy tale of a lifetime of residual income. This is a highly unusual Amway success story because not too many Ambots make this much money a month.
I left Amway/WWG after 5 years. I remember your blog
when I first got around "the business" and thought you were just
negative and stolen your husband's dream. I remember feeling sad for you.
Looking back, I know I just drank the Kool Aid!
It has been a very revealing process leaving the business. True colors of our
upline and some downline have been shown. As expected, some of our business
friends have completely turned their backs on us. Others have been wonderful
and supportive. Our business generates about $1000/mo and when we announced we
were going to be leaving, our upline told us the "honorable" thing to
do would be to submit our resignation to Amway, thereby giving all our legs
directly to our upline. Not a chance is that happening. After slaving away for
5 years we are going to keep the business and allow it to be residual, despite
the unrelenting pressure to give it up.
We are so greateful to have woken up from the Amway slumber when we did before
wasting any more time and money on it. Time and money freedom is NOT available
in this business. If you want time freedom, don't even think about building
your business to a profitable level. You will be doing presentations 5-7
nights/wk and all the other BS during the day. Don't think about planning
anything in your life because a meeting for yourself or your downline might pop
up. We were miserable building the business. Since we left our marriage and
relationships with family and friends has DRASTICALLY improved. I'm actually
happy again
Anna Banana responds:
Hi Anonymous. Thanks for sharing your story. From time
to time a reader shows up who visited this blog back when they were a smug
arrogant Ambot and then leaves a comment saying I should have listened to you.
When you're drinking the Kool-Aid you refuse to listen to anyone who has an
opposing point of view from the Amway cult leaders.
But once you get out and can see Amway with a clear head you get it about how
nasty the Amway upline are and the hell you went through emotionally and
financially.
Glad to hear you got out and are getting your life back together. And really
how long do you think it'll be before your residual income dries up when you're
not there to motivate and bully the downline into buying more Amway shit. And
way to go for getting that much in commission every month. That's a dream that
will never come true for most.
This is utterly horrific. Slaving away for five years in a pyramid scheme for your business to only make 12k a year? That's how much I made working part time for 7.25 an hour back in college!
ReplyDeleteAnd the fact that that's so unusual in Amway yet people stay the course for years shows just how intense the brainwashing is. Amway is the mlm I hate the most and I hate how wrapped up in politics it is because that's given it a huge shield against anything that may have otherwise been able to take it down from the outside. That's why I'm so about the anti mlm movement and spreading awareness like this blog. Because if no one joins up to replace the ones constantly falling off, that'll be the end.
Anonymous - this Ambot's "success" at earning 12k a year puts him into one of the higher earning categories of Amway participants. But yes, when you compare how much this high earner in Amway is against a minimum wage job - where you probably work less hours than an Ambot - it shows the reality of pyramid schemes.
DeleteAmway Ambots who actually have signed up downline have to browbeat them not to quit and then bust their asses to find more downline once they do quit. 95% of all participants quit Amway within two years so Ambots have to constantly be prospecting for new suckers to join the Amway pyramid scheme.
The person who posted this story has stopped building his Amway "business", but expects "residual income" from his down-line. Is that really likely?
ReplyDeleteWithout constant pressure and browbeating, a down-line just naturally falls apart and dissolves. IBOs drop out quickly, and when they aren't replaced the whole structure eventually collapses.
Am I wrong about this, Anna?
Anonymous - I'd say you're correct. An Ambot must constantly be working the Amway business and keeping any downline motivated to keep buying Amway shit and not quit.
DeletePerhaps this guy has a really charismatic Amway cult leader who can do pressure and browbeat the downline. The upline is still making commission off these sales so they have an interest in keeping them around.
At every ScAmway meeting we attended the cult leader would spout off some bullshit about build "the business" once the right way and then retire while bazillions of dollars in residual income floats in from Amway every month. And that you can also leave "your Amway business" in your will. There is an extreme interest in the upline to get the person who's quitting to sign over their downline to them and absorb them and cut out the middleman for commission.