Ambot Denial: Amway is Not a Get-Rich-Quick Scheme

I can't tell you how many times I heard our sack of shit Platinum say Amway is not a get rich quick scheme.

What he does NOT say is that Amway is also not a get rich slowly business.

Amway is a get rich NEVER kind of business. Except for a fraction of 1% of IBO's who make money though unllikely to be the promised riches some Amway asshole from the stage tells you.

I heard every amount from $100,000 to $750,000 a year promised to us by Amway assholes from our sponsor to the Diamonds.

Lying bunch of bastards!

Ambots spend a lot of time denying that Amway is not a get rich scheme and not a pyramid scheme. Anyone who has to spend so much time denying something and arguing why its not - gotta have them canned Amspeak responses ready! - you know its gotta be exactly that otherwise why spend so much time in denial mode?

I've never heard anyone from McDonalds telling franchise owners that buying a restaurant is not a get rich quick scheme. Owning a McDonalds is kind of the same thing as owning a gold mine! Its always gonna make money. Likewise I've never heard anyone from McDonalds going around convincing the public that they are not a pryamid scheme and they are not a scam. They don't need to spend time denying what they are not. They need to convince people what they are.

Legitimate businesses don't need to spend an enternity denying anything. You don't hear representatives from Dairy Queen going around convincing people that Blizzards taste great. Most people can figure that one out after a couple of spoonfuls.

I saw an interesting article on Yahoo that I wanted to share called How To Retire With $1 Million.

Of course the first thouht that comes to mind is if you want to retire with any money, don't fritter it away in the Amway scam!

Anyway its something to think of. People like us who are small business owners don't have a pension to rely on so in our working years we have to figure out other investments to supplement our social security. That small amount coming in each month is all some people have. For others its just a regular amount coming in each month that can be counted on to show up and probably just covers monthly expenses depending on where you live. Its a lot more expensive to live in New York City than somewhere out in the boonies in Oklahoma. People like us need investments to bring in a steady income when we retire for the fun stuff. Or maybe the not so fun stuff when a major appliance needs to be replaced.

What we don't need is some bullshit claim from the lying assholes in the Amway upline about the gazillions of dollars in residual income that will be rolling in forever in our golden years.

I hope everyone is enjoying the Memorial Day weekend! I have been swamped with activities for the past couple of days. Everyone wants me! Got some more fun planned this afternoon! Woo hoo! At least I'm not stuck at some fucking Amway cult meeting!

Look! I got Prospected by Email from an Ambot! Scamway!

Dear Friend,
　
be informed that you have $5,000,000,00 million united states dollars Lodged in our Western Union to transfer to you as Compensation. Contact Mr.Collins Moore Via email : mr.collins_moore@teman.zikri.com Tel: +2348154274617.


Wow! I'm so happy this Amway IBO has found me with the promise of Financial freedom! Millions of dollars to be made in Amway! I can quit that J.O.B. that I don't have and walk the beaches of the world with the Amway scammers! Peter Island here I come!

Retiring Early?

Something I used to hear all the time at Amway meetings was retiring early. When I was in Amway I was always hearing stories about  people who retired in their 20's. I've seen a lot of older Diamonds at Amway functions so it looks like nobody really retires. Diamonds have to keep after new recruits and make sure their downline are toeing the line and buying plenty of Amway products and investing in the tool scam. I think the more correct term is for a few IBOs is some are able to quit their day job and work Amway full time. Even more common are the IBO's who quit their day job to work Amway full time only to discover they couldn't sustain a decent level of living and had to go back to working a job again.

I've had a couple of ambots leave comments on my blog who are 19, 20 years old and they're all going to retire in a year. Yeah, yeah. Maybe if you win the lottery.

I found this article about a couple who did retire early by age 45 and they have some tips here. http://finance.yahoo.com/focus-retirement/article/113590/tips-from-early-retirees-usnews?mod=fidelity-buildingwealth&cat=fidelity_2010_building_wealth

Note they were not involved in any MLM scheme.

The husband worked as a technical writer and that's really only a recent career that's been around for about 20 years. The wife was a travel agent, a commission based job, but she went back to nursing school. These aren't extraordinarily high paying jobs.

They owned a house and were looking to cut housing costs but there wasn't too much room there so they rented out part of their house. I have a couple of different friends who take in foreign exchange students in their house. It doesn't pay all that well but I'd say enough to cover the monthly grocery bill and maybe a good chunk of the gas bill. Another friend of ours converted his garage into an apartment and he lived in there and rented out his house. I think a lot of people can convert part of their house into another living space to rent out if their city zoning laws allow for it and that helps pay the mortage or utility bills. I knew someone whose house was occasionally used for movie and TV shoots, exterior shots and use of the yard. Movie crews never came inside. That's one of the advantages of being a home owner instead of a renter. You can use your home to create income.

They saved their money and invested it and eventually sold their house and invested the equity. Now they travel the world. Unlike Amway Diamonds they live below their means. They seek out inexpensive places to stay and choose countries where the cost of living is low. They do not rule out taking on temporary work to supplement their income and investments.

That's the complete opposite of what we're taught in Amway: working a job is failure.

Not everyone can live like this couple not having any place that they can call home. Staying in one place for a few months and moving on to a new destination. Its not something that could easily be done if there is a family in tow.

Their plan of retiring by age 45 and traveling the world is much better than the Amway business plan of walking the beaches of the world. One is reality. The other is a fairy tale.

Amway WWDB Free Enterprise Days 2011 in Denver and Portland

Amway WWDB Free Enterprise Days will be held in Denver Colorado October 21 - 23 2011 and then again in Portland Oregon November 4 to 6 2011.

What happened? Somebody at World Wide Dream Builders fuck up and not reserve an arena in Oregon for October ahead of time and it got booked up? Or is this a scheme to scam IBO's to attend both events?

There is absolutely no information to be found on Google for FED except for me high up there on the search engine. So yup you got it. Once again a post that serves no purpose other than to misdirect a few Amway IBO’s who are desperately trying to search for information to the 2011 Amway WWDB Free Enterprise Days.

All roads lead to Anna Banana! Here the truth is free. You don’t have to cough up $225 to read my blog. You do have to rack up $225 on your credit card for a ticket to hear a bunch of Diamonds bullshit you and show you pictures of material possession that they may or may not own or might have rented for the video shoot.

Scammers!

Amway Sex?

Can you believe that someone did a search for Amway sex and ended up on my blog?

I bet this blog is about to get a whole lot more hits just because I have a topic about sex!

I remembered Eric Scheibeler bringing sex up in his book Merchants of Deception in describing how the upline controlled that too, so I took a look at my copy and searched out some passages to refresh my memory and am sharing them here.

Here are some passages written about the Yagers:

The most bizarre of Dexter’s teachings, in my opinion, were his sex talks. Remember, as you read this, that neither the general public nor the average distributor were ever made aware of what went on at these leadership meetings. By the time people got to these meetings, they had been well indoctrinated. Also, remember that these meetings were normally started with a prayer. At one of our first few high-level leadership level meetings, very late at night, Dexter decided to share a business secret that a woman Diamond had passed on, regarding the success she and her husband enjoyed. The advice he passed on to the ladies present concerned how to relate to their husbands. The advice was to “screw their brains out.” People were actually taking notes!

On another occasion, we were with Dexter in a large, Italian restaurant that had many other people, besides the near thirty in our entourage. We ordered and all of us that were present huddled close to Dexter to hear whatever wisdom he was going to share. Now, picture how odd this must have looked! We were sitting in a restaurant, and we were huddled around Dexter, and the other patrons were trying to figure out who he was and hear what he was saying. He must have looked like a celebrity! He was wearing enough diamond and gold jewelry to look like a short, white Mr. T. There was a hush in the room. For this sex analogy, he chose an attractive, young, Emerald woman sitting near him. He asked her what her name was, and if the guy with her was her husband. She responded to both questions. He looked her right in the eye and asked her if she really enjoyed sex. Then he explained how sex is an important thing and went on and on about some point that I can’t even recall.

At the last Go Diamond Seminar we attended, it seemed that nearly the entire function revolved around sex. At one point, the women were brought to a separate room and given specific direction, but there were many speakers that addressed the entire group on this topic. Dexter had had a stroke and felt it was important to advise us that it had occurred on a night when Birdie had refused him sex. (I cannot remember what the point was that time.)

Oh goody. An Amway meeting that is all about sex. Now everybody knows what they have to look forward to if they stick around long enough and throw enough money at this scheme.

Here’s a passage that I’m guessing is discussed at “men only” meetings.  

“Scientific surveys have documented that your wife is peaking sexually at about 1:00 p.m., and you missed it by being at work. Had you been a retired Emerald or Diamond, you would have been home more often to capitalize on this scientific phenomenon.”

I didn’t spend a lot of time on the Internet searching for that one but you’d think I could have found at least one scientific study to back it up if it was true so I think I’ll just write that off as another whopper told by the Amway professional liars. Like we need any further proof that’s all men ever have on their minds!!!???? Whether or not its lie is secondary to the real message that they’re insulting their downline because they haven’t reached a level where they can be lazing around the house all day instead of being at work.

Here’s another passage from Eric’s book:

I did not know the other advice that the ladies were given until years later. The women in our organization were told what they needed to do to become Diamond ladies was support their husband and be a good Proverbs woman. Each woman was told never to refuse her husband sex, for any reason. These women were even told to dress up and put on fresh make-up to greet their husbands when they would come home at one or two o’clock in the morning. At two different meetings, a member of our upline told the women that they were to always look good, as they were their husband’s “best ornament.” This offended all those women who still had the capacity to think clearly–but what could they say?

AAACCCKKK!!!!!! Have those male chauvinist pigs been watching The Stepford Wives a few times too many? Yeppers - that offends all women who have not been brainwashed by the cult. Their brainwashed husbands would look at that passage and say, so what’s wrong with that.

One last passage to back up how the upline fuckers (in more ways than one!) demanded to know every detail about their downline’s life. Now we all know the reason why people have so much difficulty sponsoring IBO’s. It has nothing to do with prospects who are not interested in getting involved with Amway. It has to do with the sex lives of the IBO’s!

There seemed to be no level at which they would stop invading your personal life. A fellow Emerald told Kathy and an Emerald in our group that she and her husband would ask a couple they were counseling how many times a week they were having sex. A couple needed to really have a good relationship to sponsor effectively. Privately, Molly told Kathy that if Zack came home at three in the morning and wanted sex, he was going to get it. After all, look how he provided for them. It sounded far too much like a business deal when Kathy later revealed this to me. At the same time that the women were getting this advice, Zack was holding a men’s leadership meeting and advising that he did not know how a woman could want to have sex with a ‘wimp.’ A ‘wimp’ was defined as someone not doing all he could to further his Amway business and financial future. One Diamond jabbed the crowd at a large seminar by saying in a half-joking manner, “You may not really love your wife if you don’t go Diamond.”

To download a free copy of Merchants of Deception, click this link.

Triggers

What happens when you run into someone you used to know in Amway or something triggers a memory of the Amway days or an Amway product finds their way into one of your friend’s hands?

We were watching Undercover Boss. One of the employees chosen to show the boss how to work in his department looked like our sack of shit Platinum. Ambot was actually freaked out a little even though we knew it wasn’t him - different state, different line of work, nicer person, etc. Ambot hasn’t seen or talked to the bastard in a long time and he would be affected differently than I am because he worshipped the sack of shit and I did not.

There always will be things associated with Amway that bring back bad memories or some disturbing aspect of belonging to this cult. I don’t run into the people anymore. They don’t live near me. Its not like I would see them in Wal-Mart buying reasonably priced products! Sometimes I’ll see an Amway product discarded somewhere. All I can do is shake my head and remember the post I wrote about how IBO’s are litterbugs! Like I need any further proof!

Any triggers of this past descent into hell are very minor for me and all it does is piss me off and I just write another blog about how my upline were a bunch of assholes and then I feel better and move on.

Sometimes I get angry for awhile but that’s more a reaction to how badly I was treated by the upline or how Ambot was treated. IBO’s lied and scammed money off us and told Ambot he’d be a loser if he quit Amway. It took him longer than me to figure out who the real losers are - the ones who still submit to their upline.

I’ve found the best thing to do is create better memories. Like taking that vacation the upline wouldn’t give us permission to take. Getting away to relax and have fun is a good cure to what bugs you. Seeing as how we no longer feed the cult machine we have more money in our bank account and have enjoyed several wonderful vacations since getting away from the cult. I have wonderful memories of walking the beaches of the world, the beaches I never would have walked if we hadn’t gotten away from the Amway money sucking scheme.

Although there’s not much that triggers Amway memories for me, when it happens I try to inject some humor into the situation by blogging about the assholes in my upline. Hell hath no fury like ambots who’ve discovered the truth!

I’m always a big believer in signs and how things in life have already been predetermined. I think there was some reason for us to have gotten involved in Amway and with this particular group of cult followers. Whether that reason is for me to write about the experiences and give voice to others who are not quite ready to curse out their upline or to let others know they are not alone in what happened to them, I don’t know. I might see the signs but not understand what they mean! I’m a big believer in karma. Although I don’t wish anyone ill health, accidents, or death on anyone, I know that something bad is going to happen to the people who attempted to destroy our marriage and put us into financial ruin. Perhaps divorces, foreclosures, and bankruptcy are in their future. Its the old karma’s gonna bite you in the ass. You do something bad to someone, some day something bad is going to happen to you too.

Triggers. Just make sure they’re the type that are in your mind and not part of a gun. Don’t be like our upline and take vigilante justice, though to be fair the only person in our upline who I ever heard threaten bodily violence against anyone was our Platinum. Not everyone can be a pacifist.....

When it comes to triggering old memories, treat it like a new year. Out with the old, in with the new. There’s so much in my life that brings me happiness and triggers good memories that they far outnumber the bad memories from the Amway dark days.

Bring a Note!

The pompous sack of shit Platinum used to ride everyone's ass about not missing any Amway meetings. "There is no excuse to miss a meeting!" The cult leader would yell from his pulpit.

Let's see. Let's go back to the 5 things in order of importance that the sack of shit wrote on the whiteboard every night.

1. God
2. Spouse
3. Family
4. Job
5 Amway

It would appear to me that there are 4 things higher on the list of importance than Amway that would give a cult follower an excuse to miss an Amway meeting.

But when the sack of shit finished hollering about there's no excuse not to miss a meeting, he would add that if we missed an Amway meeting, that we had to bring him a doctor's note.

What the fuck?????!!!!!

Uh, we're all adults here. Perhaps the reason we're missing an Amway meeting has nothing to do with illness or requiring a visit to the doctor. It probably has something to do with one of the other 4 reasons that are higher in importance than Amway.

Like we are really going to get a doctor's note because we had something better to do than attend an Amway cult meeting.

Perhaps the reason we're not going to an Amway meeting is we've had enough of listening to a pompous sack of shit who loves the sound of his own voice spouting off lies.

Got chairs?

BYOC = Bring Your Own Chair

Not counting living room furniture because couches and recliners are cumbersome to move, in our possession we have a handful of chairs that can be moved around fairly easily, probably the same as most households. We have 6 dining room chairs, 4 patio furniture chairs, and two or three folding lawn chairs. All put to use whenever we held Amway meetings at our house. We also borrowed stacking chairs from my parents, about 10 or 12.

Luckily for us the pompous sack of shit only held a couple of meetings at our house. He refused to show the plan at our house because the Ambot couldn't sucker any prospects into attending.

The Amway meetings were held at the homes of the pompous sack of shit or cross line and our presence was mandatory. Also mandatory were our chairs. In particular the chairs that did not belong to us but belonged to our parents. If the upline commanded the Ambot to bring the stacking chairs he busted his ass driving to the next town where my parents lived, picked them up, and transported them to the meeting, meaning he had to get their early to help set up like a good little IBO.

It bugged the shit out of me. This was our crossline, occasionally upline. Why the hell couldn't they find their own chairs. Or contact my parents themselves to ask about borrowing the stacking chairs and making their own arrangements to pick them up and bring them back?

We were always told until we became 1000 pins that we weren't expected to supply various things for the Amway meetings, that the upline and people who were 1000 pins were the ones responsible for everything required at the meetings.

One time Ambot could not attend the Amway meeting due to a previous committment. He still busted his ass getting the stacking chairs across town for the IBO who was holding the meeting at his house. And get this. The Platinum sack of shit phoned Ambot and chewed him out for not attending that meeting. Ambot just sat there with the phone stuck to his ear taking the abuse from the pompous sack of shit, who is at least 10 years younger than him.

We're all adults here. Why phone and scold someone? No adult appreciates being treated like a child.  Besides according to the pompous sack of shit's order of importance:
1. god
2. spouse
3. family
4. job
5. Amway

Ambot was involved in one of the top 4 on the list on that particular night.

The Platinum is a hypocrite.

And one more time I send out a big fuck you to that pompous sack of shit!

Oh and a footnote about those stacking chairs. My father got so tired of loaning them out to us that he gave them to us and now he borrows the chairs from us whenever he needs them.

One Shortlived Downline

Yes, you read the title correctly. My Ambot actually sponsored one downline, let's call him Trevor, an old acquaintance who's willing to support my husband no matter what it is. If he's in, that was good enough for Trevor.

So Ambot got the one downline shortly after signing up with Amway and all of a sudden he's like the golden boy with all the upline, with congratulations, and wow look how fast you sponsored a new IBO.

This was just before Family Reunion. The pressure was on to Ambot and his new downline to get to the function. Trevor made last minute plans to drive down with our sponsor, aka Captain Fuck Up. If you missed that debacle, the story is here. This explains why Trevor didn't get there.

Ambot's new upline like the good little IBO he wanted to be paid the $150 Amway join up fee and purchased a few products like Perfect Water, Amway's answer to all of life's ailments.

A week or two after he'd signed up Trevor was supposed to come to an Amway meeting and beforehand meet up with our pompous sack of shit Platinum. For whatever reason, he didn't make it. The pompous sack of shit was outraged! How dare one of the IBO's in his downline disrespect him like that. The pompous sack of shit has one of his underlings phone Trevor to chew him out for not showing up.

Yes, people in their 50's really enjoy being chewed out by a cult follower in their 20's. Yeah right!

So Trevor got his revenge by immediately quitting.

I told the Ambot we should do the same. But no, Ambot wanted to continue on anyway.

Ambot never sponsored another downline.

Ambot's experience is typical. Most IBO's never sponsor a downline. And those who do have trouble retaining their downline.

Sponsoring Downline

It's nearly impossible to sponsor anyone to become an Amway IBO - Independent Business Owner. First of all almost everyone in North America over the age of 30 has heard of Amway either from previously being an IBO, being pestered to become an IBO, or know people who are/were IBO's. Very few people are interested. Amway products are similar in quality to products that can be purchased much cheaper at local grocery or drug stores. Hardly anyone knows anyone who's actually made money with Amway.

Though many IBO's will lie and pretend business is good, it really isn't. Its just part of the Amway lies they are trained by their upline to tell.

Upline says its simple. You buy and use the Amway products and you find people who will duplicate you and do the same. Depending on how many people you can find you have the potential to make hundreds or thousands of dollars each month.

The reality is most IBO's don't find anyone so they try singlehandedly to purchase Amway products for their own consumption to try to get their PV (points volume that each Amway product is assigned) as high as they can in order to earn a bonus check. An approximate value is for every $300 in Amway products purchased, the IBO will receive a $10 bonus check. If you have people in your downline active purchasing Amway products then you can potentially earn a higher bonus check.

IBO's lose money right away. They probably bought $300 worth of products that they wouldn't normally buy if they went to a local store to shop such as food bars and power drinks. Add to that amount the tools they have to buy - books, CD's, membership into their cult-like line of sponship, message system, web page, function, seminars, etc - which can cost hundreds of dollars each month, and most IBO's run a huge monthly loss. Most people don't remain IBO's too long. When their money runs out, so do they.

Others, unfortunately, are pressured by their upline to put charges on their credit cards, take out home equity loans, sell cars, do whatever is necessary to buy, buy, buy.

Amway's own literature shows that less than 1% of IBO's actually earn money. What kind of success rate is that? Pretty shitty.

Its nearly next to impossible for the average IBO to sponsor any downline. If they do, its very hard to keep them motivated after months of losses to keep buying Amway products. Most IBO's quit within the year.