Also, let's all remember that a franchise owner is really simply in business, when you dig it out, TO SELL FRANCHISES! PERIOD! That's what the excel at!

PAX

Jen615,

I express regrets to you for what happened..I similarily (sp?) lost my wife with lec...

IMO,
You survived and even though scarred, will survive..it is a "jungle out there"

and like our animal friends (some of the native species of this marble, they know that better than us)

rest, heal, handle the piss-offness, look ahead, realize critically what took place and then, only then begin healing & moving on.

This may take awhile...I lost a soul mate of 22 years...After 5 yrs I still have the moments...

but as in the jungle, we (those of us that still are critically-thinking, aware-feeling beings) have to always be aware of what's happening in our
circle of existence...we may not have stage-coaches or bows & arrows hanging on our shorts next to our cell phones, but we are in a world that really isn't that diff from feudal Europe many years ago.

Ok I started to venture deeper than wanted...

Simply..1st realize what happened....

2nd, if you love him, REALLY love him, you would not ever blame him..it was done TO HIM..he fell susceptible to the CRAP..it was not his critical choice...

2nd, You MUST save/protect yourself period, to live on, especially if you have wonderful (of course!) kids :lol:

3rd ....always, even if it has to be deep down at moments when you are totally alone...be true to you...recall/summon-up/sense/meditate/vision who/what you are and that you are you...a great humane being, unique and a survivor (if not you wouldn't be at this site checking out stuff, right?)

Last...keep the faith that there ARE other humanies out here who have either been seduced previously or lost someone close that was..

Plz e-m if you'd like...but stay firm...it is not you!

PAX

The Amway compensation plan was created at a time when computers were limited in what they could track. It was also created with the above average in mind, who could manage several people at once, and fill the spots of people who drop out simultaneously. Picture 10 pumps in front of you, each of which requires a lot of work to prime and keep flowing. Then picture running from pump to pump, working feverishly to keep them primed flowing, and replacing the ones that dry up with a new pump.

I'm not an Amway basher. I think any alternative to the 45 year, work till you die and never get ahead plan is worth looking into, but the reality is, it's just not designed with the average person in mind.

Below are my comments, the first in twenty years, about my experience in Amway. I'd forgotten how deep, and terribly hurtful the experience was...thanks for letting me vent. Before I go any further, I have to say a word against the anti-Semitic comments posted on this bulletin board that I read earlier. There is no place for hate, whoever wrote them should get a life.

OK, here's my Amway story.

I was a distributor in the early 80's, achieving the level of Silver Producer. Before I joined I was young, wounded, lonely and intelligent - a perfect candidate for Amway. I found instant family, instant love - I married my 'upline' - her friend, a director of a model agency with the looks to go with it, introduced me to my equally beautiful wife and the Amway business. The first meeting I attended was given by a very dynamic guy of about 21 who was on fire for the business. And there were more than three or four really pretty and single women there too. I joined. Three and one half years later I was emotionally and financially exhausted, angry and deeply frustrated. To top it all off, I was devasted by a whirlwind romance with my upline that had led to an ill thought out, naive marriage that lasted only 16 months.


My wife, a brilliant sales person, a great people person who worked Amway hard, who gave it her all and who deserved much better financial reward than what she got, was eventually brought to her knees in hysterical sobs by the Amway business -

That day, 'late' in our marriage, she sobbed hysterically because for about the eighth week in a row, a different one of our downline had bounced a check, causing a series of bounced checks, runs to the bank, frantic calls to upline. 'Don't cash our check! Don't cash our check! Oh shit, you cashed our check! What do we do now? Call downline, tell them we will be there to pick up the cash, that's CASH, OK? They better have the cash. Do they have the cash? Yes? Yes? good. No? Oh shit. Yes? they have the cash. Drive across Toronto to pick up the cash. Run to the bank. Think positive! Think positive! This is not happening! Dexter Yager didn't talk about this! Am I negative? No! Shit! Put in a tape. I'm a winner! I'm a winner! I AM A WINNER! Christ I almost missed that red light......Each week we would make it work. Each week something wouldn't quite work, but we made it work. In the fall of 1982 we worked nearly around the clock to 'break Silver' one weekend. I can't remember how much that was now, but for a couple broke kids it was a lot of selling and a lot of downline and a lot of everybody's money except Amways. They always got the money. We were $100 down many weeks because of it (in 1984, when we were 25 yr old newly weds - with a baby - [forgot to tell you about that part,] - $100 was a lot of money) OK. so we made it work 1, 2, 3, 4 weeks like that, 1 , 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 11, 12 months like that, pushing it hard, being positive, going to meetings, putting out fires, that bounced but it was OK. So and so downline is a winner, is a winner! A little bounced check isn't going change that! Going to local rallies, 1, 2, 3, 4 weekends...what's that? Columbus Ohio? A rally? Must go to that? Yes I'm positive! Yes I'm a winner! Yes I'm going! ....later we would be broke again from going. And the books, and the tapes, all of which had to be paid for....1, 2, 3 years like that...the worst kind of frustration...and suddenly realizing that we had married for the wrong reasons. I was married to the wrong person. A stranger, who I didn't even love. We had married because all we'd been listening to for a couple of years solid was how great marriage is, how Amway makes marriages work...all the while paying whatever we had left to drive to Columbus Ohio to hear these upline fat cats talk about how they went direct in 3 months and were diamonds when they 'decided' to do it. We hadn't 'gone diamond' because we hadn't 'decided' to do it....God that was frustrating. It made us lonely. The lonliness was a little less in each others arms for a while. Those lying, manipulating bastards at Amway. This is the first time I've ever written about this hurtful, devastating waste of some of the best years of my life...God that fucking hurts...Amway has a lot to answer for. It is a business from hell.

And old roommate of mine was involved in Quixtar, the online selling part of Amway. One day I heard him talking to someone over the phone, and I hear him say "Yeah, the business is doing incredible... lots" (I can assume that by lots he's talking about money. I asked him how much money he was making, and he told me that they were not to talk about actual income.

That weekend I snuck into his room and found a paystub. It was for $9. I find it absurd to say that your "business" is doing "incredible" when you can't even pay rent and bills on time, something I was doing with a PT job at the time. A sucker every minute.

Several years ago, Amway almost cost me my marriage.

Being recent immigrants, we were quickly targeted by my husband's coworker. After attending a "meeting", it became obvious to me that it was a pyramid scheme.

My DH's coworker was particularly interested in involving me because, as an immigrant community volunteer and a then a public service employee, I was dealing with many vulnerable people who trusted me. He openly said that he wants me "to bring in new customers because people trust me". I refused - exactly for the same reason. Then this individual started pitting my husband against me, hammering into him that I "did not want him to succeed in America", "out of spite was standing in his way to becoming a millionaire" etc. Hubby could not avoid him because the guy was his foreman at work. It almost led to separation.

The strangest thing is that my hubby should've been much more aware, having lost his cousin to a religious sect many years ago and being very critical about her gullibility. He fell for the same "meat" served under slightly different dressing. :shock:

This happened in 1996-97. My husband now owns a small but successful business (which I helped him start and which has absolutely nothing to do with MLM), obviously prefers not to bring up Amway subject and gets angry whenever I do. Oh yes, and the guy who was pulling him in, became an alcoholic instead of a millionnaire.

I dont think that is true. Amway is a company which has been doing well since the time i have heard about it. In MLM business, or any other business the decision to buy the product or no is completely their responsibility. If the product does not work according to the way they want, then the trend has always been the same of accusing the company.

[Moderator note: Don't post promotional links]

[ilgmarketerhub.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/13/2009 08:05PM by rrmoderator.

Those interested in learning more about Amway should review the following:

[www.culteducation.com]

This link examines what's wrong with MLMs, why they so often don't work and people lose money.

[www.vandruff.com]

Eric Scheibeler, author of Merchants of Deception (and former Amway insider) has an eye-opening talk with Steven Hassan, Cult Expert (and ex-Moonie) about the deceptive, fraudulent and cult-like world of MLMs. They discuss how anyone is susceptible to being drawn in to today's modern day, every-man cult-- what Scheibeler describes as "the silent epidemic in America"... Scheibeler also uses himself as an example of how it is possible to break free of these destructive mindsets. I think you'll want to watch all three parts of this interview:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CApMzIX46kw]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2kQii3WC9Y&feature=related]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMZsjUWf9O0&feature=related]

Why do you need motivational tapes to be able to sell soap and washing powder???

Because your uplines (the more intelligent ones) have already worked out that Amway just isn't viable. The production and sale of the motivational tapes is their way of making a profit out of the otherwise failed business they have invested in. Hence the hype to continually purchase the latest tape.

John