Friday, July 20, 2012

Amway IBOs And Financial Freedom?

Financial Freedom! That was one of the major battle cries when I was recruited for the Amway business. You gain control of time and money by creating residual or passive income. That is true financial freedom. You wake up at noon, no job, and just do whatever you please, whenever you please. I remember the speaker saying that broke/unemployed people also had freedom, but it was different because they were broke and could not afford to go golfing or do other activities that required money on a regular basis.

I am assuming that this is still the case for many IBOs. Of course, upline leaders may toss in a disclaimer that you don't get rich quick as an IBO, but the pitch apparently still contains the financial freedom and residual income theme, based on my experiences with IBOs. IBOs still think they will be rich. Also, 2-5 years sounds like "get rich quick" to me.

But hey, financial freedom would be a great thing, don't get me wrong. Who wouldn't want to be 35 years old with enough cash to never have to work again? I mean I could spend some time imagining how fun that would be. It would also be fun to imagine what you would do with all the cash if you hit the powerball lottery as well. But for the starry eyed IBOs, I simply have a few questions for you to ponder. A few realistic questions that you should be asking yourself. The answers to these questions will tell you a lot.

1. Who in your group or upline truly has achieved financial freedom? Have you seen their financials or simply a display of wealth such as mansions and fancy cars? Mansions and fancy cars could just be a massive pile of debt. Not too long ago, there apparently were diamonds who had their homes foreclosed, and a triple diamond who was in bankruptcy proceedings. Find out if anyone in your group/upline has actually achieved the success that they are using to recruit you. Also, if they are financially free, why do they work at function after function? Traveling and speaking might not be a traditional job, but it is still work, nonetheless.

2. Even if you find someone who is retired and golfing everyday because of Amway residual income, ask yourself what the likelihood is that you will be able to achieve the same results. If diamonds are still working, what chance do you have of success if you are new or experienced in Amway, and have few or no downline. More than likely, your chance of winning the lottery will be greater than your chance of achieving a significant residual income from your Amway business. Also, I don't know of any Amway retirees who built their business once and walked away with any significant residual income from Amway. Do you?

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

To be honest there are only handful of people who are financially free, forget about Amway or any MLM, in the entire world. I quit Amway when I realized that there's nothing called financial freedom. When you get into an association of cults who chant about freedom, you end up believing it because your questions are not valid in that atmosphere, and you are the only person who is not in line with the crowd. If your other issues are more affecting you in terms of finances, you may end up signing up even with all questions unanswered. I read in a book where author says, 'being at the top is lonely so take someone with you'. That is absolutely true! Amway diamonds are two steps ahead of their immediate downlines and they need to keep assuring and motivating them to have their diamond money. Diamonds do not have any choice whatsoever but to keep motivating and earning income through their own CD sales. In a business you should have created assets which can yield income by itself. But in MLM all that you have is, set of people who might face difficulties at different situations of their lives and they will take decisions accordingly. So you need to keep motivating them all the time every time! And for me reaching any level in Amway has nothing to do with earning, and I really know how complicated are the calculation of income there and and also what chances of making money. In fact, I want to tell everyone that MLM can never ever be path for financial freedom like McDonald's or any other franchisees...

Shaz said...

You ask an interesting question: if diamonds are free, why do they speak at function after function?

The point of this business is to help others. I speak at BBS meetings. I do not get paid for it. I do it to help others accomplish what I have done. When you reach certain milestones in the business, you realize that the business does not work unless you put the needs of others first.

Diamonds are speaking to teach us how they have accomplished their goals in the business. They get no financial reward for speaking at a function. Also they get no financial reward for the CDs that they are on. I know because I recieved no reward for my cd.

It could be that the writer of this article missed the whole point! That is why the business did not work!

Joecool said...

The point of the business is not to help people. It is to make money. How many speakers would travel if they weren't paid well?

Lucifer said...

Money does not make by itself; people make money! This business helps people make money! Each business exists to make money but not everyone wants to make money! Some folks demand money be given to them rather than they having to make the money! I know that you want some of my money; you will only get some of my sweet kisses :)

Joecool said...

Anon from Canada, you don't have any money. You're broke from spending your money on Amway and tools. You can save your kisses for your gay lover. LOL

Anonymous said...

:p

**proud Amway hater**

Anonymous said...

My brother with his wife got into that cult called Amway. Now I even can't have a proper family time without being pulled to this cult. Every single talk ends up with a brainwashing that I'm wasting my precious time working as an employe and having side income as self employed... They, on the other hand, work as employees and as IBOs. Almost all of their spare time is spent by annoying friends and relatives or attending paid motivational seminars. Their attic is full of boxes with Amway stuff which they have to buy time from time to keep level, all walls in papers with percents...
I spend my money on stuff I need, travels in Europe and still have savings. They... Not so lucky- 5 years in Amway, huge amount of time spent promoting Amway and Amway products, enormous amount of money spent on motivational literature, audio books and meetings. They where promised substantial income from Amway after 4 years (sounds familiar?), but actually they pay with their salary money for Amway products and basically have no profit from Amway.

So what's the key to success with Amway?

Rent a fancy car, buy expensive suit and fake GOLD plated ROLEX, have someone to photoshop you shaking hands with Obama next to White House, drinking mojitos with Arnold Schwarzenegger next to your 20 bedroom mansion in Spain. Name yourself Diamond or at least emerald, invest a little time and money to promote yourself and start giving motivational speeches. Most of IBOs are sheep and believe everything you trow at them because they were brainwashed for that. You will be that another good example how becoming IBO changed your life forever.
This is only known way to make some kind of money in this scheme.
Selling stuff, getting people in to sell stuff will not make you rich because you have to spend money also. "You have to know products you're selling", what basically means you have to feed someone who's above you. If you don't buy - there's no income to take percentage from. You can have 1000 people under you, but if they don't buy — you don't get paid. So you need to motivate them and push to make more purchases ("You have to try what sell to help your sales. Amway is good for you and 100x better than competitors."). Charge some money for that champagne and salmon, sell some books and audiobooks and you're sorted till next motivational medium....

Anonymous said...

My direct up line is an emerald and he has been very successful in the Amway business, Nothing fake about his lifestyle or his motives. Although I have a considerable Amway business of my own I have never recruited one single IBO. I have the best business model that has ever been created with the strongest compensation plan in the direct selling industry. Amway is a 12 Billion dollar a year business that has been around for 53 years. I share what I have and if someone is interested great I commit to help that person be successful. If they’re not interested I don’t waste my time or theirs. Truthfully Amway is not for everyone in fact most people don’t have what it takes to succeed not just in Amway but in any type of business that takes dedication, commitment, ambition, loyalty, honesty, and integrity. Not everyone can be a star athlete or a brain surgeon and not everyone can be an Amway diamond. But by no means does that diminish the business. Opportunity is what you make of it. Before you criticize the Amway business make sure you know what you’re talking about. Like my dad us to say it’s better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all the doubt.

Joecool said...

Strange, I cannot find anything to suggest that Amway has done 12 billion in sales.

Anonymous said...

No, the point of the business is to sell tools and function tickets. A typical speaking fee for a Diamond is around $5000 plus travel expenses. Diamonds typically make 70-90% of their income from tools. Open your eyes, read Dean Kosage's divorce papers or the numerous lawsuits of diamonds fighting over tool money.. wake up!

Vinayak Bharma said...

I will be starting on January 2, 2016 with Amway business.
Tried their products. Feeling good about it.

Joecool said...

Good luck. Most likely you'll send up losing money like nearly all other Amway IBOs.