Thursday, June 25, 2015

Amway IBOs, The Real Losers?

One of the things I recall as an IBO was thinking how sorry I felt for people who were not IBOs because we were all going to be rich and everyone else was a loser. Our upline used to tell us that we were winners - and if you weren't a winner, then obviously, you are a loser. Many times, the term "broke" was attached to the term loser. That was my mindset back then, but having been out of the system more than ten years, I can look back and laugh, realizing that the losers were the ones buying stuff they don't need, stalking people at malls and bookstores, and wasting their time and money on tapes (cds), books and functions.

What goes unnoticed in many cases, is how much time and money really goes down the drain for IBOs who work the system. Your life revolves around the business if you are dedicated and hard core. You are always looking for prospects and people to show the plan to, and you have to rearrange your schedules, or outright skip social or family gatherings because of the neverending number of meetings and functions, many of which teach you nothing about running a profitable business. When I first left the Amway business, I was sort of angry at the time and effort that was wasted, along with the cash I threw down the crapper. But after having been gone for a while, you get on with life and you get back into a normal pattern of life and social interactions with friends and family.

So after I did finally cut ties with the business and the people associated with it, I got back into a new routine of sorts. I focused on my job and after some years of gaining experience and working my way up the corporate ladder, I received some promotions and I am scheduled to be retired at the age of 56 with a decent retirement income and will likely have my home paid off by then. So while I did have to work a dreaded job to be able to retire, pretty much all IBOs are also working a job or business PLUS having to expend their time and money to run their Amway business which has little to no chance of providing a long term stable and significant income. And if I may add, it is the systems such as WWDB or N21 that usually end up costing the IBOs the most money because of things like the functions.

So I will ask the question. Who's the real loser? The person diligently working and saving for their future or the person chasing a dream that is unlikely to materialize? Factoring in the expenditure of time also makes the systems even more costly than it appears on the surface.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice, I hate them so much

Anonymous said...

I am getting sucked into this right now I am only 19 and I am falling for it reading all this has changed my perspective on AMWAY

Joecool said...

If this has saved you from losing money, that is a good thing!

Anonymous said...

Hi, I Am an IBO it has been a great experience. There are great people and great teams. I know there are not so good people and team also. My wife and I are 100% out of debt and have a fair amount of money in the bank, I have not paid off all of our debt (80K) not all from Amway money, but what we have learned from my mentor in business. I never had anyone sit down and game plan how to be debt free until I got around someone who was. It has been great to us and the people we are working with are great people. I was also able to pay 30k cash for a surgery I had a few weeks ago. So I would say it has been great to us. We do make money in Amway. Even if you don't move forward in Amway the training and education from the team can help in any thing you do in life. I have learned more from my coach and other leaders on the team than I have learned from my mother, father and school. At least everyone has a shot with Amway there are not many things out there. My coach retired at 30 Not every one well, but there are many who have done this. There are not many places I have seen people retiring in there 20's, 30's, 40, 50's. 60's ... most people are not retiring. I would rather do something I control than wait for the Government, That is broke... to give me SS. all my saying at least you have a shot at controlling your life, Not another man or woman... tell you how much you make, how big of a house you can afforded, Hay Boss can I have off ...., Can I have more money boss, O you need me to work Saturday... Sure boss.. Thank you Boss... What a life.. 40, 50++++ Years of that.. that is Crazy

Joecool said...

Your story is a nice one but it smells fishy. You had 80K debt which is now paid off, partly from Amway and I assume partly from your job. But somehow you also paid 30K cash for a surgery. You don't have medical insurance? Sorry but your story is not plausible.

Also, your "coach" retired at the age of 30? Who is it? Did they "retire" because they are making so much money selling cds, books and seminar tickets?