HARMFUL IDEAS, TRICKS, UNTRUTHS, HALF-TRUTHS,
AND MISREPRESENTATIONS
HARMFUL IDEA: Fighting with your spouse over
Amway issues is part of the necessary struggle for success. THE HARM
: This idea creates an attritional situation that destabilizes and
in some cases even destroys marriages and families. Especially those couples
who have been struggling with finances and cannot afford the functions and
other motivational things the AMO's tell them they must pay for in order
to succeed in Amway. This is where the nightmare of the Amway/AMO experience
originates. The pervasive and relentless financial stress put on families
through AMO pressure to shell out or pay the price for success.
**
UNTRUTH : Those who quit Amway and then complain
about being harmed, tricked, scammed, deceived, used, and manipulated are
simply trying to blame Amway and/or AMO's for their own failures. TRUTH:
AMO's do real harm to individuals and families. This is the cult abuse known
as "blame the victim". Most of those harmed try to forget and
move on with their lives. Some seek to save others from the same fate.
**
MISREPRESENTATION: The amassing of wealth is
scripturally supported.
REALITY: Only by the most far-fetched (and self-serving) interpretations
of scripture can this belief have even the slightest credibility. The vast
majority of Christian scholars consider scripturally supported amassing
of wealth an oxymoron.
**
UNTRUTH : You have to get right with
God (i.e., accept Christ as your Lord and Savior) before you can succeed
in Amway. Wealth attained through Amway is God's reward for helping others.
TRUTH: Some non-Christians have succeeded in Away (seldom in AMO's, however).
**
HARMFUL IDEA/TRICK: If you don't do the Amway business you will always be
broke.
THE HARM: If you do the Amway business your chances of NOT ending up
broke are one in several thousand.
**
HARMFUL IDEA/TRICK: Amway is the only way to have all the money and free
time you want.
THE HARM: an MLM is not the only vehicle for generating a residual income.
For example some people live well off royalties from various enterprises.
A person can be detoured from his real purpose in life if he or she believes
this garbage. This trick is perpetuated simply for better recruitment results.
**
UNTRUTH : Amway distributors are better
than everyone else.
TRUTH: Those who use deception certainly are not.
**
UNTRUTH : Amway products are far superior to all similar products
on the market. Non-Amway products are evil or negative. TRUTH: Promotion
of this idea is a psychological manipulation tactic that makes Amway and
their top distributors a great deal of money.
**
MISREPRESENTATION: Amway Diamond Distributors are just below God in their
purpose and status. REALITY : This idea is perpetrated by top
diamond distributors. As far as I know, infinite arrogance is not on God's
list of approved traits.
**
UNTRUTH/HARMFUL IDEA: Emphasis on recruiting distributors rather than selling
products is okay. THE HARM : This is illegal according to FTC
regulations against illegal pyramids. Any illegal business activity
will cause a cave-in somewhere along the line for those involved, especially
the naive and unsuspecting.
**
UNTRUTH: Success in the business is impossible without being core.
Core means
:
showing the Amway Sales and Marketing Plan at least 10 times a month
attending all functions (large and small)
being on standing order audio tapes
buying personal items through your own distributorship (personal use)
reading recommended books
being accountable
have 10 retail customers every month (however this requirement is essentially
ignored)
counseling with your upline (being teachable)
being on Amvox voice mail (optional but highly recommended)
TRUTH :
The idea of core was contrived to be the main vehicle in the success
of the sale of motivational materials and rallies to the vast organizations
under the control of top Amway distributors. Without a widespread commitment
to being core in their organizations ,top distributors simply would not
make their millions. There is no proof that distributors cannot succeed
outside of the motivational and training environment of an AMO.
**
HARMFUL IDEA: Women should always defer to
men in conflicts and matters calling for major decisions. THE HARM :
This degrades women by objectifying them as having no ability for cognition
and insight. Kind of like treating them as children. Why, even children
should be given some freedom to make their own choices.
**
HARMFUL IDEA: Fear and anger are negative and
should never be shown or validated. What you speak or express is what you
get. THE HARM : CONSTRUCTIVE expression of emotion (including
fear and anger) is essential to mental health. Blocking, detouring, denying
or impeding constructive emotion can lead to chronic mental anguish.
**
HARMFUL IDEA : If you can't have the
lifestyle of an Amway diamond, i.e., sleep until noon, buy anything you
want and walk the beaches everyday with your upline idols, you can't be
happy. THE HARM: A psychologically manipulative idea perpetuated
to shift and solidify a distributor's loyalty to the Amway business and
the AMO cult. Part of the programming that destroys life long friendships,
marriages and families.
**
HARMFUL IDEA: Your workplace is a prison and
J.O.B. is a swear word.
THE HARM : Another psychologically manipulative idea persistently
planted in distributors' minds to shift loyalty from their employer to Amway.
Most of us have some dissatisfaction with our jobs but don't feel imprisoned
by it. Many people lose promotions and sometimes their jobs because of the
job apathy instilled in them by the AMO disparagement of jobs. Equally as
important, the world would not function without the millions of non-Amway
services provided by the work force. And, I ask, who would fill the
needs of the many thousands of diamonds that, according to Bill Britt, will
come from within his organization?
**
MISREPRESENTATION: Most people die or go broke not long after retirement.
REALITY : Some die. Some go broke. But the reality is most retirees
live on reduced incomes which doesn't mean they're broke or any way diminished
in their capacity to live comfortably and be happy. The perpetuation of
this half-truth is simply a tactic used often by distributors to scare prospects
into the Amway business which promises retirement in a state of wealth and
security.
**
HARMFUL IDEA: Products that are not sold through the Amway or Personal Shoppers
catalogs are negative and that if you buy them you are a "traitor".
THE HARM : Endless repetition of this idea conditions distributors
to always buy Amway products or other products through their own business
using the Amway Personal shoppers catalog. The family conflict this creates
is pervasive and destabilizing. It can get to the point where the sight
of something from the neighborhood grocery can cause internal bleeding.
Of course, the real purpose of this idea is so top Amway distributors can
get huge bonus checks without selling anything (but an idea ) to their vast
organizations of downline distributors.
**
UNTRUTH: Creating the apparency of being more successful in the Amway business
than you really are is not deceiving prospects, it's simply thinking diamond
or dressing for success.
TRUTH : This is deception and misrepresentation in its most insidious
form - a "let's fake it" tactic utilized for the purpose of luring
people into Amway and getting them excited.
**
HARMFUL IDEA: The more you suffer building
your Amway business the greater your rewards will be. THE HARM :
The pain and suffering means your inner being is trying to tell you something
is wrong. If you don't listen you may end up in the nut house. You are being
made into an AMCLONE and it hurts. Get out of the cult before it's too late.
**
HARMFUL IDEA : It's okay to not see much of your children while building
the business because you can walk the beaches with them when you succeed.
THE HARM : A very dangerous idea. Younger children need their
parents NOW not at some unknown point down the time track of their lives.
They don't understand the concept "wait until we succeed, then we'll
be with you." And if they did, they'd sure differ with their parents
on the issue because their needs can't be put off until some potential condition
develops. If parents really REALLY want to be with their children then they
are WITH them.
**
HALF TRUTH: Building the business is simple but not easy .
REALITY : The reality is that the road to diamond is severely
difficult for most who travel it. And it gets very complicated in terms
of having to become a leader and motivate, educate, counsel, mentor, coddle,
placate, entertain, assist, and generally manage a downline organization
as it grows to where a distributor has helped six or more distributors below
him to the DIRECT DISTRIBUTOR level. Most diamonds have to put in 60 to
80 hours per week of effort into their business for many many years to reach
the diamond level. This is the rule, not the exception. Distributors who
say otherwise are deliberately hiding the reality so distributors won't
quit. Most quit, however, when they become aware of the truth.
**
UNTRUTH: Distributors help their downline become successful out of the goodness
of their heart and love and obligation as Christians (not the money).
TRUTH : One of the biggest lies distributors are conditioned to
tell themselves and new recruits. A repulsive one at that. Mother Teresa
helps others out of the goodness of her heart. Until they reach a level
of wealth they feel is unshakable, Amway Distributors help their downline
primarily out of greed. If there was no promise of improved income or wealth
from their efforts they wouldn't help a soul. Ask any distributor who didn't
show excitement or perform to the expectations of his or her upline how
much help he or she got. Asked them. I dare you.
**
UNTRUTH: It's the people in the business, not the money, that's important.
TRUTH : Part of the previous untruth. The people become more important
than the money only after there is a certainty of success, that the business
is working, that the people are doing what they're supposed to do, i.e,
make money for their upline. Who wouldn't feel love for someone who was
working hard to make money for them? Income-production is what's at the
core of this affinity between distributors, not some altruistic, unconditional
love among associates.
**
HALF TRUTH: Those who quit just had some deep personal fear they didn't
want to face.
REALITY: I won't say unequivocally that this might not be true for some.
But those this idea might apply to usually get back into the business at
some point after they've faced their fears and grown enough to succeed in
Amway. The point is, contrary to what some AMO's repeat ad nausea in their
propaganda, not everyone is cut out to be or should be an Amway distributor.
Some just plain don't want to be for their own good reasons and this is
as it should be. Guilt trips on prospects who say no to the opportunity
or who quit are common occurrences in the self-righteous, cultish environment
of many AMO's.
**
HARMFUL IDEA : There are no real excuses for not succeeding in Amway.
THE HARM : This is one of the most cruel of motivational tactics.
It's effectiveness rests on a distributor suckering into the game of semantics
subtly used to the advantage of distributors who are moving up. There may
be no excuses from the self-serving perspective of greedy, impatient distributors
but there are plenty of reasons people "fail" in their attempts
to succeed. One of the biggest reasons is the vast majority of those involved
get fed up with the cultism of AMO's and leave in disgust and/or they get
disgusted with the tricks they are expected to perform. AMO's take away
excuses for failure and create many reasons.
The guild a person can suffer from this notion can be immense.
**
UNTRUTH: Amway is now and always has been a
corporation with the highest standards of business ethics. TRUTH :
research Amway on the internet and find abundant evidence to the contrary.
**
MYTH: Top level Amway distributors echo the same high standards of ethics
as "the corporation".
REALITY : So are top distributors facing enormous class-action
law-suits because their actions are ethically impeccable? (yea, and snakes
have hips).
**
MISREPRESENTATION: The cost of building an
Amway business is minimal and less than any other opportunity. REALITY
: This is a deliberate downplaying of the virtual costs of Amway
business expenses. Just to reach the Direct Distributor level in Amway as
a member of an AMO you would have to spend into the thousands a year on
motivational materials and functions. The farther you want to go in Amway
in the AMO vehicle the more it costs and the more you have to make to have
net income.
**
MISREPRESENTATION: A distributor's bonus check
is an accurate indication of profit.
REALITY : The use of bonus check amounts to show the profitability
of the Amway business is pervasive in informational and motivational meetings
held by distributors in AMO's. It is also highly (and deliberately) misleading
since many prospects and new distributors aren't familiar enough with the
Amway Sales and Marketing Plan to know that distributors have to pay their
downline's bonus checks out of their bonus checks. A huge portion of the
check, consequently, goes to pay other bonus checks and so only a fraction
of the amount is profit.
**
TRICK: You make a list of prospects when you first sign on as a distributor
so that your sponsor can show them the Amway marketing plan and get your
business going.
THE PURPOSE : A new distributor is pressured to make a list of
prospects just as much for the sponsors own ulterior motives as for the
sponsorees' benefit. This is because the sponsorees' list is actually regarded
as an extension of the sponsor's list and the sponsor has free reign to
use contacts made from this list even if the sponsoree quits. Distributors
feed on their downline's prospecting lists like vultures on a carcass because
they know that somewhere in the rotting scraps there could be a gem or two
of great value to their business.
**
UNTRUTH: Diamond distributors give equal consideration and assistance to
all their downline distributors who are seriously building the business.
TRUTH: Diamonds choose specific downline distributors to be given special
consideration and assistance. In choosing who will be the object of their
favoritism, diamonds consistently use criteria based on arbitraries and/or
what they have been programmed to believe is diamond material. So the chosen
benefit immensely from the momentum, assistance, special treatment and reputation
of their upline diamond and move up expeditiously while the unchosen are
left in their wake wondering what happened. Or perhaps, like me, they KNOW
what happened and exit in a state of nauseousness.
**
HALF TRUTH: Amway has changed.
REALITY : Amway has changed in that it has moved into scores of
foreign (read: populated, naive and unsuspecting) countries and benefited
enormously from the attendant increase in profits. Amway has changed in
that it now offers a few thousand products from hundreds of companies through
its Personal Shoppers Catalog. These, however, are not changes of substance.