THE AMO "SQUEEZE"
The AMO Squeeze is the real reason
people quit "the business", and is the mechanism of harm that
has left so many thousands of people bitter towards Amway and Amway distributors.
Most of the harm, however, is perpetuated through AMO mind-control and not directly through any intrinsic flaw in the Amway sales
and marketing plan. The AMO Squeeze is a most debilitating and numbing ordeal.
It starts with the lure of the first
AMO motivational tape. Typically an emerald or diamond rally tape.
You listen. You relate. You develop an affinity with the speaker because,
according to him, he used to be just like you are now: broke, frustrated,
stagnant. Essentially a failure. The speaker can, by the end of his spiel,
usually get an unsuspecting listener to believe he or she is, to some degree,
a failure. This is essential.
You hear what he did to become UNlike
you. You hear the story of his success. You begin to feel a rekindled sense
of hope and enthusiasm.
You are informed by your sponsor that this tape is part of a fool-proof
"system" for the attainment of success. You are advised by your
sponsor to do exactly what the leaders in the AMO system tell you to do.
Just DO it, they say. Just buy the tools and attend all functions. Never
mind the cost. It's not that much, anyway. Keep DOING it. No matter WHAT.
Sooner or later, you'll make it. Do it long enough and you will be set free
from your current state of misery and stagnation and the "prison"
you call a J.O.B.
These directives are repeated constantly and this repetition creates "circuits"
in your mind that become so soldered in that you get disturbed at the idea
of NOT doing what your upline idols and "The System" demands.
You're not aware of it but your critical intelligence has been slowly and
methodically embezzled. Now there the AMO-way and the WRONG way. You spend
progressively more and more time showing the plan, following up, prospecting,
cold calling, listening to tapes, attending functions, reading success books,
calling baby sitters and counseling with your upline. Your upline counsels
you to just keep going, to keep your eyes on your goal and to always have
the money for motivation because without motivation you'll get overwhelmed
by "the negative" and will fail. You become a motivation addict.
Now your life is more on the roller coaster than it's EVER been. One day
you're high and excited from your hit of motivation. The next you're angry
and frustrated because every spare cent and every spare minute is going
for motivation and for working the business the way the AMO tells you to
and your reward for months of this has been hundreds of "no's",
"no shows", put downs, and growing debt.
You scrimp on food to help pay for
tapes and functions. You defer the mortgage payment for a couple weeks because
you have to pay for Leadership before it's "sold out." When Family
Reunion comes 3 months later you're a month behind. You fight with your
spouse over finances and in doind so you waste the little time you have
to relax and enjoy each other. You have alienated close friends and extended
family because they've said 'NO' to the business and your AMO tells you
if they aren't supporting you they're stealing your dream so forget them.
You have the AMWAY family now. Your children are confused, scared, disoriented
and reactive because the stable datum in their lives have gone helter skelter
and they seldom see you anymore and when they do you are too charged up
to appreciate them and fill their need for love and stimulation. Consequently
they misbehave more and begin throwing the effects of "the squeeze"
back in your face.
You work "the business" until the wee hours of the morning. You
have, after all, been taught through reading, association and upline example
that "livings are made during the day, fortunes are made at night."
For years you "go on faith". Faith that success will be the end
result of your efforts. You continue on faith despite the inner certainty
that your life has become a dwindling spiral of physical and emotional exhaustion,
family destabilization, exacerbated financial stress and loss of identity
and capacity for independent thought.
You've grown tired of having to hide the Amway name, of having to fabricate
grandiose spiels that veil your true agenda, of having to listen to The
Goades sing "Dreamin' With Me" one more time and of coming home
to a dirty house (domestic responsibilities have been declared irrelevant
by your upline). Yet, you are directed to continue and, much to your surprise
and irritation, you oblige. You are under a spell. You are controlled. Controlled
by the fear associated with the implanted notion that "if you quit,
you've surely failed and will have less worth than the flies in your dirty
house."
For years you've worked the business hard precisely as your AMO has mandated
and you still find yourself evading inquiries from former friends and family
about your level of success. You show them your bonus check and hope they
don't know most of it goes as bonus checks to your downline. You don't say
a word about NET income. And you play the same trick on prospects to create
a misleading apparency of success in hopes they'll "get in". After
all, you're not really deceiving, you're just speaking your success into
existence the way your AMO has taught. Those who pry and question are just
"negative" anyway and might be out to steal your dream.
You begin to question. You begin to vascillate. And it goes something like
this:
This is BULL.
My God! How can I say that? No. I just need to keep going. I need to counsel
upline. Can't let "the negative" creep in. Listen to a tape. That'll
get me back on track. Just another 6 bucks. Can't let any of this go downline.
Remember? Only UPLINE.
But Tracie and I had another fight
this morning right at after we got back from plan showings. We were talking
about divorce. Serena and Ruby came crying into the bedroom. It was AWFUL.
Everything's falling apart.
No. Wait. Dream Night's coming up. Tracie and I just need to go and expand
our dream. Get EXCITED again. Be around WINNERS.
But that's 60 bucks apiece and we'll need to buy a couple extra tickets
for Joe and Doreen.
They ARE, after all, diamond material. I KNOW it. They
just need to see what this is about. They could turn out to be our first
direct leg. That's certainly worth the investment. Okay, so that's 240 bucks.
Have to sell a couple vacuum cleaners. And FAST. If I can't do that in time
then it looks like I'll be maxing out on VISA.
Max out on Visa? One day I'm told I've gotta be debt free. Then next
I'm told to charge functions if I have to. This is NUTS! Gotta get outta
this MESS. Slick
and Mary Jane are gonna hate me, though. I know they will. I'll be a loser
in their eyes. . .and the word will spread. . .