Amway Produces More Millionaires">
On November 24, 1996, Marc Rice of the Associated Press wrote an article titled "The Millionaire Next Door". This article is a review of a book with the same title written by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko which profiles millionaires.
According to this article, there are an estimated 3.5 million millionaires in the U.S. The typical millionaire is self-employed in dull-normal type businesses such as welding contractor, pest controller, or paving contractor, however, the article does say that approximately 1 million of these millionaires have a J-O-B. The average annual income of a millionaire is $247,000. The typical millionaire normally does not spend their money on expensive cars, watches, houses, or clothes. The typical millionaire works 45-55 hours per week.
I did have an opportunity to review the book. In the back of the book their is a list of approximately 250 occupations that produce millionaires. Amway is not specifically mentioned, although Direct Selling, of which Amway is a part of, is. The book also has a table of the top 10 occupations that produce millionaires.
| Occupation | Total Number | Average Net Income |
|---|---|---|
| Coal Mining | 76 | 196,600 |
| Physicians | 192,545 | 87,000 |
| Osteopathic Physicians | 10,598 | 77,600 |
| Dentists | 96,746 | 73,100 |
| Optometrists | 12,576 | 60,100 |
| Bowling Centers | 1,547 | 57,400 |
| Chiropracters | 32,501 | 47,500 |
| Drug Stores | 8,324 | 45,400 |
| Vetinarians | 19,622 | 41,700 |
| Legal Services | 280,946 | 39,800 |
As you can see, neither Amway or Direct Selling hit the top 10.
How many millionaires are there in Amway? No one really knows. When asked, many Amway distributor will tell you that Amway has produced more millionaires than any other type of business...but cannot tell you how many millionaires have been created. In my mind, that creates a credibility problem. How can they know they've created more millionaires if they don't know the actual numbers?
So let's take a guess. Suppose that the Amway business has created 5,000 millionaires, this is just over .14% of all millionaires. If the business has created 10,000 millionaires, this is just over .28% of all millionaires.
One final thought--the article also mentioned that the typical millionaire was educated in a public school. The system, that according to most Amway distributors, cannot lead to success.
