Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Freedom: an examination in Real(i)ty

When I first got into URA, our upline Emerald was a rock star on the rise. We'll call him Pete. According to Pete's story, he originally got into the business to make extra money to buy more expensive beer. In just 10 months, he reached the top of the bonus scale and qualified emerald a few years after. He was young, energetic, had a very vibrant and caring vibe. To be honest, I admired him. The gullible me, believed that hey, if he can do it...I CAN DO IT! (Derp!)

Pete knew me by name and was very personable. Unlike most URA hot shots, he had a Facebook/Instagram. On his facebook he has a video of him hitting his alarm clock with his driver while his team/supporters/cultists shouted FREEDOM! There he was, in his 20's FINANCIALLY FREE. Three legs at the top of the bonus scale and GUNNING FOR DIAMOND! The sky is the limit! Everything was falling in place...or was it?

Now one thing that diamonds preach to you is that once you qualify Emerald/Diamond/Crown/Master of the Universe you get those bonuses that come with it for the rest of your life...there's only one problem. They don't tell you that you can FALL OUT OF QUALIFICATION. That's why they harp on you to stay in and sell those products because they HAVE to meet those numbers every year. Because you don't really make as much money as advertised, they're on your ass to make sure you make ALL FOUR CONFERENCES so they can get their ticket commissions.

Well lo and behold, I'm on Instagram the other day and what did my eyes see? A post from Pete advertising his business card...URA? Nope. REAL ESTATE. It turns out our young gun, rising star who achieved "financial freedom" by selling Amway products...issssn't really free. I seriously doubt someone who's financially free decides to get a real job just for kicks.

Surprised? Not really. I believe my team was one of the three legs that helped his emerald qualification. You go down the list of the people that were involved in our team:

Upline platinum: Still active
Matthew: Inactive
Mike: Inactive
Stooge: Inactive
Me: Inactive
The dozen or so people that were apart of our team over the course of a year: Inactive

There can only be so much turnover before your line falls apart.

Now Pete (who is still active) has to find other ways to make ends meet. The saying goes: "Diamonds are forever." Well they better be, because Emeralds don't appear to be.

Sure hope he bought a new alarm clock.

5 comments:

  1. In a business where most people do little or nothing and quit, and with high attrition rates, there is no residual income in Amway. That's why you might see a diamond resign or quit, but not a single one that I know of has ever "walked away" to enjoy lifelong residual income.

    Instead, the tired old diamonds keep working and working until they pass. Oh, they will make up BS that they speak at functions out of their love and undying dedication to their downline but the reality is that they can't stop working or their income would stop also.

    I believe some diamonds may have had good intentions but they wind up getting too far invested to quit and then they have no other alternatives at some point in time.

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  2. They lie to people,for there $$$$&time

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  3. Thanks for putting this up for the public

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  4. I was in Amway for quite a few years, actually an embarrassingly long time. In all that time, and up to now, I have never seen an Amway big pin that actually was able to walk away from the daily grind of the Amway business, and have secure freedom (perhaps except for the few that got in in the 1970's and early 1980's). In fact, what I experienced was that the big pins have to keep on hustling the business day in and day out forever in order to not lose what they have, and possibly keep growing. They went from a 8-5 JOB (and time with family and money to do stuff), to a 24-hours-a-day/7-days-a-week constant never ending job of recruiting, selling, and motivating (with very little time for family (quality time anyway) and sometimes money, but not secure without endless great effort to maintain it).
    I saw a few go emerald or diamond, but miss out on the best years of their children's lives, because they had to leave the house in the evenings and weekends to "show the plan", make contacts, and hustle the business. Because they were dedicated to the business, with some dream of time in the future with family, which may have come, but far too late to enjoy it with the kids anymore. You know, the kids are at school during the day, and the dad is out building the business at night and on weekends, so where is all that free time with the kids.
    I saw very sharp, well spoken Emeralds quit their jobs (dancing on the Board Room table on their "retirement" day)to be full time in Amway, and then, a few years later either go back to a job or start another "regular" business, to make enough money to live again. And face the embarrassment and disappointment of that in front of their children. My gosh. And I've seen Diamonds, move out of the smaller house in a very expensive neighborhood, to a larger house, but way out in an inexpensive suburb, and claim it was the Amway income that let them get this "dream house", which was actually less expensive than the smaller house in the awesome neighborhood.
    In Amway, you will be living a "smoke and mirrors" life, with a never ending job of contacting, recruiting, and selling.
    There may be money.....maybe. But endless secure freedom, not on your life.

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  5. This former Emerald now seems like a shell of the person he was before. My theory is that most IBO’s, even Emeralds and Diamond, are mostly victims to sunken-cost fallacy, but it’s even worse in this case. In Amway, this emerald has spent almost all of his time for YEARS with his LOS. The respect and admiration he’d earned was all he had, and now he’s off limits, even as a conversational topic. That must be devastating, but he’s been cut off from everything else in his world for years now. An Amway success story truly has nowhere else to go. I once hear John Crowe state that he looked forward to his (emerald) son reaching Diamond, and earning his respect. I think that was the moment the illusion finally broke for me.

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