Amway follow-up

So, in declining the invitation to join Amway, my ex-colleague was obviously disappointed but also seemed unable to understand the reasons I gave on why I wanted to steer clear of their program. It was interesting that she couldn't (or perhaps wouldn't) see things from my point of view, and leads me to think that there might be more to people's view that Amway "brainwashes" their members.

Reason 1) Return on investment.

I explained that as far as business goes, for all my effort and personal expenditure, I share the rewards with those who are above me in the hierarchy. This is the case in many businesses, but at least you feel that your manager/boss is at least in the office and doing "manager" type work. Whereas in Amway and MLM schemes, the person who brought you in could just introduce you, then spend the rest of their life at home twiddling their thumbs and still getting a return on your effort. This aspect is a bummer, although the idea is that this also can work in your favour.

Note: There was some concern about percentage return as compared with other industries. However, it actually isn't too bad in terms of raw numbers. Take the real estate or vehicle industry where the salesperson typically gets a return of 1~2%. There is variation on this due to various factors such as prestige level, experience, ability and so on, but it is a fair comparison though. The problem though, is that 1% is fine if you're selling a single $1million dollar home a fortnight. It's great even. But what if the items you are selling range from a few dollars to a few hundred? How many now do you need to move?

Reason 2) Lack of transparency.

If I get a regular job, I know my salary and I know my tax obligations. If I run a business, then I get to know my fees, tax implications, and running expenses. Amway does not reveal this to you easily. On one hand, they claim that you will have no running expenses as you don't maintain inventory, and its just the cost of running around and bringing people into the system. But as I am not officially a registered business owner nor an employee of Amway, then they don't provide me transparency of how money will be coming in to me, and they certainly won't explain it to me if I'm not yet a member. If you don't like the Church of Scientology, then you won't like Amway.

Reason 3) Bias

Majority of people writing about Amway all state that the people looking to recruit them, would not provide a fair unbiased account of what is involved and what it takes to succeed. Instead, the pitch is always about the people who make fortunes. The lady I was talking to didn't get aggressive when I finally declined the offer after some discussion, but other people had experienced their contact becoming insulting when they refused. If a person can't be balanced in their presentation of an opportunity, then it may not be an opportunity at all.

If the entire business is built on bringing in people for them to get rich, then there will either be alot of victims like the GFC, or there just will simply be many disappointed hopefuls. A company needs to have some consumer focus in order to succeed, and Amway just doesn't.

End of the day, I hope she does find this business works out for her in the long run, but the odds are that it won't.