Amway Global - IBOs Use Soap, Upline Sells Hope

The title of this blog post pretty much sums up what many IBOs apparently experience. Many groups or factions of IBOs teach a self consumption model. While leaders on stage will mention selling of products, it is not emphasized in smaller groups where the "real teaching" takes place. Thus many IBOs primarily self consume Amway products and talk about the "prosumer" concept. Many IBOs get lured into the Amway opportunity by dreams and aspirations of getting rich. Some IBOs deny this, but clearly, if someone said you can join Amway, work hard and end up broke, that would not attract many now would it? I know when I was pitched the plan, my sponsor said it would be easy to reach platinum. I didn't know the likelihood of reaching such a level, and I worked as hard as I could.

But what escaped my attention in the beginning was the side business where the real money was made. That was in the sale of tapes/cds, books, and function tickets. When I was an IBO, we purchased voicemail from Amway, not from our upline. We also did not purchase website fees from upline as we still had call in and pick up. Thus uplines likely make even more income from support materials than ever. While the support materials are promoted as tools, they are cleverly used as "hope". You need motivation, listen to a cd. You need to get fired up, attend a function. My former sponsor claimed that being plugged into the system was your lifeline to success. I believe that is still true today. It is the "hope" of a better life that gets people to sign up for the Amway opportunity and it is that same hope that keeps an IBO going, even when they are losing money month after month.

IBOs continue to hope that success is "right around the corner" or that the business will suddenly turn when they hear that one thing from one of their inspirational leaders. It is my informed opinion that this cling to hope ideal, held by many IBOs is what keeps them in the business longer than a normally rational person would. It's because many IBOs are taught that the only way to fail is to quit. To quit is to give up hope for a better life. It's simply not true.

For many IBOs, quitting is a wise business decision. Your hopes and dreams are not ended. You simply find another way to achieve them. Contrary to what you have have been told, Amway is NOT the only way to achieve your goals. Look at your bootom line. You won't achieve your dreams by losing money afterall.