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poltr1So, one of my friends in town has recently signed up with a multi-level-marketing network. He's trying to sell Sprint cell phone service and Stream Energy electricity generation, among other things. So far, I've said no to the products he's been hawking. Sprint still has a bad reputation for customer care. And I don't know enough about Stream Energy to want me to switch my electricity generator (currently DP&L Energy).
All he's been telling us is "I can save you money!" But I'm not interested in saving money. I want to know how much is generated by renewable/green sources (such as solar and wind), how reliable the electricity generation is, and prompt service should the power go out.
(Backstory: Here in Ohio, electricity is being deregulated, and electric utility companies are being uncoupled into electricity delivery companies and electricity generation companies. Dayton Power & Light will still be my electricity delivery company. But I can choose who my electricity generator is.)
I have other friends in MLM networks -- one sells Shaklee, one sells LeVel/Thrive. There are plenty of MLM outfits out there -- Advocare, Melaleuca, etc. What a MLM? It's a network of people who sponsor each other, kind of like that old shampoo commercial -- "I told two friends, and they told two friends, and so on, and so on."
And at one time, I was involved in an MLM outfit. The first and best-known MLM or network marketing outfit out there: Amway. (Yes, I said the A-word. It scares a lot of people. I was scared too, at first. They had a reputation as pushy salesmen who wouldn't take "no" for an answer.
How did it start? In the fall of 1991, after a night of bowling, a co-worker of mine gave me a plain manila envelope with a brochure and a cassette tape. I listened to the tape. I asked the co-worker, "What's the next step?" He responded, "There's a meeting coming up next week. Can you join me?" So I went to the meeting. A man in a suit and tie talked for about an hour about owning one's business, some of the successful people that were involved (one was a carpenter in Batavia, OH who was so successful that he was able to quit his job), the history of the Amway Corporation (founded by Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel in 1959), and how it operates.
The starter kit wasn't too bad -- about $100. (This money does not go up through the upline. Rather, it goes to the Amway Corporation. This is a key factor in determining what is a pyramid scheme, and what is not. That's an often-heard complaint. While the distributor network is arranged like a pyramid -- just like a company's org chart -- the upline does not get any of the money from the starter kits. But they do collect a small percentage of the profit from other product sales.)
And so I was active for a couple of years. I bought my own products. I attended meetings. I bought business training materials (seminars on cassette tape). I showed plans. I attended seminars, rallies, and major events. But in my two years of involvement, I was not able to sponsor a single person into the business.
In the summer of 1993, I came across a book in the local library: _Amway: The Cult of Free Enterprise_ by Stephen Butterfield. He was a distributor who was well on his way to becoming a direct distributor. And then he quit. He talked about the distributor organization structure, about the progressive departure used at some of the larger meetings, and how Amway is non-union and appears to be afraid of collective bargaining.
I also took a look at the distributor organization I was in -- its structure, and the people involved. My upline Diamond was a man who used to work for Jim & Tammy Faye Bakker. There are strong ties between the distributor organization (which is a separate entity from Amway) and Christian conservative groups. I remember some of the larger functions having Sunday church services (optional, of course). And the DeVos family was -- and probably still is -- a major backer of Gospel Films. (BTW, current Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is the husband of Dick DeVos -- Rich's son.) And the rumor about Proctor & Gambles man-in-the-moon logo being a Satanic symbol was started by a high-ranking Amway distributor. While it might have been said in jest, it did a lot of damage to P&G's reputation, and they had to come up with a new logo.
And then, in the fall, my girlfriend at the time gave me a copy of _Combatting Cult Mind Behavior_ by Stephan Hassan. I read part of it, and saw what I had become. I was parroting my upline, by rote -- in thoughts, in words, in actions. And so I pulled away from the organization, stopped attending meetings, and stopped showing plans. I was just going to buy the products. And I did, for another year. And then I let my membership lapse, at the end of 1994.
Looking back on it, it was a learning experience. I liked some of the products that were in their product line -- LOC cleaner, SA-8 laundry detergent, Redu rust remover, powdered chlorine bleach, and Tri-Zyme stain remover. I also liked that they were super-concentrated and that I could add my own water to the product for proper dilution and strength, instead of buying a pre-diluted product at the store. (That also reduces packaging.) I liked that their cosmetics line was not tested on animals. But I never returned to the distributor network. I concluded that I was just not persuasive enough to be in sales, marketing, or any MLM. In order to be successful in that business, you need to think like your upline, to act like your upline, and to do like your upline. It's an economic cult, with a lot of groupthink. Thanks, but no thanks. If I ever get involved with another MLM outfit, I'll just buy the products, and not participate in any of the business-building activities. And if someone else wants to join one, I won't stop them, but I will caution them as to what to expect.
All he's been telling us is "I can save you money!" But I'm not interested in saving money. I want to know how much is generated by renewable/green sources (such as solar and wind), how reliable the electricity generation is, and prompt service should the power go out.
(Backstory: Here in Ohio, electricity is being deregulated, and electric utility companies are being uncoupled into electricity delivery companies and electricity generation companies. Dayton Power & Light will still be my electricity delivery company. But I can choose who my electricity generator is.)
I have other friends in MLM networks -- one sells Shaklee, one sells LeVel/Thrive. There are plenty of MLM outfits out there -- Advocare, Melaleuca, etc. What a MLM? It's a network of people who sponsor each other, kind of like that old shampoo commercial -- "I told two friends, and they told two friends, and so on, and so on."
And at one time, I was involved in an MLM outfit. The first and best-known MLM or network marketing outfit out there: Amway. (Yes, I said the A-word. It scares a lot of people. I was scared too, at first. They had a reputation as pushy salesmen who wouldn't take "no" for an answer.
How did it start? In the fall of 1991, after a night of bowling, a co-worker of mine gave me a plain manila envelope with a brochure and a cassette tape. I listened to the tape. I asked the co-worker, "What's the next step?" He responded, "There's a meeting coming up next week. Can you join me?" So I went to the meeting. A man in a suit and tie talked for about an hour about owning one's business, some of the successful people that were involved (one was a carpenter in Batavia, OH who was so successful that he was able to quit his job), the history of the Amway Corporation (founded by Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel in 1959), and how it operates.
The starter kit wasn't too bad -- about $100. (This money does not go up through the upline. Rather, it goes to the Amway Corporation. This is a key factor in determining what is a pyramid scheme, and what is not. That's an often-heard complaint. While the distributor network is arranged like a pyramid -- just like a company's org chart -- the upline does not get any of the money from the starter kits. But they do collect a small percentage of the profit from other product sales.)
And so I was active for a couple of years. I bought my own products. I attended meetings. I bought business training materials (seminars on cassette tape). I showed plans. I attended seminars, rallies, and major events. But in my two years of involvement, I was not able to sponsor a single person into the business.
In the summer of 1993, I came across a book in the local library: _Amway: The Cult of Free Enterprise_ by Stephen Butterfield. He was a distributor who was well on his way to becoming a direct distributor. And then he quit. He talked about the distributor organization structure, about the progressive departure used at some of the larger meetings, and how Amway is non-union and appears to be afraid of collective bargaining.
I also took a look at the distributor organization I was in -- its structure, and the people involved. My upline Diamond was a man who used to work for Jim & Tammy Faye Bakker. There are strong ties between the distributor organization (which is a separate entity from Amway) and Christian conservative groups. I remember some of the larger functions having Sunday church services (optional, of course). And the DeVos family was -- and probably still is -- a major backer of Gospel Films. (BTW, current Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is the husband of Dick DeVos -- Rich's son.) And the rumor about Proctor & Gambles man-in-the-moon logo being a Satanic symbol was started by a high-ranking Amway distributor. While it might have been said in jest, it did a lot of damage to P&G's reputation, and they had to come up with a new logo.
And then, in the fall, my girlfriend at the time gave me a copy of _Combatting Cult Mind Behavior_ by Stephan Hassan. I read part of it, and saw what I had become. I was parroting my upline, by rote -- in thoughts, in words, in actions. And so I pulled away from the organization, stopped attending meetings, and stopped showing plans. I was just going to buy the products. And I did, for another year. And then I let my membership lapse, at the end of 1994.
Looking back on it, it was a learning experience. I liked some of the products that were in their product line -- LOC cleaner, SA-8 laundry detergent, Redu rust remover, powdered chlorine bleach, and Tri-Zyme stain remover. I also liked that they were super-concentrated and that I could add my own water to the product for proper dilution and strength, instead of buying a pre-diluted product at the store. (That also reduces packaging.) I liked that their cosmetics line was not tested on animals. But I never returned to the distributor network. I concluded that I was just not persuasive enough to be in sales, marketing, or any MLM. In order to be successful in that business, you need to think like your upline, to act like your upline, and to do like your upline. It's an economic cult, with a lot of groupthink. Thanks, but no thanks. If I ever get involved with another MLM outfit, I'll just buy the products, and not participate in any of the business-building activities. And if someone else wants to join one, I won't stop them, but I will caution them as to what to expect.
