This book is one of the short and bitter story of network or multilevel marketing written by Mr Winston. He explains about  his Amway experience and how Amway membership is a kind of trap someone can easily fall. He goes on to talk about how Amway marketing plan turns out to be in reality. Hope you can save yourself from falling into the trap, and it is definitely worth spending time to read at least once!

Please click here for the book…

Merchants of Deception

This book is meant for all those who are looking to become financially free! Anyone who has no experience in terms of STP, core steps, cardinal rules, inner circle of up-lines blah blah blah will not understand anything in this book though. However, if you are familiar with words like ‘leaders come early and stay back late’ told directly to you, you will really understand many things that are in store… Make no mistake, it is worth understanding the compensation plan before starting anything. So for your benefit I have provided freely downloadable business reference guide here.

One thing Amway business leaders talked heavily was about basics of the business. Even today, they proudly teach same thing – nine core steps, four basics and three cardinal rules. Only thing that changes over time is the upward price and the PV:BV ratio. Even if the business opportunity is a questionable, let us examine the real intentions of the teachings. First three of the core steps talk about, having to use the products, sell and show the business information. On the face of it, these look genuine and there seems no ulterior motives. However, if we look at closely, each are quite painstaking. How many times should you show the plan? At least five times a week for 2-5 years or until you become a diamond. That’s a huge ask, every week, week after week, showing five plans means, you literally go out in the whole city. Use your own products a simple thing but, there are always PV goals of your upline, shooting for diamond promotions, or just to show your commitment to your downlines buy and have all latest offer products even when you have more than 250PV worth products lying around. Making fifteen to twenty regular customers for Amway products is such a Herculean task! Every customer has to remain loyal, and there is always a possibility of attrition. You need to keep finding new customers every now and then, by my personal experience it is about five percent people who buy Amway products more than once.

Next three talk about so called building your business knowledge through, CDs, books and attend 52 weekly meetings and all major functions. All of these are directed to produce money to the Amway affiliated systems such as BWW, WWDB or N21, etc. CDS and books initially make sense because people are not used to do affiliated marketing or MLM business. Why do they have BoM or CD of the month? Simply to have more uplines survive in Amway! For example, in India, three CDs for three month costs about Rs 800 which is about Rs 200 increase from the days when I was an IBO, affiliated to BWW. In 2013 their business model remains the same, for whose benefit? For up lines benefit and for the affiliated systems. Why do we read personality development books forever? How many functions do we attend? As long as you’re there in the business – feels ridiculous.

Last three, teachability, accountability and being in communication are all directed only in one way, top to bottom. No upline is accountable for what he talks but downlines are, no upline could be taught by downline in any aspect but downline has to listen all the time. All three of the core steps are intended to make downline slaves of the system and uplines! You may not have to believe it but you can try and be core IBO for two years and quit the business.

What are the four basics of the business, every time all the time do what the affiliated system says. Contact, invite, show the plan and do the follow up. These look simple but the volume expected is impossible for a human being to accomplish for such a long time. But then, they call themselves to have financial freedom from it. Unfortunately, my freedom seeking diamond still does all the steps even after fifteen years in the Amway business? Honest answer could be found in Amway business reference guide, on this blog site or even in the US version of the Amway website itself. Amway business leader continue to brag about the system, having remained the same over fifty years! Why? They did not find new workable idea to cheat people in the era of technology and social network and mobile computing. They still love the CD players and hard bound books when whole world is moving towards eBooks and smartphones. No upline can practically make money to survive through online books or free transferred functions speeches. So Amway business has same basics.

Could not write anything for long time, but seemingly made to wake up and write one more interesting piece of information on Amway. Now that I have quit Amway long time ago, I only look to help people to take critical decision when it comes to Amway, through my writing. The news is, success in Amway is sheer luck or chance and it is equivalent to gambling in a practical sense. My upline called me to check my well being! Surprising, but yes, he asked usual question like how are you? How is work? How is family? And so on. Later topic turned towards the famous Amway phrase “I called for a specific reason”. Then came, ‘we learnt a few things from a diamond regarding health. Why don’t we meet up and talk? You already know so much about Nutrilite but my purpose is not to talk about that, I just wanted to come and meet spend some time with you after a long time’. So nice they show up, cannot fake so good, so I had to quit Amway.

So he asked me for half an hours time and came on a Good Friday, in fact he called previous night just to make sure I might be available. I did not want to disappoint him over the phone and agreed for meeting him at my home next day that is, on Good Friday. So in he came and started with same yellow pad, no red ink this time, but blue ink! Then he started saying, in India, one out of five people suffer from blindness, osteoporosis/osteoarthritis. There are so many people who suffer from cancer, WHO has already warned India about this. So many people in India are obese and so many have blood pressure at such a young age. He went to ask his ready made question why for what? Then he said forty four percent of what we consume has pesticide in it. Vegetables are not safe, meat is not safe and for that matter even the milk we drink is not safe either. Everything we consume for our body has chemical in it. So we cannot be healthy.

Next he went on to talk about the pollution which is so evident. Then he talked about what do we do when we have problem. We seem to avoid them. He said there are two types of organs – conscious and subconscious. Former lets us know what it needs and latter does not tell us. We get hungry and we eat, we get pain while walking and hence we take rest. But how about bones and blood? They do not tell us anything but because of nutrition issues they get weak and affect our health. So what happens in reality? Like not paying property tax, you will not be asked every now and then but a few years later you may have to pay one hefty amount. Similarly, you may not notice heart disease at early stage due to obesity or cholesterol but some day, you may have to spend lots of money. Therefore, only way out is to ‘invest’ in health regularly so that we can avoid health issues in elderly age. He in fact claimed, age 25 is also elderly age based on fitness level of many salaried and white collar job holders. This Looked ridiculous but I did not want to talk. He also talked about calcium and many other things as well, just pretending to show off like a doctor.

So he said, for each person you may have to spend two-three thousand per month. So that is over a lakh rupees extra for a family of four people! For how many years? As long as you want, probably as long as your family exists and the company Nutrilite. So let us assume, a young family like mine, takes Nutrilite for ten years spending over twelve lakh rupees, what does that mean? Ridiculous decision made, it is better to live a life with the things you want and pay some amounts of insurance rather than, trying to fool-proof the unforeseen health, which no one managed to control beforehand. Why do we keep making false claims? Our elders did not have better health. Diseases were sweeping masses, kids mortality was a common thing. After invention of science and technology, life expectancy has improved all over the world. India has more than doubled the population in last forty years and still people have food to eat because production has improved so well. We cannot just eat tablets and survive! Do we? If I buy Nutrilite he gets PV so is the propaganda.

He later on went to talk to my ex-downline and showed the same ‘presentation’ to ask him to take Nutrilite. He even asked, what did you do anything productive in your daily life after quitting Amway. My ex-downline did not bother to answer too much and this guy shamelessly took those old CDs and books! Is that part of cost cutting? Hs wife continues to ask questions to my wife on Facebook messenger? When did Amway BWW start using Internet to sell PVs and dreams? My great upline who talks about financial freedom is not even a platinum after ‘building the business’ with so much of skill and dedication for six years! Sometimes, I feel pity for him, even after so many years he does not realise ‘Amway is like a gambling, Amway never works for majority’ and it is never an option to business for life. Still talks about the PV goals and diamond dreams, keeps believing his upline. Keeps making false claims like ‘I do not bother for job and hikes’. His health itself is in jeopardy, he is stressed out and obese which could be clearly seen on face and body. If free-radical damage has to come from lack of rest and stress my upline is a ready example. At least overweight by twenty KGs propagating health issues in India

Happy quitting Amway!

We knew Amway was in the news for all the wrong reasons after the class action lawsuit against the company. It is unfortunate that dream builders get into trouble with such issues. Let us see what is there on the web…

WILPON’S NEWEST GARBAGE SIGNING: AMWAY

Craig Carton Goes Off against Mets’ association with Amway

The New York Mets and Amway – collision between two crooked sinking ships

Everything about this Mets-Amway business is just baffling

Why Amway is opening stores in stadiums?

Amway deal with Mets drawing criticism in New York and National Media

The moment you sign up for Amway business, the immediate thing that’s advised about success criteria. So what are the initial parameters? Become Eagle in ninety days! That’s a Herculean task. What do you mean by “eagle” qualification? Each Amway affiliated system would have their own set of criterion but let us look at what I knew of. You need to have three separate legs at 6% drawing PVs every month. In addition, you need to have your own PV count of 300 which could be both personal consumption and retail sales. You should also have sponsored more legs of which could give you additional 300 PV. Total number of people in standing order programme to be ten, across all legs you should have twenty people coming to weekly function and about half of them for all major functions. How can you achieve that all, in ninety days?! None of the claims in Amway have realistic proofs and that’s where they teach the story of “belief” for everything they do. So you just need to believe what is told in functions and CDs.
So if you become eagle you are called successful and profitable. It is nearly impossible for majority to get to eagle in any given ninety days, in practical life. But unless you complete this criteria you cannot be a platinum that quickly at all. I used to hear a story about a guy, who signed up and sent across the Amway joining kit to six of his friends in width and he happened to start platinum qualification in a years time! Amazing story again, but without any validation. Whatever the case may be, you need to get that done! That’s the quickest way to become platinum. But more importantly, that’s how affiliated system makes more money. Just because I want to be “recognised” eagle I wanted to make sure there are always people buying books and CDs and people coming to functions.
All things remain ideal, let us assume an IBO succeeds to become an eagle in 12 months of joining which I have seen and assumed to be true. Once you become eagle, there is more pressure because of the brand that gets created, you need to be on stage for five plans and twenty five cold contacts every week and week after week. That means you need to show up every month with 300 personal PV! So you ought to make it to platinum in 2-5 years. Looking at my former up line and as per my knowledge after about six years in the business he is not a platinum! Similarly, my yet another LOS up line who was platinum even before I joined and after three years he is still only a platinum and not acheived founders platinum yet! He seemed to have achieved platinum “qualification” quickly enough but where has he progressed then on? Literally nowhere! That’s a story about the passive income for you!

I still remember clearly the day, when I was presented with Amway opportunity for the first time. There were people who ‘retired’ from their jobs at the age of 28, people who were taking jobs lightly, people who were claiming to earn more than the job income, etc. I was stunned to hear that for the first time. Later came more and more stories about how recession had hit the people in the IT industry. There was one person who was at emerald level claiming to manage both job and office and also have seven patents in his name! There were so many ‘sharp and ambitious’ people in great jobs but they all wanted to retire from it as soon as possible. They defined freedom is to quit the jobs and also preaching passive income to suffice greatest of lifestyle for three generations!
So how many actually attain platinum or more? Probably one in thousand core IBOs! So what will all other core IBOs do? Preach the same old story and quit Amway and search job again! But the problem is when they show up to the jobs with all the up line taught excuses all the time. Amway IBOs do not want to show any initiatives in the office simply because it is not their own thing but boss’s! Every time there is a major function irrespective of the severity of the project usually Ambots come up with silly excuses saying, not keeping well or some relative died or whatever. They told me once, five years down the line, these excuses might not impact anything but the function you attended may change your life. But in reality most people need job to put food on the table and least people can succeed in Amway.
Let us say five years it takes to become a platinum and ten years for a diamond or most cases only emeralds, all of them need job to survive till then! But can they not talk about jobs? Not at all, every second minute they need to think negative about the job and then only they could come out of it. How do these IBOs pay for all those functions, expensive clothes to show off in front of prospects, buy all CDs and books, eat outside through out and do every damn thing? Job income! But what do they preach? Job is just over broke!
Irony was, when I quit Amway my upline was commenting on who would decide on my lifestyle and my family’s standard of living and so on. But being in Amway neither IBO can achieve nothing but surrender to uplines and tools system.

Two times a year Amway India used to come with core-line and non-core line offers on various products. Core line products are the ones which are regularly available in various categories of product lines such as home care, health care, skin care and beauty, etc. They usually come with 12-16% discount to the IBOs when compared to MRP. This is the first place where misrepresentation is done by sponsoring IBO to prospect. They boast about twenty percent discount on all products which is simply not true. I was asked the same question by various downlines when I signed them up. I simply had to lie about it! Fake it till you make it! But later I used to claim about the non core line products which usually come with a price tag of over 30% cheaper compared to MRP. These products used to come in twice a year usually in September and in March-April.

What kind of offers do you get during those promotion? Nothing more, buy the same item in duplicate or in certain number, you can get something from outside Amway manufacturing for free. Free items include, a clock, or cooking vessel, or knife set or something else which is into consumer durables. And when it comes to non core line they’re into bed sheets and pillows, to cooking oils, to green tea to wristwatch to clothes and apparels. These non core line looked cheap for an IBO but they are never a money making opportunities. Let us see how! If a wristwatch has to have an MRP of INR2450 and the IBO gets it at INR979 expecting it to sell the same to his family and friends. But usually, these unknown brand consumer durables are no way near to be acceptable for anybody. During my tenure as an IBO I could not even sell products like lunch box even though they were quite economical and well of in terms of quality. However, if you are a core IBO you need to buy a bed sheet that Amway offers and not the ones in a local shop. Even if an IBO cannot sell but still he should always use them! Even if there is no requirement for a product, just because you need to show up as core, IBO ends up buying unwanted stuff.

Let us get into core line products, they do have more usefulness when compared to non core line products. However, the issue is same when it comes to necessity. Usually core line offers do come throughout the year. So, even if IBO does not need them, mostly ends up buying products thinking for future sales, or fighting for his up line goal or simply to show his down lines that he has latest products, just to show case being core IBO. So these promotions never end, every second month they keep coming and unless you put your PV in promotions you’re not core. Therefore, IBOs spend so much on products that they do not need. Even if a body shampoo promotion is great, unless there is need no point buying them. So after going through so many catalogue products and offers, now I recall all of them as how deceptively they manipulated facts to increase their own wealth.

So here is the news! Bill Britt, the founder of famous Amway affiliated ‘teaching system’ has passed away on Jan 23rd, 2013 according to BWW website, as it shows the day I write this post. Even though every system is understandably same in terms of way it conducts and preaches, Bill Britt succeeded in making his system prevail in a few countries, especially India. To my knowledge, BWW is the most prominent Amway affiliated system in India. Irrespective of how much cultism has been preached by systems, including BWW, let his soul rest in peace.

Now the question is who will lead the way for BWW going forward? How many of Bill Britt’s theories will remain and how many of them will be discarded by new leaders of the system? Will they continue to take his name and wealth for wooing people? Will Bill Britt’s children and grandchildren get Amway passive income even without registering their name in Amway LOS? Will IBOs continue to talk about the writing on yellow pad and red ink pen? Always wear red-tie, buy the suitings in hot summer, because he did it but is not alive anymore? Will all nine core steps, cardinal rules and basics of the business found in 1960s to 1970s be there even in speedy technology era? Recently Robert T Kiyosaki showed no shame in declaring bankruptcy for one of his companies, and cyclist whose books were recommended by BWW, admitted to have taken drugs for winning medals. So will there be any shift in and change gear in Amway affiliated teaching system, like BWW or will it remain the same? Probably it is likely to remain as it is, until newer ways of deception is found.