Guess many of you have read my Amway story. There are facts in there and then there is my view point. If my upline reads it, they will definitely have a different view point. If my cross line reads it (as some of them have already read) they will have a view point as well. Since this is a blog I am writing, of course, I will have the last say on this blog on anything. Many (like IBOFB) have linked to my blog and have the last say in their blogs about me, which is fine with me.
Yes, like some of you say, this blog should have been titled "exfakeeagle" not "exeagle" :-). I agree! In fact, the first time I went to my eagle leadership, I was a flamingo, so you can call this blog "exflamingo" blogspot too.
Why take so much pain to write this blog? Here are my reasons:
(1) I cannot go to my upline and ask for justice.
I tried several times, but they were deaf ears. In fact, my upline emerald once told me: "What I realize after going emerald is that, what works for me, does not work with everyone. I assumed that you guys are also like me, in trying to get to some pin level and then fixing it. I am sorry that I have hurt your self image in the process, because now I realize that I might have made a mistake." It sounded very honest to me and I decided to stay with the business. But two years later, when he wanted to start founders emerald qualification, he again did dishonest things. I personally lost one of my downlines and close friend from business (and from life) because of that, because I could not go to my down line and tell that my upline emerald is a crook. My upline emerald had lot more people in his group and lot more credibility than me.
(2) I cannot go to Amway for justice.
Because, on paper, nothing can be proven. In fact, they can say that since every order was placed through my login account, I am the one who willingly did it. Moreover, if I were Amway and I see that one guy qualified fake silver and is actually bringing 600 PV to 1000 PV per month business to me every month and he is griping about some big pins who are bringing thousands of dollars of business to me, why would I care?
I do not have anything to say negative about Amway itself. They are a wonderful company and they make great quality products, which I still use. (Some of the BWW-promoted product demos are simply lies though.) Their compensation plan is clean and I never missed one bonus check. They are THE best company when it comes to customer satisfaction and money-back guarantee. That is what attracted me to the business and kept me in. And they do everything they can to prevent cases like mine from happening, but they do not have any influence over how a specific individual does his business.
(3) I cannot go to BWW or IBOAI for justice.
Before I go there, I need to get a pass from my upline diamond. In fact they have told several times in leaderships never to contact Amway or IBOAI for any issues and first check with upline diamond. Even for product return, my upline would say "we never return any product to Amway. If we bought it, we keep it." (Think about XS protein pudding on first dibs auto shipment... even my upline diamonds' kids were telling "YUK!!!") In fact, I did contact my upline diamond about my upline emerald anonymously once about a few things. He responded telling he will take care of them. But it was not taken care off. Same problems erupted back after a year.
(4) I do not want any guy in Amway to think that he can do dishonest things and can then take BWW's teachings as alibi and get away with it.
My uplines broke several cardinal rules and thought they could get away with it. They represent BWW as well, since one of them is in BWW executive committee and is a dynamic speaker and the other guy talks in BWW open meetings as well. Trust me: my upline emerald is a great speaker and can keep you motivated.
(5) If some other IBO is in a similar situation like me, he can learn from my experience and not do the same mistakes we made.
I guess no one else has revealed as much as I have about what happened, along with my identity. If you know me, you can easily guess who I am.
In our situation, we could not fight our uplines and at the same time, we could not follow them as well. I could not follow the usual advice "You pass them and you do not need to listen to them anymore." We could not promote them to our downline with excitement, since we never felt any respect for them. So we decided to only follow what is taught from stage and not listen to our uplines. We are thankful to all the wonderful cross line leaders who have supported us in many ways. Since they were not my upline, I do not know how they actually did their businesses. Maybe their downlines can vouch for their honesty and integrity. Unfortunately, in our case, after showing about 220+ plans for 2 years, we had only 2 more proper IBOships added to our group of the original 3 IBOships. (I know core Amway IBOs are justifying our poor results telling I missed out on the other 8 core steps, which was not the case.) We once had about 15 people at a function, but many of them were dragged in and my downline who dragged them in quit as well.
(6) Never spoil your career or education for Amway.
BWW does not ask you to stop your career progress. They initially say it helped them advance peoples' career, which I agree with. They teach soft skills, which is valuable for life.
But sometimes you hear some diamonds and EDCs make some statements that can confuse you. I have heard Vishal Jain telling "once I knew this is it, I never looked for any pay raise. I would wait for 5 PM and will run home and get ready to build the business. Once I lost my job and found that I could not find any job, I decided diamond is my deal. " Yes, it worked for him. Hats off to him! But will it happen for everyone? Now hard-core IBOs will say "If you have faith like him and work like him, you will also get it." Then go and get it done. What are you doing by reading my (negative) blog here? You can hear Kanti telling: "If you chase 2 rabbits, you will miss both" - Great analogy, but what are the 2 rabbits? In what context does he say these things? Taking things out of context and trying to apply them to your life can be disastrous.
(7) If you really believe in Amway and your teaching system, then for God's sake, do not waste your time reading blogs.
I am NOT the guy you are looking for. I am NOT the guy who can help you. Don't do the stupid things we did. Go and get the job done and achieve your dreams. Even though you won't care what I think, please do it honestly. Do not cheat your way to pins.
Guys like IBOFB: if you are really an IBO who wants justice and want to fight back, you are fighting in the wrong place. Don't be like my upline to your downline. Fight to build your business properly. I never read a single blog like this as long as I was actively building my business. You could not have argued with me telling Amway does not work when I was active. I would not have participated. Even after not reading blogs, I still could not build it to the level I wanted. Do you think you can take all this junk in and still build your business?
If you are my upline:
At least from now on, do not build your business like the way you built it. Build it honestly and really help your downline make money.
Really CARE about your down line and their lives.
Do not recommend them on things you are not qualified for.
Please do sell the 50 PV minimum required customer sales and do not fake it. If someone is selling 50 PV then do not tell them "you know your cross line sold 400 PV. 50 PV is nothing." Of course, we know that you did not sell even 2 PV, but we have to keep quiet because you are my upline.
Please do not use all the guilt trip, accountability fear, comparisons, sarcasms, indirect messages at kate conferences and leaderships and total indifference as techniques to motivate people. It is OK to acknowledge and uplift people for simply who they are, not for what they could accomplish in the last 6 months in their business.
When your downlines are going through tough times, give them room. They need not qualify for leaderships. Not everyone can handle crap like you do.
If a downline comes and asks you for counseling, do not tell them how many other bigger pins are waiting for counseling and you have only 30 minutes. Recall John Maxwell "people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care". Really sit down with them and spend some time helping them.
And most important, NEVER force a downline to stock up products so that you can achieve your goals. Have the guts to call people and discourage them from stocking up products even to reach their own new pins. I would have stayed with you, even if one of you called me telling "It is OK for you not to qualify silver now. Build it right and you will have a lot more fun later" instead of telling me "I will make sure you go platinum in the next one year, if you go silver this month." You just cut open the goose that could have laid the golden egg every month for you! (I know you are calling me as a weak fellow to make yourself feel good...)
To my downlines:
I like your guts. Many of you know all of this and still are going ahead. I hope you do not become like how my up line was.
I feel ashamed for motivating many of you to stay in when you wanted to quit and then finally quitting myself. I am sorry! I just could not fake it after 5 and 6 years of failure.
If we have hurt you in any way, we are sorry. Only you know what we did wrong; we do not know, since my view point is what I did at that time was right. At least we did not push you to buy extra products so that we can qualify for a new pin. When we qualified for a new pin, we bought it all ourselves... But we kept quiet when my up line might have pushed you. Since we kept quiet, you are justified in thinking we were part of the scheme as well.
And as they teach you - "today is the first day of the rest of your life." So I decided to subtract 6 from my age and re-start my life. (BWW PMA teaching to the extreme, huh?)
Showing posts with label eagle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eagle. Show all posts
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
Eagle leadership and other PV based leaderships
Despite being a system pin, why are downlines encouraged to fake the qualifications for eagle ledearship?? One thing I can say is downline has no real monetary benefit by faking eagle qualifications. Infact it adds up to an already heavy expense involved with being a committed IBO and the downline who fakes such qualification feels like a mosquito- because he knows that everybody else knows that he is not actually an Eagle. The fake qualification in no way helps the IBO’s self image or his bank balance.
Uplines have to verify eagles in their team by sending eagle verification sheets to their upline diamond. It would be very foolish to think downlines come up with the brilliant idea to fake eagle qualifications without their upline platinum, emerald – whoever they are working with recommending it and fully aware of it. The upline diamond is very well aware of such things. You have to listen to the jokes that are made the speakers in these leaderships that imply that they are aware that most people have faked the qualifications.
In my upline diamonds team there would have been anywhere between 200-300 people who qualified for these leaderships. In kate conferences prior to these leaderships and in many associations, there is constant programming that once you get eagle done, you will start platinum qualification in 3-6 months. If this is true, my upline diamond shld be breaking atleast 100 new platinums every year( considering the rest of the people at these events are already platinums and above). Well, that is not the case, he breaks at most 5-10 platinums every year. One year was exception and he broke I think 20-30 platinums- coz there were so many new emeralds.
Who could be actually benefitting from such leaderships?
1) I cannot deny the fact that some people because of the leadership work extra hard and get all the parameters right. Some fly to different conferences to different parts of country to take one person to atleast one session of the function- so that he gets the function parameters right. These people are put in such a high pedestal and are made out to be such heroes in the eyes of other IBOs. I don’t know if flying to all the different functions to get that one new person to that one session is of any benefit- atleast by qualifying Eagle the IBO’s self image is so high now- so I think it is a god thing, depending on how you look at it.
2) Most of the emeralds at the most qualify as q12s every year. These leaderships are such a boon for them as they can get in a couple of months of their qualification (7500PV for that month) because of these leaderships. Many of the eagle leaderships, PV based leaderships- the qualifications are for eg : you have to be an eagle or 1000PV( in case of PV based leadership) for Jan and Feb and there are other recognitions like if you have a downline IBO eagle for a couple of months then you get to spend with upline diamond- to soak in more nuggets(read: to learn more how to rip off people). I know for a fact that there were so many fake eagles part of my upline emeralds team. My sponsor himself has told me that in their open people wonder how come there are so many eagles who have only a couple of locally associating IBOs. If the upline emerald say for eg: gets even 10 eagles for a leadership and if each of their PV level is atleast 1000PV because of fake PV cheques- he gets atleast 10,000PV that month. Some of these pv cheques could be from inactive ibos doing volume for that month- since the ibos qualifying for such leaderships would have pleaded/begged their inactive IBOs to buy products for that month- which the downline would not have done if not for the leadership. So many emeralds talk abt how they have qualified for all the q12 trips straight for so many years. I do know how they actually qualify.
3) Of course the system income for the UPLINES associated with the surge of tool order- atleast a surge in their income for that particular month.
4) Most important I think- If only people who had all the parameters right were allowed into these associations- only platinums and above and a handful of non-platinums would be there at the event. The platinums and above are all already indoctrinated with the system’s philosophies. They need a new bunch of IBOs whom they can indoctrinate with their theories and ideas of honesty and integrity and who can continue on their legacy of ripping off people in the name of “being part of inner circle, intangible values and all bunch of crap” . In such leaderships you are clearly told- “THERE IS NO GROCERY STORE APPROACH ANY MORE. YOU HAVE TO TAKE IN EVERYTHING THAT IS TAUGHT TO MOVE ON.”
In these leaderships they have separate men and women leaderships and men are taught they need to have vision and should not give into wife’s complaints of not making money. Women are taught to applaud their man coz they are showing they plan and not to interfere with their husband’s investment in the system and most importantly not whine about lack of results. I cannot even write many things that are taught in these men and women leadership and you are not even allowed to record things.
5)Getting the heat from below: If the upline works with a downline of yours and gets them to Eagle or 1000PV, then all the uplines above now are in pressure to qualify for these events.
I have had so many many moments of hating myself for giving into my upline’s advice and faking these qualifications – like the red dog(Tape/CD positive talk) and white dog (Ur conscience) analogy of Kumar. The white dog’s voice would soon be drowned out by the much much louder red dog’s voice through the cds, books and the twice weekly associations (open, pase). Only when you are totally away from the system’s influence for some amount of time, can you ever think rationally and really make decisions by yourself. I am in no way blaming uplines entirely for whatever happened to me and I know that I allowed these things to happen to me and I keep asking myself how come I was so dumb, so weak, such a coward for not standing up to them?
AS the system keeps saying “TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE”, I hope by sharing my story, “TRUTH WILL SET ATLEAST A FEW PEOPLE FREE.”
Uplines have to verify eagles in their team by sending eagle verification sheets to their upline diamond. It would be very foolish to think downlines come up with the brilliant idea to fake eagle qualifications without their upline platinum, emerald – whoever they are working with recommending it and fully aware of it. The upline diamond is very well aware of such things. You have to listen to the jokes that are made the speakers in these leaderships that imply that they are aware that most people have faked the qualifications.
In my upline diamonds team there would have been anywhere between 200-300 people who qualified for these leaderships. In kate conferences prior to these leaderships and in many associations, there is constant programming that once you get eagle done, you will start platinum qualification in 3-6 months. If this is true, my upline diamond shld be breaking atleast 100 new platinums every year( considering the rest of the people at these events are already platinums and above). Well, that is not the case, he breaks at most 5-10 platinums every year. One year was exception and he broke I think 20-30 platinums- coz there were so many new emeralds.
Who could be actually benefitting from such leaderships?
1) I cannot deny the fact that some people because of the leadership work extra hard and get all the parameters right. Some fly to different conferences to different parts of country to take one person to atleast one session of the function- so that he gets the function parameters right. These people are put in such a high pedestal and are made out to be such heroes in the eyes of other IBOs. I don’t know if flying to all the different functions to get that one new person to that one session is of any benefit- atleast by qualifying Eagle the IBO’s self image is so high now- so I think it is a god thing, depending on how you look at it.
2) Most of the emeralds at the most qualify as q12s every year. These leaderships are such a boon for them as they can get in a couple of months of their qualification (7500PV for that month) because of these leaderships. Many of the eagle leaderships, PV based leaderships- the qualifications are for eg : you have to be an eagle or 1000PV( in case of PV based leadership) for Jan and Feb and there are other recognitions like if you have a downline IBO eagle for a couple of months then you get to spend with upline diamond- to soak in more nuggets(read: to learn more how to rip off people). I know for a fact that there were so many fake eagles part of my upline emeralds team. My sponsor himself has told me that in their open people wonder how come there are so many eagles who have only a couple of locally associating IBOs. If the upline emerald say for eg: gets even 10 eagles for a leadership and if each of their PV level is atleast 1000PV because of fake PV cheques- he gets atleast 10,000PV that month. Some of these pv cheques could be from inactive ibos doing volume for that month- since the ibos qualifying for such leaderships would have pleaded/begged their inactive IBOs to buy products for that month- which the downline would not have done if not for the leadership. So many emeralds talk abt how they have qualified for all the q12 trips straight for so many years. I do know how they actually qualify.
3) Of course the system income for the UPLINES associated with the surge of tool order- atleast a surge in their income for that particular month.
4) Most important I think- If only people who had all the parameters right were allowed into these associations- only platinums and above and a handful of non-platinums would be there at the event. The platinums and above are all already indoctrinated with the system’s philosophies. They need a new bunch of IBOs whom they can indoctrinate with their theories and ideas of honesty and integrity and who can continue on their legacy of ripping off people in the name of “being part of inner circle, intangible values and all bunch of crap” . In such leaderships you are clearly told- “THERE IS NO GROCERY STORE APPROACH ANY MORE. YOU HAVE TO TAKE IN EVERYTHING THAT IS TAUGHT TO MOVE ON.”
In these leaderships they have separate men and women leaderships and men are taught they need to have vision and should not give into wife’s complaints of not making money. Women are taught to applaud their man coz they are showing they plan and not to interfere with their husband’s investment in the system and most importantly not whine about lack of results. I cannot even write many things that are taught in these men and women leadership and you are not even allowed to record things.
5)Getting the heat from below: If the upline works with a downline of yours and gets them to Eagle or 1000PV, then all the uplines above now are in pressure to qualify for these events.
I have had so many many moments of hating myself for giving into my upline’s advice and faking these qualifications – like the red dog(Tape/CD positive talk) and white dog (Ur conscience) analogy of Kumar. The white dog’s voice would soon be drowned out by the much much louder red dog’s voice through the cds, books and the twice weekly associations (open, pase). Only when you are totally away from the system’s influence for some amount of time, can you ever think rationally and really make decisions by yourself. I am in no way blaming uplines entirely for whatever happened to me and I know that I allowed these things to happen to me and I keep asking myself how come I was so dumb, so weak, such a coward for not standing up to them?
AS the system keeps saying “TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE”, I hope by sharing my story, “TRUTH WILL SET ATLEAST A FEW PEOPLE FREE.”
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