Today while having dinner with my wife, we suddenly remembered how our upline tried to control even what food we ate daily.
My upline sponsor was once visiting our home. He saw that we had a small ethnic snack item (chilli powder) in our kitchen. It is primarily used as a side dish with Indian pancakes (called dosas). It costs only $3/pack and usually lasts us for 2 to 3 months. My upline started his rambling: "Why do you need that snack? We never buy those kind of snacks at our home. You know how much you could save by not buying such snack items?". Then he added "I made a calculation how much Indians lose money every day by snacking on ethnic grocery items. I calculated that it comes to about $100 to $200 per month." He also later added looking at some fruits in our refrigerator: "I completely trust nutrilite. We do not eat any fruits at our home. I haven't eaten an apple in years. Why do you need fruits when double-ex has everything? People waste so much money eating fruits."
Do you know how my sponsor would set an "example" for his downline? He would literally not eat anywhere outside, because he told it is a business decision. Once I, my wife and my sponsor went to do a home meeting couple of hours away from my home town. I was literally dying of hunger after the meeting around 10 PM and I could not hold on any longer. So I, my wife and my upline went to a restaurant and ordered food - he did not order anything. I told I would buy him some food, but he said he would not eat that too. I could care less, so I and my wife ate. He was also hungry, but he told he gave a promise to his wife that he would not eat outside and spend money anywhere outside the business! Then we drove and reached our home couple of hours later. Then we cooked for him and he ate at our home after midnight! Then he gave a lecture about how much we spent in the restaurant and how he could control his hunger and not waste those 10 bucks. He told he would have invested that money in business!
This fellow was giving me advice how to save a few bucks here and there, when the main drain in my bank account was the stupid business itself!
You don't know how relaxed I and my wife were when we ate our dinner today. That feeling cannot be simply put in words! We ate nice, hot Indian pancakes happily and cherished every bite of it... The peace of mind that no one is looking over our shoulder to see what we are eating!!!
If you were not in my upline's team, you would not know what kind of value that freedom has! Real freedom - from my sponsor and all my uplines! Priceless!
Showing posts with label upline. Show all posts
Showing posts with label upline. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Why exeagle blog?
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?)
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?)
Monday, November 2, 2009
How much does it cost to run an amway/quixtar/BWW business?
While Amway/quixtar plan is very clear and says exactly how much you will get paid at each level, what your upline will never tell you are the hidden costs.
When you first hear the plan at the open meeting, you will hear things like "You just redirect your buying power. Take $250 you are spending outside in wal-mart, costco, grocery stores, and buy from your own store. You have no employees, no overheads, no running costs. You shop and refer others to shop. You make $2700/month." Also they tell you,"In the next 6 to 12 months, working anywhere from 8 to 12 hours per week, you can reach platinum and make $2700/month." (Read my other post on how much platinums really make.)
Here is the truth.
If you have to get REALLY committed and become someone who is going to be the NEXT PLATINUM on the team, then here are your actual additional expenses for your business:
(1) If you have only one car and you are a couple, then you will think about a second car, so that your wife can do retail. While this looks appealing and gives you both more mobility, if your wife is already not selling products then it will put a big hole in your pocket.
(2) Most likely you will be driving around your town in evenings and weekends and may "prospect" in different stores in different locations. It will easily put 10 to 30 miles per weekday.
(3) If you have a group that is 6 to 8 hours away from where you live, you need to drive there on weekends... to show your commitment, you will start driving on Friday night and reach there Saturday morning super exhausted.
(4) If you get a group in a place like California and you are sitting in New Jersey, then you will need to fly there sooner or later...
(5) Based on the experiences of one of my downline IBOs: if you are sitting in California and your uplines are all in New Jersey, then you need to fly to many leadership events in NJ. These will be for very insignificant pins, like 600 PV or 1000 PV or eagle, where you don't even make as much money as it takes for your travel and leadership event ticket. Sometimes you need to attend a big function that is on the other side of the country!
(6) You do 150 PV as single IBO and 300 PV as couple - that is a CORE requirement. If you are not selling at least 50% of this (most IBOs don't even sell 50 PV, forget about selling 50%) then you will be spending $450 as single and $900 as couple per month, not the $250 they show. If you do a careful analysis you will see that to get one PV you will be spending close to $3. Quixtar/amway says this in their documents, but your upline and the education system will not.
(7) Shipping costs have increased... for an order I placed last month for $300, I had to pay close to $30 for the shipping.
(8) Standing order is minimum wage. Lot of nice CDs will come on leadership standing order. You will slowly get onto it. Put $7.50 plus tax per week.
(9) If you show more commitment, then you will get on WWDB standing order. So add another $7.50 plus tax per week. And, oh! you need to buy extra story CDs, Power Wave, lit packs, DVDs, PNAsheets, etc.,
(10) You will need to change oil in your cars more frequently, if you drive a lot of miles. In my upline's case, he was driving 35000 miles per year on an average. His work is 5 miles from his home, so he could not have put more than 3000 miles for his work!
(11) Gas price - you will easily be spending $100 to $200/month for running around your town, doing your "4 basics" and meetings.
(12) Laundry: you need to be crisp and sharp all the time because you don't know when you will meet your next diamond, right? Also you may need to invest in some nice clothes. And oh, you need a suit, tie, and nice shoes. Your spouse may need a couple of nice dresses too! This may be good for you, but these costs are all HIDDEN.
(13) If you have one or two downlines coming around, then be ready to buy more products for doing grand openings in their home.
(14) Samples - you will give lot of samples to prospects! my experience was less than 10% of the people actually place an order. About 50% of them never try your products. And, oh do not forget the catalogs - they do not get you any PV, but you need to buy them to give to others!
(15) Factor open meeting attendance charge. Typically $4 per person or $5 per person. If you are doing with spouse, then double.
(16) Function expenses: ticket costs $95 to $105. You need to stay in hotel for 2 nights. If you prefer privacy, then you spend close to $200 in hotel, $200 in tickets and another $50 for food, coffee, etc., Most likely the function will be a long drive - bus drive means $55 to $100 per person and if you drive your own car, then factor the miles.
(17) Meetings after the meetings, night owls: if you go to Dennys, Diners, or anywhere after your meetings, then you cannot simply sit and not order something. If you do, you will be scolded indirectly at the next open meeting at the training. So you will spend a few bucks there - at 12 midnight putting on more calories in your system.
(18) Communikate: about $35/month.
(19) New addition: web space, BWW TV - another $25/month.
(20) If you do not want bww.com email address (because your prospect can figure out you are an amway IBO) and prefer your own domain name email address, then you pay another $50 per year.
(21) S.A.M. - this costs about $600 plus shipping. the skin analyzer magnifier machine... if you are not selling Artistry products, till now, YOU WILL GET THE MOTIVATION after you buy a S.A.M. machine!
(22) WORST: if you are a fake platinum or gold or silver, still you need to go to GO DIAMOND... the big event for the real leaders and the real men and women - so factor flight charges, ticket charges, hotel charges, food expenses, rental car expenses and since it may be in an exotic location like Florida - you may be tempted to visit the theme parks and spend more money. In my opinion, the big leaders who conduct these functions, should really allow only people who made at least $20,000 the previous fiscal year to attend these events. But you see, half the people won't come to GO DIAMOND anymore then and whoever is profiting from these events will not make the money.
In my experience, I have seen people spend anywhere from $2000 to $2500 per month just to maintain a small 5 to 10 people business, which makes $300 to $400/month. Only 5% or less of the IBOs at the meetings actually qualify eagle within the first one year, even though you are supposed to reach this level within the first 3 months. Many who qualify eagle do not re-qualify the following months. Are people so dumb that they cannot build this fast or is the system really not working?
So am I telling you should get out? No, go ahead and build it properly by selling products and building a huge team and actually making a profit after all these expenses. Then come back and comment here.
Till then,
run around in malls trying to smile and ask someone "Are you from such and such place/country/university?" "You look familiar. Have we met before?" etc.,
feel sick at the functions, BBS and the open meetings,
fight at your home,
miss your children,
tell many different lies and lie to your parents and others telling how much money you are making with your business,
have many sleepless nights,
have close to zero savings account,
do not talk to your relatives who are negative,
do not take any vacations,
do not do anything for fun without feeling guilty,
have wet palms every time you go to any store,
< add anything else that makes you feel sick >
When you first hear the plan at the open meeting, you will hear things like "You just redirect your buying power. Take $250 you are spending outside in wal-mart, costco, grocery stores, and buy from your own store. You have no employees, no overheads, no running costs. You shop and refer others to shop. You make $2700/month." Also they tell you,"In the next 6 to 12 months, working anywhere from 8 to 12 hours per week, you can reach platinum and make $2700/month." (Read my other post on how much platinums really make.)
Here is the truth.
If you have to get REALLY committed and become someone who is going to be the NEXT PLATINUM on the team, then here are your actual additional expenses for your business:
(1) If you have only one car and you are a couple, then you will think about a second car, so that your wife can do retail. While this looks appealing and gives you both more mobility, if your wife is already not selling products then it will put a big hole in your pocket.
(2) Most likely you will be driving around your town in evenings and weekends and may "prospect" in different stores in different locations. It will easily put 10 to 30 miles per weekday.
(3) If you have a group that is 6 to 8 hours away from where you live, you need to drive there on weekends... to show your commitment, you will start driving on Friday night and reach there Saturday morning super exhausted.
(4) If you get a group in a place like California and you are sitting in New Jersey, then you will need to fly there sooner or later...
(5) Based on the experiences of one of my downline IBOs: if you are sitting in California and your uplines are all in New Jersey, then you need to fly to many leadership events in NJ. These will be for very insignificant pins, like 600 PV or 1000 PV or eagle, where you don't even make as much money as it takes for your travel and leadership event ticket. Sometimes you need to attend a big function that is on the other side of the country!
(6) You do 150 PV as single IBO and 300 PV as couple - that is a CORE requirement. If you are not selling at least 50% of this (most IBOs don't even sell 50 PV, forget about selling 50%) then you will be spending $450 as single and $900 as couple per month, not the $250 they show. If you do a careful analysis you will see that to get one PV you will be spending close to $3. Quixtar/amway says this in their documents, but your upline and the education system will not.
(7) Shipping costs have increased... for an order I placed last month for $300, I had to pay close to $30 for the shipping.
(8) Standing order is minimum wage. Lot of nice CDs will come on leadership standing order. You will slowly get onto it. Put $7.50 plus tax per week.
(9) If you show more commitment, then you will get on WWDB standing order. So add another $7.50 plus tax per week. And, oh! you need to buy extra story CDs, Power Wave, lit packs, DVDs, PNAsheets, etc.,
(10) You will need to change oil in your cars more frequently, if you drive a lot of miles. In my upline's case, he was driving 35000 miles per year on an average. His work is 5 miles from his home, so he could not have put more than 3000 miles for his work!
(11) Gas price - you will easily be spending $100 to $200/month for running around your town, doing your "4 basics" and meetings.
(12) Laundry: you need to be crisp and sharp all the time because you don't know when you will meet your next diamond, right? Also you may need to invest in some nice clothes. And oh, you need a suit, tie, and nice shoes. Your spouse may need a couple of nice dresses too! This may be good for you, but these costs are all HIDDEN.
(13) If you have one or two downlines coming around, then be ready to buy more products for doing grand openings in their home.
(14) Samples - you will give lot of samples to prospects! my experience was less than 10% of the people actually place an order. About 50% of them never try your products. And, oh do not forget the catalogs - they do not get you any PV, but you need to buy them to give to others!
(15) Factor open meeting attendance charge. Typically $4 per person or $5 per person. If you are doing with spouse, then double.
(16) Function expenses: ticket costs $95 to $105. You need to stay in hotel for 2 nights. If you prefer privacy, then you spend close to $200 in hotel, $200 in tickets and another $50 for food, coffee, etc., Most likely the function will be a long drive - bus drive means $55 to $100 per person and if you drive your own car, then factor the miles.
(17) Meetings after the meetings, night owls: if you go to Dennys, Diners, or anywhere after your meetings, then you cannot simply sit and not order something. If you do, you will be scolded indirectly at the next open meeting at the training. So you will spend a few bucks there - at 12 midnight putting on more calories in your system.
(18) Communikate: about $35/month.
(19) New addition: web space, BWW TV - another $25/month.
(20) If you do not want bww.com email address (because your prospect can figure out you are an amway IBO) and prefer your own domain name email address, then you pay another $50 per year.
(21) S.A.M. - this costs about $600 plus shipping. the skin analyzer magnifier machine... if you are not selling Artistry products, till now, YOU WILL GET THE MOTIVATION after you buy a S.A.M. machine!
(22) WORST: if you are a fake platinum or gold or silver, still you need to go to GO DIAMOND... the big event for the real leaders and the real men and women - so factor flight charges, ticket charges, hotel charges, food expenses, rental car expenses and since it may be in an exotic location like Florida - you may be tempted to visit the theme parks and spend more money. In my opinion, the big leaders who conduct these functions, should really allow only people who made at least $20,000 the previous fiscal year to attend these events. But you see, half the people won't come to GO DIAMOND anymore then and whoever is profiting from these events will not make the money.
In my experience, I have seen people spend anywhere from $2000 to $2500 per month just to maintain a small 5 to 10 people business, which makes $300 to $400/month. Only 5% or less of the IBOs at the meetings actually qualify eagle within the first one year, even though you are supposed to reach this level within the first 3 months. Many who qualify eagle do not re-qualify the following months. Are people so dumb that they cannot build this fast or is the system really not working?
So am I telling you should get out? No, go ahead and build it properly by selling products and building a huge team and actually making a profit after all these expenses. Then come back and comment here.
Till then,
run around in malls trying to smile and ask someone "Are you from such and such place/country/university?" "You look familiar. Have we met before?" etc.,
feel sick at the functions, BBS and the open meetings,
fight at your home,
miss your children,
tell many different lies and lie to your parents and others telling how much money you are making with your business,
have many sleepless nights,
have close to zero savings account,
do not talk to your relatives who are negative,
do not take any vacations,
do not do anything for fun without feeling guilty,
have wet palms every time you go to any store,
< add anything else that makes you feel sick >
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Amway 20% PV/BV uplift abuse
Now, there is a legal way to cheat in Amway.
This was taught by one of uplines (a big pin who has spoken on CDs) to me. My suspicion is my upline diamond is also aware of this or promoting this to his big pins, since I complained to him about this a year ago and still my upline big pin is forcing me to do this. (By the way, both of them talk about integrity, honesty from stage very well and have made several CDs on these topics.)
Amway/quixtar will give 20% uplift on PV/BV if you report customer sales. you can either do this yourself or quixtar will capture this automatically. What you report yourself is something you can cheat on... no one really checks. Amway assumes people follow honor code. But my upline big pin gives another nice idea.
Why not find someone, say a relative or friend, in your local area and register them as your customer? Then you ship all the products to them, get free shipping and the 20% PV/BV uplift...
NOW, isn't that a wonderful way to cheat the company that is paying you legally??? If you fight with him, he will not answer your question...
and you are supposed to be in "submission" to your upline and never embarrass your upline. But what if your upline is a third-rated cheat, who actually believes he is doing a great service to mankind while he is actually doing all dirty tricks to qualify for a pin??? Big booby trap, my dear fellow IBO!
This was taught by one of uplines (a big pin who has spoken on CDs) to me. My suspicion is my upline diamond is also aware of this or promoting this to his big pins, since I complained to him about this a year ago and still my upline big pin is forcing me to do this. (By the way, both of them talk about integrity, honesty from stage very well and have made several CDs on these topics.)
Amway/quixtar will give 20% uplift on PV/BV if you report customer sales. you can either do this yourself or quixtar will capture this automatically. What you report yourself is something you can cheat on... no one really checks. Amway assumes people follow honor code. But my upline big pin gives another nice idea.
Why not find someone, say a relative or friend, in your local area and register them as your customer? Then you ship all the products to them, get free shipping and the 20% PV/BV uplift...
NOW, isn't that a wonderful way to cheat the company that is paying you legally??? If you fight with him, he will not answer your question...
and you are supposed to be in "submission" to your upline and never embarrass your upline. But what if your upline is a third-rated cheat, who actually believes he is doing a great service to mankind while he is actually doing all dirty tricks to qualify for a pin??? Big booby trap, my dear fellow IBO!
Truth about how much platinums make
The actual platinum income is not what they show in the plan!
The platinum income of $2677/month portrayed in the 6-4-2 plan is only for the 6-4-2 plan. The additional $20,000 bonus, which makes the total platinum income to $52,000/yr, is only if the 7500 PV is maintained month after month for 12 months.
Your actual platinumship (if at all you go platinum right) should be like this:
You will have one 4000 PV leg, one 2500 PV leg and one 1000 PV leg.
(Hopefully none of your downlines had to put additional money to stock up the products in a warehouse! If they did, chances are they won't stay with you for long!)
If you REALLY have this when you go platinum, you must be SUPER-excited...
Your net income with such a structure will give you optimistically:
(4000PV*4% + 2500PV*7% + 1000PV*13%)* 3BV/PV = $1395.
off your downline's volume, provided you do your 50 PV CSAR.
(If you did not get the Math for this, STOP showing the plan and first figure out how your plan, the one you are supposed to show 5 times/week actually works!)
If you do a 300 PV that month, then you will make an additional 300*3*25%=$225. That gets your total to $1620 - which is a WHOPPING $1057/month less than what you see and show in the plan.
BUT YOU SEE - you need to show the plan as 6-4-2... and you need to lie telling
1 PV = $2.50...
while it is a long time since it changed to:
1 PV = $3.00...
And think about 300 PV - that is a difference of $150/month!!!
Also the above figure is assuming all the PV came from high BV items. Have you figured out the relationships between PV, BV, IBO cost, suggested retail cost? If not, dude, you need to do your homework!
Now the truth is about 90% of the platinums do not have even this! Many of them buy anywhere from 1000 PV to 4000 PV per month to go platinum for various "intangible" reasons and lose money overall.
According to one CD made by a very famous young single emerald, the average number of active legs that platinums have is 2 - this statistic is your company's statistic - not your education system's statistic. That means you will make much less than what I showed above...
Also many of the platinums who are recognized at the end of your open meetings are not true platinums. They are guys who qualified platinum some time in their IBO career! Some of them did not re-qualify even after 10 years! They may actually be 1000 PV. How do I know? I was close to becoming one of them!!!
Litmus test for your upline platinum - is he/she/they going to Q12 trip? If not, they did not qualify for 12-out-of-12 7500 PV last year. They are fake platinums. In my experience, including myself, about 90% of all platinums are fake platinums, making only anywhere from $300 to $700/month, not the portrayed $2677/month.
Silver - is even a worse pin to have. That is 7500 PV in one month, some time in the career. The first time I went silver, I bought more than 5000 PV with upline recommendation. Why? Because one of my uplines was reaching a BIG pin! Where did I come up with the money? Credit cards!!! Why did I do it? To be in submission to upline and for plugging into upline's goals, so that my downlines will plug into my goals. That is a BIG BIG trap - please do not fall for that crap!
The platinum income of $2677/month portrayed in the 6-4-2 plan is only for the 6-4-2 plan. The additional $20,000 bonus, which makes the total platinum income to $52,000/yr, is only if the 7500 PV is maintained month after month for 12 months.
Your actual platinumship (if at all you go platinum right) should be like this:
You will have one 4000 PV leg, one 2500 PV leg and one 1000 PV leg.
(Hopefully none of your downlines had to put additional money to stock up the products in a warehouse! If they did, chances are they won't stay with you for long!)
If you REALLY have this when you go platinum, you must be SUPER-excited...
Your net income with such a structure will give you optimistically:
(4000PV*4% + 2500PV*7% + 1000PV*13%)* 3BV/PV = $1395.
off your downline's volume, provided you do your 50 PV CSAR.
(If you did not get the Math for this, STOP showing the plan and first figure out how your plan, the one you are supposed to show 5 times/week actually works!)
If you do a 300 PV that month, then you will make an additional 300*3*25%=$225. That gets your total to $1620 - which is a WHOPPING $1057/month less than what you see and show in the plan.
BUT YOU SEE - you need to show the plan as 6-4-2... and you need to lie telling
1 PV = $2.50...
while it is a long time since it changed to:
1 PV = $3.00...
And think about 300 PV - that is a difference of $150/month!!!
Also the above figure is assuming all the PV came from high BV items. Have you figured out the relationships between PV, BV, IBO cost, suggested retail cost? If not, dude, you need to do your homework!
Now the truth is about 90% of the platinums do not have even this! Many of them buy anywhere from 1000 PV to 4000 PV per month to go platinum for various "intangible" reasons and lose money overall.
According to one CD made by a very famous young single emerald, the average number of active legs that platinums have is 2 - this statistic is your company's statistic - not your education system's statistic. That means you will make much less than what I showed above...
Also many of the platinums who are recognized at the end of your open meetings are not true platinums. They are guys who qualified platinum some time in their IBO career! Some of them did not re-qualify even after 10 years! They may actually be 1000 PV. How do I know? I was close to becoming one of them!!!
Litmus test for your upline platinum - is he/she/they going to Q12 trip? If not, they did not qualify for 12-out-of-12 7500 PV last year. They are fake platinums. In my experience, including myself, about 90% of all platinums are fake platinums, making only anywhere from $300 to $700/month, not the portrayed $2677/month.
Silver - is even a worse pin to have. That is 7500 PV in one month, some time in the career. The first time I went silver, I bought more than 5000 PV with upline recommendation. Why? Because one of my uplines was reaching a BIG pin! Where did I come up with the money? Credit cards!!! Why did I do it? To be in submission to upline and for plugging into upline's goals, so that my downlines will plug into my goals. That is a BIG BIG trap - please do not fall for that crap!
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