My Personal Experience With MLM Amway

by LIJU PM

MLM With Amway Helping Hand

Multi-level marketing, also known as network marketing, has been around for many years now. It is a controversial business model but is supposedly also making a lot of money for some people.

With a healthy level of skepticism I've talked to different MLM people and looked into different network marketing programs in the past like Quixtar, also known as Amway, and I'd like to share some of what I've learned.

Approached By a Fellow Student

I was in my freshman year of college when I got my first exposure to the MLM company Amway. I was approached by a fellow student who was in his junior year about this 'business opportunity'. Being a young, ambitious and impressionable college student, I listened intently as he shared how I could retire at the age of 25 and live a life of luxury.

Although I was curious and intrigued, I also needed the business model to make sense to me so I also began to ask very pointed questions and did my own research. I was a big fan of Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor, at the time and he had always said that he only invests in what he knows, explaining why he opted to stay out of the then tech boom.

As it turns out Warren Buffett is as wise as they say. So before I jumped into this opportunity of a lifetime, I decided I needed to really understand how this works before I dive in.

Critics of Network Marketing

So I begin to search on the Internet for people's experiences with MLM, specifically Amway. You may not be surprised to find countless numbers of people expressing the evils of Amway. It was hard to find a review of Amway that didn't involved pure hatred. The ones that weren't were trying to promote their MLM business.

There were a couple of reasons why these critics didn't help my investigation of Amway. First of all, it was the late 1990's and the Internet was still not a great source for reliable information.

Secondly, the people who were criticizing were just ranting with nothing reasonable to back them up. Till this day, I wish I had been able to find a credible source that steered me away with actual evidence.

Anyways, after I failed to find any reliable information on Amway and other MLM programs, I just continued to investigate it with this Amway guy I met in college.

When The Red Flags Went Up

So even before I really took a close look at the MLM model, I wanted to see some real results from real people. There were of course a lot of talk about the earning "potential" and there were some stories here and there about the ones making millions from it, but no matter how hard I tried from this vast group of Amwayers, I could not find a single real life success story. All the success stories seemed only to be in their marketing materials.

I repeatedly asked the Amway guy that was trying to recruit me how much HE made from network marketing and he repeatedly dodged the question. I was young and naive so I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I even asked the guy that was above him in the MLM level. He wouldn't tell me straight either.

All I wanted to know was how much did they make last month from Amway! Seemed like a simple question. Their lack of transparency put red flags up for me, but still, I was young and trusting so I again gave him the benefit of the doubt and went along.

Finally, I agreed to go to one of their rally things where they try to inspire people and the presentation they use to hook in new MLM recruits. This young, enthusiastic Tony Robbins wannabe got up and preached about how great Amway was and how multi-level marketing was going to make everyone rich.

Okay, I figured this guy probably makes a lot of money from network marketing since they're having him speak and all. Well, I walked out after the cult-like rally and saw his car. It was early 1990's model Acura with a cheesy slogan on his license plate about getting rich.

I assumed this guy was making it big, but he was driving a used car that was probably about 8 or 9 years old. This was the huge red flag that I was hoping I wouldn't find.