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Re: amsoil - good or bad?
"Lawrence Glickman" <Lawrence_Glickman@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:f5hvu15uc5r4ms6snp2n5jc1ctomv09r76@4ax.com...
>
> Amsoil is a ponzi scheme like Amway soap. It might work, but that
> isn't the IDEA behind it. The IDEA behind it is to sell inventory to
> some other sucker ( eh...associate ) so they can find a sucker (
> eh...customer ) or another associate to fall into the same TRAP!
>
> If it *works,* that's icing on the cake.
>
> Lg
>
Bub, that is an uninformed, offensive and insulting statement. As a former
Amway distributor, it was a standard tenet of the organization of which I
was a part that in order to build a successful business it was *absolutely
necessary* to build, grow and maintain a retail customer base. Merely adding
downline distributors without an equivalent or greater focus on retail would
result in an unreliable and unstable business, and was an all but guaranteed
recipe for failure, not to mention mention a poor profit/income model. I
serviced customers who were over-joyed to find out that I was a distributor
because their former distributor had moved on*** and they *wanted* product
and didn't know where else to get it.
***(Moved, or quit the business when they realized that it was too much like
WORK when what they really wanted was to get rich without actually DOING
anything.)
"Inventory loading" had been discouraged and eliminated before I became
involved in the business. The "upline direct" was *required* to repurchase
any unused and saleable inventory (if they had any, despite policies against
it) from any distributor who wished to discontinue, and, failing that, the
corporation would repurchase the inventory (and sanction the "direct" who
failed to do so). That old "My friend's second cousin's brother knew a
feller that tried that thang and he's got a basement fulla that stuff" has
been bovine excrement for a long, long time.
Now, if you want to argue that MLM business model tends to attract
unscrupulous and/or lazy people who think that they can get rich quick
without really working at it, and who try to "shortcut" the business model
by focusing their efforts on "sponsoring" others (that they hope will do the
real work *for* them) and thereby doom themselves and their downline) to
failure, then I would have to agree wwith you.
If you also wanted to argue that there were some of the same type of people
who also focused more of their efforts on selling independently produced
"tools" (books, tapes, functions, not re-saleable to retail customers
outside the "system") as their primary income stream (which possibly
*could* be perceived as a "Ponzi scheme", or close enough), to the near
exclusion and detriment of the *real* business model, then I would have to
agree with that, too.
MLM is a legitimate business model and there are many good companies selling
many good products using it. People who like Amsoil or "Amway"*** products
and want to buy them are entitled to their opinion, as are you entitled to
your opinion if you *dislike* a particular product, but to paint them all in
a defamatory color of illegality is either misinformed, uneducated or
patently dishonest.
***(The Amway company no longer exists in the same form as it once did.
Technology in general, and the Internet in particular, have led to a
reformation of business practices and marketing. In addition, the advent of
the Internet which has facilitated widespread communication which could not
be "controlled" by unscrupulous people within the various "motivational
systems" has led to their exposure and, in some cases, prosecution,
resulting in a decrease in abuses [some of which were known to exist as far
back as 1982 though pressure from the ADA board inhibited resolution] and a
re-focus on the core business which is, and was always supposed to be,
selling consumable products to customers.)
Disclaimer: I resigned my Amway distributorship in 1999 due to disagreements
with "Upline" "leaders" and their abuses of the "system". I am not
soliciting or offering sponsorship in any MLM opportunity to any reader. I
am currently an inactive participant (read: glorified customer) in something
which is "just like Amway, only better" which provides a certain convenince
in shopping. The income, general business knowledge and financial management
techniques gained as an Amway distributor enabled me to start and run a
different business with less "people" contact and at this time I am
semi-retired (and under 50). Just as in almost any other [legitimate]
business, you aren't going to "make it to the top" without an extreme amound
of dedication and effort, but you *can* make a good income...as good as
you're willing to work for, anyway...and it can open your eyes and provide a
[financial] stepping-stone to new opportunities.
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