Arthur Dent

"Lawrence Glickman" <Lawrence_Glickman@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:qvs1v1p0dklqd6olk95ib3144je5ekbcje@4ax.com...
> On Mon, 13 Feb 2006 19:09:42 GMT, "Arthur Dent" <uce@fcc.gov> wrote:
>
> >
> >"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
>
> *former distributor* because you were scammed, just like the rest of
> the people I know personally who became involved with that
> organization.
>
> Two words:
>
> Ponzi Scheme

No, not "scammed". I understood how the system works and was in no way fool
enough to think that I would "get rich overnight". I did the work and sold
merchandise to retail customers as well as sponsoring other distributors. My
disagreement was with those people who were abusing the system, spending
more of their efforts trying to push their "tools" instead of teaching
people the correct way of doing business, lining their own pockets with
money and encouraging people to go into debt to buy these "tools" without
teaching them how to strike a profitable balance and manage their expenses.
It's a very short-sighted practice.

If you were to correlate it with auto repair, think of a repair franchise in
which the franchise kept pushing the store owner to keep buying tools to fix
cars and keep getting other people "in" and buying tools, but never actually
taught them how to properly fix cars. A business run like that will
continually chew through an enourmous amount of people, leaving them
disatisfied, in debt and disillusioned while the people selling the tools
make a nice bit of dough.

I was unaware of this aspect when I first started but I'm not stupid. I knew
that people were making money this way. After a while I realized that there
was a problem but wasn't quite sure what it was. I knew how to calculate the
costs for production of these things and estimate the profits. I started
asking questions and learned that there had been a running battle for some
years between those who were making big profits from the independent tool
system and those who wanted to see the business run as it was supposed to
be. Eventually I joined that battle. When those who were well entrenched in
the corrupted tool system began trying to cut off my access to others who
wanted to keep the system pure, and attempting to subvert communications
within my organization and with other like-minded organizations, I knew I
had to take drastic action. I didn't have the resources to fight a
protracted legal battle (and there have been a number of those, though they
try to kep them hidden) so the only option was to cut off *their* resources.
I and my entire organization resigned, and others with whom we were in
contact followed suit. The wholesale defections put a huge dent in the
income on which they were depending and tipped the scales out of their
favor. No longer being supported by the masses of lower-level people
consuming their "product" which could not be sold outside of the system,
their organizations imploded and collapsed, destroying their private little
"inside" business and exposing their ruse.

The business model itself is not a problem. The problem lies with who
unfairly try to tip the scales in their own favor, making the largest part
of their income off the backs of those they are ostensibly trying to help,
and leaving them to try to learn how to *really* be successful on their own.
When, for the most part, those multitudes who are newly recruited into the
business have no previous business experience, only a few will figure it out
in time to prevent their going broke. The rest will leave, convinced that it
was all a scam and never realizing that they *could* have been successful
had they been given the correct guidance. And that gives the entire business
a bad name, hurts those of us who try to do business in an ethical and
responsible manner, and hurts those who would otherwise discover that there
*are* ways of becoming successful outside of the 9-5 employee route.

A mechanic needs tools, but if he spends all of his time and money playing
with his tools and buying new ones but never fixing any cars, he won't stay
in the mechanic business very long.