Amway Friends

For the record, there is little worse than finding out that a friend sells Amway or some variation of the theme.

Hi There stuck in a job, want to make some exciting new business prospects? I see you like astronomy, would you be interested in a product demo- some soaps I have, guaranteed to strip off that annoying aluminum coating off mirrors and the dreadful greenish coatings off lenses and eyepieces. Its funny how that scamway "business model" still works (somewhat).

Back in the 70s I was hitch hiking all over the US and while in FL was picked up by a guy who had just been immersed into the Amway lifestyle. Even though I told him I had no money, was living in the woods, hopping freight trains, walking and hitching, he still gave me a hard sell for buying Amway products and becoming a salesman. The ride lasted about 50 miles and he dropped me off in the middle of Florida in the dark of night. Man, talk about paying for a ride, I was happy to get out into the wilderness and slept happily in an orange grove. After thinking about the ride while in my sleeping bag, I thought he must have been just using me as practice, but it certainly had the feel of a Scientology meeting.

George

Lee Spain said:

For the record, there is little worse than finding out that a friend sells Amway or some variation of the theme.

Agreed. When a so-called friend uses deception to get you to meet with him, then shows up in a suit-and-tie, you know that he is no longer a friend. And they add another layer of deception by hiding the "Amway" name because they know it is negative, so they give some "multi-tiered marketing" BS euphemism. Friends don't lie to each other.

I had one coworker who never did any work. He just worked the phones to sell Amway. He regaled us all with tales of becoming millionaire's while we pulled his weight. He always had the crappiest car in the company.

Amway cleaning products seem to be top notch but the people who are heavily involved with Amway seem "cultish" and to have no time for the pleasures in life. Shackely (sp) Vitamins is another Amwayesque organization.

Been there, done that several times. Amway is a money cult and I have ended several friendships because of it.

The toughest situation was the guy who first hired me out of college. He was Managing Engineer (ME) of a 5-engineer office in Fresno. A year later I was transfered to a 15-engineer office in SoCal. He was transfered six months later into the position of Assistant Managing Engineer (AME). One day he popped his head into my office and asked if I was interested in getting some "executive training." Thinking this was work related, I said I was. He said the meeting was at his house after hours the next week. He said it would include about a dozen people and I should bring my wife. This seemed odd, but I was young and naive.

We weren't in his house for 2 minutes when I saw several Amway boxes on his kitchen table. We sat through an hour presentation (given by a podiatrist of all people) about how to get rich, but it was more devoid of specifics than anything I have ever heard, including political speaches. He never even said what we would actually have to do to get rich, only that we could get there by following the "Executives Unlimited" program. Fortunately, we brought our newborn daughter with us. One look from me was all it took to get my wife to get my daughter crying. This gave us our out to leave. My AME said he would call me to get my reaction. I was seething, but didn't say anything.

When he called the next night, I read him the riot act for half an hour, telling him how unethical I thought his behavior was and how unethical I already knew Amway to be. I told him never to do that do me again or even mention it. I wasn't sure how far I could press it, but I told him if he uttered one word about to me I would rat him out to the ME and the Regional VP. Interestingly, he honored my demand and even seemed to respect me more. The same cannot be said for all the other people in the office I found out he had approached. I lost all respect for him after that encounter.

Lee Spain said:

For the record, there is little worse than finding out that a friend sells Amway or some variation of the theme.

I got suckered into a cookout with a fellow restaraunt manager...turned out to be an Amway pitch. The guy giving the pitch asked me about my hobbies, and what my future plans for my hobbies were...I mentioned I would like to build a good sized Dob someday...the jerk had the nerve to tell me my persuits were childish, and with Amway I could make real money :S needless to say that went over like a turd in a punchbowl with me....

The guy that invited me later decided to not listen to my advice about getting out of the housing market (flipping) and ended up losing everything.

I prefer sustainable growth of wealth apposed to get rich quick thankyouverymuch