One would think that a Web site such as mine would not have anything good to say about being in Amway. There are some things, in my opinion, which Amway AQMO's (Amway Quixtar Motivational Organizations) do very well and from which the average person could benefit.

Amway AQMO's are expert motivators. They are the best I have ever seen. They could teach and motivate people to sell refrigerators to Eskimos and sand to the Arabs. Everyone would all think they would get rich doing it too. They have a great system for building self-esteem and giving people a positive outlook. Money losing distributors continue to hang on because they like the message they hear. (And, also not wanting to be labeled a quitter if they left, they hang on because it is easier to stay in and do nothing versus admit defeat) Economically speaking, poorly performing distributors see value in the motivational services provided by the AQMO's even if their Amway businesses are always running a loss.

Robert Kiyosaki put it well in his book "Rich Dad Poor Dad":

New distributors will surely get their share of rejection as they prospect people for Amway. They will learn from each rejection as well. It is just too bad the business model taught by most AQMOs is not economically efficient, or that the products were not perceived by more people to be a real value. AQMOs do not teach so much product related selling since they do little actual selling. More over they teach interpersonal skills specifically with motivation and leadership. Distributors try to motivate their downline to go out and build a huge downline so that they can "leverage" their own time using the time of their downline. Again, the total poor personal sales volume of a typical distributor, as reproduced by their business model of "self-consumption" leaves them spending more in expenses on average than what their personal sales generates in total margin for the group. Amway states the average active IBO grosses $88/month, but it is rather easy to spend more than $88/month on their uplines system.

The message brought by Amway AQMO's can be valuable only in the short run. Their message teaches such simple things as continuous learning and continuous self-improvement. They can teach you to wake up and see all the opportunity the USA presents to us. They also teach persistence and optimistic thought. A short exposure to these techniques cannot hurt. Everyone could benefit from a short exposure.

What has evolved over time is that the AQMO's have discovered that this "message" sells Amway. Distributors see more value in the message provided by AMO's than in the Amway products. I have received much e-mail from unprofitable distributors who like the AQMO message, and are willing to pay just to be around these types of people, even though they know they will never get anywhere in Amway. I can't fault these people, they know what they are spending and they know what they are getting for their money. Amway and AQMO's have now come full circle. In the beginning, Amway used the AQMO's to expand the Amway business. Now the AQMO's use the Amway products business to justify their motivational supply businesses. The poor economic fundamentals of an Amway distributorship, due to the Amway Paradox, and the negative sum game create an ever-needy, motivation hungry customer base for the AQMO's motivational supply business. Few distributors discover true profitability, so they are constantly seeking the next "key of success" to the business. This key can hopefully be found in the next "tape of the week", or in the next motivational weekend, which would make them show the plan just one more time to someone who might be their hot new recruit.

The message sells so well that the most successful high level Diamond and Emerald distributors now make many times more money on their tools business than on their Amway products business. This creates the Amway business Paradox. The one thing that keeps distributors interested in Amway is also the largest single overhead cost, which prevents the average distributorship from being profitable. I have no problem with the AMO's making money on the goods and services they provide, but there is usually no disclosure at the beginning to new distributors that these overhead costs exist, and to what extent they exist. A huge conflict of interest exists. Upline distributors are in a "leadership" position to recommend the purchase of large amounts of tools, while simultaneously profiting from every recommended purchase. Distributors have been know to say "Tools are 100% optional, but 100% necessary", or "Tools are optional, but so is success." The same conflict of interest exists with a commission based financial planner. These planners represent loaded funds with sales charges as high as 5%. The planner well knows that there are better performing and cheaper funds on the market. Many planners "churn" customer's accounts 2-3 times are year, extracting 5-15% of the customer's assets for himself as commission. I found this same attitude with my upline. They were willing to motivate their downline spend whatever they could, no matter if it made sense or not, in the name of "building one's business". The more they spent the more committed they would be to their business.

As I stated in the beginning, AQMO's do some good teaching only at the beginning. As time goes on, I think the power of the AQMO's message becomes more destructive than constructive. The message is destructive when distributors stop thinking as a rational individual, and deny reality in the name of positive thinking.

After a while, the Amway distributor experiences the "Amway mind trap". The mind trap is the situation where unprofitable distributors attribute their financial failure in Amway to their lack of effort and dedication to showing the plan frequently and properly, and not being able to find enough people who will "fall for Amway". Distributors do not realize that the poor business and economic realities of Amway via the AQMO's plans of only "self-consumption" have mathematically ensured that an overwhelming majority of Amway distributors are never profitable. Sure, some charismatic, clever and hard working people will always make it to Diamond status despite the poor odds, and poor business fundamentals. Sheer numbers of potential suckers mathematically ensures this. For every diamond that makes it, there will several hundred downline distributors losing many times over combined what the Diamond distributor is earning.

Looking back on my Amway experience I can say I learned many things. I learned most people in the business know little or nothing about business or economics. I learned most people blindly accepted what someone said without challenging the source or what was being said. I learned distributors researched Amway less than they would research buying a new refrigerator or washer/dryer combo, even though it would cost them significantly more time and money than both these items combined. Most interesting to me is how irrationally people can act when inspired by a charismatic leader. This inspiration can shield them from reality in an idealistic dream world, untouched by any information from the outside world. I now understand much better how people can "turn their brains off" letting other people run their lives, and do the thinking for them. I understand first hand the psychology of why cults exist and the how things like the Holocaust were taken to such extremes.

"If you have a dream the facts just don't matter" Amway Rally cry

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