Amway Quixtar Business Myths

Dan Lorenzo Speaks About Tools

The following excerpts came from Dan Lorenzo's site before he took it down around the beginning of the year. If you want the files, go to my downloads page. Don understands the power of the internet and wants to reform the abuses in Amway before the abuses, which are easily exposed with the internet, bring Amway down. He is to be commended for taking such a stand and pointing out the economic realities of Amway, which are also reflected in my site. All quotations are from his site.

From his Introduction Section:

Don makes many points I do on my site about if the Amway business is selling products or selling the system.

"When you have emeralds and diamonds making 80% plus of their income of the system and less than 20% from Amway, there is something wrong and we can't be part of that."

"All anyone needs to do in go to a search engine such as Infoseek on the Internet, type in the word Amway, read some of the articles and learn real fast as to what is causing Amway to do less business every year than the year before as has been happening for the last couple of years. The biggest thing you learn real fast is the greed of a lot of emeralds and above that are causing all of the problems for Amway. "

Don understands the reality of the Internet and what previously went on behind the scenes will not work anymore.

"The only way that we or Amway or anyone else is going to keep the garbage off of the Internet is to stop doing it! You don't try and kill the messenger, you fix the message. I believe another big reason that Amway is losing ground now every year is that, before the Internet, no one had any way of finding out what was really happening with these tools, functions, etc., as we were all being told that the prices being charged were what it cost for the tapes, books, functions, etc."

From his Feedback Section:

As I state in my site. The Amway products business legitimizes the uplines tool businesses.

"I was taught and therefore taught that the system was put in place to assist people in building their "Amway" business. This is as far from the truth today as you can get as when you are making 80% of your income off of the system, it is totally reversed, Amway is in place so people can sell their system!"

Why Don put up his web site.

"I want to again repeat why we started this web site to begin with and that was to try and end some of the rumors and "un-truths" that are being spread out there and also to let leaders in my organization know where I was coming from. Also because of the actions of the Crawfords, this web site is my only way to keep in touch with thousands of people in my organization right now."

Don comments on the viability of the business without tools income.

"Amways figures claim that 1% of all the people that ever get into Amway ever reach the direct level. Since we know that you have to be at least at the direct level to receive any "tool" money, what would happen if all of the people that don't receive any of this tool money quit buying anything at all from Amway for a year. I mean nothing, no Amway products, personal shoppers, Quixtar - nothing, do you think if this happened that we could get the old Amway back again? The Amway that Rich and Jay started back in 1959! The Amway that would last long enough and that you would be proud enough of to pass down to your kids!"

"I have always said Amway is a great business with a lot of problems that need fixing and all we need to do is ask ourselves if we are part of the problem or part of the solution? When we show people the Amway opportunity, we tell them that it is transferable and willable, but we really need to ask ourselves if we are telling the truth? At the rate it is going now, will the business still be around for your lifetime, let alone the lifetime of your children?

Don comments if the system can be fixed

One of the questions that I am being asked over and over and over again is "In my opinion, is Amway/Quixtar fixable?" My answer is yes, if enough people get off of their butts and say enough is enough! If enough people quit putting money in front of their values and what they really believe in! If more people would start making their own decisions instead of believing what they are being "brain-washed" into believing! If enough people would stand up and fight for what they believe in!

There is a country song out, "you have to stand for something or you will fall for anything" and in my opinion that is what is happening in the total True North organization. People are being led by threats and intimidation instead of standing up for what they believe in. "

"Isn't there a lot of "Amway Money" at the diamond level? The best way for me to answer this would be to post copies of my Amway income on here since I went diamond and I may just do that yet, but to answer the question, no! Don't get me wrong, you can make a comfortable living at diamond on Amway money, about the same as you can you could make if you owned a small one person shoe store."

"Shouldn't people be allowed to make money off of the system? I believe without a doubt people should be allowed to make money off of the system, the question is how much? Rich DeVos said in 1983 that no one in the Amway business should be allowed to make any more than 25% of their "total" Amway income from a "system" of any kind! He said that 75% of their business should come from moving products and I totally agree with him. "

"If people like the Crawfords are making this kind of money off of functions and tools, why don't they cut the prices in half so more people could take advantage of the system and build more businesses? My point exactly, as some of you know since I went diamond I have been fighting a losing battle to get the price of functions, tools and open meeting reduced but it has always fallen on deaf ears. Like I said earlier, people don't want to give up the golden goose. However when the time comes that enough people say that enough is enough and stand up and do something about it, then things will change. The problem is, by Amway's own admissions, only 1% of all active distributors ever reach the direct level and at direct, people start receiving some "hush" or system money, they are not about to upset the apple cart, make any waves and have someone take this money from them. Why do you think that some of the directs and above in my organization that I have helped get them to where they are now are now telling you how wrong I am?"

"Do you really believe that people can build a successful Amway business without the system? My answer on this is only 1% of people that are active in the Amway business ever reach the direct level now, how successful would you say the system is? I hate to repeat myself, but I believe that proper systems with the proper motives are excellent but as the systems stand today that I personally know of, I believe that we could help more people become direct today by abandoning the present systems and doing without. I believe by getting back to smaller, more personal meeting we could accomplish much more."

As I discuss in my site and on pages like my Amway paradox, Don too addresses the problems with the System.

I was in fact like some of you, I didn't believe that anyone could succeed without the system. While I do agree that the tools and the functions do help a lot of people, once I get some numbers together and post them on here, I believe that you will agree with me:

That system is not worth the price people are paying for it.

With the money that is being made by some people off of the system, we could cut back up the system profits and reduce the cost of functions, books and tapes by half allowing more people to take advantage of it.

If you are a direct or above you already have enough tools laying around that have never been opened that would last you for the next year.

The reason that we have lost over 20,000 people already out of the True North (some of them out of your group) was largely do to the system! This was because of many reasons, people were told to sell everything that they owned to get to functions, buy tools or whatever. They were told to be at functions instead of weddings, funerals, etc.! They were told to be at functions every time there was a long weekend or a holiday weekend! They were told that if they didn't plug into the system, they weren't going to make it! They went to functions and heard some of the lies that were being told from stage and went home and quit! They went to functions or to an open meeting and saw how some people acted and they went home and quit or never even got in!
I am sure you could add to this list if you sat down and started asking yourself about some of the people that quit your business.

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