Behind the Smoke and Mirrors: Amway Motivational Organizations

I really enjoyed reading this true story. I wish this was a movie as well. What she went through was not funny for anyone to experience. But, Ms. Carter did a very splendid job with her ability to write the course of events. It felt as though, I was there be side her: hearing, seeing, and experiencing it all. Except, I was in constantly uncontrol able laughter from the start and throughout the book. I read it a again years later; and I enjoyed it just as much as I did the first time. This is one of best stories I have ever read. I wish the movie would come out.

Once I was invited by a friend go to a party at his house. To my surprise (and to 5 other friends), the event was not fun at all. There was a guy who we had never seen before, and he kept talking about achievement, dreams, victory, money, etc. Fortunately, one of my friends had been to a meeting like that a couple of week before and said: Why don't tell us you're selling Amway? I've always had a skeptical view towards multilevel-marketing organizations, and this book puts the evidence over the table.

I was there in 1980s and it told the story the way it was. A must read for anyone getting into the business.

After having read this book I came to this conclusion: Amway has absolutely no reason to exist. It has absolutely no retail value to the consuming public and that is confirmed by the fact that their product sales to the general public are only 3 percent and the rest is self consumed by the distributors themselves. Yep that's right, Amway is an internal consumption company. Along with the fact that most distributors, after expenses make little or no money or in a lot of cases, lose money. This book makes this all too painfully clear. After reading this little masterpiece I believe you will come to that very same conclusion as well. Enjoy!

This is a must read for anyone that has even been associated with Amway or has had someone close to them involved in Amway.

Should be required reading of anyone looking seriously @ MLM. The author worked 15 years trying without making money and the last 5 years she discovered that even the poster children in Amway's profile propaganda were spending so much on expenses and living above their means that they were broke too. I recommend Eric Sheibler's Merchants of Deception even more highly though. Just more evidence that no one makes money in Amway.

I'm not sure what to say. The author seems intent on tearing down the system for success in the business. The reason? In short- because some individuals she knew in the business exaggerated their own success, and because many of the 'higher level' distributors actually make money on the tapes, books, and seminars. I suppose she'd be shocked to find out that her doctor wrote a book, or recieved a fee for speaking or teaching another group of doctors? Happens all the time. In every field there is a system for success. The doctors that attend the seminars do so willingly andoften spend several thousand dollars. They know two things going in: This seminar is going to help them do their job better, and somebody is making money on it. Same with the books, tapes, and a decade at the University and $100K in student loans. Hey- SOMEBODY is making money on that, my friends. Translate the same idea to sales and marketing: All of the sudden you have a business opportunity whereby you get paid for getting people to purchase products and services like household cleaners, personal hygene products, water filtration systems, coffee, and about 8,000 other consumer products. Nevermind the advantages/disadvantages of the products- the idea is to assemble a customer base for these products. The opportunity is made somewhat better by the fact that a person may 'sponsor' others to do the same thing and recieve a small commision on their sales as well, and a smaller commision on the sales of the people that are sponsored by their recruits. This is an unusual style of business- but it's perfectly legal according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). It takes a unique kind of person to be successful at this kind of business. A few individuals rise to the top- as they do in every field. Then they seek to motivate and inspire the troops to build bigger and more secure businesses thus making their businesses more secure. In the process- they are helping others. Their time and expertise is worth something, right? What is the big deal? What the author has done is to find a few allegedly unscrupulous souls and has set out to paint with a broad brush an entire organization whose objective she admits is 'to be the best business opportunity in the world'. I also note that the author has not succeeded in this business. [I was also intrigued by the few who have posted here claiming to have been at successful levels in this business 'emerald', for example- but there's no way to verify such a claim.] The author even admits that the couple she worked for had a gross income of about $3 million. That's pretty nice. Now, the fact that they don't pay their taxes (who knows if this is true?), and that they are in debt (again, who knows?), doesn't tell me much about the business, or the system. It tells me that this particular couple doesn't manage their money well. This entire book is an indictment by implication. It takes unverifyable facts about a few individuals and extrapolates it out to encompass an entire organization and a business. I'll grant that the author may well have had a negative experience with the particular people she was in the business with. I'll grant that the business is tough to succeed in and it isn't for everyone- it's not as easy as some would claim. Truthfully, most people would just 'get over it'. I wonder why the author hasn't? Let's go further. Let's say a person fails in this business. After five full years, the person didn't make one red cent- I mean nothin', didn't sponsor anyone, didn't sell one product- but spent $1,000 per month on 'the system'(way, way more than a person would spend) Guess what my math loving friends? That's $60K. Businesses start up for a whole lot more than that - and they fail. They fail with quarter million dollar loans attached to primary residences, people. There are bigger risks out there than not selling enough toothpaste and laundry soap! Nobody comes and takes away your house and car because you didn't sponsor enough people. You quit. You walk away. You move on! Read this book if you must, but take it with a grain of salt. Beware of people with an overactive sense of 'justice' and hypersensitivity to personal offense.

This lady has done a great job of exposing the organisation and the lies behind it. I did Amway for 4 years, i was single, an immigrant who knew next to nothing about life in the states other than what my relatives told me and yeah i followed them into Amway thinking it was my dream too. I lost nearly 4K and the good will of many friends and relatives in the process but i learnt many valuable lessons. What Amway teaches is social engineering, not networking or making friends. They teach you to USE people to your own benefit, to make every extra buck possible at their cost and pretend you know what is good for them. They teach you to evaluate your life purely in terms of money - watch those videos again the voices will seem psychologically and spiritually empty. The 'business' as those brainwashed idiots fondly call it takes over their life completely - dictates their food, what they watch on tv, how they use the internet, their spiritual life and their relationships. People who run their own businesses do not live that way - they have normal outside lives and the busienss is just what they do to make money. What scares me is the number of immigrants i use to see at every meeting - asians, latinos and african americans who swallow whole the story and end up burning their hard earned dollars, you lose what you made and you lose conceptually what this country really is about - a place where you can BE WHO YOU ARE DESPITE ALL ODDS, FIND YOUR TALENTS AND MAKE IT!! Trust me talents are not about selling soap!! Don't let anyone get you into this and stay clear about what you need, from life, from this country.