I’ve heard many stories on this board and elsewhere about how Amway is like a cult. But what are some specific examples of cultlike behavior?
I understand they put a lot of pressure on their salespeople to recruit more salespeople and set up new “distributorships,” but that just seems par for the course for MLM type businesses. What makes them especially cultish? When I hear the word cult I picture people using secret code words, or wearing fetish costumes or engaging in other weird behavior.
Also, has anyone here ever been associated with Amway or known people who have?
For 1 thing they really want people to stay away from non Amway people. That’s a classic cult thing.
When I encountered them, the guy who told me about a ‘marvelous new business opportunity’ didn’t reveal the true nature of the event until we were inside. Maybe it was just him, but any event which disguises its true anture is to be regarded with suspicion.
Once inside, there was all this rah-rah boosterism designed to get people in line behind the cause emotionally. There was little chance to step hack and evaluate things critically. Not so unusual for salespeople? But salespeople have already chosen to sell the product. When you are the mark to whom the sales techniques are directed, that’s a different thing. In an alleged business environment, this is especially suspicious.
I think all the MLM people flat out lie to you at first which to me is a big turn off. I guess they know that MLM is so hated they have no chance if they tell you the truth up front.
My sis and bro-in-law were in Amway many years ago and tried to get me hooked up with them. I found them to be highly annoying but no worse than most other high pressure sales people.
They were only involved for about 2 years before they gave up for lack of sales income.
When I was in college, a friend of mine became involved with a mysterious “new business” and I agreed to let her practice her presentation on me. They were evidently instructed not to mention the name Amway up front; the initial 30-45 minutes was instead devoted toward stoking the presentees’ fantasies of independent wealth, having them write down a list of things they’d always wanted to do, places they wanted to visit, things they would buy for themselves and loved ones if money were no object.
Only after visions of luxury jet travel to exotic places, vacation homes on the Riviera, and blissful slumber on a mountain of downy-soft cash were firmly implanted in the subjects’ heads would they mention Amway—emphasizing what a firmly-established and highly profitable company it was and how many people had become filthy rich doing basically nothing but signing others up and letting the wealth roll in.
I don’t know if it qualifies as cultlike, but the business model is certainly misleading enough to be a religion. AFAIK my friend never made any money from it.
I’ve never heard them referred to as “cultish”. A pyramid scheme, yes, but not cultish.
If they are a cult what unorthodox religious beliefs do they hold.
I think someone mis-used the term cult in describing Amway to you.
Your post brings back memories I thought I’d erased. It wasn’t just him then. 
And the thing is, the pictures of wealth they displayed all had the same kind of Las Vegas style to them. There was nothing that spoke of restraint or high quality rather than ostentatious display. They were not particularly attractive to me.
I see nothing wrong with multi-elevel marketing in and of itself, but when a member’s profits become tied to recruitment and sales of kit to other members rather than through sales of products to outsiders, the MLM scheme passes over the line to become a Ponzi scheme. If there’s not an actual line of decent products behind it all, run. If there is, but the products seem to take second place to expanding the organization, run more slowly.
I’ve been part of a different MLM scheme, and since I’m a lousy salesperson, I just buy and use a few of the products, and they don’t hassle me about ‘expanding my downline’ or anything like that. And that’s the way it should be.
If a someone starts talking to you about making a lot of money part time you can pretty much bet it’s a MLM.
The word ‘cult’ has a number of shades of meaning, but what we’re talking about is not so much the beliefs, as the method of operation of the organization.
If the organization discourages critical thinking, relies on emotional bonding to the group, promotes searation from other groups and the outside world, that’s the kind of behavour we’re talking about. This behaviour is shared by religious groups, but also army training, and sales and sports boosterism. The question is, do these behaviours show up before you join or after? If before, when you’re trying to make a decision about joining, tthat’s especially suspicious, and you need to be careful.
Anecdotes abound about how people’s friends and family members withdrew from those who refused to get involved with Amway.* That’s very typical of many cults.
- I was about to say “drink the Kool-Aid,” so there ya go.
As I’m sure that you’re now aware, asking people who they know aren’t interested if they can “practice” their presentation on you is yet another one of their deceptive techniques.
One time a friend said a guy said to him “How would you like to buy any car you want?” and my friend said “This is Amway isn’t it?” and the guy just left him alone.
My lone encounter with Amway came over 30 years ago. I had a very good friend, and my first wife and I socialized with him and his wife fairly frequently.
We invited them over for dinner one night, and after the dishes had been taken off the table, my friend said something like “OK, let’s get down to business,” and he and his wife proceeded to spread out their materials and give us the entire Amway spiel.
I think I knew that he had become involved with Amway, but I don’t remember any agreement that it would be a feature of our gathering that night.
As I cared for them both, I endured the pitch, though it interested me not in the least. There was no permanent damage done, and I’m still good friends with him today. But I remember being somewhat offended by the way it all went down. Of course, he and his wife abandoned Amway fairly soon afterwards, IIRC.
Does this have anything to do with Amway being a cult? I don’t know, but in the case of my friend, his involvement IMO impaired his judgment.
Knowing me as he did, he should have known that I would be one of the last people on earth who would be interested in joining something like Amway – and should also have known that waving the promise of Vegas-like wealth in front of my nose (as an earlier poster aptly put it) would have zero appeal to me.
I have heard stories of people hearing from friends from long ago and the reason was Amway. They get so desperate to sign up people they start calling friends they have not spoken to in 15 years.
My parents were Amway distributors back in the early 80s (IMO, it was a significant contributor to their divorce). The culture was quite religious in nature in ways that are numerous, but difficult to describe, but including:
[ul]
[li]You’re driven to recruit everyone you know[/li][li]You’re encouraged to develop an unreasonable, irrational zeal for the products[/li][li]A whole bunch of demands, promises, subtle threats of failure if you don’t try hard enough are made in the promotional material and motivational seminars[/li][li]Because the system is touted as the way you’re going to make yourself fantastically rich, you’re under pressure to drop any conflicting or competing interests[/li][/ul]
It wasn’t even about selling the product, in the end - nobody was allowed to just be a customer - you had to keep badgering them to become a distributor too, until they either cave in or you alienate them with your constant demands. Reality gets warped so that you can’t understand why any customer wouldn’t want to make the step up to being a distributor.
It’s more like a religion than some religions.
I got a call one time from the guy who wallpapered my guest bathroom three years earlier.
Good point, but in my case I was also trying to get into her pants.
If you didn’t, you dodged a bullet.
Shortly after my dad died, my mom received a call from someone she knew in high school and hadn’t communicated with since shortly thereafter–40+ years ago. She said that she had heard somewhere that my dad had died, and was compelled to take the opportunity to get back in touch. My mom was really touche…
Until the lady tried to sell her a gravestone. :smack: