This was an entry in my Dreambook where a person named Mike Knight talked about the three years he was involved in Amway. It has long been buried in the Dreambook, but a recent looking-through by me brought it up.
I decided to give this item its own page because it has its own time period apart from mine (early eighties) and Rick Woodell's (early seventies). This fills in the Amway story in the early nineties, during its last years of flush growth, and amplifies the point behind the other pages: Amway (and her attendant systems that feed and feed off her) hasn't changed, just gotten older and fatter.
And now, I bring you . . . Mike Knight
There's so much I want to share...where do I begin? Well, I guess, at the beginning.
In the fall of 1989, a friend of mine gave me a cassette tape by Ty Boyd about "networking." The tape did the trick, and I asked to learn more. He came to my house and showed me the plan, and by the time he was done, I was raring to go. I had heard of Amway before, and remember seeing the "60 Minutes" piece as a kid, but I put it in the back of my mind and decided to give this a shot. I was working 6 days a week for $12,000 a year, and the thought of making just an extra grand a month was exciting!
My friend gave me some of the tapes to listen to. Some talked about the mechanics of building the business...that didn't bother me. Others got quite deep into religion and politics, and some red flags started to go up. I thought to myself "Wait a minute...this is a business...why are they getting off the track and into such personal subjects? What does who I vote for or how I choose to worship have to do with dealing these products?" It was my first indication that, for the people deeply involved, the Yager organization wasn't just a business...it was a way of life.
I remember an after-rally meeting at a restaurant, when a fellow distributor decided to order a mixed drink with his dinner. You could have heard a pin drop when he did so, and the looks he got from the upline! Afterward, I asked my sponsor what the problem was, and he said "Well, you've got to understand, they don't drink, and they expect us to 'duplicate the system.'" I was puzzled. I didn't think that "the system" included social activity, or what one did on one's free time.
FUNCTIONS:
My first major function was Dream Weekend 1990. My sponsor didn't attend this function (and caught a lot of flack from upline for not doing so), but I went because I was told that I "needed to be there." I was assured that this weekend would change my life, and leave me feeling charged and ready to build my business.
What it left me was feeling distraught and concerned, and wondering what I had gotten myself into. It was hard to explain, but I remember telling my sponsor that there was a very heavy air of influence there, encompassing politics, religious faith, and just about every other aspect of your life, and if you didn't feel the way the rest of the "crowd" felt, then there must be something "wrong" with your way of thinking, and it needs to be "changed." I won't mince words...this scared the crap out of me!
I expressed to my upline SP and DD, and they didn't really seem to care. They're response was something like "Take the stuff you don't agree with and put it aside." Problem was, I disagreed with just about everything. If you can imagine a liberal Catholic and a Democrat in this sea of people...man, did I stick out like a sore thumb, and did the speakers and the crowd let me know it! I guess what bothered me most was listening to people like Ron Ball talk about issues which, in my mind, had NOTHING to do with the operation of a business, and if I decided to excuse myself for a walk during all of this, my upline was quickly after me to get me back inside because I "needed to hear" what the speaker was saying.
I remember a preacher saying during one of the Sunday worship services that the rich would gain entry into heaven before the poor, because poor people had done nothing with their lives, and weren't pleasing to God. Yet another time, the minister trashed the Catholic faith and likened it to paganism (has a lot to do with selling products, doesn't it?). There were other things I took issue with, like the idea of spending a minimum of time with your young children in order to spend more time building the business ("they'll appreciate you more for it when they're grown"), or the fundamentalist idea that every woman wants to (and should) be home all day ready to "submit to her man," and that the idea of a woman wanting or having a career outside the home is a sin. Still, though all of this, I convinced myself that I could build this business and not have to surrender my personal beliefs, morals and values to "the system."
However, as time went on, I realized more and more that it was not probable if I wanted to achieve what my upline considered "success." With every function, seminar and rally I attended, I felt even more that pull to give in to the system and give up my conscience (fortunately, in the end, my conscience was strong enough to win out). My sponsor, by the way, did eventually pull out of the business, I suspect because he was dealing with a lot of the same issues as myself.
There was also the constant emphasis on reaching the Diamond level, which I had no interest in (I wanted to be a Direct with a modest income...I had no desire to be a millionaire). I remember seeing the pictures of the lavish homes, the Cadillacs, the motor coaches, etc, and instead of "dreaming" (which was what I was supposed to do, I guess), thinking to myself how over-indulgent and materialistic it all seemed, and how I would be quite happy if I just had the bucks to buy a Cutlass and go up north in the summer. There were times when I enjoyed dreambuilding, but not when it was just looking at other people's dreams and having my upline say "Now, don't you really want that motor coach?" No, I really didn't, but they didn't seem to understand.
SHOWING THE PLAN:
I actually did enjoy doing this, and if this were the extent of the business, I may still be in it. However, I did not agree with the idea of not telling someone what it was up front, or in some instances, not even telling them before you visited that you were going to show them the plan.
There are several things I did during my years in the business which I am ashamed of now, like calling an old high school friend I may not have contacted, except to show him and his wife the business and try like heck to get them in. Of course, when they decided ultimately not to get in, our contact broke off (at the advice of my upline). I'm sorry, but the way I see it, I was looking to my friends only as far as I could see them in the business, and I lost touch with or minimized relationships with a lot of people whom I cared about (and who cared about me), just because they weren't interested in Amway. I'm sorry, but in my opinion, that is not Christian behavior, and I regret such actions to this day.
Like I mentioned earlier, in order the business encompasses every aspect of your life. Your friends are your Amway friends. Your new family is your Amway family. Your church is the church your upline attends, or at least one which follows a doctrine approved by Dexter and your upline. When I realized what I was doing to the people around me, I hit reverse very quickly. Unfortunately, in some instances, the damage had already been done.
PRODUCTS:
I had no problems with Amway products. I enjoyed using them, although I found some to be on the pricey side. Likewise, I never had any ethical problems with the Amway corporation as a whole. I think it is a great testament to the free enterprise system, and I admire DeVoss and Van Andel for what they have achieved. Please do not confuse my observations about the Yager system with my opinions of the Amway corporation. They're two different schools of thought.
TAPES & BOOKS:
I was a good boy. I spent my $5 on the "tape of the week," and later spent the extra $5 on the "leadership tape of the week." Some were good, and some made me cringe. I remember in 1992, getting the "Bush vs Clinton" tape, and thinking to myself "Why am I paying 5 bucks to hear someone else's political advertisement." There is one line from a tape, however, that will always stick in my mind. It was a tape where Dexter talked about someone who walked up to him at a function and told him straight out that she disagreed with his personal opinions (finally, something I could relate to). His response to her was "That's okay...the more you grow, the more you'll agree." For the first time, I heard Dexter Yager's definition of "growth," and it sent chills down my spine.
PRIORITIES:
Unfortunately, I found myself in the same boat as a lot of distributors I've read about...believing that the business comes first...before the rent, before the electric bill, before the phone bill (no wait...you need the phone to prospect...never mind). I was facing eviction from my apartment because I was convinced that buying and moving two start-up kits per month was more important than paying the rent. What I ended up were six kits which would have been thrown out on the street (along with me) if I hadn't had a family member who was kind enough to lend me the money to recover from this huge lapse in judgement. I also can't tell you how much credit card debt I racked up traveling to functions I couldn't afford, or (on the advice of upline) trying to "buy" myself to the next pin level so I could walk across the stage at the next seminar/rally. When I read the stories of people in this business filing for bankruptcy, I'm not the least bit surprised.
BONUSES:
During my time in the Yager group I attained the 4000 PV pin level and at my peak was making about $200 a month (which was pretty good in my mind). When the plan was presented to me, the pretext was that I could build to a level I was comfortable with, and maintain that level of income. My eventual goal was to become a Direct Distributor, but I needed to take a break and I wasn't unhappy with the bonus I was pulling in. Little did I know that, when I did go "inactive," my upline SP would route my bonus around me, and it was then that I realized that what I had been doing all of this time was actually a part-time job disguised as a business. I understand that bonus distribution has changed since then, but at the time, the upline could giveth, and the upline could taketh away.
THE END:
My ride on the Yager roller coaster lasted 3 years, and when it was over, I felt a real sense of personal freedom. My upline SP took over my group and asked me to sign a piece of paper stating that I was "no longer interested in their success." I saw it for what it was...a guilt tactic (we Catholics know a lot about that). It didn't work. I signed my group over and wished him the best. I haven't seen or spoken to him since. I never talked negatively about my upline to any of my friends who were still in the business. Even after I left, I still respected the "edification" principle.
There is so much more I could tell you about my experience, but I don't want to write a book here. To those who may disagree or accuse me of spouting bitterness, let me just say that any bitter feelings I had about my experience are years behind me. However, I have always wanted to get this out in the open (I've rarely talked about it), and if my story can help someone out there who is considering this business to look at it with eyes wide open before jumping in, I feel I will have done some good.
the web address for this page is http://hunza1.tripod.com/amway/mknight.html