Disclaimer: The viewpoint in this article is the viewpoint I held during the time frame of the story (1982-85). No effort is made to point out what I have come to know; this is intended to be a story of how things were (and how I was) back in the early eighties.
I was first introduced to Amway in the early summer of 1982 (or thereabouts) by a friend who was part of my church. I remember being asked about my dreams, watching the circles drawn, hearing about how hard retailing the product was and the power of the 2- to 5-year plan (sponsoring), and thinking that I could do this. After all, the only exposure I had had to the company before this was advertisements that had the "Shop the world of Amway, so easy to do" jingo that ran during the seventies.
Indeed, I thought nothing when this friend told me that I, "an impressionable young lad," should know up to two hundred names. This, of course, despite the fact that I was rather shy back then. I was able to list fifty
Amazingly, I still wanted to become an Amway salesman even after catching the Sixty Minutes report on Amway. The day after, when chatting with my friend, he commented on how the report was skewed towards the negative. This surprised me, since I thought the report was fair and well done.
By the Summer of 1983, I was listening to motivational tapes and reading motivational books along with my friend. I read "The Possible Dream." I read "Acres of Diamonds." I read "How to Win Friends and Influence People." I listened to tapes that talked up the "business." I listened to one tape where the tale teller talks about humiliations suffered at the hands of his "richer businessman uncle" followed by a discription of a series of visits driving more and more expensive cars, each coupled by him bragging "this would be the lousiest car I will ever drive" culminating with him pondering what he would buy now that he had bought the most expensive car he could conceive of, followed by a sound that most certainly sounded like a helicopter. I remember another tape where the speaker talked about the space shuttle spending 95% of its fuel getting off the ground, and then saying that was how the Amway business went. Another speaker said this in a third tape: "You spend six months in the business, you feed the millionaires. You spend six years, you JOIN the millionaires."
I remember my first impression of my friend's upline: Trailer Trash. As it turned out, there was an element of truth in
It was about this time that my friend started checking out other "possible business opportunities." One MLM I knew he tried out (Universe Foods I believe, trying to steal market share from Jiffy-Quick and Aunt Jemima) had a board listing all the people in the business and who sponsored whom. There was this one branch that seemed to have a LOT of people (and a few branches of its own) under it. But when I asked about it, the person who led the group replied "I haven't removed that group from the board yet." Twenty people, and none of them were still in the business. A few weeks later, I asked about the company, my friend said the company went under.
Then there was this comany that had one product: a device that changed AC power into DC power for light bulbs. This was supposed to make light bulbs last longer, but the devices could only be used once and if you changed bulbs you had to put in a new device. This sounded strange, especially when the friend had put in a new light bulb and it turned out that it was much dimmer than it should have been. I told him to put in a stronger bulb. He demurred, saying the items were so costly that it was better to use the light up before replacing it.
But probably the two clearest signs that my friend had gone from worshipping God to worshipping Money were his getting into mass-mailings and his getting THREE Visa cards. The mass-mailing fiasco I thought little of, but the Visa cards had me
It was also during this time that my friend's upline bought a used Cadillac. His reason for doing it was that he was emulating what rich people did with their money, and if he wasn't able to drive a new Cadillac, he would drive a used one so as to call success to him (and so to eventually drive NEW Cadillacs). About this time I noticed all the pictures on my friend's family refrigerator of spacious new houses, cars, yachts, new fashions being worn, and smiling happy people on vacation. They, of course, called this "dream building." I also got into this "dream building," but while my friendss were dreaming up houses and yahts and Winnebagos I was thinking of pinball games and everlasting
Then came Michigan State University, and five weeks without money. I struggled, but despite the changes in my life I still wanted to become an Amway distributor. Probably the biggest reason for this was that my friend was one, and he was nowhere near losing his place in my heart then. And even when I finally got a job (my first job from someone whom I hadn't known beforehand, and I hadn't felt so high since before entering college!), money was tight. However, in December of 1983 I finally got enough money together to become a distributor.
The day after I sent my money and application to Amway, my friend and I went (on a Sunday, no less) to an Amway rally in Reed City, Michigan. We made it to a downstairs auditorium at a motel where there was much singing and cheering, and an emerald [I do not remember his name] handed out various small parts of his clothing to people who had joined up in the past week. I received a bowtie. The idea, of course, was that I would do the same once I was on stage making speeches.
Soon after, I received my ADA number. It was (I believe) #1002. When I showed my card to my friend and his upline, we compared ADA numbers and were interested to note that the numbers DECREASED when we went from my friend's upline to my friend to me. We even joked about it: When ADA number "one" was handed out, that was when Jesus would come to take the elect away in the Rapture.
Some of the first Amagrams I received as a distributor (as well as many I had seen before becoming one) had a boiler-plate design, with a picture of a Diamond achiever on the front and many of the pages inside dedicated to pictures of people who had made it to various award levels, with blurbs for the higher gem achievers. But about half way through my year as a distributor, they made the Amagram slicker, with longer articles on Distributors giving back to the community and fewer pages given over to pin winners. For some reason I didn't like
It was also during this time that I tried out a few of the products. I liked the SA-8, the shampoo and toothpaste were decent products (they did their job, but there was nothing special about them) and I disliked the socks. Two things I noticed about the products:
As it happened, Winter break was the lowest point of my homesick blues. As the excessively cold winter changed into an early spring, I stabilized and my life started improving. I found a job at the MSU Library, and even enrolled for summer classes. I slowly got myself together in my new world and the hold that the old city had on me was weakening, with Amway fading fastest.
Probably one of the saddest moments in my friendship with the now Amway salesman (thankfully he had never quit his job) was in the Spring of 1984, when I asked him how much time he had spent with his children. His response was that he had turned the time with his kids into "quality time," with the idea that he made every second count. I was saddened. Even then, I understood that the term "quality time" meant "whatever few minutes I can't fit into my 'real' life."
And I had become further saddened that this person, a friend of mine, who was once active in the church and involved with raising his children had become absent from church and distracted from the world around him. He was always talking about doing stuff for "the kids" or "the future," but he was almost always away from home doing stuff for "the business." And while kids are very flexible and resilliant, at what point does time without them become emotional neglect?
During this same visit, my friend told me that Amway's "ten customer rule" had become obsolete, in part because there was so many more things being sold through the Amway catalog that it was now possible for a distributor to make the required volume by purchasing the stuff himself. Obviously he was relieved at this, as it meant he didn't have to sell the
During the autumn 1984 a group of people including my friend and his upline were agitating to be placed under another direct. There were vague stories about bad things the "present direct" had done, nothing specific outside of having to keep a list of items back ordered. I remember there was a flurry of activity, and most of the people were allowed to be moved to the new direct. Not me. I happened to be stuck under this person. My friend's guess was that I was held onto out of
One of the last Amagrams I saw had Pat Boone on the cover and a major article on his becoming a Diamond. In it, he talked about how the company was a great American jewel, "bringing the miracle of free enterprise to the common man."
I never signed back up. Not because of Pat Boone becoming Diamond, but because I had better things to do.
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