Some folks wouldn’t have the guts to admit this, but when I was in my 20’s, I was a network marketing junkie and I was absolutely convinced I was going to make a fortune in Amway. All kinds of anecdotal evidence had been carefully placed in front of me to convince me that I was destined to be successful in that endeavor.
The entire MLM industry continues to exist because people would rather see the world as it should be than how it actually is. When someone shows you an MLM deal, their little diagram of circles and big fat bonuses bears no resemblance whatsoever to what real people actually do. Many business opportunities (Most? All?) are sold that way. For a long time I was enamored with that illusion. It was only when I graduated from formulas and should be to pattern recognition and reality that I was able to see it for what it really was: An endless maze of smoke and mirrors.
This week, out of the blue, I got an email from my old upline Diamond in Amway. I used to revere this guy. He was extremely successful, with over 30,000 distributors – at least until that whole business went into a massive meltdown about 5 years ago. Now he’s hanging on to what he’s got left. He had toured my website and his email said, “I wondered when you made the comment about your past life and the “half truths” you were handed if you were talking about your days with us? If so, let me simply say that no one ever intended to hand you a half truth.”
Yes sir, with all due respect, I got an awful lot of half-truths, especially the ones you see on my website. Glad to have finally un-learned ‘em.
What’s really sad is that he’s still going around that merry go round, apparently unable to come to grips with what’s happened since the Internet came along. He’s selling carburetors in a fuel-injection world. All the clarity he needs is readily available, as soon as he graduates from formulas and ideals to the school of pattern recognition.
