Wow!!! Fascinating plus the fact your writing skills are excellent
allowed the narrative flow smoothly.
Deb, being a newbie myself I am not familiar with all the acronyms,
plus have a few questions if you don't mind?
Who are Rich and Jay? is that Rich DeVos and Jay VanAndel?
Rich and Jay left Nutrilite to start American Way?
Where does Amway enter the picture?
Who are considered to be the Founding Fathers of Amway?
ADA stands for?
IBOA stands for?
What is the hierarch of the titles? 1#Dimond 2# Emerald 3# Platinum
4#??...
> "Grandfather [Walter Bass] …..was only an Emerald; and those
below him were higher pins who made more money."
In the pyramid how can people below you make more money?
> "We were "different" than most Amway businesses: we weren't
affiliated with an AMO"
AMO stands for? What is an AMO? How is an AMO different from Amway?
> "But immediately "below" us, was an AMO called Network 21; and
further down were Yager and Britt with THEIR AMOs."
I thought "below us" meant people, yet you are referring to
"below us" as different organizations.
> "…and further down were Yager and Britt with THEIR AMOs"
which I interpate to me Yager and Britt had a number/many AMO's.
Why not make one AMO instead of many AMO?
LOS stands for?
Kingpins – where is the Kingpin in the hierarch? How does on
become a Kingpin? How many are there?
PV stands for? > "IBO doing 38 PV per month"
--- In mlmsurvivorsclub@
wrote:
>
> Gosh - I'm blushing ;-) And I'm sorry - I really don't have a single
> "spot" where I tell the saga (because that's what it would be) - it's
> all here on the MLM Survivor Forum, in bits and pieces.
>
> But I'll try to give you a peek:
>
> My Grandfather Walter Bass was teaching a Dale Carnegie Class at our
> local college (pretty good for a Farm Boy!) and had young Rich and Jay
> as students. They recruited Grampa as a Nutrilite Distributor in '49
> or so (this was before Amway bought the Nutrilite Company); then in
> the late '50s, as R&J decided to break away with their own company, my
> Grampa served as their mentor. I have seen the actual correspondence
> between them as they founded the "American Way". Grampa served for 12
> years as the President of the Board of Directors for the ADA (now, the
> IBOA); and my Mom was the Executive Administrator to the ADA for many
> years.
>
> Grampa was ALSO a Realtor - and handled most of the property sales for
> the DeVos and VanAndel families, as well as Amway's.
>
> So I grew up "Amway" - knew all the products. Spent almost every
> weekend with my Grandparents at their cottage, so I "heard" stuff.
> Played "submarine" with my cousins in Grampa's Bomb Shelter (yeah -
> Amway sold Bomb Shelters in the early 60's). I was an occasional
> Distributor, although I never took it too seriously.
>
> I have to add that my Grandfather was one of the people who testified
> before the Senate Subcommittee Hearing, on whether Amway was an
> illegal pyramid or not. He was sort of a "key" person, because he was
> only an Emerald; and those below him were higher pins who made more
> money.
>
> In the late '80s/early '90s, my Grandfather would visit me often in MY
> business (a retail hot tub store) - and at one point, he asked me to
> help my Mom run his Amway business after he died. I agreed - who
> would have ever thought this "Energizer Bunny" of a man would actually
> die?? But he did, in July of '93 at age 87; and true to my word, I
> went to work with my Mom.
>
> We were "different" than most Amway businesses: we weren't affiliated
> with an AMO. We gave training/samples/
> warehouse with $25,000 worth of product that we shipped for free to
> our downline; if you called me before noon, your order was shipped the
> same day. We ran it like a REAL business, offering 30 days Accounts
> receivables, so our downline could receive payments from their retail
> customers before they had to pay us. We accepted VISA and Mastercard.
> We did everything in our power to help our IBOs make some extra money
> - including offering "sales" on popular products.
>
> But immediately "below" us, was an AMO called Network 21; and further
> down were Yager and Britt with THEIR AMOs. I listened to N-21 Amvoxes
> and tapes; and my Mom and I attended a few meetings and a big
> function, just to see what it was all about. I KNOW new recruits are
> being brainwashed - I've seen how it happens. I was also aware of the
> activities of people like Yager and Britt, mostly from conversations
> with my Grandfather, who wasn't too happy with some of their
> shenanigans. And in the late '90's, I discovered the MLM Survivor
> website, where my eyes were opened to the abuses that other IBOs were
> suffering...
>
> I KNOW what the Founding Fathers intended Amway to be - and it
> certainly wasn't the way the AMOs were portraying the business!! I
> KNOW the Corporation; and have met some of the DV and VA family
> members (plus corporate "biggies") personally. It makes me angry that
> something so "good" got dragged through the mud (and yes, I'm angry at
> the Corporation for letting it happen)
>
> And I have an interesting perspective, since I ran the largest active
> LOS in all of Amway. I KNOW when the Kingpins are lying about things
> like "residual income" and "retiring"..
> And I also know that IF many of our immediate Group IBOs had been
> saddled with Tool-and-Function expenses, they would NOT have made any
> money. Because we were "Platinum-and-
> Amway/Quixtar'
> own data, that the average person starting out in the business had a
> LOT of hurdles to overcome, like the 2/3 dropout rate and the "average
> IBO doing 38 PV per month" (Our downline averaged 200 PV per month in
> comparison, because they were RETAILING; and weren't weighed down by
> AMO expense, so they actually made a profit)
>
> I still found the business frustrating - even though I LOVED the
> people in our downline. Having come from a retailing background, I
> found the Corporation'
> saw the Corp catering to the whims of the Kingpins who ruled the IBOA.
> Products were undergoing too many changes. I saw Rules broken; or
> enforced in a biased manner. Even though we had a high IBO Retention
> Rate, we were constantly patching the legs together to keep qualified
> at Emerald. (It's like treading water - the minute you stop, you
> start to sink) I was ready to get out, and so was my Mom, who had
> lost her eyesight by this time.
>
> The Bass Company was put up for sale - and this is what most people
> never get to find out: if you try to sell your Amway Business, you are
> shackled by rules that will see to it you DON'T get Fair Market Value
> for decades of hard work. You are NOT allowed to put your business up
> for sale to the highest bidder (can you imagine what a Kingpin would
> be willing to pay to be able to say they were the LARGEST!!!!?
> one point, the Rules required that the business be offered to ME,
> since I was "directly sponsored" by Walter Bass. Believe me, I could
> have afforded it - ANY of you could have afforded it, since it
> generated at least a half-million dollars of income per year. But I
> didn't want it - 11 years of running it was more than enough. So it
> was eventually sold, and I had a HUGE weight lifted off my shoulders.
>
> So I'm here on this forum, not as a "survivor" (since the only
> "injury" I sustained was a hip replacement - those cases of SA-8 are
> HEAVY!!!) - but as someone who wants to see the AMO abuse stopped.
> I'm praying the recent firing of a bunch of Kingpins is a sign that
> the Amway Corporation intends to take back their good name??
>
> Sorry for the long read - but you *asked*....LOL!
>
> Best wishes!
> Deb
>
>
> --- In mlmsurvivorsclub@
> chandranova@ wrote:
> >
> > Deb, do you have your MLM story posted somewhere? I am fascinated by
> > the fact that you come from an Amway family, with your grandfather
as
> > a Founder, and you were in it for a while as an upline to many. I
> > ask this publicly because it might be beneficial to us newbies to
the
> > forum :)
> >
>
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