What is Amway?

What is Amway? There is a lot of talk about this multi level marketing organisation Amway Global Corporation, and the business opportunity itself as an "Independent Business Owner". Everyone seems to have an opinion. Is it a cult, a pyramid scheme, a scam or a legitimate work from home business opportunity?

First myth busted, it is not an easy way to make money, and you don't make any money with it just sitting at home.

Even Rob Davidson, Amway Global's (formerly known as Quixtar North America) Vice President of Sales and Marketing, in a public relations propaganda video with Doug Devos states "members didn't realise they had to work as hard as they do" to make an income in this business.

Doug Devos is president of Alticor (Amway and Quixtar parent company), as well as founding member Rich Devos being his father. Not a bad business for a son to inherit, and we all dream we could get rich quick and inherit a vast fortune. However if you don't earn your fortune fairly on your own merit, you may not grasp the true value of money.

The pyramid scheme label has been used to describe Amway's multi level marketing (mlm) / network marketing style of business and recruiting methods. This is because the company has been involved in government court battles of similar illegal trading allegations, such as with the United States of America's Federal Trade Commission, and the United Kingdom's own government.
Amway has made a number of changes to the business model over the years to try and avoid being shut down. The company has been taken to court numerous times. Although it has been fined for breaching the law, and changes made to the company being made to avoid further prosecution, it currently operates in most countries (all that we know and aware of) as a legal entity, and not currently an illegal pyramid scam. This decision does not mean it makes it at all ethical, or a good money making system, see What is Network 21? Time will tell what future court cases, legislation and government actions will be brought against it.

Concerns are raised because one of the core facets of making money in this business opportunity is that to make the most and biggest income in this scheme you must recruit as many people as possible, and those people must also do the same. This is not sustainable.
This is not to be confused with a ponzi scheme, and the money invested is not too large. The DeVos and Van Andel families are not going to empty your bank account. Unlike the Madoff collapse, you are not going to lose millions of dollars. The company has been running for many years. However, the real risk is that you will not make any money after a lot of wasted time and effort.

Is Amway a cult? The bizarre Network 21 recruitment seminar (an Amway recruiting company focused on selling expensive motivational support tools and help presenting "the plan") I was forced to endure gave me the distinct impression they were using brain washing techniques. I was aware of common hypnosis / NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) techniques being used to soften my brain up.

The dear leaders are not necessarily seeking to be harmful to the level of allegations from people, government and the media surrounding Church Of Scientology cult claims.
The claims of cult are very complex and serious accusations, and should not be easily levelled at anyone and cannot be 100% confirmed without a lot more discussion and analysis. Other people have researched these claims, and it definitely looks credible. I definitely felt uncomfortable and that something evil was going on. At best I felt I was being scammed.

At minimum, they are trying their best and seem to use any available method to make a hard sale. There is no crime in that necessarily.

Apart from feeling very uncomfortable, the problem was I felt the presentation claims made were very misleading, and I was definitely scammed into attending. If the meeting was being misrepresented and deceptive how could I trust the rest of the business.