I've tried to keep up with new MLMs that come into the fray, just as a precaution, but there are so many that bubble up: Amway (which has always been around, but they occasionally use different branding names since too many people are familiar with them), Wake Up Now (which apparently went bankrupt just last year), It Works (I have heard of that one before), Herbalife (responsible for most of the "work from home" lawn signs you see), etc. Both Rodan and Fields and Nerium are ones I haven't heard of before though.
Imperial Knight wrote:They haven't tried to recruit or sell to me. I don't know if it's because they're just focusing on spamming Facebook or if they haven't gotten to me yet, but I basically agree with your suggestions. ... The part about severing ties with people not in the MLM really struck me since it's so stark how all of a sudden they have all these new friends who are in the MLM and they're all posting on each other's pages about the business to the exclusion of talking to pretty much anybody else.
I think we're pretty much in complete agreement. The way an MLM takes over your life and forces you to change your entire support structure, cutting off non-MLM contacts, is also the number-one thing that upsets me about them (how they flat-out lie about prospects for making money is number-two). But at least, if it's someone you care about, you can erode at an MLM's power by remaining in contact and not letting the person get isolated.
...but because of the patience it requires, I don't begrudge anyone who gives up. To be honest, I think I'd only do that if it were someone I was really close to.
Nobiyuki77 wrote:But sometimes I feel like I was the only person whose parents taught me "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,". Made me a very skeptical person, but probably safer as a result. ... Glad to see I'm not the only sane person.
I think that's a bit of a dangerous mentality. I mean, the people who buy into these schemes aren't always brainwashed or unskeptical -- they're usually just targeted at a moment of vulnerability, and I think almost
anyone can be taken in if they're approached at a moment when they've let their guard down. That includes people like us. I think it's better to recognize those moments when we might be vulnerable, or illogical, or easily swayed, rather than assume that it'll never happen to us.
Imperial Knight wrote:First since MLMs ostensibly involve sales it passes the initial smell test in ways other get rich quick schemes might not since sales are actually a legitimate way to make money. I mean, if everybody in a given MLM did sufficient retail sales it would theoretically be possible for all of them to be turning a profit (nothing even remotely like this ever happens for a variety of reasons though). Also, since some people actually do make money in MLM a new recruit can be pointed to actual verifiable people who are "living the dream."
Exactly. A lot of them try to use past, recognizable examples in their marketing pitches. Avon and Mary Kay are cited a lot (and sometimes Tupperware), since those are all products that are recognizable. But there's a big difference, since (1) recognizability doesn't mean profitability (everyone knows McDonald's, but you probably won't get rich just selling hamburgers), (2) that was a different time, and citing that as a viable example for the present-day is like suggesting that door-to-door vacuum salesmen could make a comeback, and (3) MLMs are set up to reward you based on recruiting other people ("downlines") far more than just sales, so calling up an example that's familiar because of the
product rather than the business plan is disingenuous.
...also they like to bring up that this structure has been followed by people like Warren Buffet and Donald Trump. A lot. Not sure why they like to name-drop those two, especially when the former made his fortune via investing, and the latter made his fortune via cheating investors.
Besides that, yeah, there's always that 0.01% who make a significant amount of money. But they spend all their time talking about how rich he/she is (and what kind of car he/she drives and house he/she lives in) and how
you can do this too!, instead of talking about how he/she
actually made money (which is by suckering other people into the scheme). But this is emblematic of their entire approach: focus on the success and the outcome, and only give vague descriptions of how you
actually get up to that point.
Lastly, yes theoretically you could turn a profit on just selling, and that's one of the ways it passes an initial smell test (and why MLMs can remain legal, but pyramid schemes cannot). Unfortunately, MLMs completely obfuscate the likelihood of turning a profit. And the fact that the market is so saturated with other people trying to do direct-selling already means that, realistically, there's no way to turn a profit by just selling.
Alunissage wrote:Re the fancy car thing, it reminds me of Mary Kay cosmetics (which were/are? sold at private homes), where the big reward for the sellers who were really successful was a pink Cadillac. That may have changed in the last couple of decades, though.
For Rodan and Fields, it's a white Lexus. They don't even try to use a different approach -- they just palette-swap stuff. KF