Hi there, I've added up above a new link to what an Amway AMO is planning on the Internet. It gives a tiny bit more info than www.countdown9199/com which is the quixstar site. Here's the rest of my page.. I'm a former Amway distributor from earlier this decade. Recently I found some fascinating web pages about the motivational organisations that supply tapes to Amway groups and how the high pin levels make money from tapes and functions. I looked for information on the Australian motivational organisations but could not find it. So I thought I'd tell my story. It all started when a parent at the local primary school wanted to show me a business opportunity. I was skeptical when the whiteboard came out and circles were drawn but did think I could market some products through my work (in a big firm) and especially liked the tax break idea for cleaning product samples etc...which turned out to be not strictly true. Anyway, I signed up and was in. I read through the manual and was worried about the 10 customer requirement, but was told not to worry about it. My sponsor and the upline people I met at my first meeting said it was more important to sponsor. I bought some tapes and books on multi-level marketing and left them with friends who were not interested, and my sponsor showed the plan to a friend who was not interested, having lived in a house with an Amway distributor. I bought loads more cleaning products than I would normally - I needed a clean house for when the directs dropped by. And I went to weekly meetings - more of that in the next section.

Weekly meetings were in a large room with uncomfortable chairs in an office in an industrial area half an hour's drive away. The Diamonds did a lot of talking - I remember a suggestion to set up a Queen cookware club with six people so everyone got a piece each week.The wonders of water filtration and vacuum cleaning were explained and there was lots of circle drawing. Tapes were recommended - but I did not realise at first that they were not Amway tapes and when I ordered one about Singles in Amway through the catalogue my sponsor said I should be getting one of the other tapes. They were IBS tapes and were all basically success stories, with advice about following uplines and the system. This was System 2000 and you were meant to SUE (sell, use and eat) 200PV a month. I remember being excited when I made 3 per cent...mostly through my own purchases. I bought sheets and socks through the catalogue though I could have got them cheaper at sales. I started thinking of everyone as a potential prospect, as the system advised. But I found that got in the way of normal social interaction. I was also associating more with Amway people - we had a Christmas BBQ where kids were present (contrasting with the kid-free policies for everything else)

After a few months I realised that I was not going to sell heaps of product to fellow workers. I recall an Amagram which celebrated a woman who had achieved 9pc on sales alone...it struck me that few would do that for her to be written up. Nor were people joining me, except for a relative who soon decided she got better value in store specials. But my upline seemed excited and happy..I was a winner..and I went to functions. These involved interstate Diamonds crowing about their overseas trips and purchases (not catalogue purchases). I had to arrange babysitting and my expenses were mounting to hundreds of dollars. Then a friend lent me the book Amway - The Cult of Free Enterprise. It was an eye opener and reflected the pattern of what I had been exposed to. My dream was still there but fading. Finally I decided not to renew.

I would be interested to hear others' stories now I know more about how the tape and function profits work. I have dropped my email link here because of too much "make money" junk email but you can leave thoughts in my guestbook...no need to leave an email address. Bye for now..