Amway/WWDB: Part 3: Ethics

This is Part 3 of the Dealbreaker for our relationship. You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
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What’s even worse?

The business is built on duplication. I already feel negatively regarding you taking the drug yourself (i.e. believing in the Amway dream), but the way you achieve your goal of time and financial freedom is through “selling” it to other people, and limiting their future (in my eyes). And they in turn will be dealing this drug and propagating what I perceive to be low societal value throughout society.

But wait, it gets worse. How is the addiction to the Amway dream reinforced?

Through indoctrination.

The drug dealer doesn’t even believe the drug he is selling is harmful. I don’t know what’s worse. Having the awareness of the harmful effects and continuing to sell the drug or not even having that awareness at all.

The indoctrination tactics I witnessed during the talks can be examples taken right out of a psychology textbook. The definition of indoctrination is “the process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically.” There are many examples of indoctrination practices I witnessed, and below are three of them:

- “Just keep believing”: Belief is a wonderful thing. No one will get things done if they didn’t believe. However, what’s dangerous is blind faith. For example, someone who crafts a pair of wings and jumps off a cliff because they just kept believing they would fly. Belief must be tempered by skepticism and continuous evaluation of what is and isn’t working. Repeatedly telling the audience to just believe and success will come eventually is a way to blot out their questions and their critical thinking.

- “Re-evaluate relationships if they are holding you back/ unsupportive people are your anchors holding you back from success”: Telling audience members to disregard negative sources of information is another typical indoctrination ploy. In addition, saying that “people oppose what you’re doing because they are insecure” further obscures critical thinking because an (irrational) reason is provided to justify ignoring the doubts of others. I don’t know if you agree with “unsupportive people are holding you back” or “people oppose you because they are insecure” (the turkey and eagle analogy* comes to mind). But that is an obviously untrue statement to me, and the fact that the whole audience just accepted his words when he said that makes me shudder. Why do you think I will put so much time and energy during one of my busiest times of my life to write this for you? People oppose and criticize because they care. I care so much about you and your success. I want you to reach your full potential. I am raising concerns for what I see is a trap.

* For my readers: The regional Diamond loves reciting this story of having turkeys seeing eagles fly and rejecting the eagles because the eagles chose a different life than being on the ground like them. The story is definitely a skillful use of imagery. Seems like Amway/WWDB enjoys portraying "non-believers" as lesser humans, which is another form of emotional manipulation. For example, the Diamond had also said not to talk about the "business" to people who are not interested because that would be "casting pearls before swine". 
 
- Emotional manipulation. This is a long section, and I’ll get more into it below:

Emotional manipulation
I will list three more ways I saw emotional manipulation in Amway/WWDB:

1. Creating a gap in ideal and current self:
Like a drug, the Amway dream allows escape from reality. Escape from the drudgery of a job where someone is trading time for money. Escape from the fact the job will never bring them the wealth and freedom they dream of. There is a strong emphasis on dreaming big in Amway/WWDB. There’s nothing wrong with visualizing your ideal life. What I have a problem with is with how this gap is exploited by Amway/WWDB to promote addiction to the Amway dream. The talks reinforce how dismal someone’s current life is, and contrasts it with how glorious it can become. This creates a strong desire for the ideal life and a repulsion for the current life, leading to an intense dedication to the dream. So strong that critical thinking can be obscured, making it hard for people to see this dream for what it really is.

2. Use of fear:
Good ol’ fear. So simple yet so powerful. I have witnessed in the talks how fear is used. Fear of being ordinary. Fear of having nothing at retirement. Fear of being a disappointment to your children. Fear of not being able to save your dog when he is sick. How cults use fear is that they create a polarity. Amway/WWDB creates this bad scary image, then point to themselves as the only safe haven. Amway/WWDB is the only way you can be saved from doom! Amway/WWDB will make sure your kids look up to you! Amway/WWDB will build you a pipeline income! This is another powerful way to create adherence.

3. Identification with the organization: 
Why is there a vetting process if the MLM is just out to make money? Why is there mention of morals and values during every talk? Why does this partnership have to be “earned”? I recognize that part of the reason is for the mentorship. However, I can’t help but feel that it is also to further bind someone to the organization. When someone becomes involved with Amway/WWDB, they begin to identify with WWDB values, and leaving the organization becomes difficult because it will feel like turning your back on your values. They may feel guilty. For example, one of the characteristics of the vetting process is “Authenticity”. I remember your upline saying something along the lines of: the percentage of your spending you switch into Amway products shows how much you want to succeed. If you’re authentic that you want to build something big, you’ll put all your money into Amway products right? NO*. This is a form of guilt-tripping, a form of using the identity developed during the vetting and IBO training process against Amway IBOs. Even worse are the winners and losers mentality where people who don’t join Amway/WWDB are labelled as “losers”. I’m thankful you don’t subscribe to that mentality, but it definitely doesn’t make my perception of Amway/WWDB any better.

*This kind of thinking reflects the “Amway is the only way” mindset. Money can be invested into many other things with greater return than Amway/WWDB, and success can come from many avenues.

I’m not done yet...it gets even worse! The Amway dream, which the IBOs are addicted to, is a lie. People are misled to believe that success is almost a certainty, and they build their business by misleading others, whether they are aware of it or not. We’re here now, finally. The Econ section.

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Thanks for reading! For Part 4, the Econ section, please stay tuned for next week's post :)