In Search Of

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This article was submitted by V.A. Shoucair and is an account of a personal experience with MLM companies. While the opinions expressed here are not true for all companies, it does give some "food for thought". Following is a "down to earth" reaction to this note by Joe Buser, your Member Representative.

After all that rejection, I found that the Amway opportunity was not for me. No more attempts, just perfect dreams of having money and not having to deal with Amway burnout. I felt like a total failure, then became a recluse for a short period of time. My dreams of wealth, fortune, and happiness comforted me into peace.

After Amway, it was New Skin - 1991. At first I was really excited about the whole ordeal. My upline person was a travel agent with all that ambition, the ambition I always wanted. I guess that's why I joined, because I thought that her ambition would rub off on me and make me a millionaire. Well, I was wrong about that and decided to drop out after I received my real estate license.

Guess what, the real estate hype dwindled away as well. Because of starvation, I lost my desire to practice real estate, there was no money to live on. How Depressing! As I found myself falling into the walls of failure, a new hype was about to begin.

In 1994 when Matol corporation came into the picture, it was my duty to convince others to take this potassium formula daily, so I could sell them more, motivational tapes included. After that hype was over in 1995, it was time for me to take a break. As Matol came and went, a few months later, it was Dri - Wash car polish, vinyl cleaner, and body pruf. Dri-wash came and went just as fast in 1995

It's 1996-Here we go again, New Vision International, a spin-off from Matol. By the way, I still have the New Vision kit and dabble with it. Can you guess what will happen with this one?

Whew, all these Network Marketing offers! Then suddenly, this thought came into mind - Gee, I have become a Network Marketing Junkie with chronic fatigue. After all those Network Marketing tryouts and tribulations, it was The unfair advantage! The cause of desperation made me fall for this glorious opportunity.

Stuffing envelopes to get rich quick fast, and I mean fast, because I was running out of money again. It finally came to a point where I was falling behind on the rent and my truck payment. My truck was finally repossessed. I even sent for an assembly at home program, you know, so I can stay home and get rich assembling products. The cost of the book I sent for? A whopping $39.95 + postage and handling. Through that book, I sent for the beaded earring program, which cost me $35.00 for the kit and registration fee. After the beads and pattern were sent to me, I assembled a pair of earrings and sent them back to the company for inspection.

Guess What? They failed the inspection and I became discouraged again. Every time I bought new materials for the earrings, the bugle beads were either bent or broken, that alone made me very angry. Not only that, but the brass bugles that go on the bottom of those earrings were discontinued. I could not find those pieces at any craft store or bead catalog. What a joke! I still make earrings once in a while, but I don't send them out to the company anymore.

Now why did I sink all my money into those deals? I guess it was the thing for me to do at the time. First it was gung ho, then it was, Oh, that.

Contributed By V.A. Shoucair U-R-NOT ALONE. If anyone else has a story to share, please respond. We may be able to learn something from all this.

Networks are conceived as a way to get rich off the labor of others. In effect, one wins by being in the right place at the right time. The concept sells but as a matter of fact, it seldom works. The deal depends upon the network remaining intact -- everyone working and no one at the top failing, fleeing or folding.

The usual life cycle of a network is big push, quick bucks for the startup team, radiation to friends and neighbors who buy the story and bingo, the deal goes south leaving everyone puzzled about why it failed.

They tell wonderful stories: "If only..." or "It was a good deal until..." or "It's a shame that..." the blame is fixed on some external: attorney general, bank, partner, top 40 tune, etc.

So the faithful dust themselves off and jump on the next wave, sure it will take them where they want to go.

Actually, many networks turn out exactly as planned. The founders want a cash buildup to take and run. They reach their objectives. It's just workers who do not reach theirs.

As a distribution system, the idea lacks merit. It's very slow and very expensive to tell people one on one about things. Mass marketing, advertising, classic tiered distribution is much more efficient and much less costly.

But some people love the idea of sharing the marketing costs with people rather than advertisers, wholesalers, retailers. So they show their friends catalogs (advertising) order product from upline (wholesalers) and sell direct to the market (as retailers). But if they believe the story, it sounds pretty good. Until it implodes.

A very few have survived and there may be a couple with some life yet in them. But most are the same ol story, with new packaging. Most fashionable these days are diet and curative pills and potions. They have great attraction to the non science types, cost pennies to make and are cheap to ship and store. Best of all, as food supplements, they are not regulated by government rules: things like pine bark are just sawdust with a trick label but if you want to think it has rare and valuable medicinal properties, no one much worries about it.

When you sell a franchise or a dealership or a membership to a family member, however, the plot thickens. Eventually, they quit speaking to you, quit inviting you to participate in the potluck for holidays and may even drop you from the gift exchange for cousins. All good reasons to join up, some will say.

As for making money, most don't, bogus checks waved in the air at conventions notwithstanding. It's part of the show. Again, without regulation, who really knows or cares?

There are some benefits: you get lots of mail, your telephone rings constantly, you get lots of attaboys from total strangers. It may be the answer to the need to belong, to be in touch, to relate.

As a money maker, nope: a paper route has a much better track record for survival. And paper boys on average make more dough.

The money is all at the top. For wave catchers, it's just a dream...jb DWEE72B - JOE BUSER/Mem Rep - Biz BB