Sign up, get a bunch of merch, sell that stuff to all your friends, neighbors and acquaintances.
You now have run out of anyone you know you can sell to, and so you are in the selling to strangers phase, which you will fail at, almost certainly.
Drop out having made no money, or likely lost some. Most people will never get to the stage where they have any “downline” (people they wholesale to).
The organization’s top levels flourish despite high dropout rates at the bottom.
Along the way though they will add insult to injury by pressuring you to buy motivational courses and other training materials. A major message of the organization is that if you aren’t selling, there is something wrong with you. Not the product, not the organization. This isn’t unique to Amway but is part of sales culture generally, but I find it pretty repellant myself.
I agree that it’s “not so much that these folks aren’t pushy salespeople.” It’s that these people—women—are demonized for working outside the home for money. When they are working from home for money, it’s OK. And when they are working outside the home—in the church offices, in the Tabernacle, in the Temple museum—without pay, it’s also OK.
I would think any profession that has people desperate for some kind of livable income is in the crosshairs of the MLMs. The sweet spot is people with some extra money, but not so much that they aren’t hungry, and not so little that they can’t bite.
Back when I was young and hoping to improve my place in life I went to a couple MLM pitches with stars in my eyes, but I didn’t have the money to join. I was dirt poor, working as a day laborer. Now I’m glad I didn’t have enough meat on my bones to get sucked into their rendering systems.
When I was in high school, I nearly fell for one of these. In one of the more embarrassing moments of my teenage years, I vividly remember walking into the house and telling my dad “I’m going to sell knives” – fortunately, he was already familiar with Cutco (and moreover, my personality) and quickly explained exactly how the scam worked. I did not call them back.
HAH like MLMs ever give leads. No you generate leads, pitch, sell, and pay for your stock all on your own. That’s how you can tell it’s not a job. Because there’s no characteristics of employment.
