Waking up - A WWDB IBO's View

Wakeup Factor #1 - Tool Money

I was nauseated for days the first time I heard that Platinums and above make money on tools and the system. How much? No one would say. My first thought was, "I can't promote these tapes if I'm getting a cut!" I told myself then that I wouldn't keep any system money personally — just Amway income only. I would pass the "tool break" on to my downline when the time came. And then later, much later, we went Platinum. And I kept the money. I considered it a fair servicing fee for my "hard work" and an inventory bonus that I desperately needed. Besides, it wasn't much at that level. We weren't buying fancy cars with it. It's unbelievable what a WWDB Platinum needs to invest to run Quixtar and Motivation inventory businesses!

They said in the plan, "We don't make money until you make money." A strong hook for me, actually. Then later, after I became a loyalist, they revealed that Platinums and above do make money selling "tools." Diamonds & Emeralds do make money getting people to functions and speaking at them. It's profit upfront with or without helping people make any money. They didn't explain it in "the Plan." It was hidden; it was secret. Then they relied on my loyalty and devotion to accept this new revelation and keep it hush-hush. Have they all deluded themselves into thinking this is ok?

More recently, new IBOs are informed about tool profits if they read the fine print of the BSMAA and the Premier Membership Agreement. No details, mind you, but it is mentioned on paper. However, they still use the "we don't make money until you do" line in the plan, and they certainly don't point out the fine print on the official forms.

It was once explained to me by an upline Diamond that Ron Puryear began giving tool profit to Platinums because there wasn't enough money in the plan at that level. Well what does that say about the Quixtar opportunity? Hmmm.

Wakeup Factor #2 - Ongoing Income

Where have all the Diamonds gone? I count 25 out-of-qualification Diamonds from WWDB alone (out of the 56 total that I know of). I was devastated when I first learned of a Diamond falling "out." Now, I see that it happens all the time. So is there freedom in this business or not?

Do you have to be "Brad Wolgamott-driven" to keep your current legs growing without personally sponsoring? We haven't made ourselves do this thing yet — how will we stay that driven for the long haul? It's not who we are, and it's not why we started this.

We started this to fund our true passions, but those dreams are long gone. Now it's only acceptable if this biz is our #1 passion. As I see it, it will only work long term if we work it fulltime forever. Who is there at the top that doesn't work it but has a true legacy? Ron Puryear, Greg Duncan, Brad Duncan?

Brad Duncan shared at Go Diamond Weekend (Platinums & above only) that he worked this 5 nights a week for 10 years straight to have the freedom and money he has now. And he didn't include driving time, function time, voicemail time, counseling time, call-in/pickup time, or nuts & bolts time. In January, all current Diamonds made a public commitment to sponsor 24 new "legs" this year. Why? Just to be an example? Diamond freedom isn't good enough? Or, is it that if a Diamond doesn't keep up CORE habits, then his downline won't either?

That's not what I was shown and not what I signed up for. What happened to 8-10 hrs per week for 2-5 years? When will I get time for my dreams? No, not the fancy house and cars, not the trips with Quixtar IBOs, but the dreams I had when I started this thing — the real passions I had before I attended a hundred functions and listened to a thousand tapes?

Wakeup Factor #3 - No Success

I think I really started to see that the system does not work when I realized that NOBODY IS MOVING ON. Ok, well, WWDB has had anywhere from one to twelve new Diamonds per year since I've been; so obviously somebody is moving on, but even many of those have gone backwards since first qualifying as Diamonds.

I was in for about two to three years before I started to notice this lack of success. It takes two years to get your bearings on who people are and who's growing. In the beginning, it seems like everybody is "moving on" because there are people crossing stage at every function.

I've watched most Platinums stay at Platinum, while a few go on to Emerald, and only a handful to Diamond. For ten years I blamed this on the work habit. "Obviously, most are not willing to do the work." We've blamed our own lack of growth on our weak work habit. In WWDB, work habit is defined as "show 10 or sponsor 2."

Then, as we approached Platinum and became "leaders," I looked at my own downline in a different way than ever before. I saw their frustration at giving this their all, but never moving ahead. I watched some prospect and prospect, but never show the plan. I watched some STP and STP, but never sponsor. I watched some sponsor and sponsor, but never go Eagle. And yes, I even watched some retail and retail, but never pass 300pv.

Why? Why weren't they moving on? After all AmQuix products are awesome and the system works, so they must need to listen to another tape or go to another function to get what they need — the magic ingredient that will cause them to do it, right? The Diamonds have such great wisdom and knowledge; if only we could be more like them?

These thoughts nagged at me for a long time, but after ten years, that way of thinking wasn't acceptable anymore. I KNEW these people. I don't really know the Diamonds and the Emeralds, but I DO know my downline; they are my friends. So I know that they are giving it their all. As PW mentioned in the comments of my story, "Can the amount of work you did be defined by the results you got?" and "How much work do you have to do with no results before it counts as work?" It took me over a decade to accept that many of us ARE giving everything we've got, and the truth is that THE SYSTEM DOESN'T WORK. Yes, a very small few will make it, but the majority won't. (We will NOT get into "The Pyramid Is Negative" here. This is how I saw it before I had a clue about TPIN, saturation, etc.)

The final straw for me was at an FED during my "wakeup" year, when I looked out at thousands of hopeful faces realizing that many were the same faces I'd been looking at for years. I include Platinums most of all in this, because Platinum is a painful place to sit for a long period of time. Platinums do ALL the work for no pay. Once you go Platinum, it's nearly impossible to disappear quietly because everyone is looking to you for hope. The other Platinums become your friends — peer pressure increases dramatically.

In one moment, I saw the scam.

So few Diamonds — so many people who want to be. Surely, more than fifty couples here have put in the "Fast Track" effort? Surely more than fifty in the 10+ years we've been in? And if not, then why not? And why don't they do something else?

Because the Diamonds tell them not to. In a hundred different ways with a hundred different stories, the Diamonds tell them they will be losers if they don't keep trying. That they will live in a "rut" forever, because nothing else will give them "freedom" except this. That they are winners just for being at FED. That they need to hold on and stay in until they make it.

ALL THEY NEED TO DO IS LISTEN TO ANOTHER TAPE AND ATTEND ANOTHER FUNCTION, and then go out and do it.

In one moment, the veil was lifted from my eyes, and I saw it.

Wakeup Factor #4 - Platinum Slaves

TOO MUCH WORK, TOO LITTLE PROFIT — After years of volunteering our efforts, I've finally figured it out. Platinums are the slaves of the system. We do all the grunt work of the business. We service the IBOs, make the retail sales, do the Artistry Clinics, show the board plans, teach the "nuts & bolts", answer a hundred questions a week over voicemail/phone, "counsel" those who ask, and encourage the brokenhearted ones who are trying their best, but just not making it.

We work the functions, come early, stay late, borrow cars to host Diamonds, make fruitbaskets and signs for their hotel rooms, grovel with a smile, and stay up all night, for days on end while telling the Diamonds how grateful we are that they are helping us. Helping us? You mean by coming to our city to speak for a few hours and receiving thousands of our dollars for it? And then they tease us in front of others that we must really love our jobs or we would be Diamonds by now! Gotta love it.

Shouldn't there be decent pay for your efforts at every level? At Platinum, there are so many more costs because the buck stops here as far as Quixtar is concerned. We swallow all the discontinued inventory (I realize this is WWDB only now, but it's still a large expense for me). We refund returned tools (unless we're unethical, which I am not). We go to extra Platinum-only functions at resorts that we can't yet afford. We stay at nicer hotels at the major functions. We drive more miles, are gone more weekends, hand out free CDs and books right and left at the meetings we do. Most of the bonus money we receive goes back into travel, tools, functions and inventory, which means that most of the money we earn from Quixtar is funneled directly or indirectly back into our uplines' pockets (So in a sense, the Diamonds earn ALL the bonus money from Quixtar).

This is A LOT OF WORK on both of our parts for LITTLE profit. To make a respectable RETAIL profit would mean a lot MORE work. 8-10 Hours per Week? Right!

I used to think, "How cool that we will only have to do this for five or so years for riches and freedom!" I didn't like the work. I didn't like the plans, the callin and pickup, sitting for days at functions, doing the Artistry clinics, but I thought it would be worth it. Now I think, "Where could we be right now if we had put this effort into a traditional business for the last 10 years instead?

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