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Amway didn't admit wrongdoing but vowed to "transform" how it does business, focusing less on recruiting new salespeople and more on actually selling products.

Somehow I don’t believe selling products is a marketing strategy that would work for Amway.

The brother of a high school friend once invited me over to party out of the blue. I hadn’t actually seen him for about two years at the time and we hadn’t really been that well acquainted when he and his brother were friends.

I got to his house and immediately saw the Amway rep turned around and left.

If you have to be deceptive in that way to recruit sales reps it just doesn’t say much for your product.

I can say that their clothes detergent did work well for my mother who used it on my father’s heavily soiled work cloths from the foundry. After he retired she stopped using it however. That was the only Amway product that she found cost effective to use.

I loved reading the comments posted by people who read the article. It seemed like there was a 50/50 split who thought Amway was nothing but opportunity and the other half who thought it was pyramid scheme.

Back in college, a guy (who I kinda-sorta knew from high school) approached me and put the Amway pitch on me. It wasn’t my kind of thing. He seemed irritated when I declined.

Afterwards, I thought “That’s weird. You’d think that he’d be interested in getting me to buy Amway products from him. Instead, he wanted me to be a sales rep. Something’s not right about this.”

In Texas back in the late 80s there was a “movement”, scam or whatever you want to call it, called FEELIN’ GREAT. A friend tried to talk me into going to one of their meetings in Dallas. I kept asking him what it was about and all he’d say was “You have to go to the meeting to understand how it works.” The meetings cost $100 to attend. This friend was a great guy and I knew he’d fallen for a scam. He kept telling me he believed he could become a millionaire.

I said “I’ll tell you how to become a millionaire. Get ten thousand people to give you a hundred dollars.”

Several weeks later I asked about the scam and he said it was a fraud and the leader of the group was in jail. I asked how much money he’d lost. He didn’t want to talk about it. LAUGHED MY ASS OFF!

Lots of people try selling AMWAY, ever few are successful. In the old days it was Watkins Products sold door to door by “drummers”. They were legitimate and people swore by their products. My mother loved their lemon juice.

Well, calling it “Scamway” is over the top.

I know what I’m talking about, since I was an Amway rep back in the early 80’s. I was in California and got recruited under the umbrella organization of Bill Britt, a full-on Amway billionaire originally from Chapel Hill, NC.

I got to 1500 level; had recruited over 25 people personally; one “leg” was over 16 deep. I was well on my way to Direct and beyond.....until Uncle Sam transferred us to Texas and my organization, almost all in CA, fell apart without my leadership.

What I saw and learned: great products; very decent people; outstanding sales training (which has served me well over the intervening years). Heavy Christian influence in their meetings, etc.....which I liked. Still do.

That said, there was very little emphasis on actually selling product; HUGE emphasis on building your organization.

How do Emeralds and beyond really make their money? I’ll tell you, and it’s really no secret. It’s not from all the product flowing out via their organizations; that’s chump change.

The REAL money they make is from their cut(s) of the motivational books and what used to be cassette tapes of testimonials, etc. (now days, who knows....CD’s?...not sure how they distribute such material today) to their downline reps. That, folks, is how the people with high-level pins (Diamond, etc.) really rake in the cash.

Is that evil? No.....but it sure explains why there was such ridiculous pressure on all of us, hence passed to our downlines, to buy this stuff ostensibly to “learn”, get your mind right, etc.

Amway can be a great business, but walk in with your eyes wide open. I don’t regret the experience, but I’d approach it very, very differently if I was to ever get involved in it again (which is highly unlikely.....it really sort of takes over your life).

Years ago I paid $300 for a couple of phone cards with pretty pictures on them. When you tried to use them circuits were always busy. I knew (or at least suspected) that it was a scam but the fellow that asked me was an old high school friend and so I did it. He’s sinced passed for many years and the guy that started it disappeared many years ago. Sometimes we throw money away knowing there’s little chance of getting it back. It’s called self-deception.

I’m in Amway — not as active as I would like to be, but in it nonetheless. And I would tell my fellow Freepers what I tell anyone who asks me about it: I think it is one of the finest organizations in America today.

I like the products. I like the people. And love the spirit of unity and fellowship that pervades the company. Amway is one of the few organizations I know of today where you can look around you in meeting and know that everyone you see is actively pulling (and, yes, in many cases praying) for your success.

Does everyone succeed? No, in the real world (rather than a Marxist state or Obamaville — but, then, I repeat myself), some fail while others succeed. It all depends on how hard you want to work. I, personally, do not work Amway hard enough. But, that is my failing, not the organization’s.

In life, you make your choices, and you take your chances. And, I’d say Amway is a pretty good choice all the way around.