Posted on 12/07/2004 1:04:29 PM PST by Pest
Amway Co-Founder Jay Van Andel Dies Tuesday, December 07, 2004 GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Jay Van Andel (search), the co-founder of Amway Corp. (search) who helped parlay neighborhood soap sales into a billion-dollar business and later became a leading philanthropist for conservative causes, has died.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
For the academically inclined among you, there is an interesting paper on the socialization aspect of Amway in: Michael G. Pratt (2000) The Good, the Bad, and the Ambivalent: Managing Identification Among Amway Distributors, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 45, No. 3, Pp 456-493.
I read this paper in a doctoral seminar. The laughter and derision amongst the young, snotnosed doctoral students regarding the Amway distributors examined in the paper was really quite sad.
While one may hold whatever opinions of Amway that one wishes, the people I've met selling Amway were all regular people trying to make some extra money to support their families. I don't see anything laughable there. Perhaps if these kids had actually had to feed a few mouths and pay some bills before going to grad school, they wouldn't be so dismissive of the efforts of regular people.
Thanks for providing such a detailed response. How am I misinformed? And by the way, how come when Amway slugs pitch to new victims now, they never mention Amway?
Huh? Do you think all this rah-rah sales BS was invented by Amway? The tapes are echoes of all the Norman Vincent Peale writings from the mid-90's. Everyone from Amway to Tony Robbins use the same lifted verbiage. Your confusing the "positive thinking" stuff with the business. The Amway business model was not viable as pitched, but rather was a pyramid scheme for the jewel-heads above. When even that didn't satisfy their greed - since most of the distributors churned out after the promises didn't pan out - they started to put in the tapes, etc.
I could care less about your "accomplishments". On a forum like this anyone can fabricate such details to embellish their story. Address the facts of the failed Amway business model, not your affection for positive thinking literature.
Well, that would be because many people won't listen if they think it's Amway, cause they have their mind made up already. But if it is presented to them differently, they keep an open mind. Amway has great products. We were in for about 5 years, we made zero money, but we did learn a lot of other valuable things that have helped us in our personal lives, and our other business ventures.
I don't understand why someone would have so much vile and disgust for this man. Is it his wealth? Well, there are other people who are millionaires and billionaires that don't use their money for good things and I don't see anyone picking on them. Mr. Van Andel was a Christian man, who was blessed wonderfully by the God that he served.
RIP Mr Van Andel.
The truth about AMWAY is ugly. The entire wealth of the founders and their top recruiters was built not on the sale of products, but of inspirational tapes and books they produced. Giving away some of his ill-gotten gains might have eased his guilt, but the guy made enough on others gullibity and insecurity to fatten up the camel he's got to ride through the eye of the needle.
And what is the matter with making money off of books and tapes?
AMWAY is to business as Scientology is to religion.
I was a member for 5 years, while what you say may be true of some Amway dist. it's not true for the whole. There are bad things in every organization.
Well at least a couple of people on here aren't afraid to tell the truth...the man was no saint.. just calling yourself a Christian does not make it so. He will have a lot to answer for before the Lord.
It sure isn't our job to judge the man...........i'm sure he was just as much of a saint as anyone else. What's his sin? Being rich?
I'm not saying Amway was bad, per se.
But some bad outcomes were part of it's offspring.
Well, that sounds natural............a business with millions of distributors............there would naturally be some with no scruples.............but not Van Andel's fault.
Typical multi-level marketing propaganda.
Have fun in your world....I'm making the big bucks in mine......and not having to spend hours in traffic. I'm an MLM'er and have many people in my downline that make more than I......and I love it!
You'd be the first MLM'er I've ever met who made money.
Please consider the business section of your local bookstore, the library, or maybe a local business owner/mentor next time you need some learnin' on business. You'd save a lot of time and money compared to the Amway MBA you earned over 5 years.
And if you consider the time well spent, I'd say you still didn't learn enough. Good luck, regardless.
>Since we're on the scams topic, all the Kiyosaki fans<
I have a friend who thinks this guy is the end all of business. I would love to be a fly on the wall when she opens the link (I'm going to send her). She lent me his book. What a phony.
Kiyosaki is one of the most careless of these dregs. His book is filled with blantantly illegal methods of tax avoidance and stock trading. His misunderstanding of fundamental accounting is laughable. I hope your friend is self-aware enough to take the information Reed gives seriously.
Reeds website should be a first stop for all of the wayward and gullible who get caught up in these bogus fads. The FTC should force all of these bozos to reference in their adds..."Before ordering, you may wish to review this website for information on our program".
Shame, but Barnum was right.
Yeah well I can show you many people who have made money.
It is the people who haven't the slightest notion on how to actually do a MLM business are the ones who complain about how "I never made any money doing that."
That is usually because they did not do the activity needed to generate the kind of business required to be sucessful.
I have a personal friend who just purchased a half million dollar home and has just received his bonus car...an Infinity G35.
I also know of a man who is making over $100K per month just from his downline.
And I can't complain......I just qualified for my bonus car and am on my way to retire in 5 years...when I'll be 53.
Multi level marketing is now being taught in Harvard business school.
Being rich is not a sin, but making money off the hopes and dreams of others is..
You know thats just not right
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