A former WWDB Ruby stopped by to tell us how money is made in Amway:
My wife and I were in WWDB from 1994 to 1999.
We worked that business HARD, frequently popping in and out of Direct qualification and Ruby twice.
Many of the principles taught by WWDB are sound- integrity, work ethic, etc. and can be applied to ANY business model. I became a better employee in my day job because of what I learned and became quite successful as a headhunter in the software industry.
Living in the Seattle area, there were plenty of WWDB functions to drag prospects to and I NEVER took new prospects to functions without them knowing it was Amway. We just sold people on the basics- the bigger your business gets, the cheaper you get the products and the more profit you make.
The WWDB system is a sham however. Once we fully qualified as Directs, we were sat down and it was explained to us (finally!) how as a direct and above, you share in the profits made by WWDB from the sales of "TOOLS". If they were REALLY interested in JUST helping people grow their business they would have found a more economical way to distribute the teaching.
Selling cassette tapes of a Seminar and Rally every week that essentially tell you the same thing over and over, and forcing people to buy books at inflated prices so that the upline can pocket profits wouldn't be such a bad deal IF the people buying those tools were informed of that fact. I always wondered why such an emphasis was put on tool flow...
The diamonds actually push tools more than they push SELLING PRODUCTS and the entire business is suppsoed to be about selling products- NOIT pushing tools.
Ultimately, when the things WWDB taught me helped me to become extremely successful in my "day job" as a headhunter, and I started making more money than my upline emeralds, everyone upline from me started dragging me to meet some of the other local diamonds personally- Brad W, Brad D, Greg D... who all proceeded to tell me I was getting too much "status" from my success in my job and that rather than build a house for my wife and start a family, I should invest in my Amway business. They told me I should NOT go to the President's Club trips to Cabo and on the Caribbean that my boss would take my wife and I on and instead stay home and build my business with the time off my boss gave me for the company trips. When I chose not to do that, WWDB and my upline stopped supporting my business entirely.
Anyway, once I learned about how much money the upline were making off tools, I had enough.
I had enough of being made to feel guilty about being successful in my job and wanting to spend time with my family and friends. I had enough of WWDB telling me how to live my life and manage my money, while Brad W was out banging his downline's wives, Greg D over-leveraging himself to the point of bankruptcy and Brad D spewing his vindictive anger at anyone who wasn't pushing TOOLS. I just woke up one day and realized that all WWDB was doing to me was making me GREEDY. I was sick with it.
Now, I am well, happy and healthy and I am wealthy beyone measure in family and friends- the things that are truly, truly important.
Notice no chatter about the monthly residual income that rolls in from Amway forever and ever. Hmmm.... Could that just be another Amway myth the cult leaders lie about at every ScAmway meeting?