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Almost got sucked into an mlm tonight

mws87

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May 5, 2015
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They congregate at the nearest Barnes and Noble out here. They swarm around the personal finance section and have everything in common with each person. What are the odds, huh?
 
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lowtek

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I'm trying to hustle a local service business.

I've started going to local networking events to start meeting people in the real world. Little did I know how many of these MLM types are out there.

One of my first appointments was with a sweet old lady trying to get me on board with Mala Luca. I couldn't bear to be rude to her (respect for elders and all that), so I sat through the whole spiel.

I'm recalibrating my detectors to spot these people, now.
 

Joshua R. Gill

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May 20, 2015
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I dont hate on MLMs. What I hate is the mentality that unless you're in one (theirs specifically), you're not living the dream and you're pretty much sheeple like everyone else in the hard working world! Anyways, I'm also excited learning their business models and systems, there are a bunch of pretty good ones out there. Just cant get past the tribe thing.
 

nradam123

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Im such an idiot. I was approached by a random man on the street today who asked about my shoes. Somehow the conversation drifted into business and entrepreneurship. He told me about a business seminar he was going to. I went. I was really excited until the giant screen showed the word
AMWAY.

Dont be an idiot like me. Trust no one.

AMWAY is still preying on young naive people like me

I did not know the process is same here in India as well haha. Amway has fully automated "How to pickup guys on the street to join the pyramid".
I used to get guys approaching me every other week with things like "Its raining a lot today" while i am having tea beside a shop :/
 
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Timbonitus

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One of my clients wants me to write reviews of mlm opportunities so I do a lot of research into these schemes, and they're literally always a scam. You might make a few dollars in the beginning but then it trickles down. What really sucks is when people who really need cash sign-up for these schemes, like my parents, and they'll refuse to believe that it's just a scheme. They work like full-time for these schemes and only get back false promises and excuses...
 

CycleGuy

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Jan 16, 2015
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How does everyone handle someone they do normal business with pitching them a random MLM?

Last week I just had an older established business owner start a pitch for an MLM...
Him:
"I'm doing something that LOTS of other business owners are doing in the area, it takes little to no start up cost and almost no time"
"This is invite only, and I know you would be perfect"
"I thought it sounded too good to be true as well, but I'm cashing checks with commas in them"
"This is going so good I'm going to retire from xyx business soon"
"I can't explain it all here now, you'll have to come by the shop sometime to hear everything"

This really sucks because I use this guy for certain skilled mechanical jobs. So now anytime I need actual business done I'm going to get pitched MLM BS.
 

Kevk001

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Apr 6, 2016
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Ahhhh it was a bad start to the year for me from people trying to sucker me.
1) January--some 'friend' tried to get me to buy a condo for a great deal, I was a little ignorant. Then 10 days before signing he said he wanted 10% of the deed.
2) I called my other friend bob about this. I wasn't going to give the deed to guy #1, but wanted to know how to handle it. He recommended cutting my losses--I did, cancelled the contract. There were too many red flags. Then bob tried to get me to drop $2000 to get started on a real estate mlm when I already lost a lot of money cancelling my contract. I then isolated myself from EVERYBODY and got a new apartment and started coding a new website.
3) Went to best buy to get a new laptop. Friend #1 (self-claimed cia agent) was probably the guy who stole my other one in december. Some guy at best buy approached me and connected with me because of my ambition. Told me about a conference. We met at starbucks a week later. Before he started talking I asked if the company was mlm. He said yes. It was Amway. He gave his pitch anyway and I knew all the references to the books he read, but I knew even more than him. We started talking to each other in quotes from books we read. Now I am scam proof after an expensive 2 months.
Sorry But I won't say you're scam proof. You certainly are more experienced now, but not scam proof. People think scam is one thing or the other as if it's got a color or code name. To be scam proof you have to have an eye for deal making. The art of the deal is to recognize good deals from bad ones, and in most cases turn bad deals in your favor while always creating a win win. You will never grow if you don't learn to navigate in trouble waters thinking you can shelter away from one thing or the other. I can point out a few things here you neglected to notice.
1) you were excited to make a deal without asking yourself what is he getting out of it. See if you were to ask, you would've known about the 10% before hand.
2) You never base your final decision on someone else's opinion. You can seek for advice but always make your final decision after exhausting trying to make a deal with any other trick you might have. People always have an end game whether they are friends, wife, girlfriend, family.
3) Make connections, study them and always think of a win win situation creating a positive dialogue. Although that guy wanted you to join his venture, as a true deal maker you could've come up with any other to pick his interest as an entrepreneur, keeping an open dialogue as to shutting down on one topic trading pointless quotes.

To be safe from scams you have to keep your business eye open with a constant win win attitude.
 
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Kevk001

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Apr 6, 2016
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How does everyone handle someone they do normal business with pitching them a random MLM?

Last week I just had an older established business owner start a pitch for an MLM...
Him:
"I'm doing something that LOTS of other business owners are doing in the area, it takes little to no start up cost and almost no time"
"This is invite only, and I know you would be perfect"
"I thought it sounded too good to be true as well, but I'm cashing checks with commas in them"
"This is going so good I'm going to retire from xyx business soon"
"I can't explain it all here now, you'll have to come by the shop sometime to hear everything"

This really sucks because I use this guy for certain skilled mechanical jobs. So now anytime I need actual business done I'm going to get pitched MLM BS.
Lmaoo.. Sorry you have to live that. Needless to say he is new at it and excited. MLM is good if you know what you doing. But pitching people left and right is only out of desperation because they are invested with skin in the game expecting that ROI on time. Your best advice for him is to re caliber. You yourself might be able to help him if you knew better ways. But most importantly we all need those connections no matter what. We are all after the same thing. You get paid through the right information all depending on who you know.
 

Ubermensch

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Jul 7, 2008
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Im such an idiot. I was approached by a random man on the street today who asked about my shoes. Somehow the conversation drifted into business and entrepreneurship. He told me about a business seminar he was going to. I went. I was really excited until the giant screen showed the word
AMWAY.

Dont be an idiot like me. Trust no one.

AMWAY is still preying on young naive people like me

Thank you for continuing to show @Andy Black and @Vigilante why starting an MLM (sometime in the future...) is so irresistible and tempting to me.

85% of the noobs on this site annoy me.

Most of the people on this site annoy me.

A lot of you are talkers, not doers.

A lot of you love to type and type and type and type about money - and don't make money.

A lot of you just sit, and think, and wait, and make no moves.

So, please excuse my @jon.a level of a superiority complex.

My avatar is for the talkers, not the doers, The Matrix robots hiding behind their laptops and desktops; my avatar in the faces of every single human being that makes passive aggressiveness, laziness, and mediocrity the norm.

And yet, what better way to repay the bleating and bumbling masses than to give them some Orwellian, Nietzschean soup that they simply cannot resist?

Why not give nectar to nitwits?

Why not start an MLM, especially one with a legitimate shot of outdoing Ambit Energy?
 

halmerej

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Oct 2, 2015
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Soo funny. Same guy approached me today,months later.

"Hey, how are those headphones working for you?"
"I know you! You're that AMWAY guy!"
"Well,yeah but I just wanted to know about the headphones"
"No, thank you"
I really need to dress nicer. I must look really desperate. What are the chances the same guy would approach me ?
 
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JokerCrazyBeatz

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LMAO man i spent a good $200 on a MLM last year just to find out how they work , but when i asked the guy who signed me up "So how can i start my own? I know thats where the REAL money is" then he got SOOOOOOO defensive lmao. Like "Stay under this program man this is how you make REAL GUARANTEED money, no where else will give you the guarantee im giving you" i was like "F*ck it" and took that L on my $200 and continued my journey to make money from my music.
 

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