This a disclaimer that this is only my personal opinions of our time working for this system. Please read more about Amway; I may not tell our story in the most eloquent way so you may want more information.
I'm not sure how many of you are too familiar with Amway so if you'd like to read more please click the link above. I'm also not sure how well I'm going to do explaning our experience, but after being involved with the company in my own words:
It is an online business that helps families start their own online website that sells products in bulk and their own line of products, similar to that of Costco's Kirkland Signature Brand. It helps husbands and wives become a closer unit, and brings parents home from their jobs. If you are willing to put in the work.
In 2006 I got a call from Bryan while at college, he said he was going to watch some business meeting at his sister's house and he'd call me afterwards. The call I received hours later was not from the same boyfriend I had talked to earlier. The boyfriend I heard from hours later was excited, uplifted, and determined. He had just seen a business plan that he foresaw changing our future. It was presented by multimillionaires Tracey and Kimberly Eaton.
In the months that followed I saw a different side of Bryan. Someone something had a lit a fire underneath him and he had a new passion for life and me. Which brings me to my first point. Amway changed our relationship [for the better] Bryan has never been a big reader, and he was excited and encouraged to read and build a better foundation in our relationship before we got married. We read books like 'Love & Respect' and 'The Five Love Languages' and truly grew emotionally from them both. I mean at the time, what 20 something year olds were worry about their future and reading books to strengthen their future marriage? One of the points they teach is family comes first and putting your spouse before your kids. I'm not a mom, and I've heard some mom's sound astonished by this. But for example; I once heard Tracey Eaton tell a story about a time when his kids were talking back to Kimberly and he said to them, "Don't talk to my wife like that." That blew me away.
In the months that followed I saw a different side of Bryan. Someone something had a lit a fire underneath him and he had a new passion for life and me. Which brings me to my first point. Amway changed our relationship [for the better] Bryan has never been a big reader, and he was excited and encouraged to read and build a better foundation in our relationship before we got married. We read books like 'Love & Respect' and 'The Five Love Languages' and truly grew emotionally from them both. I mean at the time, what 20 something year olds were worry about their future and reading books to strengthen their future marriage? One of the points they teach is family comes first and putting your spouse before your kids. I'm not a mom, and I've heard some mom's sound astonished by this. But for example; I once heard Tracey Eaton tell a story about a time when his kids were talking back to Kimberly and he said to them, "Don't talk to my wife like that." That blew me away.
In the beginning it was tough. Amway has been around for 50+ years, but back when it first started it built a bad reputation for being a 'pyramid scheme' Which made it incredibly hard to talk to the older generation about. Even when asking them to become clients of our website and shop for the things they shop for anyway to support us - it was hard to earn the trust back from those bad memories[and not to mention when met with opposition my outlook on the entire situation turned sour] However, when I started investigating into the matters myself, I realized that pyramid schemes are illegal and that found that it was accredited and given an A+ by the Better Business Bureau - which brings me to my second point. Amway may never escape the bad reputaion it's been given, but is truly a different company it was 50+ years ago.
I went to meeting after meeting, after event, after board plan with Bryan and watched hundreds of couples just like us, with the same fire lit under them, ready to be in business for themselves. We were never told that this business would replace our income at the time, you were in business for yourself and the time to build it was from 5pm-midnight after you've finished working for the man and everyone else was sleeping. Which brings me to my third point - Amway changes people's lives. What do I mean by that? We watched our sponsor go from a socially awkward, shy, confidence lacking guy to an extremely outgoing, funny, and assertive man. Not many companies can do that for you. Not to mention, after a certain point in the business you may make enough money where you are able to come home from your job - however that is after some extrememly hard work, tears, and possibly years. But it was encouraging and seemed attainable no matter what we had to do.
At this time last year Bryan and I were at a crazy busy point in our lives. He had just started a new job and we were planning for our wedding that was fastly approaching us in July. It truly broke our hearts [and spirits] for a while because we had to take a step back from the business. We weren't able to put 'our all' into it at the time. It may be something we look into in the future and I know our experience will be just as gratifying. Which brings me to my fourth and final point - I hope that Amway didn't burn any bridges for us. We were encouraged to talk to anyone and everyone we thought might be interested, which inspired us to speak with friends, family, even people we knew in high school. We only had good intentions and never meant to come across as weird - quite the opposite. We knew we had a vehicle that could be the answer for some families.
So what's my point?
I used to be timid and embarrassed to say that we were affiliated with this company - but now I am proud to say that we were and became better people because of it. We met some amazing people, become closer as a couple, and spent our time dreaming about our future together.
So if someone asks to 'show the plan' to you, don't be so quick to judge - hopefully they had the best intentions like we did and want to help you :)
