James McDonald Takes a Sabbatical

[Howl]

The biggest lie about YL "essential" oils is that THEIR MLM is not a pyramid scheme, it's, uh, a, uh, um, it's, like, DIFFERENT, 'cause it's moms educating other moms about oils, and trying to get those moms to buy those oils, and then, get those moms to become a distributor on your downline, who then desperately try to sell to other moms, while you get a kickback from those sales. See, it isn't a pyramid scheme AT ALL.

CRACKED.com on MLM/Ponzi: these are some tasty morsels, but I'd recommend reading the whole enchilada:

cracked.com/blog/5-reason-pyramid-schemes-are-even-worse-than-you-thought/

Right off the bat, to clarify (sort of)

Technically, there is a difference between a pyramid scheme and a MLM, although I'm using the names interchangeably in this article because there is A LOT of overlap between the two. Pyramid schemes, in theory, emphasize recruiting new sellers over actually selling product, but in the end, they do both. MLMs supposedly emphasize selling product over recruiting people, but in the end, they also do both. You can see why this gets confusing.

[Nutrilite/Amway] became the first to combine the philosophy behind both direct selling and the Ponzi scheme, and created multi-level marketing.

One of the reasons people have been taken in, over and over, decade after decade, is the recruitment practices these companies use. When you get right down to the way that most of these MLMs recruit people, you can't help but start thinking that they sound like cults. The companies draw people in with a sense of community and the bonds of personal relationships, but when you decide you want to get out, they use those same things against you. People will choose to keep losing money over losing friends and their support structure. Some families of MLM members get so desperate they actually hire people to get their loved ones out of the programs, just like with cults

But MLM programs mean that instead of just recommending your friends try a new nail polish or jewelry or essential oil, you actually need to encourage them to sell these things as well in order to make money from them. And they need to encourage more people. And so on and so on and so on.

Soon, way too many people in one area, or with the same group of friends, are selling the same thing. How soon? Well, if one person starts out and recruits two people, and they each recruit two people, etc., it would only take 28 recruitment cycles for virtually EVERYONE IN THE USA to be selling the same product.

Hand on heart, no matter how many amazing stories you read online about people making thousands and their spouse retiring and sending their kids to private school, I promise that you will not make money from these companies.

Here, let's make a bet. If you are an agent for one of these schemes and you make money out of it after, say, a year, I will give you $100. But if you lose money, you have to give me $100. For simplicity's sake, I'll let 100 of you get in on this bet. Do you know how much money one government report says I will have after that year? $9,800. That's because 99 of you will have paid me, and I will only have to shell out to one of you. So basically, by sitting on my ass and gambling, I will have made almost $10,000 more than anyone who worked their butt off for a year for one of these companies. According to that report, even ACTUAL gambling that isn't heavily stacked in my favor would still be a better bet (pun intended) than joining a MLM scheme.

Hope this helps put Stacy's self righteous response in perspective. She's basically screwing her friends while trying not to be screwed. Yup, MLM is a savage world.

[Modest*is*hottest]

I know this is an old post. But it appears Jimmy has "retired" and is now attending a different local church.