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Last few days I've found out that another close
friend of mine had been involved in one of those MLM (Multi
Level Marketing) pyramid scheme. I have never like this type
"work at home business" or what ever you call it. These days
they come in so many form I can't really keep track... as far as
I know there are MLM, "work at home business", "direct selling",
"get rich quick scheme" and etc.
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Anyway, this friend of mine had invited me
to some sort of seminar but refuse to let me know what the
seminar was about. At that point I had a hunch it might be some
"get rich quick talks" but I still went along with it as he is a
good friend of mine. This is one of the reason why I hate this
kind of marketing tactics, they take the people close to you and
turn them in to another person....... obsessed of material
wealth and the product they are promoting.
I've seen numerous MLM plans and product
in the past from friends, suppliers and customers of mine but
I've never actually been to any of their talks or seminars. I
don't know how other first timer feels but for me it was just
plain disturbing sitting in there listening to their
presentation. The product was some kind of nutritional / dietary
drink under the brand name "Herbalife". The thing is I don't
really see the product as anything new or exceptionally special,
but I kept hearing members of the group yelling and screaming "Herbalife!,
Herbalife!, Herbalife...." in an obsessive manner as if they are
hypnotized!! Thinking to myself, I have seen my share of great
products and have also recommended it to my acquaintances
without any personal gains therefore I don't really see why all
the hype and overreaction is necessary..... "Is Herbalife really
that good?? Will they be as enthusiastic about it if they don't
earn any money from Herbalife sales?" I asked myself. The whole
presentation seems to place more emphasis on the success stories
of existing members in terms of financial wealth and freedom.
At the end of the presentation I was introduced
to my friend's sponsor and he was suppose to give me more
details on how to get started with this business. I would like
to point out that he is a foreigner and so are about 20% of the
others that was in the seminar. Malaysia was once a British
colony hence it is quite natural to most Malaysian that words
from the mouth of western people carries more credibility. The
person I met are from the US. He showed me the starter kit for
distributors containing brochures of the company "Herbalife",
the products, and some endorsement by researchers, nobel-prize
winner and certification proof of business registration in
Malaysia.
According to the sponsor they we are the
potential pioneer Herbalife distributor in Malaysia as this is
their pre-launch. As usual he encouraged me to personally use
the product and sell as much as I could as the discount rate for
the product increases from 25% to 50% depending on the amount of
sales. I was also told of the potential residual income which is
the potential earning if I could build a team of distributor as
my down line. Simply put he was trying to sell me their
distributorship and time seems to be an essence of success. I
told him that I would think about his offer as I've learned from
past experience that they never take no as an answer. The
question that always comes after a no would be something like
"why wouldn't you join?" Well I didn't actually get away that
easily..... "Why or what do you need to reconsider?" he asked
me. I was tempted to just answer "Why not" bluntly but instead I
told him I wanted to do some research on my own before I get
involved. He in response agreed but insisted that we make an
appointment the next day for the sign-up as he is confident I
would not find anything wrong with their company / product.
I really had no intentions of making any further
investigations on Herbalife as I had decided not to have
connection to them the moment I knew about the residual income
prospect. Common sense tells me that if everyone has a potential
to be a distributor then where are the customers ?Sales will
definitely drop once competition increases. Hence the only way
to make a substantial and stable income flow is by creating a
large group of down line that will generate more residual
income. Now in this business plan those that are in the lower
level will surely have a more difficult time building their team
if it is even possible to do so. Knowing this fact it would be
very unethical for me to venture into this business and help
spread false dreams of financial freedom. In my opinion I find
it very unethical that large corporations had created marketing
plan promising financial freedom that most probably won't be
realized for the bigger bulk of people that was hoping for it.
In addition to that I find it very unreasonable that
distributors have pay the company registrations fees to sell the
company's product. Who is going to profit the most from any
sales made?? The company!! I've been involved in the business or
reselling and distributing computing products but I've
never heard of distributors having the need to pay the
manufacturer to get the rights to sell their products!!
Although initially I did not had intentions to
investigate more about Herbalife but for the purpose of
convincing my friend to avoid this company I had made some
searching on the web to get more information about Herbalife and
I found that there are a lot of facts not told on the
presentation made such as the fact that the nobel prize winner
who endorsed the product actually has financial interest in his
publication. In addition to that there are also previous court
charges on their product and the company marketing strategy
itself
(more on this). Although
those claims was made in the US and the company might have
changed some of its policies since then but I would advise anyone that are
thinking of joining this type of work at home business to take
caution and always do some study on the company before getting
involved.
I understand that money is an important thing to
sustain a living in this age but please don't get it at the cost
of the credibility, trust and reputation you have been building
for a lifetime. Always be sure you are clear of what you are
doing and who you are working for.
*Tips: Never rush yourself into making any
business or purchase decisions. To search for more on company
background and possible scam try searching through the internet.
Try typing "Company name" scam in the search box
to get information of scam activities related to a certain
company. eg: "herbalife scam"
Article by,
Lucas Tan.
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