As people who follow my blog know, it’s my opinion that a significant part of Amway’s struggles with growth in english speaking markets the past decade has been due to the influence of the internet. Back in the late 90s, early 00’s Amway made a conscious decision to effectively ban Amway business owners from posting on the internet. The end result was that the internet was effectively left to Amway critics and anyone using the internet to research the Amway business would be left with an overwhelmingly negative perspective, something I covered in The Internet War Against Amway Part I and Part II.
I entered the fray with the idea of trying to supply some balance. Like most things in life, Amway and Amway business owners are not perfect, but the internet focussed almost exclusively on “the negative” and the things that were wrong or needed improvement as well as acting as an echo chamber for myths and falsehoods. One example of the “balance” problem is the Amway article on Wikipedia, which has a large section devoted to controversies around Amway, yet little about the hundreds of awards that Amway has won, Amway’s global philanthropy, or the literally thousands of people who have reached significant levels of income through Amway.
So my “mission”, you might say, has been to focus on Amway’s positives, to try and provide some balance for folk researching on the internet. I haven’t completely ignored controversy or legitimate areas of concern, but in allocating my time and energy I’m focussed on getting the positive story out.
It was thus with a little disappointment that I initially followed Chuck Lia’s Speaking about Amway blog. While highly thoughtful and intelligent, I thought Chuck’s posts focussed a little too heavily on problem issues, and how he thought things could be improved. This is certainly a legitimate and useful thing to do, but frankly I thought we needed to get back to a somewhat more level internet playing field first, rather than have yet another person pile on the Amway critic bandwagon, even as an ostensibly friendly voice.
Well, after a 3 month hiatus, filled with great posts by rdknyvr, Chuck is back with a new post Speaking of Amway tacks into a fresh breeze with a focus on getting people to talk about what’s good about Amway.
What’s the irony? Well, just a few posts ago I posted with a criticism of some Amway IBOs, and my next post, coming later today, is going to be a bit of virulent rant against the actions of a major Amway organisation and the fact it’s endorsed by Amway Corporation.
So it’s a good thing you’re adding some “positive” balance Chuck, cause I’ve got steam coming out of my ears!
hej aj – hurt my shoulder, then had my son home with a fever for a few days, then had to spend a few days catching up on real work, then had my birthday, now have my son home again since the fever was apparently the onset of chicken pox!
Oh, and it coincided with getting conned into buying a playstation so I’m spending way too much time entertaining my not very sick but very spotty son on the sofa playing Prince of Persia 🙂
The post is actually 2/3 written, so hopefully soon!
Apart from which, always best to take a DEEP BREATH and a pause before being publicly critical of anyone 🙂
Where’s that butt-kicking post you started a few weeks ago, IBOFightBack?
Maybe there’s too much positive to focus on instead.
That is really interesting that you should say that. My husband just endured some freak wrestling attack by our 5-yr old boy.
Painful enough that he got it checked out the next day, the 27th. Something’s up with his rotator cuff.
Come to find out he’s been in pain for a couple of years. So in hindsight, I’m glad our son “attacked” him. Finally got him to go to the doctor! 🙂
Yeah, sorry, I pulled a muscle in my right shoulder having fun dragging my 2.5yr old around on a sled and throwing snowballs 🙂
Right shoulder means the mouse arm, so I’ve been a little less PC/net active the last few days!
IBFB wrote, “My next post, coming later today, is going to be a bit of virulent rant against the actions of a major Amway organisation and the fact it’s endorsed by Amway Corporation.”
Where’s the next post? It’s November 30th.
Just a quick point of clarification. When I started my blog we were about eight months into the TEAM debacle and I had become very disappointed with the way the corporation was dealing with aspects of the situation. I believed that both sides of the issue had hijacked the corporation. First, TEAM was sending up smokescreens to cover the realities of its less than candid or honorable business practices. Second, the company I respected in the past was becoming a company I had less respect for today.
I wanted the company to return to its fundamentals and foundational principles. Over a few months I laid out the challenges I had with the current state of affairs and pointed out how I believed the company should move forward. In several cases, the company took some of the steps moving forward that you, I, and others had proposed. In my last post in August I proposed six other areas that I believed the company should address. They made changes in four of them, including the non-compete and arbitration clauses, discussed a fifth publicly on Robin’s Opportunity Zone blog, and the other is not yet at a place where it can be addressed as the company hasn’t yet produced much in the way of corporate logo products and materials. But all in all, I’d say the company has been very responsive to the issues that to me were most critical.
But my motive in posting from the beginning was not to be a negative voice, but a constructive one. When the issues that concerned me had been addressed for the most part, I was no longer willing to waste my time rehashing the same things with the same people in the same venues.
Now I believe, in the same way that I did when SOA started in April 2008, that we can play a role in further promoting the business — this time by discussing the truly numerous positive things that are happening today in the world of Amway Global. Anyone who can’t see the many, many positive things going on in Amway today simply doesn’t want to see them and likely has agenda of their own — an agenda often mean-spirited and not easily impressed by the facts. In my mind, that is unconscionable and displays a real lack of integrity across the board. I do not believe that is true of all critics, but it appears to be true of many of them.
Beyond all that IBOFightback, I do think the company should hire you (immediately!) to lead the internet cause. You’d be a terrific person for the job.
This is a weird request, but could IBOFightBack please e-mail me. I met with my friend who is recruiting me for Network 21 tonight & I have some questions for you about his upline’s tactics. I don’t want to post them, but you seem reasonable and I really need some advice
Please don’t post this comment, and if you have time drop me a line
Thanks for the heads up Ibofightback, good to hear Chuck is building the biz and the new direction of his blog!