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!