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This is why you must avoid network marketing & MLM
I was reading "Everything Is Fucked" by Mark Manson and albeit I am lukewarm towards the book, there is much I agree with Manson.
One of the things both me and Manson agree on is network marketing schemes, which he refers to as "pyramid scheme".
He says:
You give some scumbag a bunch of money for products you don't want or need and then spend the next 3 months desperately trying to sign up people in the scheme under you to buy and sell products that nobody needs.
And when it doesn't work, instead of recognizing the obvious that the product is one big scam and you're selling a scam to a scam to sell more scams, you blame yourself.
That's how I also feel about it.
You are selling obviously overpriced products -how could the whole chain make money on it if it weren't horrendously overpriced?- and working for the people above you.
Only MLM Founders Profit
The only people who profit from this scheme are the ones who started it or got in very early.
What all the rest are doing is trying to elongate that chain.
But obviously, the more you elongate it, the smaller the profits for the newcomers are.
What you are doing is working like a dog for the founders, which is much, much worse than what happens in normal companies.
My Experience With Network Marketers
Manson also goes on to talk about how people in Network Marketing schemes end up brainwashed by the culture of empty self-help that permeates them.
Which is funny as that's been exactly my experience.
One day last year I was strolling around the city with a smile on my face, when a guy walked to me on the street.
he said I was well dressed and he was "looking for people on his team".
"His team", LOL, as if anyone having anything of value would need to chase people down the street :S.
But since I'm always researching human nature, I was happy to meet him.
And he was the typical "self-help addict", full of unrealistic expectations (400k/month with network marketing entrepreneurship) and a bunch of empty mantras about "always moving forward" (you sure do move a lot approaching random people in the street).
He proselytized and tried to get me into their club and their meeting like the worst of the People's Temple member would (and that's a cult of nutcases that ended up with a massive suicide).
He even said that the cream he was selling cured his mother of I don't remember which diseases, which was a common experience at their meetings, too!
Bottom Line: Avoid Multi-Level Marketing
Bottom line, multi-level marketing is not entrepreneurship.
The people at the top are manipulators and the people at the bottom are idiots that you want to stay away from.
And you can find more ethical and more fulfilling ways to make money.
