Quixtar Inside Out

Well gang, Quixtar will soon be changing their name back to Amway, or Amway Global apparently.  The corporation hasn’t announced it formally to my knowledge, but a story was written by “spinsider” who apparently acts as an independent PR hack without formal ties to the corporation.

What’s amusing to me is that there are still IBOs out there who deny that Quixtar has any connection.  What’s equally humorous is how a “namechange” turns Quixtar back into Amway even though they were completely different and seperate companies.

I wrote an article on my regular blog:   http://joecool-quixtar-thedreamorthescheme.blogspot.com/2008/01/amway-quixtar-amway.html

After 4-5 years of blogging on the subject of Quixtar, I have seen and heard so many stories and I can almost predict IBO responses these days.  Sooner or later I will retire from blogging, but there will be critics to replace me and IBOs to replace the ones spinning the stories. 

It’s all about Quixtar - The Neverending Story……….

This was posted on the Random Observations blog.  Good read.

 I had a roommate during my masters who aspired to be a multi-millionaire and joined this “business” called Quixtar alongwith a few other friends of his. Most of the meetings that they had was in our apartment and I would see this guy they called platinum or diamond (their mentor) come all dressed up in suit and explain his “business model”. What really irritated me was their “mentor” would openly ask his audience what good was education doing to them!!? He would literally encourage his “disciples” to skip their classes in order to attend some important business meetings. My roommate, being the fool he was, lost his scholarship, got into a dept of $15000 and all he would do was trying to pester others to join his business. He would wake up in the morning, have his company’s “energy drink”, eat the cereal bars, use the soaps and shampoos that he bought from them and sit like a fool to listen to some audio tapes that this company gave him! This would be his routine almost everyday. Luckily, I would say, the rest of us who didn’t want to be those “multi-millionaires” started avoidng him and his entire bunch of business friends. He got a little wiser after a whole year of wasting his time, money and self-respect and started his course all over again. Lucky for him, he landed a decent job a few months back, and I am sure he does not regret the wise decision he took to quit this “business” he was in.

It is very common for people in these kind of businesses to lose their friends. A few weeks back I met this couple in a grocery store who said they had just moved to the city, and were being over friendly and more than interested in what I was doing for a living. They took my number so that we could meet often to “exchange pleasantaries”. I received casual calls from them twice in a week and the week after that they wanted to meet up as they were planning to “expand their business and needed smart people like me”!! They werent ready to disclose their company’s name but after a lot of deliberation, they gave me this name - Britt Worldwide, but strongly discouraged me from looking it up on the internet. Thanks to google, I learnt this was similar to Quixtar, and off went their number from my cell phone!! I learnt that the management of the previous community they were living in threw them out after receiving many complaints from other residents.I still see this couple around in big grocery stores and malls. They keep loitering around the stores with an empty cart, probably pretending to buy stuff but actually hunting for other fools like them!

Posted by: Wilson303 on October 3, 2007 11:54 AM

There’s a lot of quixtar news these day with Team battling the corporation.   One thing that hasn’t changed is some of the techniques some IBOs use when prospecting. 

I was at a local mall the other day and went into Barnes and Noble to kill some time.  Sure enough a nicely dressed man approaches me in the business section.  He did the usual prospecting dialogue and I played along for a while, then when he pulled the trigger and said “you sure must be successful with your job”, I told him yes, I am looking forward to an early retirement with a nice monthly pension and monthly income from investments.

Anyway, to sum it up, he said ok and left me alone. 

Don’t the AQMOs come up with new material from time to time? 

By Joecool:

When I was an active IBO, my upline sponsored me and while teaching me the basics about ordering, etc., he convinced me that it was a good idea to get additional information by “plugging into the system”.  I didn’t quite understand what he was talking about, but what it really meant was subscribing to a weekly tape, book of the month, and attending functions.

At first, the tapes and functions were new and served as motivation.  After a few months, I started to truly wonder if these materials were the key to my success.  My business was growing but I could not see how the teaching and functions were of any help.  In fact, the cost of business support drained away any profits I had generated and my upline was relentless in getting my group to buy more tools. I saw my crossline and downline expending enormous amounts of cash on the tools and products, but there wasn’t much growth, except my personal group.

However, I attribute my group’s growth, not to tapes books and functions, but just to the excitement of everything as my group and I were new and still “gung ho” about the business. 

The tapes books and functions are not the key to your success.  They are the key to someone’s success, most like an upline diamond who gets the lion’s share of the profit.  My guess is that eventually, some of the kingpin diamonds will get too greedy and they will end up crashing the entire system.

Until then, the bloggers keep fighting and spreading the word to prospective IBOs - the opportunity is not a good one as it is presented and the additional expenditures needed to pay for tapes books and functions makes it a financially dangerous opportunity for people on a limited budget.  Do the math yourself and see what turns up (profit/loss) 

I hope all of you take the time to reflect and give thanks for the sacrifices that were made so that we may enjoy the freedoms that we have today. You may not always agree with those that are elected to run this country, but never forget it is because of the sacrifices made by those who serve this great nation that you have the right to disagree.

“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.”
-General George S. Patton

Walter posted this story on my blog recently and it depicts, what IMO, really happens to people when recruited and registered:

Success is right around the corner.  It’s a catch phrase that is common in quixtar.  It’s designed to give you second thoughts about quitting.  I remember experiencing that thought before I quit.  What if I really am close to success or what if my business is about to explode?  Am I quitting a day too soon?

Well, IMO, if you are increasing your volume thru sales, and/or increasing your group of IBOs by sponsoring new IBOs, that would be a potential sign that success might indeed be close or right around the corner.  However, if that were happening, you probably wouldn’t have quitting on your mind would you?

Being realistic, unless your volume is growing thru sales or by sponsoring new people, there is no success waiting for you around the corner.

If you are being told to never quit - remember - insanity is doing the same things and expecting different results.

It is quite ironic because many zealous (and typically new) IBOs think people who quit are “losers” or have a “broke/job mentality” but in reality, many IBOs who quit simply woke up and realized there is no success “right around the corner”.  Many of these IBOs who quit simply made a wise business decision.

With the tax deadline coming due very soon there are all kinds of articles to read about taxes and all the subjects that go along with that.

One article I found in the New York Times was interesting to me, and I thought many IBOs should also take notice. David Cay Johnston wrote an article today about the increased audits of the middle class and found some very interesting information about middle class Americans who run a business:

“Middle-class Americans most likely to have their tax returns examined under the new strategy are those who own a business, even a side business, or are landlords or have investment income.”

“Middle-class taxpayers who file a Schedule C — freelancers, consultants and very small businesses — are three times as likely to be audited as those in the same income group with no such business income.”

So make sure you got those records in order and all of your ducks in a row just in case the IRS comes a calling.

*NOTE*

 I just finished writing this, and I was going to put it on my site, but I haven’t contributed to this site much, so here you go.  After seeing the smattering of thoughts, Drew may strip me of my password….It’s long

Frequently. IBO’s talk at length about time management.  This is always something that gives me a chuckle when I hear this coming from an IBO.

I understand what time management is.  To me, it’s using your time in the most efficient way possible.

I think time management is something that CAN be taught, but the person has to be in the right frame of mind to do so.  Time maagement cannot be like an assembly line mentality where you don’t have to think, you just do as you are told over and over again.  It’s not the same thing.

To me, the essence of time management is a complete understanding of the job that is to be accomplished, then doing tasks in the most efficient order to complete the job.

When I was an IBO in the True North organization, a great deal of emphasis was put on “doing the work” and “managing your time”.  Whenever clarification was requested, it generally led to buying tapes, or books, or attending a seminar or rally.

Insofar as time management goes, I doubt you would find any real business that would consider it an efficient use of time to drive 4-5 hours to share the opportunity with a prospect, but the prospect didn’t show up, then you driving home.  My experience with IBO’s is that as long as you are listening to motivation there and back, it was worth it.  You have to experience this type of thing to be successful.

Ultimately, the “leadership” in the organization was involved with (True North) fell into the category of basically an assembly line method of leadership.  Everyone was to buy motivation to be successful.

Statements such as “the system is proven, all you have to do is what we’ve done”, or “your success may be found inside the next book you buy, or CD you purchase” were the norm.

At the time, I was about 21 years old, and had very little life experience, and I was naive enough to believe that if I followed the system and did as I was told, then it would all work out.   Many nights I got home from work,  changed & left and drove 3 hours one way to show the plan, only to get a no.  When I’d speak to my upline (a pearl at the time, and likely still is) I was lauded as a future leader and a success in the making.

Looking back now, a true leader would’ve given me hell for not having more than one appointment lined up before driving that distance, and also confirming before I left that
I did have appointments enough to make it worth the trip.  I don’t know why this didn’t happen, but looking back now, I feel that I’ve achieved a better understanding about what was going on:

-  I was someone who wouldn’t question a “leader”
-  I was someone who would buy motivation
-  I was someone who believed much of what I was told
-  I was someone who was trusting of people who appeared to have my best interests at heart
-  I was someone who had no idea what it took to create a successful business

At the end of the day, this post was supposed to be about how most people in this business that I associated with didn’t have the slightest clue what time management was or how to achieve it.  Based on what alot of IBO’s write, it is obviously still true.

Let me spell it out real simple for all the IBO’s out there:

Listening to motivation, reading success books, and attending weekly seminars are NOT what it takes to be successful.  You need to have a competitive product, and move it to make money.

Having coffee at Denny’s for 3 hours after a plan showing is NOT a productive use of time in a business.  Sure its fun, but it has nothing to do with creating an income, and there’s no need for it.

Driving 10 + hours to a seminar IS NOT a way to create income.  It’s a big time investment, and if you’re doing it, you better be getting something out of it other than feeling good about yourself.  If you are investing that kind of time and money to go that far for “information” then you better be generating a significant income from it to begin with.  You better be getting something you can’t get from a CD or a video feed.

I know, I know, it’s the atmosphere.  Tell you what, I’ve been there, I’ve attended these major rallies, and they are NOT profitable to anyone except the person putting them on, because they are putting YOU on.

My work now takes me all over Canada.  It’s necessary enough for my employer to be willing to pay my expenses and transportation costs.  Do you think it would go over well if I told my employer that I wanted to go to a meeting 12 hours away where the purpose of the meeting is vague, the training I will receive is ambiguous at best, and there is no outside opinion of whether this meeting is good value for money?  NO….

This is getting to be a bit lengthy, but let me finish with this.  You’re going to find out something about the rocket here…

When I was training to be a paramedic, we had to know signs and symptoms of a lot of different types of medical conditions or traumas.  You COULD memorize them all, and some people did.

What I found to be the most efficient way of learning, was to UNDERSTAND the injury or medical illness.  When you understood what a heart attack was, the signs and symptoms were easy, because you expected it.  That’s because you understood why it was happening.

All I’m saying is that IBO’s should understand what’s happening in their business, and they SHOULD question everything before they invest money into it.

Sorry for the long post.  I hope it makes sense.

Hi guys,

I have to apologize for not having posted anything for a while. It’s been really busy at work. I hope to continue the Open Meeting Series in a couple of weeks.

But I thought I should at least post something so you know I haven’t abandoned the blog.

So… The folks over at the Opportunity Zone are asking for True IBO stories. Solicitations can be found on the Adatudes Blog and on Inside Quixtar. There’s even a new True IBO Stories section.

One would think IBOs would be falling all over themselves to relate their Quixtar experiences, but as of the time of the writing of this post, only one IBO story has been posted. (Kudos to Bob and Sheila.) Granted, it’s only been two days since they started asking for stories. But IBOs have been posting comments on the Opportunity Zone since Wednesday. Quixtar IBOs complain that there is too much negative on the web. Well, here’s your chance to post some positive.

Another thing I find interesting is that insider/IBOFightBack, defender of all things Amway, Quixtar, and Network 21, hasn’t posted his story. (I probably shouldn’t be surprised.) Instead, he left this comment:

On the True IBO Stories website it says - “Flip through Achieve, and you’ll read about these and other IBO leaders”

Well, herein lies part of the problem and makes me feel like you folk are still a little out of touch with what’s happening “on the ground”. Prospects *can’t* flip through their copy of achieve. They’re googling the internet and mostly only finding the experiences of those who quit.

The True IBO Stories site is a great initiative towards solving this, but wouldn’t it make sense to put all the success stories you already have publicly online as well? Why isn’t Achieve online and publicly available?

Insider, why don’t you cut the spin, deflections, or whatever it is you do and post your own story? You’ve been blaming critics for damaging the reputation of your business, so here’s your chance set the story straight by telling us your IBO story.

Even my friend Tex hasn’t posted any comments on those threads, and he is usually the first to comment.

IBOs, here’s your chance to affect how people perceive your business. You’ve done a great job of responding to other threads. So now, take some time to post your stories, your challenges and triumphs. Let us hear your own words and thoughts about the business. (Minimal tapespeak will be appreciated.)

Lastly, I must confess that what I wrote about insider was partly provoked by what I perceived as his trying to question my character/credibility when he referred to me as an “anti-Quixtar blogger” and seemed to insinuate that I was an “anti-MLM zealot.” Maybe it was not his intention to insinuate that, but it sure seemed that way to me and I wouldn’t be surprised if others came to the same conclusion. He then stated that something I said was wrong, but thankfully, the folks at Quixtar posted my rebuttal. Needless to say, I was a little miffed. (I still stand by what I wrote above.) Anyway, rant over.

Finally (okay, this time it’s for real), I want to say that I am really impressed by the Opportunity Zone. It’s great that the corp has opened this avenue of two-way communication. Sure, I don’t agree with every single thing that’s there (and what does that matter anyway?), and some are impatient what they perceive as slow (or nonexistent) progress, but Rome wasn’t built in a day. I’m liking what I see, and I hope I’m not disappointed.

Happy Easter/Passover to everyone!

P.S. Sorry if this seemed to repeat Truth’s earlier post.