ask yourself this questions . 

What you have mentioned is just only a opinion of your own , right ? 

What driven you to make such opinons ? 

(If it is because of a bad personal experience , please answer question 3 , if not please move on to )

Why did you experience such bad experiences ? 

Who was the ones who caused you to experience such bad experiences ? 

How much knowledge do you have / know about Network Marketing ? 

Where did you acquire those knowledge ? 

(If you went to a Network Marketing company before or has “worked” in it before , answer this question , if never before , skip to )

What did you do when you are in the company ? 

What did you learn in the company ? 

Did you think twice before you type it as a reply / or answer it to yourself as a questionaire ? 

Did you think thrice before you type it as a reply / or answer it to yourself as a questionaire ? 

So , do you make people annoyed easily ? 

Did you annoy your uplines , downlines or sidelines to the point that they cannot stand you before ? 

Do you think you are irritating ? 

How smart are you ? 

How knowledgeable are you ? 

Tell me about your personal encounter with a MLM company . 

Since you call MLM a sham or pyramid scheme , Let me ask you , what is a better name for pyramid scheme ? 

What is the other name for pyramid scheme ? 

So how is pyramid scheme similar to MLM ? 

Why is MLM different from pyramid scheme ? 

Why is that so ? 

Is the government stupid ? 

If not , then why do you think the government did not nab those who set up MLM companies ? 

If yes , Why is that so ? ( you are accountable for your own words and reply to my questions ) 

Did you join a MLM company before ? ( ask again , answer it ) 

If yes , do you think you are stupid ? 

If no , do you think you are smart ? 

What is your goal in life ? 

What do you want to become ? 

If you are unable to become what you want to become , do you consider yourself a failure ? 

If one cannot even think of a good reason to call MLM a scam , then do you think that person is stupid ? 

If yes , why yes ? 

If no , why not ? 

Then what do you want to be if you are not a MLMer ? 
(excuse me , so far i dont know of anyone who calls themselves a MLMer , sounds so stupid) 

Do you think you will succeed ? 

Do you think you will succeed in MLM ? ( just answer yes or not , i don't need your reason ) 

If yes , then why yes ? and what are you going to do to ensure that you will succeed ? 

If no , then do you think you will be able to succeed in your career you chosen for yourself ? 

Why is MLM a scam ? 

What if I say MLM is a scam , what will your reply be ? 

What if I say MLM is not a scam , what will your reply be ? 

Conclusion , what your answers are , reflects how smart a person you are and how much you will succeed in life . Especially your last two answers to my last two questions . 

Cheers . 

If you consider bugging your friends and family to join your network hard working, then I feel extremely sorry for your friends. I think you should take a closer look at MLM especially in places like Malaysia where it has actually wrecked peoples lives. As mentioned below there is many other forms of marketing that are a lot less damaging. This industry needs tighter regulations.

What is overlooked is that, just as in any other business, people have to work very hard to become successful, and they become successful by coaching and training others.

I agreed with some of you that MLM is a good training ground. However, not for sales (there are so many sales company that we can learn to do sales, why choose MLM?) but in building the right mindset to build a business (because they have alot of very good training too), till now, I still used this mindset and apply in my work and it works wonders.

But I do agree that MLM is just another type of business. The kind of mindset and business ethics in MLM are the same as in any traditional businesses. To be a business person, we have to be firm and in the business world, there are no friends. Can we live with that? If we can’t, then my advise is, don’t do business. Not everyone can do business.

Just to quote an example of a boss in traditional business. My boyfriend used to work with one boss (in a small company). In order to survive, he can used all sorts of what we deemed as ‘despicable’ means, but to him, it’s surviving. The partners of this boss left him because they cannot tolerate his business ethics. When I look at him, it’s the same kind of mindset and business ethics that we see in MLM too. It’s all about surviving!

Look at our Minister Mentor, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, he’s one harsh and firm person, that’s why Singapore is what it is today. If not because of Mr Lee, can Singapore, a little red dot, without resources, be number one in this world? If not, for Mr Lee, when we travel overseas, the mention that we are from Singapore and the mention of Mr Lee, it’s always thumbs up? In order to survive, we have to be that firm like him, but most of us, cannot tolerate that, that’s why, not everyone is a business person.

I left my MLM because I realize that that’s not the kind of life that I would want. The reasons why most of us keep complaining about MLM, it’s bad, unethical, etc, is simply because we cannot tolerate the kind of business ethics, the reality of business world. A true business person is firm and most of all, it’s harsh. It’s what I see most business people.

To add on to Riki’s explanation about the process of luring you in, well, the first part is warming up. Your friends, out of the blue, will call you for a meetup, so as to get to know you better.

They will follow a standard procedure in getting to know you better. They will use the ABC role: B is the bridge and C is the customer.

A could come in the later part or if your friend brings him, he is the A, most likely is the upline. A can appear at a later stage.

B is the bridge bet. A and C. B will be your friend. If A comes at a later stage. He will t-up A saying something like I have a business partner who used to be working in a well-known company who used to earn $3000 every month but felt that working is not the way, why not do a business and now earns a 5 fig. income every month. (This is call T-up where your friend will t-up A in such a way that may be quite similar to your thinking or your background now so that the next time you meet, you will feel that there’s someone similar background as you). Sometimes A will not appear.

C of course is yourself, who is your friend’s prospect.

Of course, after the meeting up, your friend will need to fill in a form called the ‘C’ information which has the following: Family, Occupation, Recreation, Money, Health, Dream, Obstacles. These are valuable info of you so that when ‘A’ meets you. They know what to talk to you. Of course, other info are character, product cutting point, career cutting point, action plan, etc.

So now you understand why your friend’s upline knows so much about you.

Of course, ABC role is nothing new. ABC role is used in the working world or any businesses. My boyfriend’s ex-boss uses alot of this tactic. Perhaps if the person did not do MLM before, they may not notice this. But too bad, my boyfriend and I have done it before and we know straightaway what this ex-boss is up to.

Actually, it all boils down to what we value most and what do we want? Do we really want to live the kind of life that most MLM perceive it to be? When we agree that we want to live the kind of life that we dream, are we prepared to fork out not just $, but the time and effort to build that kind of dream? We always see the successful business people, such as Li ka-ching, Bill Gates, etc, that’s why we always see their magnanimous, the beautiful life that they have and that’s why we are blinded. But do you know, the life and sacrifices that they’ve been through, before they were successful, do we know? We don’t because it was not reported.

Most of us, including myself in the past, don’t see that. We choose to see the beautiful picture, that’s why when things don’t work out the way we want, we say they cheated us! No! It’s us who choose the path! It’s us who choose to let them cheat us!

A very good example is my brother, he’s no longer working and is now doing and setting up his own business (traditional business, of course!) The time, efforts and sacrifices that he put in is equivalent to the time, efforts and sacrifices that I put in when I was in MLM.

It’s not only MLM which needs to put in that kind of effort, but in traditional business too! If you are prepared to give your time, efforts and sacrifices, then all I can say is, think carefully and good luck! The $ that I spent in my previous MLM, I just take it that I attended a business course in a business school. But of course, it’s an expensive lesson!

I have explained my views to many friends of mine and even one of the managers in one of the MLM companies. I’ll do it here again.

Lets have an example. If I introduce you into the company (ie. I’m the referrer). You joined. You refer your friend to join the company. Am I suppose to get some commission from your effort? Are you willing to give me any amount just because I referred you into the company?

I wont. And I’m sure most of you wont. The reason is easy. Why should I give? It’s my effort to refer someone in and I should get the commission. Not the one who have referred me in also. And not anyone above me.

For a typical referral scheme, if X refers Y successfully into the company, X gets a 1 time referral fee. If Y refers Z into the company, Y got a 1 time referral fee. X got nothing from Y’s effort.

Similar in selling of products in most commission based company. If I sell a product to you, say I got a 5% commission for doing so. If you resell it to your friends, are you willing to give me 3% also? Then if your friend sell to his friend, give me 2% and so on…

Really, to me, there’s no free lunch. Everyone is selfish when it comes to money. Who will say, “I have more then enough money and I dont want any more. Dont give it to me.” ?

Too cut it short. To me, referral is okay. Commission is okay. But I’m not for MLM. Don’t find it morally right. If you want to be an entrepreneur, go spend the money on some courses in recognised institution. Sales is important to the company. But not always the most important. To me, the most important asset is the customers of the company.

From a monetary perspective, one can definitely make money out of it provided that one gets the timing correct and possess the necessary sales techniques.

However the key problem i find with mlm is based on the issue of ethics. Anyone who gets into MLM did so because of the financial gain rather than the product itself. Same goes to those who sell it. More often than not, they are selling the dream of earning passive income rather than the product itself. This to me is unethical as it is no different in getting people to buy “magic stones”.

As for training in sales, there are better ways to do it. I agree that selling is a small part of entrepreneurship. The bigger picture in entrepreneurship is marketing, not selling.