Quote Originally Posted by speed_kills View Post
Here's my take on MLM as I was a part of one right after graduating from school...

The good...

At least for the legit ones wherein you earn commissions based on products sold, there's nothing wrong with the business structure in theory as it is just another form of distribution.

I was lucky to be part of a strong team as I improved my communication skills, traveled to many new places, got to hang out with many interesting people, while at the same time had fun. I probably learned more in my 2 years being with this MLM company than my 4 years in college.

It was also here where I earned my first few millions during my early 20's which by the way, I didn't use to splurge on luxury cars although of course I did enjoy it for awhile (sorry but I find those TFD stickers outside flashy cars very distasteful).

The bad...

Since I got to meet many types of people, it also involved having to deal with scammers, know-it-alls, and experience complicated situations like love affairs between sales reps, etc. This business was a big eye opener and I came to know early how the world works.

The ugly...

What drives your income was the ability to continuously recruit new people. I saw many broken dreams, people who left their stable careers, and people with maxed out cards or resorted in borrowing from fellow members to complete their monthly quotas.

Team leaders regularly organized "business opportunity meetings" to lure people to start their "own" MLM businesses as it was a necessity to keep the business momentum going to reach quotas and be eligible for commissions. But when recruitment slowed down, incomes started to fall and groups disbanded.

Eventually, I felt bothered as those business meetings made so many claims yet less than 1% actually earned anything close to income levels promised. I also questioned MLM as an ethical business as people will always manipulate the system to fast track promotions/incomes while the company looked the other way.

Looking back, I was lucky to decide get out of it early since I was still young. But until today, I feel very sorry for friends who stayed too long only to fail later on. As a business or career, I'm unsure if I can ever recommend MLM to anyone. However, I still appreciate the fact that MLM can actually be a good self-improvement tool or meet people from many backgrounds.
nice post dude