Multi Level Marketing - MLM

I saw a lot of threads about MLM recently and the following post caught my eye...

Rigante from sgforums wrote:


My friend, do some research on the net to see if magnetic therapy really works - being approved by the FDA does not necessarily infer its effectiveness.

Just as there are many sites advocating MT, there's an equal number proclaiming its ineffectiveness - in certain cases, increasing risk of cancer. Simple search on google or yahoo can turn up the results - eg. http://www.quackw

atch.org/04ConsumerEducation/QA/magnet.html.

Placebo effect is a powerful factor in medical studies - hence its ubiquitious employment in hospitals worldwide. Please take this into your consideration too.

Products aside, the MLM model is failing in this new century. The decline is very obvious, yet it is the agents who are deluding themselves because they sincerely believe that this is their only chance to catch the golden goose, and by this belief alone they are elevated to a higher plateau of status from the common working man. They tend to look their noses down at 'employees' of companies, thinking to themselves that they are the ones who have the holy tried and proven method to success (by their so-called top achievers).

In the meantime, those others work hard, save hard, understanding along the way the trappings of how the wheel of fortune works. They utilize their finances wisely and when an opportune period arrives, they choose to invest in their own entrepreneurial start-ups. Some fail, some succeed, and it is those who succeed after failing many times who'll make it to multi-millionaires, a term very rarely used in the world of MLM. Instead, car-achievers (should be termed 2nd hand car achiever) or 'senior' posts play a very powerful role in masking the pragmatic mentality of the agents, who are swept in a tide of pressurised sales generation in the hope of being 'respected' by the other lowly minions to whom they once belonged to.

Face it, not everyone has a chance to be on stage and be admired at. MLM plays on this psyche to fantastic effect - a newcomer comes in, looks at a young pimply-faced manager driving a 2nd hand BMW and thinks to himself, "Wow, I could be like that if I were to join this company." The effect is further enhanced when everywhere the manager goes, lower agents greet him with infused courtesy befitting that of our Prime Minister. For the average Ah Beng out on the streets, this might just be his ticket to fame (albeit within a small company) and fortune (if a nice sounding post and 2nd hand cars are your cup of tea).

Unfortunately, upon signing up...well the rest is history. Some are still very eager to defend their stand, as to admit that they were wrong would seriously impugn on their intelligence. However, they are faced with mixed feelings when defending their choice - one part, the Jekyll side, tells them that deep down, this is wrong, while the other part, the Hyde side, says this should be the right thing to do. After all, there is your pride to consider - think of the ridicule you'll face after you have shown your committment to all those close to you! Caught in a struggle, agents will drift in and out of their motivation to 'succeed' in MLM - vigorous persuasion from the 'top' will be duly needed to keep the 'devils' or 'xin bin' at bay. After all, these top guys realise, if their group is dissolved, so is their income, and good luck to maintaining their lifestyle. Forget residual income - if sales are getting lesser in the company, so will be the same fate for salaries. Residual income is a farce, a very pretty way of firing up one's inherent laziness to work and causing the imagination to wander off-limits. And also causing the hand to wander off-limits, punching in the 6-digit pin and handing over hard-earned cash earned by oneself or provided by loving parents.

Useful? Useless? I'll leave that for you to decide.

What are YOUR views on MLM?