Quixtar Sucks

Insider / David Steadson - Zealot or not?

2008-07-25T02:10:00.001-04:00

Scott Larsen made some points here and we have Truth's perspective. Here are number of posts / insider blog to date (July 25th, 2008)

http://www.thetruthaboutamway.com (93)
http://www.amwaywatch.com/ (12)
http://mlmliberal.blogspot.com/ (2)
http://amwaynorthamerica.blogspot.com/ (27)
http://quixtarbusinessreview.blogspot.com/ (10)
http://quixtatic.blogspot.com/ (8)
http://amwaylatin.blogspot.com/ (2)
http://amwayaustralia.blogspot.com/ (4)
http://amwayeurope.blogspot.com/ (12)
http://www.amwaywatch.com/ (12)
http://amquixvideo.blogspot.com/ (0)
http://ibofightback.vox.com/ (1)
http://ibofightback.livejournal.com/ (4)

Total = 187

Loser, and his posts

http://quixtarsucks.blogspot.com (318)

You may verify these numbers via feed readers. I'm not including wiki, forums, and '79' youtube videos.

Observations

Why can't he write all that in one blog under different categories? Google ranking? Quixtar Blog was ranked higher for a while in google than Quixtar.com, with ONE blog.

I might lose on word count. But I learned from the master.

I'm disappointed

Again! As an IBO, nothing significant. As a blogger, I've written twice the posts, and administer a much popular forum. Am I a zealot? Or just Loser ;)

Odd Couple

2007-12-22T18:13:00.001-05:00

Orrin Woodward and Ty Tribble! Look at that! You may wanna play the theme.

Next: Dexter Yager and Steve Hasan?

What do you feel?

2007-11-12T22:54:00.001-05:00

Hey normal public: How do you feel when some one try to get you join amway? You feel excited, turned off, pissed or awkward?

What was your answer? If it was yes, are you still an IBO? If it was no, how much time it took to get rid of that IBO?

What should be done with Amway?

2007-11-09T19:21:00.001-05:00

Should we learn a lesson from Britts and shut down amway? They started English, they must be right about amway?

Amway crimes

Millions of people have lost Billions of dollars to pursue the "dream". It is a largest running scam in my opinion. One must be a great salesman to be successful in amway. Ironically, a great salesman has far better options. Mostly people without any sales experience do amway.

In a nutshell, IBOs are unpaid salesmen, if they sell any thing. Usually they end up buying amway products. They don't do it before and after amway. What does that tell you?

I think amway should be shut down immediately, and all past IBOS should be reimbursed some thing.

Speaking of reimbursement, I'll continue blogging about Quixtar until I make $10, 000. That's the money I lost in Quixtar. If you're an IBO, click ads to get me there earlier. If you're a critic, click it twice.

How much open costs you?

2007-10-31T00:59:00.001-04:00

Not the entry ticket. Total time and money. Ex-IBOs can comment as well.

Time

Do you attend it weekly?
Time it takes you to get ready for it?
How long is the drive there?
Duration of your Open?
Do you stay for the training? How long?
Do you pick up / drop off prospects?

Money

Fuel costs?
Baby sitting?
Do you eat out those nights?
How much a lit pack costs?
How many lit packs you give out on average?
How many lit packs are actually returned?

Which bird is TEAM bird?

2007-10-25T23:44:00.001-04:00

Hint: It has a very funny retardation.

Multi Level Marketing Goto peeps

2007-10-14T05:15:00.001-04:00

You're in Quixtar. Or some one told you about it. You look it up. Now you are confused. Some fears are confirmed, but your dreams are still there. What to do?

True, job sucks majority of your time. And for majority it sucks majority of the time. Owning a business is a pretty good idea, although intimidating. You may spend more time in it with less rewards.

Asking questions is a smart move. If you don't ask, you won't learn. I won't do MLM, but I don't think it's evil. Let me "recommend" you some people that may help.

Ty Tribble

He was a 4000 PV Pin in Quixtar, then passport, then Univera. He's a work from home dad, and knows a thing or two about MLM.

I find him ever helpful, despite knowing I'm not a prospect :)

I'd recommend him 100%.

Insider

He's the most famous IBO on the net. I don't know if he's indeed an IBO, or human for that matter. But he does a good job covering news about Quixtar. I don't always agree with him, but his claims are not "100000s of platinums and 1000s of diamonds are breaking every year!!!!" either.

Consider him an "online crossline". You may compare "system" notes with him. Crosslining is not bad ;)

Beth Dornan

She doesn't do MLM as far as I know. She's a Quixtar Employee. Her blog insidequixtar is the best Quixtar resource. She engages in conversations and a pretty reliable source, I'd say.

Plan, understanding, me

2007-10-10T22:03:00.001-04:00

I'm getting some comments lately along the lines of "You didn't understand the plan, that's why you are not in. Stay broke".

Claim 1 : If I "understand" the plan, it's impossible to not be an IBO? I've seen and shown the plan many times. Explain me what I did not understand. Use as much words as you like.

Claim 2 : If I'm not in, I must be broke.

There are many wealthy people and most of them are not IBO. How come they're not broke?

The Office Clip - seems familiar

2007-06-22T20:59:00.001-04:00

How to make $1000 / month in Quixtar?

2007-06-05T11:20:00.001-04:00

This was my initial dream. Make an extra grand on the side.

What I need to do to make it?
How much time it will take?
What will be my expenses? Fuel, food, tools, samples?
What products I need to sell / consume?

Robert Kiyosaki

2007-06-04T00:21:00.001-04:00

Mr. Robert Kiyoski is very popular in Quixtar Motivational Organizations. His books, specially Rich Dad, Poor Dad, are considered great financial advice for IBOs.

He has written 18 books which combined have sold over 26 million copies

And

Three of his books, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Rich Dad's CASHFLOW Quadrant, and Rich Dad's Guide to Investing, have been on the top 10 best-seller lists simultaneously on The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and the New York Times.

His history in Wikipedia

Kiyosaki left the Marine Corps in 1974 and got a job selling copy machines for the Xerox Corporation. In 1977, Kiyosaki started a company that brought to market the first nylon and Velcro "surfer" wallets, which grew into a moderate success. In the early 1980s Kiyosaki started a business in which he licensed T-shirts for Heavy Metal rock bands but the business failed and he allegedly had to declare bankruptcy and ultimately became homeless.^[4]

Kiyosaki became active in a personal growth seminar, called "Money & You", which was started by Marshall Thurber. These 3-1/2 day seminars were taught around the US and Canada. The premise of the seminar was teaching the works of Buckminster Fuller and promoting the concepts of win/win and personal responsibility. When Thurber gave up the business in 1985 Kiyosaki took over the seminar business with Thurber's former partner, D.C. Cordova. They taught the course to a large number of students primarily in Australia and New Zealand. In 1994 at the age of 47 he shut down the business because of adverse publicity in Australia and "retired". Around 1996–1997 he formed Cashflow Technologies, Inc. which operates and owns the Rich Dad (and Cashflow) brand.

So he failed in business in eighties, started seminar business motivating other people and became successful. Good for him.

Criticism (Source: wikipedia)

Detailed analysis of public records (including SEC and county registrar of deeds) find no evidence to support Kiyosaki's status as a successful investor and businessman prior to the formation of his present venture, Cashflow Technologies, Inc. They claim that his wealth has come as a result of selling books and audio presentations about topics he has not personally succeeded in and that he is probably worth far less than the US$50 to US$100 million he once claimed in an interview.^{[citation needed]}

Kiyosaki's books and teachings have been criticized by some for having anecdotal lessons, but lacking concrete advice on what exactly one should do.^[13] Many readers find his work highly motivational and educational, but some find it lacking information to put it to use. Kiyosaki responds that his material is meant to be more of a motivational tool to get readers thinking about money, rather than a step by step guide to wealth. He also says the books are supposed to be "interesting" to people, which precludes involving a lot of technical material.^[14]

Conclusion

Am I stopping you to read his books or causing it completely useless? HECK NO! They're what they are: Motivational material. They've been best sellers. But so are Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter.

They may motivate you and bring great success to you. But I'd rather read books with technical content on it, some thing more than "motivation".

Please let me know if any of above is not correct. I'll update it and I'll encourage you to update wikipedia as well if you have solid facts contrary to what is there.

People over 65 are either dead or broke dead

2007-06-02T00:29:00.000-04:00

A myth spread by many IBOs, on and off stage. I heard it may times. Scott Larsen of Amquix.info has published this research

Myth: According to the American Bankers association 95% of all people retiring at 65 are either dead are broke.

Truth: Many lines of sponsorship want to scare the prospects with the "retirement statistics". Many groups have repeated the line above and World Wide Dream Builders puts something similar in their "private franchising" brochure. They state that according to the Social Security Administration, people reaching age 65:

23% still working
30% dependent on charity
45% financially dependent on relatives
2% are financially independent

The source of the "American Bankers" statement above had alluded me. This topic came up on the QuixtarNow Blog with a link to a January 30, 1935 article from the Senate Finance Committee where the actual basis for this claim can now be found. Interesting is that the statement was made even before the Social Security Act was signed into law in August of 1935. It seems unethical to me that these Amway organizations would continue to quote an 80+ year old survey in light of the fact that many things have changed to improve the incomes of retirees. Since the article was written in 1935 such things as Social Security, corporate pensions, 401K plans, IRA's, Roth IRA's and annuities have improved retirees' incomes significantly.

Data from the IRS suggest that this common myth of Amway and Quixtar distributors is very untrue 80+ years later. The data show that 50% of all retires have incomes greater than $20,000, and 20% have incomes greater than $40,000. About 5% had incomes over $100,000/per year. If any income under $100,000/year classifies you as "broke", then the distributors' claims are true.

AMOs teachings are same or different?

2007-06-01T03:15:00.000-04:00

My fellow blogger "insider" posted

So of 900,000 IBOships in Quixtar, there's something like 450,000 people attending seminars. 450,000!

That's a big number. That's a VERY big number.

And

When I point out to "critics" that perhaps their experience is not the most common experience, or perhaps not as widespread as they think, they'll often retort something along the lines of "I heard this taught at a seminar with 10,000 people!"

10,000 people is a big number, a VERY big number.

But it's only 5% of 200,000.

10,000 people sitting in a seminar being told something "wrong" or against Quixtar rules or whatever is a lot of people. But it's still less than 1% of all IBOships, and it's even only a tiny number of active IBOs who are attending seminars.

Context.

10,000 seems a BIG number - but put it in context, it's not. Don't get me wrong -it's still a lot of people, and if people are being taught or told "the wrong thing", well, one is too many! But for every IBO or former IBO out there, our experience, our context, is tiny compared to the reality of the Amway/Quixtar world. It's bigger than you think. WAAAYYY bigger than you think.

What he "missed" is, not all critics attended same seminar. If I attended one, Joe attended another, It's 20,000 now.

It takes 450,000 / 10,000 = 45 people, one from each seminar to compare notes and come to conclusion how similar or different teachings are. Assuming a major seminar has 10,000 attendees and there are total 450,000 IBOs attending seminars.

What is negative?

2007-05-29T23:47:00.000-04:00

Are the following negative statements or positive ones?

JOBs are for losers
People over 65 are dead or dead broke
90% of small business fails

Biggest flaw with MLM

2007-02-10T23:49:00.000-05:00

In my opinion, biggest flaw with MLM is constant need to grow. I do free lance software development and server maintenance. I'll be happy if I keep on getting what I've been getting in past few months. But if MLM is not growing, it means majority is not even profitable.

Lets say there is an MLM Quixtar. Lets say they make around a Billion every year for past four years. Good for Quixtar, but does that means it is good for IBOs?

There could be two scenarios.

- Pretty much every IBO is where he was. 100 PV is @ 100 PV, 1000 PV is @ 1000 PV. Platinum is platinum. It should be good if they are profitable at those levels.

Or

# of new 100 PV = # of 100 PV who are 100 PV no more.
# of new 1000 PV = # of 1000 PV who are 1000 PV no more.
# of new Platinums = # of Platinums no more.

2nd scenario is more likely. What does that mean? Lot more work to build a team given the attrition rate? Sponsor 100 and 99 quit? It is like trying to fill a glass with pores in the bottom.

So...If you are in MLM,

Are you profitable at your current level?
Does your profit justifies the time and effort you put it?
At what level it justifies?
Are you at that level?
How many people can be at that level at a given time?

Redirect your buying power

2006-06-01T21:34:00.000-04:00

So you heard, "You have nothing to lose. Just buy what you already buy. Instead of buying from Wal-mart, you buy from your own business and get some money back. Tell others to do the same and you can be financially free".

It is so very hard to just "redirect" and make 100 PV WITHOUT buying stuff you never did. Try doing just 100 PV without vitamins, artistry, energy drinks and protein bars.

LOC cleaner lasts real long like many other Quixtar products. Good, but how you gonna do 100 PV every month?

You'll sign up and may sign up other people using the same "redirect" line. People don't like selling but they can shop differently, right? Just "changing habbits". In opens and PASE they see every one high on vitamins and energy drinks. And you need PV. You have to start buying and promoting them. There's just no other way.

I'll venture to say only 40% of PV will come from 'redirection'. And you used to shop cheaper.

And when you become serious, 100 PV become 150 for single and 300 for family.

Positive memories from Quixtar

2006-05-31T01:10:00.000-04:00

How can I forget, tasting heinz ketchup first time after quitting Quixtar. Heavenly compared to Quixtar ketchup we had for a year.

Things in life that you just can't forget. Some positive memories from Quixtar. Like:

Renting 3 movies on weekend
Not returning upline calls.
(My upline, Ahmer Azam was trying to sucker me back in, told me to go to some rally on saturday and meet him on Sunday. Yeah, right! He called me at my work for 3 HOURS!!!!!! I had to promise else he won't let me go. Should have slammed the phone. And of course, punched him 7 times. 7 is lucky number)
Tasting Heinz Ketchup again!!!
Sleeping on bed at reasonable hour, guilt free. Not on car wheel.

PS: I'm back! Thanks Jody Victor.

Adios Muchachos

2006-02-24T20:43:00.000-05:00

Update: My new blog: http://www.imranaziz.net/blog

Ok folks, it's about time. I'm done with Quixtar related stuff. It has been a lot of fun, very good friends (that friend ship will continue) and good learning.

I would definitely blog. Either hybrid, or golfing blog. I'm about to release my own software, and my IT consulting business is getting more clients. I know, all bloggers have other things to do. But I just don't want blog this anymore.

In my "snapping out of trance" period it was quite shocking that how we, along with many other "sharp" ppl got suckered in this stupid cult. It was very surprising. I still feel the same way about Quixtar, but I would rather blog about Golf, or WWE.

Advantages of authoring this blog

I went from 5 hits to 100 hits per day average, even when I don't update this blog for months. How? Be Brief, traffic and comments will follow. No one wants to read 5 page ramble.
Simpler, easier to read blog is better than gadget-mess, no matter how techy you feel.
Learned blogs, phpBB etc. Configured them for clients and made $$$$.
Communication skills improved.
Made some very good friends.
Created on-going 6 figure residual income via google ads.

See you guys in my hybrid blog.

Bye

Steelers SuperBowXL Champs

2006-02-06T02:14:00.000-05:00

Update: Big Ben's Touch Down. True, some calls were not clear this whole play-off, but gimme a break.

Update 2: NFL Head Ref, Mike Pereira explained each "controversial" call on NFL network.

- Ben TD looks like a clear TD at some angles, didn't at others. Mike said it was a TD. There is no clear evidence that it wasn't. And it doesn't matter official raised one or two hands for split second.

- There was a definite offensive pass interference on Derrel Jackson TD. Mike said he would demote his officials if they didn't call it. in 2003 all coaches specially Colts begged for this rule. And now that's the bad call?

- Same play, Matt Hassleback was out of pocket, so defender can touch the players. So there was no defensive pass interference. (Read the rules).

- Seatle's player was out of bound on incomplete pass. He didn't have possession when his foot ruffled with corner.

- Only bad call was Matt's tackle.

- There had been 10-15 wrong calls / game like 10 years ago. It is real hard to be accurate in such a bang bang game. Now it's down to 3 - 4 calls. And we are complaining? This SB was officiated no different than any other game of regular season. As ppl say, let the player play, don't throw flag. But coaches keep begging on some rules.

As Mike said, it is unfair to players, fans and officials to call SB different than 1st week, 8th week and 16th week game.

I liked steelers by playing Madden in XBox. Yeah!! I got addicted to football by playing madden first, not the other way around. Weird eh! I had great success playing Jerome Bettis. Run him, pick 4-5 yards. Run him again. And again, and again. And he'll give you yards out of no where. Pass once in a while to loosen up, then run again. That was my whole strategy. Works wonders!

Then I asked is this guy really that good? Is he a bulldozer or what? Then I saw steelers in their first few matched of the season and wow, he was. And of course, the un-selfishness of the whole team (last AFC Championship to now) is amazing. Bill Cowher is interesting to watch. And best gadget plays :) What other team is more fun to watch? WR running, another throwing TD, RB throwing TD etc.

What is most impressive is this team is been a play-off type team since last 10 years. That is something.

And now they won, from 7-5 to Super Bowl XL winner. I hope they make a dynasty.

Some negative people had yucky perceptions about them, saying negative out of their habbit.

One decision was really wierd. Matt's tackle. I'll update you when officials explain it on NFL Network. Officials got a lot of shit on Palomalu's interception. Head NFL Coach said so on air. So lets see what they say about this decision.

Ben's TD run was a touch down. They've shown it many times on NFL network. It did cross the plane. Mike Holmgrin did not act professionally at half time.

MLMscam, what's up dude?

Liberty, peace and justice

2006-02-04T01:19:00.000-05:00

I'm a Diamond?

2006-01-31T22:03:00.000-05:00

In many online Quixtar discussions, a popular comeback by IBOs: "So Quixtar was not for you. It is not for every one. Move on. Why bad mouth it?"

I've been to many opens and seminars. An hour is spent explaining how sucky jobs are and how 95% small businesses fail. That's not "bad mouthing"?

Why not? Because at the end they get to present Quixtar?

So.... if you bad mouth to make money then its ok? Guess what, I never said I didn't make any money writing this blog. (I'm not saying I do, more on it later)

Am I equivalant to Diamonds then? I bad mouth Quixtar, Diamonds bad mouth jobs, other businesses, schools. But they make money right? Who is to say I don't? Who is to say I make less than them? You may not have their P/L sheet. You certainly don't have mine. Start shooting assumptions. Go ahead.

By they way, quite some battle going on here :) 50 comments! Holly molly. Well I don't mind. Good points, keep it up.

Annoying IBOs

2006-01-14T22:54:00.000-05:00

Telemarketers annoy you, no?

In the same way, IBOs are annoying. Even more so then telemarketers. They put you down because they have this percieved notion that you are a loser of you don't do Quixtar.

Then people:

Blog about it
Talk negatively
Make fun of IBOs

And negativity increases. Don't complain any one for ruining your business. You are the one pissing ppl off. And these are the poeple who don't sign up as IBO.

I don't know what Quixtar Corp is doing to change it? Are they doing any thing to change it?

Wild card weekend picks

2006-01-07T11:32:00.000-05:00

Update: Steelers Won!!! 3 / 4. Hmmmm, not bad.

Go Steelers!

@TB over WAS
@NE over JAX
CAR over @NYG
PIT over @CIN

Week 17 Picks

2005-12-31T16:56:00.000-05:00

Ok I'm hurrying, game about to start :) I forgot games are today...But no worries, still made it :)

I like yours Waymee, go Cowboys. But Carolina appears to be too good to be beaten by Atlanta at this point.

Imran's picks

16 PIT OVER DET
15 TB OVER NO
14 BAL OVER CLE
13 JAX OVER TEN
12 NYG OVER OAK
11 NE OVER MIA
10 IND OVER ARI
9 DAL OVER STL
8 KC OVER CIN
7 WAS OVER PHI
6 BUF Over NYJ
5 SD OVER DEN
4 SF OVER HOU
3 CHI Over MIN
2 SEA Over GB
1 CAR Over ATL

Sauce's Picks

16 NYJ Over BUF
15 PIT OVER DET
14 WAS OVER PHI
13 KC OVER CIN
12 NE OVER MIA
11 DEN Over SD
10 NYG OVER OAK
9 DAL OVER STL
8 MIN Over CHI
7 CLE OVER BAL
6 IND OVER ARI
5 SEA Over GB
4 NO Over TB
3 CAR OVER ATL
2 JAX OVER TEN
1 SF OVER HOU

Waymee's picks

16 PIT OVER DET
15 TB OVER NO
14 IND OVER ARI
13 DAL OVER STL
12 NYG OVER OAK
11 SF OVER HOU
10 JAX OVER TEN
9 WAS OVER PHI
8 NE OVER MIA
7 BAL OVER CLE
6 KC OVER CIN
5 NYJ OVER BUF
4 SD OVER DEN
3 MIN OVER CHI
2 GB OVER SEA
1 ATL OVER CAR

Bumpi's picks

16 PIT OVER DET
15 TB OVER NO
14 DAL OVER STL
13 NYG OVER OAK
12 JAX OVER TEN
11 WAS OVER PHI
10 BAL OVER CLE
9 IND OVER ARI
8 KC OVER CIN
7 SF OVER HOU
6 CHI Over MIN
5 BUF Over NYJ
4 SD OVER DEN
3 NE OVER MIA
2 GB OVER SEA
1 CAR OVER ATL

Week 16 NFL picks

2005-12-24T00:02:00.000-05:00

Update: Confidence pool:

Waymee: 96, Irfan 93, Imran: 88, Bumpi 85

Correct picks only

Waymee 11 / 16
Irfan 10 / 16
Imran 10 / 16
Bumpi 09 / 16

A lot of my friends are playing with me this time.

Imran's week 16 NFL picks

16 @DEN over OAK
15 PIT over @CLE
14 @CIN over BUF
13 NE over @NYJ
12 JAX over @HOU
11 @MIA over TEN
10 CHI over @GB
09 PHI Over @ARZ
08 @SL over SF
07 @CAR over DAL
06 @NO over DET
05 @KC over SD
04 NYG over @WAS
03 @BAL Over MIN
02 @SEA over IND
01 @TB over ATL

Waymee's Week 16 picks

16 DEN OVER OAK
15 CIN OVER BUF
14 PIT OVER CLE
13 JAX OVER HOU
12 CHI OVER GB
11 STL OVER SF
10 MIA OVER TEN
9 NYG OVER WAS
8 NE OVER NYJ
7 SEA OVER IND
6 DET OVER NO
5 ARI OVER PHI
4 SD OVER KC
3 DAL OVER CAR
2 BAL OVER MIN
1 ATL OVER TB

Irfan's Week 16 picks

16 NE over @NYJ
15 @CIN over BUF
13 @DEN over OAK
12 PIT over @CLE
11 JAX over @HOU
10 PHI Over @ARZ
09 CHI over @GB
08 DET over @NO
07 @MIA over TEN
06 @SL over SF
05 @WAS over NYG
04 MIN over @BAL
03 @CAR over DAL
02 @SEA over IND
01 @TB over ATL
SD over @KC

Bumpi's Week 16 picks

16 NE over @NYJ
15 @CIN over BUF
14 JAX over @HOU
13 @DEN over OAK
12 CHI over @GB
11 MIN over @BAL
10 PIT over @CLE
09 @MIA over TEN
08 PHI Over @ARZ
07 DET over @NO
06 @SL over SF
05 NYG over @WAS
04 @CAR over DAL
03 @TB over ATL
02 @KC over SD
01 @SEA over IND

Imran's week 15 NFL picks

2005-12-17T01:21:00.000-05:00

Update: Imran 115, Waymee 109

16 SEA over @TEN
15 DEN over @BUF
14 CIN over @DET (Boo)
13 @JAX over SF (Boo)
12 CAR over @NO
11 @BAL over GB
10 @NYG over KC (Yeaaa)
09 PIT over @MIN (Yeaaa)
08 DAL over @WAS
07 ARZ over @HOU
06 CLE over @OAK
05 @MIA over NYJ (Boo)
04 @IND over SD (Yeaaa)
03 PHI Over @SL
02 ATL Over @CHI
01 @NE over TB

Taking winter vacation

2005-12-12T01:23:00.000-05:00

I'm taking a long winter vacation from this blog, and the whole Quixtar debate. Except for NFL picks. Many things going on:

Have to buy a new house
Move
Get married
Watch super bowl
Bath daily and stuff

Also, thinking of starting a sportsman blog, how to deal with muscle aches and avoid problems. Hot tub / cold tub stuff.

So see you boys. Go Diamond.

Imran's week 14 NFL picks

2005-12-11T02:09:00.000-05:00

Update: 113 points

16 WAS over @ARZ
15 @SD over MIA
14 @DEN over BAL
13 @ATL over NO
12 @SEA over SF (boooo)
11 NYG over @PHI
10 @MIN over SL
09 NE over @BUF
08 @CIN over CLE (booo)
07 @TEN over HOU
06 @CAR over TB
05 @GB over DET
04 @DAL over KC
03 IND over @JAX (boooo)
02 OAK over @NYJ (boooo)
01 @PIT over CHI

Imran's week 13 NFL picks

2005-12-04T02:07:00.000-05:00

Update: 121 points baby!

Week 13

@IND over TEN 16
@BAL over HOU 15
JAX over @CLE 14
@NE over NYJ 13
TB over @NO 12
DEN over @KC 11
@SD over OAK 10
WAS over @SL 9
@CHI over GB 8
@CAR over ATL 7
SEA over @PHI 6
MIN over @DET 5
@MIA over BUF 4
@PIT over CIN 3
@NYG over DAL 2
@SF Over ARZ 1

Biggest Enemy of Islam

2005-12-01T23:08:00.000-05:00

Mr Bin Laden says "Queen of England is biggest enemy of Islam"

Really!

How Islamic it is to kill innocent people? What is the penalty? Right, death! You killed innocent people (even if some one paid you) your punishment according to Islam = public execution. All scholars agree on this one, don't they?

Biggest enemy of Islam is you, who create troubles for Muslims all over the world.

You want to fight for Islam? This is what to do. Do Jihad-e-akbar. (Bigger Jihad). Know what it is? Defeat your enemy with your character. Fight with knowledge, not that lack of it. Or you are a nut job who really wants to harm America, smuggle heroin. Good market! And make some money doing it. Don't support their war industry. Stick to the tactics that worked.

How are your tactics working for Islam? What is your bottom line? How much you have "helped" Islam? Are you really a Muslim? Or being a Muslim helps you get clients? If I was china I would hire you to do work for me. If I was Israel I would hire you. Heck, If was some political party in America I might hire you to create some desired political effect for me. Usual suspects! But doing your job is harming Muslims, more than any one else.

Why don't you start some MLM in some country where you can hide? At least people will stay alive and your dark side will be happy.

Quixtar Playbook # 7

2005-11-29T21:01:00.000-05:00

An IBO commented here. Their comment is in bold.

to Loser:

My brother, Salaam alaikum,

Walaikum Salam, uh...sister!

I just want to say if you had spent half as much energy in building your business as you do maintaining this blog and feeling sorry for yourself you would have succeeded.

Sister, straight from playbook? My IT consulting, part time business is making good money. Alhamdullillah!

If your uplines told you to leave your family if they were negative about quixtar then that was wrong on your upline's part and they are to blame only. you fail to realize that uplines are INDEPENDENT business owners. Therefore they are under control of no one but themselves and they are mere humans capable and highly probable to make mistakes.

Nope. They do so because they think it is right. Quite common in many Quixtar LOS. It's no mistake. That's how Quixtar works.

For your information at the last Richmond Virginia function that my husband attended 4 people took shahada and became muslim. That is relatively small number and i wont say that this business is a way to Boost conversions but it surely doesnt prevent you from doing dawah either. dawah can be done in any profession or lack of one as well. dawah is spread by one person actually practicing their faith and inspiring others. whether by preaching or by simple example. Not everyone is good at inspiring others to become muslim. I know plenty of "muslims" that make me ashamed to call them my brothers and sisters. perhaps you are like them and thats why you didnt bring anyone to islam. or maybe its your "oh poor me" attitude that turned them off. Quitters are not inspirational. and neither are those who spread lies. you want to blame quixtar because you didnt stick to it. or because your uplines who are not controlled by quixtar made human mistakes. get over it. you were simply with a team that wasnt right for you. or maybe you expected to get rich quick. there is no such business. ALL BUSINESSES TAKE HARD WORK AND TIME TO GET OFF THE GROUND BEFORE THEY BECOME SUCCESSFUL. Every new walmart operates in the red for hte first 2 years. most franchises do. does that mean that mcdonald's is a scam? does that mean that walmart is a scam? does that mean that every chain market is a scam? NO it doesnt. it simply means that YOU werent good enough. YOU didn't have what it takes to build a big business with quixtar.

Any thing that you said? or straight from tapes?

If you don't want to call me brother, then don't. I prefer that way, honestly!

Regarding "Shahada" ceremonies, great! According to fatwa, Quixtar is itself haram. Research on "Al-Gharar".

you say thats your real picture on your profile... does that mean you are a goat?

its really embarrassing to have spineless liars for brothers in islam.

That post is a year old. I had my picture then. But good point ;)

Toronto Raptors SUCKS

2005-11-26T20:27:00.000-05:00

It's official, Toronto Raptors sucks!!

Why? Toronto people are too loyal to their teams. Civic pride! But Raptors and Leafs abuses that loyality all the time.

Leafs haven't won Stanly cup since 1967. At least they're a play-off team. My youngest brother studied in Tariq Islamic School and their principal taught kids how leafs dissapointed him when he was a kid and he hates him. A bearded relegious figure saying that ;)

And raptors....lost 9 out of first 10 games in year 2005. My youngest brother is a big fan, go to his basketball practice in -30 C, watches every raptor game. Hard to see a thirteen year old broken heart every other night. Raptors know they're gonna get butts on seats. So they don't work as hard as other teams.

TEAM Orrin, Scott Larsen, Mirrors, Me?

2005-11-26T12:55:00.000-05:00

I'm still bugged by TOD lawyers via Scott Larsen about the pages I mirrored, and removed from my website.

I mirrored them when lawsuit was on. From October 2004 until December 2004. Scott asked me late November 2004 to remove my mirror pages to help him settle the lawsuit with "The Team of Destiny" (TOD). I cdid in early December 2004.

Once the lawsuit was over, I put them back on. I didn't like the lawsuit and TEAM bully tactics. I removed them again on July 2005, since I learned TOD is harassing Scott and he is losing thousands of Dollars on lawyers to answer about mirrors, and I did't want to sign any thing affidavit etc. for TOD. Beside, TOD had changed their name etc. How he was answering for something that's on my site? I'll never understand. They were open to public pages when I downloaded them.

Now even after I've removed, I still have to sign Affidavit and give it to Quixtar / TOD lawyers? Lesson learned: Never give in to lawyers. Their demands will never end. I should not have removed them in the first place. What's next, remove my blog? Sign up for Quixtar?

I've asked Scott repeatedly, Am I doing any thing illegal? He can't answer.

And look at the lawsuit. Isn't it pure bullshit? I mean they didn't dispute whether the content is true or not, just 'Copy Write', like people gonna buy tapes from Scott's site or mirror instead of TOD confused by their logo! Wait a minute! he removed all their logos and put © beside their name. It wasn't enough, was it? They want pages GONE. It was never about Copy Write. It was about silencing criticism.

That affidavit is fishy. TOD is not contacting me directly since I'm not doing anything illegal. I'll record their calls any way. Don't call me if you want to keep it secret! If you call me, it will go online. But what the......I don't even have mirrors!! Have I showed them weakness by removing mirrors? If that's the case, should I put them up again?

By the way, mirrors are up at many other places.

That case was settled, not decided by jury. You know what that means? One party may not be able to pay lawyer fee any more. My guess, Scott may have won the case if he had more money than TEAM Orrin / TOD.

My question is, am I doing anything illegal? Why am I bugged to give some thing in writing to TOD?

Yeah I mirrored that page on my own. Scott never asked me to. But am I willing to travel and take my time to testify? Why? Again, what I did illegal? Is their any court order on these pages? Like Blakey report? Was their ever any court order?

I'll blog about mirrors soon, that will put them bit higher on google again, some on Eorope or Asia may mirror it.

I've moved on, since July 2005. If they would have left the issue alone, I would have 'forgedaboudid'. It's like a bully bullying me to give something that I don't even have. What I'll do to bully? Have friends join against the bully.

Good job TOD, to give me content to write about. Again, who is responcible for negativity, QUIXTAR. Good JOB.

Imran's week 12 NFL picks

2005-11-24T22:24:00.000-05:00

Trust me! I had that entered in pool yesterday!

16 Jacksonville Over @Arizona
15 Atlanta Over @Detroit
14 @Cincinnati Over Baltimore
13 Carolina Over @Buffalo
12 San Diego Over @Washington
11 St. Louis Over @Houston
10 Denver Over @Dallas
9 @Oakland Over Miami
8 New England Over @Kansas City
7 San Francisco Over @Tennessee
6 @Philadelphia Over Green Bay
5 New Orleans Over @N.Y. Jets
4 @Minnesota Over Cleveland
3 @Tampa Bay Over Chicago
2 N.Y. Giants Over @Seatle
1 Pittsburgh Over @Indianapolis

First Amendment protects Internet rants

2005-11-21T16:26:00.000-05:00

Booyah!

It will cost two Palm Beach County dentists about $20,000 to learn what hard-core bloggers have long known: You can say just about anything you want on the Internet.

In a decision that was lost temporarily in the winds of Hurricane Wilma, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Edward Fine ordered Richard Kaplan of West Palm Beach and Leonard Tolley of Lantana to pay for trying to silence a North Palm Beach woman who started a Web site to blast their dental work.

Fine ruled that the two dentists or their attorneys should have known that Elaine Prentice was well within her constitutional rights to slam them on her Web site. Because they filed a suit to try to stop her from exercising her right to free speech, Fine ordered the two to pay her attorneys' fees.

Why not these businesses fix their practices first?

Imran NFL week 11 picks

2005-11-18T12:00:00.000-05:00

Week 9: 123
Week 10: 98

16 Jacksonville Over @Tennessee
15 Seattle Over @San Francisco
14 @Denver Over N.Y. Jets
13 Kansas City Over @Houston
12 @St. Louis Over Arizona
11 Carolina Over @Chicago
10 @Dallas Over Detroit
09 @San Diego Over Buffalo
08 Miami Over @Cleveland
07 @New England Over New Orleans
06 Indianapolis Over @Cincinnati
05 @Washington Over Oakland
04 Pittsburgh Over @Baltimore
03 @N.Y. Giants Over Philadelphia
02 @Atlanta Over Tampa Bay
01 @Green Bay Over Minnesota

Reader Mail

2005-11-16T00:13:00.000-05:00

nncouple commented it here

Friends, Stay out of this Quixtar business. Both we and my wife are from Bombay, India and have been involved with Quixtar for the past 3 years. For the past 3 years we have been showing a loss of $12K - $15K each and every year in our IRS statements. We came to this land of opportunity in 1999 and started our Quixtar business in 2002.

The problem with Quixtar is it is very easy to get into this business (just couple of 100's of dollars to get started). However the most difficult part is to quit the business, even though the financial losses and the deceit are obvious. The reason is you become part of a bigger team, your upline (the person who bring you in this business) becomes your best friend, you become friends with other people of the team and the people you recruit (bring into the business). You recruit people by offering to help them make some extra income. All these people start relying and get dependant on you. Walking away from people who have become close to you, with whom you have spent countless late nights (post meeting sessions), with whom you have traveled across the country to attend conferences is the most difficult part. Today, though we are more or less inactive( I have stopped attending meetings, my wife still attends) and the word is spreading in the team that we are going slow, we get countless phone calls from people in the team trying to pull us back into the whole thing.

Dependency is the basic principle of this business. From the very first day you start this business, you are told to stop thinking and to stop being creative. One of the cardinal rules taught is that you should not do anything new without checking with your upline.

I know people, who check with their upline, which color suit to buy and from where to buy. I remember buying a new mobile phone without checking with my upline. I could notice the anger on my upline’s face and heard plenty of indirect comments about not being loyal to the upline and not checking with the upline. The tapes / cd’s, books, seminar’s and conferences are tools of this business. These tools are very very addictive. Once you get hooked on to them, you want to hear them again and again. These tapes are recorded from speeches by successful people in the business and are mostly rags to riches stories and the struggle people have overcome to build the business. On listening to these tapes / cd’s again and again and from different couples, you finally start believing you can become as successful as them and will start defying logic and factual data. 99% of people loose money in this business. We were loosing heavily, but continued to believe the opposite, thanks to the brainwashing tapes / cd’s. All these tools convey the same messages: ‘If you quit you are a loser.’ ‘The smartest way to build the business is to stop questioning the system and to follow the system.’ ‘Listen to your upline, they have the best intentions for your success.’ ‘Your closest friends and relatives are your biggest dream stealers. Hence do not listen to your closest friends and relatives.’ These messages are repeated again and again until you really start believing in them and start following them. A person who refuses to acknowledge these messages is considered a poor listener.

We went Platinum in May’05(a level in the business less that 2% reach). Our uplines gifted us a nice pen set. After the gift we were told that we have reached a level where we have to become very careful about making any decisions ourself. We were asked if we intended to start a family. We replied, yes we do. We were told to hold back and postpone it for couple of more years, until we had a solid Emerald level business. A solid Emerald business would give us all the bucks and the time that we will desperately need with kids. Every Indian I know of in my team (80% indians), except the few who are the team leaders are loosing money.

I know this is a very long post, but please, please stay out of this business, unless you have ample of money to loose. This request is coming from the bottom of our hearts. What is mentioned in this post is just a few of countless mind controlling activities. We went through a horrible phase in the last 3 years.

Thank God, I am out of it and helping my wife to slowly walk out of it too. She being a woman is very emotional and is taking a little longer to detach from the environment.

Find me disgruntled people

2005-11-15T01:26:00.000-05:00

Find me disgruntled employees online, who think

Their job was a scam
They were wronged
Able to hold an intelligent argument regarding that topic.
What their opposition said? If any.

Find me ex Passport associates, who think

Passport is a scam
They were wronged
Able to hold an intelligent argument defending their assertion.
What their opposition said? If any.

Find me ex Avon associates, who think

Avon is a scam
They were wronged
Able to hold an intelligent argument defending their assertion.
What their opposition said? If any.

Enough said.

Business Owner Mentality

2005-11-13T11:44:00.000-05:00

How many times you've heard it in Quixtar, "If you are an Esso owner, would you fill up your car from Exxon?"

They yap about McDonald through out the plan, except here! They won't say, "If you are a McDonalds owner, would you eat somewhere else?" Because you damn well would! Even if you’re a junk food junkie, you would!

McD is also iterated regarding franchise rule # 1 e.g. following the McDonald "system". No matter how big shot you are, you have to learn how to flip McD burgers they way they tell you to open franchise.

So not all business owners have to be "loyal to their own business", right? Am I missing some thing here?

Gas station is also a bad example. My friend owned Petro Canada. In Canada, you get very little profit from sales of Gas. Majority of profit comes from convenience items inside the station. It's really doesn’t matter much to fill up from his own station. He goes to other stations all the time! Its tax right off, he's a business owner :)

Some other examples:

I can't always eat in my restaurant.
Hotel owner don't always live in their hotel.
Value Village (A used items shop) employees don't always buy from there. (Used crap)
Max (24 hour convenience store) owner don't always buy from there. (Too expensive)
Men who own feminine product business rarely use them :) Their wives may want to shop somewhere else too!
Film producers don't watch only their movies .
Many farmers can't survive only on their farm food.
Software venders don't use their software exclusively.
NFL owner pay to watch other sports too!

Unloyal business owners! Any other examples?

Must bookmarks for NFL

2005-11-13T11:02:00.000-05:00

Here they are! They will keep you super up to speed on NFL.

Imran NFL week 10 picks

2005-11-12T00:00:00.000-05:00

Waymee, MG and yours truly had a great NFL confidence pool running in QuixtarBlog forum. Too bad, that forum is banged up like NE Patriots defense. So lets continue our battle over my blog.

These were my picks for week 9
@ = home

@JAX over HOU 16
NYG over @SF 15
SD over @NYJ 14
@KC over OAK 13
CAR over @TB 12
PIT over @GB 11
DET over @MIN 10
SEA over @ARZ 9
CHI over @NO 8
@CLE over TEN 7
ATL over @MIA 6
CIN over @BAL 5
IND over @NE 4
@WAS over PHI 3

I got 123 points, and only one wrong pick, Detroit Lion over Minnesota Vikings! I think I won big. First time....

Here are my picks for week 10

16 @Indianapolis Over Houston
15 @Pittsburgh Over Cleveland
14 @Carolina Over N.Y. Jets
13 @N.Y. Giants Over Minnesota
12 @Jacksonville Over Baltimore
11 @Detroit Over Arizona
10 Kansas City Over @Buffalo
9 Denver Over @Oakland
8 @Atlanta Over Green Bay
7 @Chicago Over San Francisco
6 New England Over @Miami
5 @Seattle Over St. Louis
4 Washington Over @Tampa Bay
3 Dallas Over @Philadelphia

Any body can play! You may post your picks here.

Update: I got 98 points for week 10

You weren't doing it right

2005-11-11T00:00:00.000-05:00

When we quit, we returned some tools to our sponsor (W and F, H). When he came to pick them, he said, "You were not doing this business right. You worked hard but that's not the way to build this business". My dad and I were dumb founded. We listened and learned from him how to do "this business" right for a year. He never said we were doing anything wrong. He just kept saying how "sharp" businessmen we are.

We trusted him, related to him and because of him, and with him, traveled hundreds of miles, spent thousands of dollars. We weren’t doing anything wrong then, were we? Now we've left and returning tools, it's time to tell us we were doing it all "wrong".

I bit my tongue. Made a decision right there. I won't tell him he's not doing it "right" either. He spends more than us on "this business". Let him keep shelving his racks with tapes. Let him keep driving in Canadian winters. Let him do it "right".

I never tried to talk him out of it. Not after hearing that. Two years have passed. I bet he has lost more than $20,000 on tools, expensive products, never ending US functions and other Quix-crap.

He knows my "name is coming on internet". But he said he won't read my blog. Fine! More he loses, better critic he'll become ;) I'm waiting, patiently.

By the way he never returned us any money. We reimbursed each of our downline who returned tools. I think it comes down to how you were raised. I dunno.

Also, I am taking responsibility of my actions. I'm letting people know what this business really is, and if they listen, they may not make the mistakes I made. I didn't have any Vinay, but I hope to become one.

The Corner Store: Quixtar. What star? is a great blog by another desi. We desis speak funny, may not enjoy beer much, aren't spectacular in winter sports but dammit we can blog!

Loser goes to seminar

2005-11-10T00:00:00.000-05:00

Yeah, real one. Not the scam one. I was at Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005 launch tour yesterday, at Toronto Congress Center, with my boss. It was something! Learned a lot and fired up about rocking Dot Net.

I frequently visit Microsoft Seminars. Here are some things to note:

Free!
Free breakfast and lunch
Free Parking
Free software, a $2,000 value.
Free T-shirt, Key Chains, Microsoft stationary, bag, and lots of other stuff.
Learned actual technical stuff, not some lifestyle videos.

Long term benefits for Microsoft:

Developers will learn their software, which will increase current and future sales
CIOs more aware of ease and flexibility of Dot Net.
Exposure

As compared to Quixtar Seminars, what they get in long term?

Loyal IBOs, future critics, who will blog about them in not so far future.
Name of Diamonds showing up in blogs. In a not-so-positive light.

Try attending a real seminar, IBOs. They are more fun and easier than Quixtar ones. And you can see the benefits yourself.

Finally found banned weapons in Iraq

2005-11-08T18:56:00.000-05:00

Independent Online Edition > Middle East

Who is terrorist?

Quixtar reports flat web sales for fiscal 2005

2005-11-05T20:10:00.000-05:00

InternetRetailer.com - Daily News for Friday, November 4, 2005

Quixtar Inc. is reporting essentially flat web sales for its 2005 fiscal year. In 2005, the web generated sales of $753 million, up less than 1% from sales of $748 million in fiscal 2004, the company says.

Overall the web accounted for about 70% of total sales of $1.1 billion in 2005, compared to 2004 when the Internet accounted for 68% of total sales of about the same amount.

D'oh!

70% is $753M in 2005
Total sales in 2005 is $1075 M?

68% is $748M in 2004
Total sales in 2004 was $1100 M

Loss of 2$5M in sales.

So no team exploded? Or some exploded, more collapsed? What about new diamonds? Where does there volume go? Or some old diamonds fell from qualification? As my friend lawDawg said, same old same old.

It's fine IMO from corporate point of view. For a company to almost keep it total sales is not bad. Just tell prospects that. Don't lie "It's exploding" when it's not.

Company is telling that. It's Motivational Organizations that are in habit of lying.

Quixtar Playbook # 6

2005-11-03T22:29:00.000-05:00

Kay from Random Observations

Quixtar is not a cult. There are others within our society that like to have a job and there are others that will enjoy the team atmosphere and the postive attitudes that IBO's have. It is a different conversation with people that are working hard to better their families lifestyle by doing something different than a traditional job. The working industry has changed over this last decade and if you only continue to work your job you will notice that you will need to get a 2nd job in order to keep up with inflation and other expenses. The best advice that one can listen to is from those that are already consistantly successful in an ethical way. Read what the economists and futurists are saying about the next million dollar industry. A business like Quixtar is right in line for a terrific future...and many of these authors are proponents of Quixtar. Find someone that is good like you and help others to understand the business model. My husband and I are extremly successful in this business... We work together 10hrs avg weekly and we raise our kids together. This business is not easy...you will need to be around positive people going for the same goals as you. The majority of people in society are very insecure with themselves and need to pull others down. There is more to life than working hard for someone else and just barely making it.

I wish for you all of the best in life...and remember, Quixtar is a great company...but that doesn't mean that everyone in the business is great...we are all independant business owners...we are not all perfect.

Looks like a Diamond lady to me ;) How about crime fighters? They are pulling people down alright.

I like it!

2005-11-01T19:32:00.000-05:00

A witty site visitor (Tony!) sent it to me :) Yeah I like it, two problems

Hard to get. E.g. can I get it right now?
Bamboozle my goat digesting stomach.

Reader Mail - Gala LOS and J.O.B

2005-10-27T21:42:00.000-04:00

A reader posted here:

Thanks a ton for posting this entry in your blog. You have saved my time and money. I request you to put this article on top of your blog or a special link, so that anybody thinking of joining Quixtar or BWW will atleast aware of the MLM and the risks and it will save them lots of money and time.

I had attended the last BWW FED at california and it costed me 100 USD. I curse myself why I met those tiny IBOs and listened to their businesses speeches. All those speakers are ass-holes. They all contradict themselves. Kumar, Chak, Sugeet, Tirthankar etc.They landed up in US from India just because of their education and now they blame the same basic college education and ridiculing the education system for preaching job mentality. Had it not been for the education, they might be begging on the roadside of the cities where they were born. These so called leaders don't like thier pasts, as if they were some kind of thieves. The dumbest among all these ass holes is Sugeet Ajmani. He ridicule other professionals and their work as if the whole world is run by him. Why did he continue to work in the organization till the time he became diamond or whatever this quixstar grade system calls. Wasn't he a hypocrite? Why the hell all of these diamonds continued in their respective jobs till the time they have become diamonds. Where was their belief ? These are all double talk.

They always claim they are prospering where as quixtar's revenue is stagnant at 1 to 1.15 billion for last two years. These diamonds should save their money before Quixtar goes to drain.

I feel so relaxed after writing this mail to my sponsor asking him not to expect me for the first OPEN. I do not know how much money and time I would have wasted had I not read your blog.

It is true that Quixtar speaker are full of contradictions, and themselves.

Putting this entry on top? Sorry dude, you relate to this entry. Some other person may like another entry. They all can't be at the top. Blogs are also like a pyramid!

But...for few days this link will be at the top ;)

WTF

2005-10-27T13:28:00.000-04:00

What is THAT?

Quick Questions

2005-10-26T19:26:00.000-04:00

Diamonds are public figures?

People outside Quixtar stand a chance to succeed?

Is it wrong to criticize Quixtar?

Gathering LOS info

2005-10-23T01:07:00.000-04:00

I'm gathering various LOS info. So far I'm into BWW. Do you know any Diamond, upline, downline or other facts about them, where they live? when did they signed up? please leave a comment here.

Won't it be cool to have LOS info online?

What sets Quixtar apart?

2005-10-21T23:35:00.000-04:00

People would say passport is new. It will soon develop problems that Quixtar have. I doubt it. avon is new, but Quite big!

Quixtar's "Tool" system is said to be a proble. But I'd venture to say even "System" is not a problem in Quixtar. "System" would have self destructed itself by now if there was no B.S.M.A.A.

Think about it. A system where "mentors" financially benefits to keep students .... students? Plus Diamonds must be fighting with each other over tool money! There is no tool money contract there, is it? E.g. there is one for product bonus. Tools moeny is at the whim of your upline, which you can't even dispute in court. You have signed BSMAA, Business Support Material Arbitration Agreement. If you do, you'll definitely lose in arbitration.

Hence, what is holding this "business" together? BSMAA.

Who invented BSMAA?

According to Eric Scheibeler deposition from Amway Corporation vs. Meade, et al. a second generaton IBO Jody Victor has done some nice work crafting BSMAA. I heard he went to law school as well. Strange, we don't hear good things about college education in Quixtar, do we?

Read for yourself. That's how I know. Again, this is what Eric Scheibeler testified in front of court, and it's on a public record.

A: Jody Victor is an attorney. He's a - he was an attorney. He's a crown level distributor now

And

Q: Do you - and you guys talked bout the BSMA or BSMAA: or something like that. Can you tell the jury what is - what does all that mean?

A: It's essentially a gag order. There was many lawsuits on the internet, which is what helped bring me out, understand what had happened to us and how we were defrauded. And we were at a meeting where Jody Victor, who's one of the highest level distributors - Amway distributors, talked about working with senior Amway management to craft this BSMAA. At that time we had no idea what is was.

Q: Okay. Now, Mr. Victor is not a direct employee of Amway, he's something else?

A: He is and he isn't. He's not on their payroll, but he's a crown ambassador Amway distributor. So I mean they're working side by side.

Q: He sells Amway products for Amway?

A: Yes.

Q: Okay.

A: Yes. Has a large motivational organization. And he talked about the - him working in this tape with senior Amway management to craft this document which would prevent there ever being another Hammerhand. And Hammerhand was a class action suit - and actually out of Philadelphia, I believe - against Amway and its motivational distributors for essentially the same fraud we discovered. And so what we were forced to sign, the BSMAA, now and any distributor that gets in and is on the tool system, again which is mandatory, has to sign this. we were told we would lose our business if we didn't sign it. And essential what it is, it's an agreement to arbitrate. If you discover fraud in the too business, you're forced into arbitration, but also binding silence. You can't talk to anyone else that may have been defrauded to share documentation or to collaborate on a case.

Q: What happens if you give information about your experience to other distributors?

A: You can't give it to anyone. Once you're forced into arbitration, I can't speak to my own mother about what happened to us and Amway or the motivational organization because of this gag document.

And

A: So if you discover you've been defrauded and take legal action on it, you can never go public and you can never be part of a class action to collaborate what thousands or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of other distributors who have been defrauded.

Q: Okay. No, I think the people in the jury may want to know, is this BSMAA: the business support materials, basically secrecy agreement, is this coming from Amway or is it coming from Mr. Victor and the sales people?

MR. KUGELE: I'm going to object to the characterization.

Go ahead, you can answer.

THE WITNESS: Sure. You can play the tape. Our attorney has that tape for our case.

And

A: But Jody Victor talks about crafting it in collaboration with Amway senior management and how they're 3 actually going to implement it into the kit and part of the -

Q: Into the kit?

A: The Amway sales and marketing kit is part of the application.

Q: Okay.

A: So from the tape, it clearly sounds like it was crafted in a collaborative agreement again between the Amway motivational organization leadership, which Jody Victor is certainly one of them and Amway Corporation itself. But again, are they two different things? It looks like one of them. Here's a description of how this is being crafted.

Q: Okay. And the affect of the agreement is -

A: Silence.

Q: Just to summarize what you said. You can't sue Amway in court and you can't sue the Jody Victors of the world either?

A: Nor can you make the fact that you were defrauded public.

Q: Okay.

A: So the lawsuits will never show up on the internet again because there won't be one. They've been effectively silenced. So the public has less of a chance now of ever knowing about the multi-decade long fraud that happens to Amway distributors. There's a less chance of it every happening now than before because of the crafting ofthis. It was very well done.

You may read full transctipt, to see what was proven and what wasn't.

Do you look copper outside?

2005-10-19T23:28:00.000-04:00

Many people who have gold in the house are looking for copper outside. Russian Proverb

Let’s do a little exercise. List gold in your house. It includes you, your achievements, your family, things you have and hobbies you enjoy. I go first:

3 Great people in my life

My Mom
My Dad
My youngest brother

Who are in yours?

3 Biggest achievements in my life?

Taking my mom to pilgrimage / hajj right after I turned 18 (and became eligible for it)
Financially supporting my family since I was 23.
Quitting Tobacco.

What are yours?

3 Sports I enjoy playing

Squash
Golf
Long boarding

What do you play?

3 Sports I enjoy watching

Wrestling
Football
Boxing

What do you watch?

3 Skills

Software development
Web Design
Hardware and Networking

What do you do?

3 Favourite belongings

My (dirty) car
Our cats
My...precious

What you got?

3 Services I love to use

Toronto public transport
Rogers digital cable
Premier fitness center

What serves you?

3 Places I love to visit

Where do you go?

3 Things I'm proud off

My religion
My family
My country (Pakistan and Canada)

What are your proud of?

3 Dishes I love to eat

Goats. Hamdi's and Palao my mom / sister makes.
Omelet Sandwich that my sister makes.
Fruit salad that my sister makes.
Thai food. (yeah it's 4th)

What are yours?

Passport: Does it matter?

2005-10-18T22:49:00.000-04:00

I was busy playing Golf. Golf and Ramadan mix so well. Squash is just not possible in Ramadan. Thanks Allah for Golf, and Ramadan. Man my swing has improved.

I've been reading a lot of drivel debate about passport, and it drive me nuts. WTF.... Lets get some perspective here.

Passport is not a scam. Just another stupid MLM, not a scam. There's a difference.
No passport associaet called me broke loser with J.O.B other IBO stuff.
Maximum losses in passport = $50 sign up? Cost of being CORE in Quixtar "system" = $1000 / month, every month! Could cost marriages!
Passport may claim some superficial numbers, and may have a motive to criticize Quixtar. So? Income claims is illegal, a very common practice in Quixtar. Claiming fake web stats is not a crime, income claims are.
I like passport. Why? Upfront and candid. Few click away online.

Have a question? Ask Ty Tribble, president.
Ask Dave Stone, Vice President.
Ask any current and ex passport associates in QBlog and Passport forum. Ask them why they join or why they left?
I don't see passport becoming a scam. If they have any plans, they have ruined themselves by being open online. Any one can listen to their podcasts. I still don't know iota about passport numbers but I do know that some telephone calls won't cost $1k / month.
I may not join passport but I'll never discourage any one else. Why would I discourage some one from joining something that will not drain their finances, put stress at home and abuse relationships. I won't discourage some one from join David Robinson or Fred's group either.
Only thing that pissed me was removal of Quixtar related posts from mlmblog. Reason? They were very good posts. It had nothing to do with passport. It was fight among critbots.
Perspective. A lot of money is wasted on "War" and Terrorism. Terrorism is bad. Real bad. How many people died on September 11? 5000? It's bad. RIP. According to a white paper:
By the end of the 20th century, cigarette smoking will have killed about 62 million people in developed countries: 52 million men, 10 million women.

Some time I just wanna do this to some critbots!!!

Disadvantages of criticizing Quixtar

2005-10-13T22:51:00.000-04:00

There are some benefits, but some side-effects as well!

Grit my teeth so hard, my dentist told me my wisdom teeth are cracked and need to be taken out.
My eyes hurt, from constant rolling
I laugh so hard that at times I have to change my pants ... and monitor! (Magic of thinking big!)
Passport peeps become .... friendly!
Vince McMahon looks like an angel.
Can’t get goats out of my heads.
Desis seems more annoying than usual.

Amway Quixtar - Important Questions to ask

2005-10-12T23:31:00.000-04:00

Amway Quixtar Business Myths - Important Questions to ask

Will you give me catalogs and distributor price lists, or get me on the Quixtar WEB site so that I can review distributor cost before I buy a kit and join?

What is the average PV/distributor in your group? Can you log in with me on your account to view your line of sponsorship?

What is the renewal rate of IBOs in your group?

Can we log into your Quixtar account to see how many members and clients you have been able to sign up and to see how much they actually purchase?

I would like to know how much money I might have to spend the first year on my business, so that I can plan my finances. People have told me about books, tapes, seminars, AMVOX, travel, recruiting tapes, postage, web hosting, web access etc. How much does this add up to, if I follow your system? What are the normal and customary yearly overhead costs of running an Quixtar distributorship by your "success system"? Can I see your tax return to see your actual expenses?

If I decided the Amway/Quixtar business is not for me, what is your refund policy for the books, tapes and seminars I have purchased from you? How much will I get back? How long do I have to return them? Who is supposed to make the actual refund and whom do I contact if a refund is not forthcoming? Can I get full price for tapes if the shrink-wrap is no longer on them?

Can I earn a commission on selling tapes or books? At what level can I participate? How much is the commission?

Can I earn a commission on ticket sales to rallies, and weekend events? What are the typical commission rates? What level do I need to be in order to qualify for a commission?

Can I earn a commission from hotel reservations and bus tickets of my downline to weekend functions? What are the typical commission rates? What level do I need to be in order to qualify for a commission?

If I do not buy books, tapes and seminars from my upline, will you still support my business by showing plans?

Can I see the contract for participation in the tools business? If there is no contract, what guarantee do I have that I will even get paid for tools sales?

If I follow your "success system", working as hard as you have at your business, then knowing your reported profit from the business, I can plan my personal finances. Are you currently reporting a profit to the IRS with your Amway/Quixtar distributorship? May I see the last three years of your 1040 schedule C's for the business? Can I see copies of the direct distributors schedule C's?

Can I see your planner or electronic calendar to see how much time you really spend on the business?

What is the distributor retention rate in this line of sponsorship? Quixtar reports that just over 50% renew, and 66% of first year IBOs do not renew. I want to be in a line that is able to attract and keep new distributors

In your downline what was the total sales of tapes, books, seminars, and LOS system related tools last year? In your downline what was the total BV your group did last year? I ask these questions to see if people are spending more money on the "system" than they receive in Quixtar bonuses.

Me and Vishal

2005-10-10T00:43:00.000-04:00

We liked Vishal. I still do. Great guy, and his "plan" was short.

Road Trip from New Jersey to Toronto and back: $200
Time spent just on road: 20 hours
Suit dry clean: $50
Teaching downline how to be "free", Priceless!

Quixtar Playbook # 5

2005-10-08T00:00:00.000-04:00

First, to set the mood , a great ad

Russ from Random Observations

I would just like to say that this system works for anyone willing to put the time in. In korea it is spreading like wild fire! Why? because people are willing to make something happen for themselves. I really get pissed when I see what this country is turning into. Why is it that the majority of people who are Dimonds are also people that are way above average anyway. In other words they would have been great at anything they did but they saw the simplicity of time and money = freedom and they made this work. It simple it's just not easy. So stop crying and go do something with your life loosers. Try winning for once you only need one reason to win. You got 2500 reasons why this doesnt work, use that creativity on something productive. I'm gonna go show the plan suckkas peace out.

Straight from the Open eh.

Business works if you put time.
If you criticize, you are crying loser.
Don't dare criticize, do something else

Now can you answer few questions? Suckka!

This "system" works? How many IBOS, who signed up after 1999 went diamond? Isn't it 2-5 years for Diamond plan?
Why so many diamonds quietly join a job? And why majority of them fell out of qualification?
So many IBOs, so few diamonds?
Why diamonds are terminated when they're free? Not just terminated, terminate business as usual ?!?!?
Why diamonds quit?
Can you dig it? Suckka!

Need technical help with blog

2005-10-07T00:24:00.000-04:00

Yeah! You heard it.

This horizontal scroll bar shouldn't be there. Any idea how to remove it? You can view source and try to figure. Some missing table tag? Style sheet?

Update 1: Some one posted a long comment that was breaking my template. It was edited. Tiny URL ppl. But there is still scroll in main index.

Update 2: It is because of Farrago recent comments. No body reported them this bug ?!?!? Bug is on the developer site as well, LOL. Well lets see. I may user their comment hack to resolve the anonymous user headache.
RSS feed isn't working. Mevi pointed it a while ago. How to fix it?

Update 3: RSS working! Thanks to Mevi. I published this blog to my web site like 6 months ago, then republished it back to blogger. Since then atom URL was imranaziz.net. Resaved the publish setting and RSS is pimp now.
How to manage my permanent links? So many blogs to link, so little space. I don't want to run chatter either.
How to 'force' users to have some identity without registering for blogger? I don’t like ‘anonymous’ comments. Hard to tell who said what.

It is not commenter’s fault. Blogger gives 3 comment settings: blog members, bloggers and any one.

And of course, I want 'Any one' to comment. Then on comment screen:

The option 'Other' is what I want. Not the 'Anonymous' one. But I can't have that option if I turn anonymous off.

Any Idea how to have only 'other' comment option and not 'anonymous' one? I don't want to try haloscan comment. Popup window, yuck yuck. Also, make comments appear detached from the post.
I have to manually send trackbacks in haloscan. Is there a plugin that do that automatically for blogger? In MT and typepad its built-in.

Update 4: Blogger just gave Backlinks.

Thanks guys! Prizes are:

Become moderator in a new ubber geeky forum
Unlimited help for your blog
Uncensored picture of my goat!

Welcome Ramadan

2005-10-06T00:35:00.000-04:00

Alhamdulillah (thank Allah) this is the month of Ramadan. Month to fast, pray and seek rewards from Allah.

Lets abandon sinful practices this month. Quixtar is unislamic, according to the fatwa. Majority of its teaching ain't that Christian either.

Luke 18:25 It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

Religions want you to stay poor?

No, no, no, no, no. Religions want you to understand that these worldly possessions don't mean a thing. Relationship with the creator and fellow human beings is far more important than the stuff we die for.

So live an ordinary life?

No, just live a life. Name some 'extra' ordinary emperor. Alexander the great? What did he take with him? Sure people "remember" him. How many times you did today? Would you really give a rat's ass how some one remembers you after you die? Ok you are a weird fella and you do. How many people will remember a "Diamond" who "impacted" their lives by selling them stupid tapes that should be free?

Dream stealing?

Nah! I'm not stopping ya. My understanding is making money shouldn't be life purpose. Do what you love, love what you do, enjoy precious moments. Just don't scam people. And stop harassing us Desis! You keep on doing that, we'll keep on posting. Just because we are from the same country doesn't mean we owe you some thing, choghad logo.

And look what happens on internet. MLMBlog posted some comments from here. Absolutely ok to do so. See the trackback of that entry. A Japanese blogger posted it on his site! Just like that those 5 lines spread worldwide. What does that mean? There is a BIG audience following Quixtar / Amway, its emotional anecdotes and online moves. Quixtar should become smart now, fast!

Quit being a douchebag

Look what happened at JDate. Meet internet. Can't fool people no more. Sorry! So stop vandalizing Wikipedia, if all you have to do is remove criticism. That’s you, Alticor!

Quixtar Playbook #4

2005-10-01T18:24:00.000-04:00

A brave, yet anonymous IBO commented

Do you people really think companies like Barnes & Noble, Office Max, Nike, Bass Pro Shops, and Circuit City would put their name on the line and risk losing their hard earned credibility just to SCAM you guys? You people need to get educated.

And it is quite common rebuttal by IBOs. Quixtar is legit because many credible businesses have put their 'name on the line' to be partner with them.

Dude, they let IBO buy. That's all. Any one would, without putting their credibility "on the line". Nike shoes are really popular among rapists. Nike loses any credibility?

On a side note, I'm not going any where. Break is just a break. Frequencey may vary. I am sepnding more time learning dot net, Visio and football. That's all.

Benefits of criticizing Quixtar

2005-09-29T23:26:00.000-04:00

I have been asked many times "What do you gain by bashing Quixtar?". Stupid question eh! I can pick my ass or pee in the wind, what do you care? I'm not jumping you on the malls or harassing my relatives to see the plan. I write a blog where you come yourself.

Who will ask such a stupid question? You got it. My uplines and every other IBO.

So here are the fringe benefits:

My writing improved, helping my career big time.
Grasped emerging technologies like Blogs, Forums etc.
I get to know Qblog. A little, I must add. You’ll never know him even if you do. You dunno Nunzio *. Learned lot from him e.g. phpBB, Skype, Smarty, Wiki, podcasts, mambo etc. I free lance some clients and configured forum and Wiki for them. I have my own forum and moved personal site on mambo. I may not learn all these things if I didn’t know him.
Joined an online community. I saw ad filled forums all the time but quixtarBlog forum is the one I love.
He contributed on ~~multi~~ some level in helping me see how cool MAC and open source is.
I get to know some really cool guys, gals, IBOs and dawgs.
I understand how stupid MLM is and how vulnerable one can be when prospected by friends.
A good online activity, other than playing games of course!

* You dunno Nunzio

Nunzio is a professional wrestler who plays italian. A friend of mine recently saw his WCW video where he makes this gesture and screams "YOU DUNNO NUNZIO". My friend got hooked! Every other hour he shouts "YOU DUNNO NUNZIO". His roomate told us he once screamed in his sleep "YOU DUNNO NUNZIO".

Taking a break

2005-09-23T09:19:00.000-04:00

Holla folks, I was absent for a week, busy at work. Plus football! I won't be posting often in football season. And you gotta play Madden 2004 if you love America! If you haven't played it or ESPN football, you must hate freedom.

Also, some other projects e.g. a forum and Project World Improvement needs work. Specially the forum. I was frustrated how few decent computer forums are out there. I'm currently learning Dot Net and I'll post a step by step learning guide from ASP classic to ASP.Net.

Project World Improvement has a huge potential as well. More than niche market of Quixtar blogs. I have so much to say there. World sucks, Imran to rescue.

Lately we are discovering some blogs written by Quixtar employees that are not retarded. What better way to shut up critics than being......normal? Beth Dornan's blog is great too. She looks like those colleagues who insists on hugging at most awkword moments, like in front of your dad. I have no idea why!! And look at this post. A British guy capable of great writing!

Some naval gazing retards are still there. Critbots gotta eat, right?

Anyways, thanks for keeping the discussion alive. Anonymous debating anonymous, always a pleasure. How hard it is to add a nick at the end of your message?

China and Amway

Something to debate: Devos and Co. pressured Bush and Co. to do business with China. Amway in China is their biggest hope. China! All cruel labour and stuff (where are you, right wing folks?). China also got some thing out of that deal. You don't expect them to just bow and kiss Uncle SAM, do you? They will be exporting more crapy and cheap products here. Think about it, $5K new car, and US auto industry is dead.

Who will be responcible for it?

How to write a good blog

2005-09-17T01:28:00.000-04:00

I'm getting a lot of traffic lately so I must be doing something right. Time to play Guru!

There are million other articles on this topic. As always, I don't give a rat's ass. There! Lesson number one. Write whatever you want, and don't give a damn if its already written.

Write Original

Sometimes, I publish stuff written by others. I was surprised to see my posts get more traffic / comments than those. Obviously, I publish other's content when its real good. So why is that? Because you peeps have already read other's content, ya savages!

In a nut shell, my traffic is directly proportional to the effort I put in. Make your post based on research, not exactly like it. Use hyperlinks and quotes.

Be brief

Write tight, for the love of God. I revise each post many times and keep making it tighter. Forum posters, are you listening? I don't read blogs and forum posts that could be shorter. Spell check is a must.

Write daily

Or every other day. Be consistent. Only way to get steady traffic and regualr readers. How do you expect traffic otherwise? Getting co-authors is a good idea in hectic days.

Blog Hygiene

Keep your blog clean. Don't clutter it with too much gadgets. And please don't go for a complex design if you are not a designer. Look at this idiot. He's a great guy and all but I can't read that ~~mess~~ blog. And it is much cleaner now!

Have a designer review your blog time to time. Running ads doesn't have to look ugly.

Trackback

I just learned it. If you see track back installed in a blog, it means author expects to be notified when linked. Not having trackback in your blog is no excuse for not sending them to others.

Track back means you send a 'ping' to post you linked. That 'ping' can be sent either from

Trackback tool of your blog
External tool like haloscan.

This 'ping' will be stored in trackback section of that post. It will also have URL of your post. You can send trackback from static sites, even a forum post using haloscan!

Benefits of trackback

You link some one, and you automatically get linked back! Because your URL is showing up in trackback section of that blog. That means more traffic! Send some trackbacks to popular blogs and see traffic go crazy (Don't abuse it).
Instead of comments, you can have blog conversation via trackbacks!
You will sleep better.

Use pictures

Don't be too square! Use them time to time. But don't slaughter the design by using them too much.

Think of readers

Why are you blogging exactly? If you don't care about readers, you don't need a blog.

Update:

MLM Today has changed its template. Much better. All the jingles gone, content is prominent, thus more readable. I laud Dave Stone for embracing the first rule of web: visitor first. You write your blog for people to read right? And here is a kicker, lesser the jingles, more the people relate to you.

Yesterday I gave it a quick glance then (I was ass-busy), but some titles got registered, e.g. professional doing network marketing etc. These eye catchers were not so catchy in previous design. Now I have to go back and read it, D'oh!

I can't find a link where it says that end user decides in 4 seconds to read your site or leave it. Make best of these 4 seconds.

What do you OWN? Business owners?

2005-09-15T18:50:00.000-04:00

Great post by Mike in The Quixtar Ego-Trap

There is no comparison between Quixtar and a traditional small business. Don't think for a second that you "own" or "run" anything when you hop on the Quixtar wagon. Think about it:

What do you sell? Whatever products are offered on the quixtar website.

What price do you sell them for? Whatever quixtar says it costs.

If quixtar decides to change their payment scheme or the bv of a particular product, what can you do about it? Nothing.

The whole "personal business" concept is completely based on a flimsy system that you have absolutely no control over. If quixtar changes the rules of the game, you have to just suck it up and go with it. And the notion that anyone working a regular job is just some average sucker is, well... disgusting. A regular job? You mean like firefighter? Doctor? Teacher? Construction worker?

Yeah, average. People with real jobs are the ones who create things. Do things. Contribute to society. They manufacture the products you peddle on your precious website for that matter.

What exactly is it that a Quixtar IBO contributes to the world? And don't regurgitate the whole "we change lives by showing people how to be finacially free" song and dance because its utter nonsense. The staggering number of people who make nothing doing Quixtar shows clearly that this is not the case. And even if it were, there is absolutely nothing being created, produced or contributed to society. "Real" jobs must exist for your silly little dream world to exist... which it doesn't. Well, unless of course you are one of the few who have been raking in piles of money selling training manuals, coaching seminars, videos, motivational tapes and all that other "optional, but neccissary" material...

The sad thing is, the Quixtar recruiting technique is much like that of the military, with the exception that the military actually does provide a service and a career. What Quixtar and the military have in common is that they tend to look toward the less educated for recruitment. The logic being, those with less education have less opportunities for succeessful careers. This means that a less educated person stands a better chance of seeing the military as a beneficial move in their life.

Quixtar's motive is much different. The motivation of Quixtar to go after the less educated rests on the assumption that those with less education will ask less questions. They will likely be pursuaded more easily by the thought of making huge sums of money due to the fact that they likely have very little of it. The less educated will be less likely to think about the more philosophical "big picture" ideas when assesing the validity of the business. Likewise, the less educated will be more likey to be impressed with the flashy bright lights and smoke machines at the pep rallies. They will almost always be the ones falling for the simplistic plattitudes that are void of any substantive information about the business. They won't ask any pointed questions about the innerworkings of the Quixtar corporation or even about day to day business activity. They won't think about the macroeconomic implications of such a flawed business model, because they probably don't know what macroeconomic means...

In short, look at most of the people involved with Quixtar. This is a classic cult-like situation where weak minded people buy into an organization that proceeds to brainwash them from day one. They are taught that anyone who says anything negative about the organization is simply a loser and a liar. If you have ever seen footage of these Quixtar conventions and then looked at a communist rally from the Stalin years, the similarities are shocking.

Brainwashing is brainwashing... people either leave the cult, or drink the cool aid and die.

I'm sure some Quixtar apologist is going to follow this up with some talking points about how Quixtar is his salvation and that I am just some average person who will never amount to anyhthing. He'll likely go on and on, full of spelling and grammar errors about how I couldn't make it in Quixtar and that negative people never amount to anything...

Well to that person let me simply ask: How much money have you profited from Quixtar?

Riddle me this, batman

2005-09-15T01:23:00.000-04:00

RetiredInSomniac posted in Britt World Wide Investigated

I actually read the whole blog. I've actually done the research unlike most people on the blog I assume. Now one of the biggest misconceptions is that quixtar is responsible for the IBO's that make faulty promises. The truth is that there are alot of con people out there that con people into believing that its easy to become rich in quixtar and amway and there are also people that make more money in selling merchandise than making money selling products. Blame the people making claims and don't blame the tool they use to con people. Now if you actually check the quixtar website try and find anywhere on that site that says buy tapes, books and attend conferences. When you want info go to the source and do your research.

Riddle me this batman, if Quixtar is not responsible for “faulty promises”, why can’t downline see upline’s LOS? Like upline can see downline’s LOS in LOS Manager of Quixtar.com? It could eliminate fake claims.

My upline (Ahmer Azam) used to say,

“It is sooo easy to build this business now. My group is moving 5 kits / day. If some body is not having major success, he must be screwing something big.”

If I could see his LOS, won’t it reveal the truth?

Don’t share crossline Diamond's LOS, but at least share LOS upto a certain upline pin within that group. Platinum or Diamond. Higher the better. It will have following benefits:

Less room for faulty promises
Eliminate pressure from uplines, so IBOs can build this business at their own pace.
Downline won’t feel rushed and insulted for not going diamond like yesterday.
It may open up their eyes to tool scam.
It will reveal majority will always be at the bottom levels of MLM structure and only way to make money at that level is retail.

Just a minor tweak in LOS manager of Quixtar.com, share LOS of upline. This alone could solve a lot of problems. No major revamping. No booting of diamonds. Just a baby step toward openness.

Software solution eh! Geeks shall inherit the earth.

Changes to the blog

2005-09-13T19:39:00.000-04:00

Blog name change

Back to Quixtar Sucks from Quixtar, as MO saw it. Never liked the later. I did it when I discovered non-system IBOs. And my uplines were pissed and threatening me with lawsuits using my sponsor as a pawn.

But Quixtar Sucks. Not just suck suck, but a real good suck, mrrrpphh mubbble mubbble. Non-system IBOs are almost zero compared with system ones. Quixtar (Official Company Quixtar) is doing jack to promote them. They'd rather not listen, harass criticism, hide facts, fight lawsuits for kingpins and make big money. They knew the problem decades ago.

I laud them whenever I can, but they don't do much good.

Every one who has linked me may wanna update the link caption. Sorry for the trouble.

Word Verification

I was getting comment spam. You may turn it on in the comments section of blogger settings.

It's one of those helly lame boring trivial posts, but that's the life in the hml side of the blog.

Blogger Name Change

That's where you come in. I'm bored from the name "MO". I had to pick a pseudo-name in a hurry, for some personal reasons.

What should be my new name?

Quixtar Playbook # 3

2005-09-13T16:13:00.000-04:00

Successful ~~cried~~ posted in Random Observations

Imran, looks like your FT job is posting negative comments to this and other sites and could be the reason why you are poor and angry. Ignorance seems to be the true mark of why you are this way. FYI...no one has ever become successful by complaining and putting others down. I truly feel really sorry for you.

Perhaps one day, if you are lucky enough, you can take some notes from a successful person and apply it to your life. Maybe then you will change your attitude and make something of yourself.

Or you shut us all up and post your tax return to this site so you can show us what you are really made of. My guess is that it will be quite laughable and we would all get much enjoyment out of it.

Looks like I pressed some right buttons! (read the thread) I'm neither poor nor angry. I am like Quixtar: 'Debt free' and 'still legal'.

You are reading books and taking notes. How is that working for ya?

I like making fun of you stupid brainwashed people. And you IBOs never cease to amaze me.

Let me try answering you in Tim's stlye:

Dear anonymous coward. You didn't argue with the points I raised. Instead you did what every other IBO does. Ad hominum personal attacks.

I may post my tax return. After all, I'm offering a business opportunity. Oh wait, No one in Quixtar is willing to do so. Hmmmm. I shouldn't do that if I want to be 'successful' like them. Apparently, they are the only one with a chance of 'success'. Instead, let me have an arsenal of insults ready for any one who dares to ask.

PS: It is my full time job to post comments. Pays well! Wanna do it?

Archive.org not archiving Amquix.info

2005-09-11T17:46:00.000-04:00

Has anyone else noticed archive.org is not archiving the amquix.info any more?

He yanked off the Orrin dripping with integrity satire for sure. Therefore, yours truly is now archiving that site weekly. Some people keep an eye on quixtar PR blogs, I watch critics. There was archive.org, and now it is on my shoulders to keep you commie liberals straight. Why? Why me? Ok I accept, lets go!

Mysterious yanking off stuff is my pet peeve. Either put it on the web or don't. I understand at times content need to be updated. There are some general rules though.

It is author's right to pull off the stuff, similary I can archive any open site. You gotta do what you gotta do, I gotta do what I gotta do! Didn't we save sites for school projects?

Analyze THAT!

Quixtar return policy

2005-09-10T02:44:00.000-04:00

I had great experience with Quixtar return policy. God knows I have returned shirts after washing them 3 times, and shit load of artistry (client orders). All they asked was packaging and invoice number. Time limit was six months then. Now 3 months, still not bad.

After I quit, calculated my losses and read amquix.info and quixtarBlog, I realized that Quixtar "Opportunity" is scam, motivational organizations are blood suckers, my upline is a crook etc. and overall business model is 'negative' for the majority. But I always rated their customer service as number 1.

Few months ago I ordered Nutrilite Muscle fearlessly. I can return it so what the hell. I had to when I accidently saw Gelatin on label (not Halal). My stupidity, I didn't read the ingredients before ordering. I used 3 pills. No big deal, shipped it back. Following things happened:

No free return postage any more for Canada. Canada postage laws prohibited it, they said
Got reimbursed for postage on Credit Card instead.
Return package has to be insured. Insurance is not reimbursed I guess.
Didn't get the product re-imbursement! $37ish.

Mailing error perhaps? I emailed them, no answer. Maybe the poonani at Canada post screwed it. She was glaring at my MLM Narcotics shirt. She was desi so she could be IBO! Anyways, I didn't get reimbursed and I'm not buying from them again. At least I could be emailed the reason why they're not giving my money back.

Whatever, they got this post now. I get 80 hits per day, same as Quixtar Marketing manager and president of passport, so you can kiss this post.

What is your online shopping experience, other than Quixtar? Website, customer service, return, support?

Whatcha gonna do Brother?

2005-09-09T00:10:00.000-04:00

Whatcha gonna do when:

Webmania runs wild on you
Google spanks you
Cabbies make fun of you on TV
Communication goes online
Prospects blog their perceptions
Disgrunteled folks blow the horn
You ain't making much money, working your ass off
Your fired up downlines quitting
Products become more and more expensive
TV broadcast feature on you
Feds investigating you
People run hearing Quixtar
You gotta drive the miles, fuel goes high
You are always in debt
You ain't even making minimum wage

And you keep on doing the same thing......

Watcha gonna do brother, watcha gonna do?

Fatwaa: MLM is forbidden in Islam

2005-09-06T14:32:00.000-04:00

Bro, who asked me a question yesterday, today sent me following link which is from Islam Question & Answer, answered by Shaykh Muhammad Saalih al-Munajjid, the supervisor of this site.

Fatwa on pyramid marketing schemes

I'm publishing this whole article here. That site have given persmission.

Permission is granted to all to take material from this site, subject to the following two conditions: (1) Material used must be attributed to www.islam-qa.com , (2) Material must be reproduced faithfully and without alteration or omission. And Allaah is the Source of strength.

Question:

The Standing Committee for Academic Research and Issuing Fatwas has received many questions about pyramid marketing companies such as the “Business” and “Hibbat al-Jazeerah” companies, whose work may be summed up as being the attempt to convince a person to buy a product on the basis that he will also convince others to buy; they in turn will convince others, and so on. The more levels of participants there are, the more the first person will gain in commission, reaching thousands of riyals. Every participant convinces others to join in return for a large commission, if he is successful in getting new customers to join his list of members. This is what is called pyramid marketing or network marketing.

Answer:

Praise be to Allaah.

The Committee replied: This kind of dealing is haraam, because the purpose of this dealing is to earn commission, not to buy the product. The commission may reach tens of thousands, whilst the product is not worth more than a few hundred. Any smart person who is offered a choice between the two will choose the commission. Hence these companies rely on marketing and advertising of their product which emphasizes the size of the large commission which the participant can earn, and offers the incentive of a large profit in return for a small sum, which is the price of the product. The product marketed by such companies is merely a screen or a means of earning these commissions and profits. Because this commission is really the point of the transaction, it is haraam according to sharee’ah for several reasons:

1 – It involves riba of two types, riba al-fadl (involving exchange of goods of the same type but of different quantity) and riba al-nasi’ah (involving deferred payment of a larger amount than would be paid if it were paid immediately). The participant pays a small amount of money in order to gain a lot of money, in other words he pays cash for cash of a different amount and with deferred payment. This is the kind of riba that is forbidden according to the texts and to scholarly consensus. The product which the company sells to the agent is simply a screen for this transaction; it is not what the participant is seeking and it makes no difference to the ruling.

2 – It is a kind of gharar (ambiguous transaction) that is forbidden in sharee’ah, because the participant does not know whether he will be successful in finding the number of purchasers (participants) required or not. No matter how long pyramid or network marketing lasts, it must inevitably reach an end, and when a person joins the pyramid he does not know whether he will be in a higher level and thus make a profit, or in the lower levels and thus make a loss. The fact of the matter is that most of the members of the pyramid lose out, except for the few at the top. So what usually happens is loss, which is the case of all ambiguous transactions. One of two things may happen, and it is usually the one that is most feared. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) forbade ambiguous transactions, as was narrated by Muslim in his Saheeh.

3 – These transactions involve consuming people’s wealth unlawfully, because these contracts benefit no one but the companies and some participants whom the company encourages with the aim of tricking others. This is what is forbidden in the Qur’aan, where Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“O you who believe! Eat not up your property among yourselves unjustly” [al-Nisa’ 4:29]

4 – This transaction involves cheating, deceiving and tricking people, by showing the product as if that is the purpose of this transaction, when that is not the case, and by enticing them with the idea of large commission which people do not usually earn. This is the kind of deceit that is forbidden in sharee’ah. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever deceives us is not one of us.” Narrated by Muslim in his Saheeh. And the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “The two parties to a transaction have the choice, so long as they have not parted. If they are sincere and open in their dealings, the transaction will be blessed for them, but if they lie and conceal anything, the blessing of their transaction will be erased.” Agreed upon.

With regard to the view that this transaction is a kind of brokerage, this is not true. Brokerage is a transaction whereby the broker receives payment in return for selling the product, whereas in network marketing the participant pays a fee in order to market the product. Brokerage means marketing the product in a real sense, unlike network marketing where the real aim is to market the transaction, not the product, so the participant markets to others who will market to others who will market to others and so on, unlike brokerage in which the broker markets the product to those who really want the product. The difference between the two is quite clear.

With regard to the view that the transaction is a kind of gift, this is also not true. Even if we accept that, not every gift is permissible according to sharee’ah. A gift given in return for a loan is riba. Hence ‘Abd-Allaah ibn Salaam said to Abu Burdah (may Allaah be pleased with them both): “You are in a land where riba is widespread among them. If you have some right over a man and he gives you a load of straw or a load of barley or a load of fodder, this is riba.” Narrated by al-Bukhaari in his Saheeh.

Gifts are subject to the rulings on the reason for which they are given. Hence the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, concerning the zakaat-collector who came and said: “This is for you and this is what was given to me as a gift”: “Why don’t you sit in the house of your father and mother and see whether you are given any gifts or not?” Agreed upon.

These commissions are only paid for the purpose of joining the network marketing scheme, no matter what names are given to them, whether they are called gifts or anything else. That does not change their nature or the ruling on them in the slightest.

It is worth mentioning that there are companies that have appeared in the market which follow the practices of network marketing or pyramid marketing, such as “Smartest Way”, “Gold Quest” and “Seven Diamonds”. The ruling on these companies is no different from the ruling on the companies mentioned above, even though the products they offer may vary.

And Allaah is the Source of strength. May Allaah send blessings and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad and his family and companions.

Help a brother out here

2005-09-05T19:32:00.000-04:00

A person bro emailed me this question. And yes, this is what it is. This is what IBOs are telling people like him. His email is in bold.

As salamu alaykum,

Wailakum-us-Salam wa Rahmatullah-e-Wa barakatahu

I am an international student in Canada from India. I am having a tough time with the rising fees and the cost of living here, and so I have been praying to Allah to give me some opportunity to earn some money. Yesterday, a muslim brother who I hardly know (met in masjid) came up to me and proposed to join the Quixtar/Alticor business program.

As far as I understand, you should rather looks for job, for now, to get you through school. Not a business. Business takes time to take off.

He told me many convincing things about this business for example, he told me that this business is not a "finanacial pyramid", rather a "structural pyramid", where someone in the downline with hardwork can make more money than their upline. He told me that I would have to buy my everyday products from their website, and he does the same.

Government, look for emphasis on recruitment versus sales in MLM companies to determine if it is a pyramid or not. Buy for yourself and teach others to do so is an illegal business, said Rich DeVos, founder of the comany. It still is!

Also, FTC Says

Pyramid schemes now come in so many forms that they may be difficult to recognize immediately. However, they all share one overriding characteristic. They promise consumers or investors large profits based primarily on recruiting others to join their program, not based on profits from any real investment or real sale of goods to the public. Some schemes may purport to sell a product, but they often simply use the product to hide their pyramid structure. There are two tell-tale signs that a product is simply being used to disguise a pyramid scheme: inventory loading and a lack of retail sales. Inventory loading occurs when a company's incentive program forces recruits to buy more products than they could ever sell, often at inflated prices. If this occurs throughout the company's distribution system, the people at the top of the pyramid reap substantial profits, even though little or no product moves to market. The people at the bottom make excessive payments for inventory that simply accumulates in their basements. A lack of retail sales is also a red flag that a pyramid exists. Many pyramid schemes will claim that their product is selling like hot cakes. However, on closer examination, the sales occur only between people inside the pyramid structure or to new recruits joining the structure, not to consumers out in the general public..

He told me he's earning around $1200 right now working 5-10 hours a week. So naturally, I decided to do my own research.

How do you know? Did he share his income tax return or calendar with you?

FTC says:

Beware of shills - "decoy" references paid by a plan's promoter to lie about their earnings through the plan.

While doing reasearch on the company, I reached a forum and read your and others' advice on the subject. I am kind of divided on the issues by reading the opinions from the both sides on the forum. The brother who has asked me to join, told me that there is a lot of "opinion" on the internet, and that I should look at the "facts" of the company.

How much "facts" has he told you? I've quoted only what FTC and founder of the company said. Read the following sites and notice the references to Quixtar's own numbers, court documents and quotes from famous "leaders" in Quixtar.

quixtarBLOG
lawBlawg
Amquix.info
Former Diamond

FTC also says:

Do your homework! Check with your local Better Business Bureau and state Attorney General about any plan you're considering - especially when the claims about the product or your potential earnings seem too good to be true.

I suppose you are muslim. So as a muslim can you please advise me as to whether joining this type of business would be halal?

Well I'm not a "mufti". MLM may be halal. But think yourself, can you see yourself making money in this thing? are you good at selling things to your friends and family?

If you have to hide the facts in order to build this business, I really doubt it's halal. Did he tell you it's Amway?

And also, do you have some "facts" on this company?

Same number of disrubuter for like 30 years.
Less than 50 Diamonds,

He is supposed to visit me again to show me the website and the prices and answer any questions that I might have. Can you, as the opponent of the system, advise me of what type of questions to ask him and check for myself if he is being honest or trying to dodge the questions?

Questions to ask

Please advise me brother, as I am a "gullible" type and have been burned before (but Allah has always helped me salvage the situation), but I still haven't lost faith in human beings, especially my fellow muslims.

Go with your gut feelings. Does this whole deal look like too good to be true?

Please leave a comment to help "bro" out.

Quixtar Playbook # 2

2005-09-05T01:23:00.000-04:00

Please tell me why die-hard IBOs are attracted to Tim's Random Observations blog like a moths to flame? Is it right wing theme? Anyways, read Encounter with a Quixtar Drone thread.

A pearl from there. How original!

I'm not sure what you people are talking about, but quixtar is the best thing that has ever happened to me. With-in the next two years I will be a DIAMOND!!!! So stop with your negative mind set and get up and do somthing.

Posted by: Shaun on March 23, 2004 01:14 PM

Yours truly regularly post there. Technologically, it is not very convenient for online discussion. But content wise, that blog is yubbon-clause!

Back to the comment, see the thought process? Label opinions different than yours as 'negativity' and viola! And what's up with the urge to tell people do something else? If you don't like what they say, there's always a x button on top left corner! I mean c'mon, you surfed and found that website. You are allowed to post there. No body harassed you in malls or suckered you into a mysterious meeting. No one blackmailed you for the sake of relationship.

Still don't see the irony? Your point is if you don't like Quixtar, don't criticize it and do something else. According to your own logic, if you don't like what some people post, go read something else. Something positive perhaps?

Alticor helps Katrina Victims

2005-09-04T01:08:00.000-04:00

Quixtar and Beyond: Alticor response

Quixtar.com will launch today an online sku for IBOs, customers and employees to contribute to the American Red Cross and Canadian Red Cross. Donations are being taken in $10 and $25 increments. Alticor will match U.S. donations dollar for dollar up to a total of $250,000.

The Alticor Relief Team is busy planning a Thanksgiving trip to the area. The team was already scheduled to help rebuild in Indiana over the Labor day weekend - tornado damage.

Beyond that I know there are plans being formulated in tandem with relief agencies to get able bodied help there earlier and to donate products that would be needed, such as water, toothpaste, hygiene kits and more. As soon as I have concrete details I will share them.

Awsome! Doesn't matter if FEDs are reluctant to help people of New Orleans. Good people are. Quixtar sucks blog 'lauds' , 'endorses' and all that to Alticor for doing that.

Alticor gains much more points than wal-mart, who have armed guards protecting their stores so starving people can not steal.......food that will be spoiled any way.

See, do good deeds, people will say good things about you. Do bad things, people will say bad things about you. That's how the world works.

Why so much negativity?

2005-09-03T00:15:00.000-04:00

Quixtar business model has gone bad and bound to generate negativity. It is like a vaccum cleaner. It sucks and blows at the same time. It is not Quixtar hating zealots and internet rumormongers. It is Quixtar, Q-u-i-x-t-a-r who is responsible for all this negativity.

An IBO can't advertise, sell in shops or eBay. What choices he is left with? Harass friends and family. And random people he bumps into. Some will be pissed. Some will be vocal. Some will post it on the web. More communication is over the web now reaching wider audience.

What will happen then? People will run hearing the word Quixtar. What would IBOs do? Hide that word and use sneaky tactics. I remember being taught that. Given the public reaction to word 'Quixtar', doing so is not just a choice.

To fight negativity, Quixtar would rather sue and google bomb, instead of stopping IBOs doing things that generate negativity at the first place. But can Quixtar work if IBOs stop doing those things? Hell no. "But...what would happen to the business?" As Ken McDonald, ex GM said. So Quixtar would rather do sleazy nasty things. We are talking about scratch-and-sniff armpit of the MLM industry here!

These things will not improve the image will they? They knew the problem damn well, but didn't have the balls to fix it. Still don't.

Who pays the price? IBOs. Selling is hard by the rules. Recruiting becomes harder every day because of the image problem. Motivation and other cult mind control tactics keep IBOs loyal for longer time, but that makes their losses greater and leave them much bitter. This contributes towards more negativity and lawsuits.

Look what is happening now. Bloggers are taking shot after shot after shot at Quixtar. Honest IBOs are finding it harder to work with such a company. Kingpins are spending more on lawsuits. To date, less than 50 diamonds.

How this can be fixed?

MLM and legal threats

2005-09-02T20:25:00.000-04:00

Some MLM company that threatens to sue anyone who mentions its name

What's up with MLM and it's need to stay secret? And they love to go for 'copywrite' suits. Not the validatiy of information, because it is usually true! This dude is sued just because he linked to the company website using their name!!!!

I have received a letter from a US law firm accusing me of infringement of trademark rights owned by a company called Nutrition for Life International Inc. This alleged infringement consists solely of having a link on a web page to that company's site, so I am not particularly worried by the threat and I don't plan to do anything about it. I feel that the accusation of trademark infringement is just a way of trying to suppress any criticism of the US company's activities. I have made no representation that could in any way suggest that I have anything to do with them. I simply used their name as a link to their site.

And the threat by assholes:

Please be advised that we need a prompt response regarding this matter. If we do not receive a prompt response, we will be forced to file a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for trademark infringement and dilution for which we will vigorously seek actual and punitive damages as well as attorney fees and costs. If we need to file a lawsuit, it is a policy of Nutrition For Life International, Inc. ("NFLI") to not settle any matter or dismiss any lawsuit without payment of money for attorney fees and costs at a minimum. Please note that NFLI recently collected in excess of $365,000.00 for settlement of a lawsuit against EAS/Bill Phillips for their unauthorized use of the "Nutrition For Life" mark. NFLI was forced to file the lawsuit to protect its most valuable trademark as EAS ignored a simple cease and desist request with no monetary demand. NFLI was forced to file suit and EAS later had to pay the price of not only being disrespectful of other's rights but also paid a steep price for making a bad business decision to not adequately respond to our simple cease and desist request. Thus, we request a written response so we do not need to automatically file a lawsuit.

But Karma kicks in. Company went bankrupt!

On July 3, 2003, Nutrition For Life International went into bankruptcy. And people say that there is no such thing as karma.

Honorable Lawyers are Weaver & Amin, Chicago, IL, www.weaveramin.com as per this page. Their website don't work either.

Want another example?

MO, Scott Larsen and Bananas

2005-09-01T01:46:00.000-04:00

Orrin Woodward is a Quixtar IBO who founded a Motivational Organization TOD / TEAM.

Scott Larsen analyzed it and his opinion was it was an illegal pyramid.

This drove Orrin bananas.

He sued Scott, threw thousands and thousands of dollars, got those pages removed after one year of an expensive legal battle. After all, we got best legal system money can buy!

I mirrored them, Scott saw them and asked me to remove them. He never asked me to mirror them. It drove me bananas since I got them from public domain and there is no court order on them. But I removed them anyway. Case was going on so I thought it might help him.

Case was over, Orrin apparently had his way. He had more money! Case was over so I put them up again. Still, no court order on them.

They forced Scott to ask folks to remove their mirrors. How they did it? no idea! But I guess Orrin and Co. might be going bananas. Obviously! Thousands of dollars for nothing. He wanted me to sign an affidavit that he didn't ask me to mirror it. He didn't! Drove me bananas since it was 'free' and 'open' content, but I removed them, again. I can not understand what is illegal about them but not very eager to keep fighting with Scott. Any mention of mirrors drives Scott Larsen bananas. Try it, ask him! Maybe costs him legal fees, or pave road for another lawsuit, I dunno.

Now this whole fiasco should, as an American, drive you bananas. Read those pages. There is nothing libel. An analysis, that's it. Its harassment against freedom of speech if you ask me! If you are not going bananas, you should be going bananas for not being 'free' enough.

You wonder why not mirror it in China, Iran, North Korea or some ubber crazy country where ubber crazy US laws don't apply. I could use proxy plugin to hide my IP, and could have mirrored it secretly at least in Pakistan or India, but I didn't. Why? Don't ask me, it drives me bananas.

Remember one thing, we got the best legal system money can buy!

Quixtar Widow

2005-08-31T20:42:00.000-04:00

Quixtar Widow

An honorable mention!

Me, my Dad and Kumar

2005-08-31T00:17:00.000-04:00

I'm the middle man!

1000 PV leadership in NJ - $300
Classic tapes - $500
"Financial advice" from Kumar - Priceless!

FormerDiamond: Let Them Speak for Themselves

2005-08-29T23:04:00.000-04:00

Feature article: Former diamond's former blog

Let Them Speak for Themselves

I had a funny situation occur yesterday. I was retrieving something out of a storage area that I seldom use. When I moved a couple boxes I found some recordings I thought had been thrown out. There were dozens in the box. As an aside, when I left that business I threw away

thousands upon thousands of tapes.

I stuck my hand in the box and randomly pulled out 4 tapes. I walked over to a tape player and plugged them in one by one. Within seconds of each tape I heard the following clips. Let me state in advance, for the purpose of disclosure, I did not play each tape for more than a few moments to find this information. I can only imagine what I would findif I listened all the way through.

1. Jerry Meadows- click here

You mean to tell me that all I have to do in the next 60 days to go direct is to listen to a tape a day and read 30 minutes and go double go-getter? If that is the case I cannot imagine why there are not thousands of new directs each month.

2. Jerry Meadows- click here

Once again, I did not know that selling products was optional. I assumed that mlm regulations mandated the selling of products. However, when Jerry said sell and/or sponsor people I can understand why peoplethink that selling is optional.

If I am not mistaken, Jerry sits on the IBOAI board. In that position are we to assume that his views are endorsed by Q and his fellow tenured-pins?

3. Billy Florence- click here

Maybe this is why people follow blindly. They are asked to simply "...do it on total faith." To listen to Billy explain the reading and his empahsis on listening to tapes one would assume it is the only way to grow. If I am not mistaken, Billy sits on the IBOAI board. In that position are we to assume that his views are endorsed by Q and his fellow tenured-pins?

4. Jody Victor- click here

When I was a distributor the corporate literature said that tools are optional. To listen to Jody however, one would assume that the only way to build the business is through the tools. Didn't he say,“...that's what builds the business?” If I am not mistaken, Jody sits on the IBOAI board. In that position are we to assume that his views are endorsed by Q and his fellow tenured-pins?

5. Fred Harteis-click here

I can only assume that Fred actually sees his former distributors this way. He did say, “...If you don’t want to build the business...” One of the statements I hear from people day after day, is that they were afraid of quitting because they did not want to be viewed as losers. I wonder where they got this impression? Listen for yourself.

If I am not mistaken, Fred sits on the IBOAI board. In that position are we to assume that his views are endorsed by Q and his fellowtenured-pins?

I thought I would share these statements of the so-called leaders with you. This is the information I received as I worked my way through that business. Based on the feedback I receive...not much has changed.

Additionally, I thought I would share Rich DeVos' satements regarding some of these issues. By the way, all of the clips from above were recorded more than a decade later than Rich's. Maybe they did not hear what he had to say...then again, maybe they do not care.

I wish you the best.

Sincerely,
Bo

The preceding comments are based on my experiences and opinions.

Quixtar Playbook # 1

2005-08-28T22:21:00.000-04:00

IBO posts are comically similar. Apparently they don't bother to read and just write an angry fiery message. In Quixtar boards they're known as "Straight from Quixtar Playbook".

Yours truly is compiling that book! It will save IBOs time. After all, they're busy doing some thing 'significant'. They can just copy paste, giving me $10 / message of course.

I'm so excited about them. Look at this dude. Are they supposed to be so negative about negativity? My upline (Ahmer Azam) taught me on our very first meeting you should be! If any one says any thing bad about Quixtar e.g. it's a scam, get as angry as they have said something bad about your family. (I swear, that's what the guy said. Driving on Hwy 401 W, August 2002)

Oh yea, too all you dummies who think it's a scam or whatever retarded comments you make, I guess Barnes & Noble, Bass Pro Shops, Circuit City, Office Max, Nike, Rebock, Whirlpool, Jockey, KB Toys, etc. Oh wait yea Ace Hardware just joined recently to Quixtar. Perhaps they all thought it was a good idea and not a scam, perhaps they wouldnt tarnish their image on a scam. Yea, I'm sure you dummies know more about business than those about those large corporate businesses. Oh and by the way, I have many other physicians as friends who are profitable in this business. And one more thing to point out, Wal-Mart has 15,000 negative websites and thousands of lawsuits per month. But it looks like you dummies need to post more stuff about Wal-Mart and how evil they are, and how much they scam people and what-not. Yes and it is 50 Cents to make a CD and $8.00 to buy one in the BWW organization. So I guess you morons are too dumb and end up buying music CD's for for $14-$16. Hey it costs 2X as much to buy a non-learning music CD but I dont hear you idiots complain? Oh yea and for those of you who talk about Quixtar being a scam or whatever. I own 2 businesses, a Spine rehab practice and my Quixtar business. And I guess you guys complain because it's fact, you are broke. Plain and simple. Large corporate business like Wal-Mart & Quixtar will continue to make money while you stay broke. Hah I bet none of you complainers own a business. I own a conventional business and a multi-level marketing business so I know both well. I know none of you complainers have the guts to own a conventional business, which is why you cry. Whiners and babies. WAHHHHHH! I can't make money so I have to down a business that does. WAHAAAAH. Seriously, that's exactly what you sound like. Hah you guys make me laugh. Keep posting I love looking at what morons have to say from time to time to relieve my stress from work.

Blog Schedule

One Playbook entry every Monday
A featured article every Tuesday
About my LOS / Upline every Wednesday
Regarding Freedom of Speech every Thursday
A political post every Friday
Trivial stuff on Saturday
A pimp idea on Sunday

Hakuna Matata!

Doing vacation thingy

2005-08-21T20:53:00.000-04:00

Oh yeah! Be back on next Monday!

MLM - Network Marketing Cartoons

2005-08-21T12:00:00.000-04:00

MLM Cartoons

That's funny :) And that site rocks!

Learn about scams

2005-08-20T15:36:00.000-04:00

makingtherun.com :: View Forum - Is It A Scam?

Be aware of MLM Scams. MakingTheRun is a great forum administered by Fred. He's in Quixtar. But he does it differently, without tools.

He, and some other posters have tremendous knowledge about MLM and bonus plans. If you are prospected by an MLM, chances are it will be there. Or you can ask and they can tell if the plan is legit / profitable or not.

My favourites are:

I really don't mind the way these guys do their Quixtar business. In fact, I have linked some of them. Wierd, but honest guys!

If you want to read about Quixtar, in a 'positive' way, you should go to that forum.

Walter Bass

2005-08-19T12:00:00.000-04:00

An email interview of Deb (known as gimpymommi in MLM Survivors Club and What About Quixtar), grand daughter of Walter Bass. It is about her family involvement in Amway / Quixtar.

What was Mr. Walter Bass's Education, expertise and professional experience prior to his involvement in Amway?

My Grandfather, Walter Bass, had an outgoing manner and innate business savvy-ness that help him become a person who was very involved in the community. He was the Sales Manager for a local radio station; a Realtor (President of the State Realtor's Association); active in the Elks Club (Lifetime Member) and Junior Chamber of Commerce (State Chairman); taught the first Dale Carnegie courses in Grand Rapids (where he met Rich DeVos and Jay VanAndel) and helped in the startup/incorporation of the "American Way Co.", where he served as a mentor to Rich and Jay, and President of the Board of Directors for the first 12 years. (My mother joined him in his business in the mid-60s; and served as the Executive Administrator to the B.O.D.)

How big his organization was? Bonus check and structure?

While teaching the Carnegie course, he signed on as a distributor for Nutrilite under JA-RI (Jay and Rich's business name). By the time Amway was formed, he had maybe 100 distributors in his downline - most of whom chose to become Amway Distributors, also. I believe it was in 1979, that he achieved the level of Emerald distributor. By then, his "strong leg" which included Hansens/Victors...and on down to Yager/Britt; and was the single largest LOS in Amway. The best year ever was 1995, when the Emerald Bonus was over a half-million dollars.

Did Mr. Walter Bass do something in 1979 FTC case against Amway?

In 1979, my Grandfather was one of the folks who testified before the Senate Subcommittee investigating whether Amway was a pyramid scheme or not - I believe his strong commitment to retailing, plus the fact that he had people in his downline who were higher pins and made more money than he did - certainly helped sway the decision that it was NOT illegal.

Was he and / or his downline involved in BSM a.k.a. Tools?

In my Grandfather's downline, some high-level distributors (most notably Dexter Yager) were developing a new way to make money - by selling training and motivational "tools" and holding functions. He was vehemently opposed to this concept - said that new recruits should be helped in any way possible, for FREE, to make a profit. His own business offered free shipping and handling to any distributor until they achieved the 15% bonus level; and he maintained a warehouse that held $25,000 worth of inventory, for quicker service. We had an Accounts Receivables - payment for orders was expected 30 days after shipment, to help distributors collect their profits from their customers; and we accepted Visa and MasterCard. "Sales Boosters" such as the Artistry Sample Kit were loaned for free, and informational literature was given freely. He strongly encouraged retailing - and most of his immediate downline had retail customers. No matter what he was able to do for our "personal group" distributors - he was powerless to stop the AMOs from their vampire-like tactics in the "legs" below our immediate group.

How much profit BSM downline generated for you?

By the time of his death in 1993, there were several AMOs in our downline - and *IF* any of our immediate downline wanted access to tools or functions, we put them in touch with Skip Ross, who was affiliated with Network 21. At no time ever, did we receive any kind of AMO money; and we warned our downline that these items were optional and very likely to cut into their profit margins.

Did Amway collected some data from you?

Our group certainly seemed to be profitable - we were very aware of their retail sales because we often shipped directly to their customers! And in the mid-90's, this seemed to catch the attention of the Amway Corporation...we were "audited". I, as the business manager, had to provide invoices and a "payment trail" for every order I placed for an entire year. I've never heard of anyone else having to do this (it was a royal pain-in-the-butt) - but in hindsight, I wonder if the Corporation was collecting evidence, should it ever have to prove to the FTC that they enforced their own retail-sales rules???

What your downline experienced in Amway -> Quixtar shift? Was it a smart move in your opinion? What do you recommend to IBOs?

In 1999, the changeover to Quixtar was awkward, to say the least. Our long-time distributors were confused by the new terms; and many of our long-time IBOs did NOT use computers. They felt their identities were being taken away. Some of our 100PV-per-month IBOs (the backbone of the business, if you ask me?!) were giving up. It seemed even Amway didn't know from month-to-month who they were or where they were headed?? I couldn't help but feel the Corporation was being pulled apart by the desires and financial clout of the AMO Kingpins...

And Quixtar may ultimately be the undoing of Amway. The same computer-savvy folks that are recruited into Quixtar, are also able to find information on the internet that speaks less-than-glowingly of the scam of the AMOs and how the Corporation tacitly supports them. I have been a member of a few well-moderated forums regarding this. Once in a while, I stumble onto a person of great integrity, who chooses to run their Amway/Quixtar business above-board and without the AMO tools - I try to support these good folks as much as possible because they have hard work ahead of them. But too many people buy into the "5-year plan for financial freedom" and since this is pure AMO rubbish - I advise these folks to run as fast as they can!

Do you think there is a problem with Quixtar?

Until the Corporation has the backbone to stand up to the AMOs and clean up their act (if it didn't happen in the '80s [see the Postma Memo]- I'm sure not holding my breath now) the once-good name of Amway will always be tarnished by the AMO scam. I see the children of DV and VA positioning the Corporation to be less reliant on the MLM product sales - and with good reason. I predict that some day, they'll just sell out the MLM portion to the AMO kingpins; and continue their other pursuits.

How about rumors on boards about your family? And how much truth is in them?

I appreciate Imran giving me a chance to tell about my family's involvement with Amway. I'm proud of the integrity and ideals we maintained while running our business. I have seen the good side of Amway; and read/heard too much about the bad. Certain people have taken my words, twisted them, added their opinions, and posted them on forums I choose not to participate in - I hope that folks who read those lies will see the real truth here?

Deb

Zero growth in Quixtar?

2005-08-18T00:00:00.000-04:00

InternetRetailer.com - Daily News for Wednesday,August 17, 2005

For its 2005 fiscal year, which ends Aug. 31, Quixtar expects web sales to be about $748 million, essentially the same e-commerce revenues as 2004. “Sales will be about the same this year,” Brancino says. “But we expect to grow web sales nicely in the 2006 fiscal year.”

Same revenue means zero growth. It is ok for an eCommerce site. But what does it tell about MLM status? No team exploded? Same revenue means same number of IBOs. Shouldn't be any new Diamond then. Unless some previous ones fell out of qualification.

This is another flaw of MLM. Same revenue is not a bad thing but in Quixtar, it means that all the plan showing, tape listening, driving the miles didn't help any one move forward. Or some volume generating IBOs moved backward and some moved forward.

He Must Be Exhausted

2005-08-17T18:49:00.000-04:00

Another Entry from Former Diamond's Former Blog

It seems as though little has changed since I was a distributor. I still marvel at the words uttered by the so-called leaders as many attempt to steer their loyal distributors around the truth. They must be exhausted, as Dateline NBC and the Internet have made finding the truth so much easier.

On the one hand, some claim to offer a first-class Internet–based business, while demeaning the Internet itself. Who then are you to believe? They dismiss the Internet as a source of bad information but claim to have the best Internet business on the planet.

The other day while I was reading this site I came across a recording attributed to Greg Duncan.
CLICK HERE

As I listen to Greg's advise, he appears steadfast about not reading what…
Toby from Tacoma
Phil from Philadelphia
Valerie from Vancouver
…have to say. He seems to dismiss them as not credible. He seems adamant that you must look to publications like Forbes Magazine and other noteworthy sources of information.

While I disagree with his apparent assertion that the aforementioned individuals have nothing to add to the discussion, for the time being, let’s do what he asks.

THEREFORE

Was he referring to Forbes.com from 6/25/01:"
…By joining organizations like Quixtar, you're more likely to fill your shelves with bottles of shampoo than to fill your bank account with cash."

Or this Forbes article from 12/9/91:
"…Known inside Amway as the "Black Hats", these master distributors frequently indulged in excessively high-pressure methods of exploiting their foot soldiers, persuading them to shell out hundreds of dollars each for distributor-produced books, tapes and even unrelated products and investment schemes. The problem: if Amway's distributors make a lot of money from selling such promotional materials (as opposed to actual products) to new recruits, then it again raises questions of an illegal pyramid scheme."

Maybe he was referring to Amway’s own corporate official that wrote in his analysis of two of the largest "training" systems: Click Here
"…Loyalty and dependency is the ultimate objective of the ‘system.’…”

“…So, while friendships are being developed, a dependency is also being created. It is this aspect of their methodology that has allowed for charges of ‘mind control.’…"

"…I think there is little question that is where the big money is made..."

Or the gentleman that is considered in many legal circles to be the "father of the RICO statutes". G. Robert Blakey, who wrote:
"It is my opinion that the Amway business is run in a manner that is parallel to that of major organized crime groups, in particular the Mafia. The structure and function of major organized crime groups, generally consisting of associated enterprises engaging in patterns of legal and illegal activity, was the prototype forming the basis for federal and state racketeering legislation that I have been involved in drafting. The same structure and function, with associated enterprises engaging in patterns of legal and illegal activity, is found in the Amway business." Click Here

Or maybe he was speaking about the co-founder of Amway, Rich DeVos who said: Click Here
"…It is our firm belief that unless we clean up our abuses, we won't have to worry about what's next; we won't be here to worry about it. At this point in our history, we will either take charge of this business and operate it correctly, according to the rules and regulations that the Amway Corporation has given you, or we will not deserve to exist…”

Or maybe he was referring to someone that actually showed 1358 plans in 4.5 years, night after night, went diamond, and sat in the room with senior corporate officials as they divulged their knowledge about the "tool" business...like me.
Click Here

Maybe, Toby from Tacoma, Phil from Philadelphia and Valerie from Vancouver may have something to add to this discussion...and he is simply exhausted! Just maybe he does not want you to know the truth.

Sincerely,
Bo

The preceding comments are based on my experiences and opinions.

Products of Heaven

2005-08-16T00:00:00.000-04:00

Winter 2003. We were in training session after open in Radisson Hotel, Toronto. Speaker called a lady. She told that her son swallowed SA8 and she dialed medical help. They assured her that Amway SA8 is safe. If it was TIDE or some other product then the baby had to go to hospital.

CLAPS.

Couple months later, my mom and sponsor lady were doing a SAM session. Sponsor lady was an "Expert" of that. D'oh, one client had a reaction to an artistry cream! Maybe skin diagnosis was wrong, I dunno.

My point: Quixtar / Amway products are no more safer or better than the products out there. Unless you are better with artistry than your kids, I really don't see an "absolute" reason to use these products.

Ugly truth: There's always a better and cheaper product out there. Does that mean other products are not sold? No. In fact, with good marketing techniques, some average products do more business. Wal-mart products are average quality, yet their sales sky rocket. For many products they sell, there is a cheaper / better product somewhere.

But wal-mart has a pimp marketing / distribution strategy.

In that SAM session, we generated a lot of PV for our downline, but our personal clients were finished in last SAM session and we didn't have much sale. We bought 300 PV again with of course, subtle pressure from our "God gifted" upline. He was going to "retire" in December 2004, F.Y.I.

O the people I haven't punched.....

Lying Liars and..Fair and Balanced look at Jim Reed

2005-08-15T12:00:00.000-04:00

Quixtar / Amway boards and Jim Reed go together. In my opinion he's not good for the boards. Here are my observations about him.

Jim Reed the Joker

Well, he is funny. That's the only thing I like about him. Despite his nuttiness, I consider him a friend for that. And if I don’t post for few days, he misses me :) Hopefully in a non gay way.

Jim Reed the Troll

In my opinion he's a forum troll. Others think it too. All he say is:

People don't fail at amway because they didn't work hard. That's not why they fail. They fail because they joined a pyramid where the average net profit is below zero. They didn't know this, and even when they leave most still don't know it, but as the financial reality catches up with them, one way or another they quit and walk away with their losses. It couldn't be any other way.

I agree with it, almost. That's not the problem. "Root of the problem" is repetition. You go to quixtarBlog Forum, MLM Survivor club, What about Quixtar, nothing else. He's stuck on "The pyramid is negative" a.k.a TPIN, MLB (Million lost Billions) and amway was a bad idea from the start. Any one involved is to be "blamed". Specially the ones who made money as they made money from the losses of the others. If some one do MLM honestly, he's providing the cover to the scam.

He never provides any link or data, except pasting saved conversations and platinum index numbers from amquix.info.

And that's pretty much it. He keeps "blaming" any one he wants, is answered 1000 times and claimed he was never answered. Soon he monopolizes the board and nothing else could be discussed. That's what he wants, attention. When told not to do so, he replies:

I think this needs to be said, and maybe even repeated if people don't want to listen, even if it means being removed from every one of the boards, that would be OK if it happens because it would mean this monkey is off my back and it doesn't have to be said any more.

He can troll any topic, e.g. Canada. But he likes Quixtar, errr Amway.

Jim Reed the Character Assassin

Jim has a "thing" for a poaster "Deb" a.k.a "gimpymommi". She is grand daughter of Walter Bass, built a huge retailing business, didn't participate in tool scam. Dexter Yager is deep in their downline.

Jim insults her family quite often, saying that they "benefited" from "pyramid" and must be "blamed". Here is explanation from Deb that why it is character assassination. It gets worse, and includes stalking and name calling.

Right, I am getting your family confused again. It is your father who is the ambot, isn't it?

And now he blaming her the Baboon Brief board. Deb was dragged to What About Quixtar and about to there as well. Just to defend herself from character assassination. I'll be soon publishing a report on Walter Bass, with her help to clarify it further. Follow above links, he has been answered many times.

Jim Reed the Conspiracy Theorist

The guy is paranoid, and doesn't trust any one. Say some thing not bashing MLM, you are "still under the spell". He'll start on any one. Won't even trust the site admins. Here is gem. He accused two posters to be same person, despite site admin denying it. Both of them criticized on tool scam, and hence Jim concluded they were from the "forces of amway"!!!

It is also one of his theories. If you say any thing bad about tools or Kingpins, you are letting amway get away hence you are in this conspiracy theory. Good stuff there.

Also, he kept on insisting he "debated Bill Britt".

How to handle him

Admins: If you want discussion to the point, ban him. He was banned from quixtarBlog Forum and MLM Survivor for good reason. Moderators were too easy on him. Trust me!

If you just want more posts, let him stay. He won't let you down.

Posters: Ignore him. If you think you can convince him, you can't. All he wants is a response from you. Then he'll drag it to pages. If you want to build up your post count, just talk to Jim!

What does he need?

More cowbell, and mild spankning. He said he has some troubles with his wife. I hope he works them out. Here is another example of craziness.

I believe he needs professional help.

Republicans hate me, I hate republicans

2005-08-14T12:06:00.000-04:00

Yeah it is a political post, but instead of fighting on some one else's blog, I'm gonna say it here. Expect one political post per week.

Republican Party

In my opinion, republicans are not really that far off from Ku Klux Klan. Hatred and intolerance is there, just not as visible as in KKK.

So republicans hate me. They do. Don't say they don't because it is my experience. I'm from a visible minority in North America. And this is my experience. I try not to provoke any one. Here are the precautions I take:

I don't block traffic for stupid rallies.
I don't play my folk music loud. Personally I hate music. All kind.
I dress according to the culture here.
My religious festivals don't cause any inconvenience.
I pray quietly.
I don't shove my beliefs down any one's throat.
I don't look any one down who don't share my belief. I expect the same.
Outside mosque, I'm just another North American. North America is my home.
I'm working on my accent. It's the letter "T" and "D" I need to work on.

However, I can not change who I am. And for that they hate me.

Here are the following characteristics of Republicans

American invasion of Iraq was absolutely right. Al-Qaeda has a letter Q, so does Iraq. That's clear link right there.
What ever the President Bush does is right. Despite he has lower than monkey IQ and an impressive resume, don't criticize him.
Innocent people die on 9/11. Now its fair to kill as many innocent people as possible. Its democracy.
People hate America because of our freedom.
Americans outside America are not very safe. It's because world is crazy. We didn't brought it on ourselves.
We have a lot of women abuse ourselves. But we can label any government as wife beaters and our public will love it when we carpet bomb them.
Suicide bombing is bad, real bad, but carpet bombing is good.
We kill thousands of people so there can be democracy in their country. CIA also overthrew 20 or more democracies. But don't talk about it.
Any thing bad about "Right" is a conspiracy of liberal media. Discard it immediately, just because it is in liberal media.
Liberals are communist.
Minorities are bad. They are not white, they are bad. Although America has a negative population growth without immigrants, we should hate immigrants any ways.
God gave America to white Christians, and that's the way it should be! (God gave American to Native Americans, one we genocide, and our population has negative growth as we party more and live normal married life less)
There is no fuel shortage or pollution problem. I can drive fuel crazy trucks if I want to.
If you don't agree most of above points, you hate freedom.

Many people vote for GOP despite disagreeing above as they had no choice. Liberal wants to give tax money to crack addicts and homeless prostitutes. And some other stuff. That I don't like either. My point is, I'm not talking about those people who voted republicans to avoid such things. I'm talking to those who agree with most of the above. Many republicans do! And there is a reason.

Last century, it worked. Global community was not as visible and so was social intolerance. Super powers took advantage of poor countries and exploited them. Having such public was good for US development. Now good foreign relations are in need. China & Eoro are future economic giants. Smarter and popular than USSR.

In seventies, republicans didn't participate in civil right movements, did they? Now every one think "N" word is a bad word so they don't use it. They changed a little, but not that much. Else I won't be writing this post. Remember, I'm here for less than 5 years. How I know all this? Wait, Liberal media! No wait, my personal experiences.

Also, when you say some thing about it, immediate response is, "Hey I didn't disagree with point 1-9 of republican agenda". Well, you disassociate yourself with republicans. So I was not talking to you. Was I? You don't agree with these points so aren't you on my side?

Here is a gem of some one fighting on behalf of GOP while disagreeing with their policies.

Any ways, you hate me, I hate you. Doesn't get any simpler than that. Wait, I'm spouting hatred so I'm a terrorist. Right?

Back to the Blame

2005-08-13T12:00:00.000-04:00

Passport, Quixtar and Bashing; What's the relation? Lets see!

If Quixtar is gone, will Passport be successful? No freakin' idea. Haven't seen any data of passport. Can't say how much dateline benefited them for example. In quixtarBLOG forum, passport associates are vanished. MLM Blog removed Quixtar category. And Ty Tribble said

there comes a time when you want to perhaps put the past in the past and move on with other things in your life.

Ty and other passport folks were prolific posters a year ago in quixtarBLOG forum.

Now lets look at the traffic of MLMBlog. It was real high when Quixtar posts were frequent.

300 or so unique hits per day! 9600 / 30 = 320. Then after removing Quixtar related entries, they dropped to 60-70 per day.

Page views were much higher.

Now "Ty is back" on Quixtar. Since mid July. Hits are going up! Back to 100 hits per day. Apparently blogging about Quixtar is good for his blog, hence good for passport. Claim that passport capitalizes on Quixtar fallout is not that off I guess. His site stats proves it. What do you say?

Is it Bad?

Not really!

Quality posts! He was after all, in Quixtar and has great insight to offer.
He's competition and competitors write about each other.
He's in the field and should write about the problems in the industry.
It is not a spam like Quixtar's WRTF or Blog-zilla.
Its just blogging

Is it good

I don't know. Seeing the trend in the stats, and after declaring he "moved on", I wonder...*cough..motive..cough*

Or may be he got prospected again! That'll even drive Jesus bananas.....

Any ways, his blog is interesting for me again. So I'm happy. How do you feel about it?

Three Diamond Myths

2005-08-12T14:14:00.000-04:00

I'm posting an entry from former diamond blog. It was at http://formerdiamond.typepad.com/ and now its gone. I found it on archive.org. I'll publish one on every Friday. I like archive.org but don't trust them. Try searching TOD stuff there. Besides, Quixtar legal goons could pressure archive.org to remove it and BO won't even know it.

It is revealing what he has to say. He was in the "promised land". You may think you'll overcome the odds to reach there. Fired up! But what happens when you reach "there"?

There are many myths associated with those people that attain the level of diamond. Among them, three stick out in my mind as a few of the most prominent. The “system”, established by the kingpins, and taught through the diamonds only perpetuates these myths. An important point to make is this; a diamond is not going to reveal the truths behind their business because they do not want their army to doubt their ability and question their direction. That is why they are directly involved in enhancing the legendary stories about each other.

The 3 myths I will discuss are:

Diamonds are free.
Diamonds are Diamonds
Diamonds would never manipulate their volume.

1. Diamonds are free:

The fact of the matter is they are not. In this instance I am not referring to the approximate 20 kingpins that have created enormous tool businesses. In my opinion, most of them are simply “hooked” on the power at this point. As well, it is important to point out that several of the senior diamonds have saved enough money to walk away with no financial concerns. I am referring to the bulk of the people that have ever worn a diamond pin.

Some people that are critical of my telling the truth as I lived it will simply discount my statements as untrue. They will tell you that they know their diamonds and they know they are free. They will say things like, “Call them at 10am from the office and you will find them just getting out of bed.” What they fail to tell you is that the reason they are just getting out of bed is that they did not get back form showing the plan until about 3am the night before. I would suggest that they have traded a daytime job for the mid-night shift. Most of the diamonds I knew worked harder and longer at this than at their former jobs.

Haven’t you ever wondered why they sell the idea of 2-5 years and then “you can go and do whatever your heart desires”; yet they are still doing the same thing. For many, it is not out of love for the “business.” As I traveled into 20 countries speaking for these people I found that many of them resented the business. Many of their children did as well, because it robbed them of time with their parents.

Important point: They are so busy simply because they are not duplicating anything, they are replacing what they have lost. That is the constant struggle. In the mid 90’s the company said the “business” had about 7 billion dollars in retail sales. If I am not mistaken that figure, which today includes all of the Alticor business, is in the $4.5 billion range. There is no freedom or duplication when you are apparently moving backwards.

Prior to my resigning, I spent many late nights with many diamonds as we spoke openly about the fact that there is no freedom. Unfortunately most of them do not have the courage to do anything about it. Why? Because they are not free and many are afraid of losing the only income they have!

2. Diamonds are diamonds:

Once again this is not true. Most diamonds were diamonds. I am a perfect example of this. Just like most emeralds were emeralds, and most 1000’s were 1000’s. It is no different for a diamond. The overwhelming number of diamonds I knew were not qualifying. They will not tell you that. It would undermine what you think of their leadership.

In my case I qualified once in 1995. I have been very open about this over the past 3 years. I wanted people to know that their diamonds are no different than their own 1000’s. Unfortunately, once you attain a pin you are always recognized for that pin. I believe, if your diamond actually wore the “pins they are” the army would flee as the truth would collide with the myth.

One of my problems with the pin system is the illusion that is perpetuated on the part of the emeralds and above. These are critical “points of control” in the line of sponsorship. Most platinums walk on stage and people say, “They are making $2000 month minimum. Most of the platinums I knew, in numerous “training” systems, were not making $800 per month.

Important point: Do not be misled by the average diamond income of $149k as represented by the company. If I am not mistaken that refers to the average qualified diamond. The question you should ask is, “What is the median income for the individual that wears a diamond pin whether they are qualified or not?” In my opinion, I would estimate that figure to be less than $100k.

Your diamonds would scoff at that. Then again, I remember when these same diamonds said, “there was no money in the tools.” My how things change.

3. Diamonds would never manipulate their volume:

With all due respect, this is nonsense. I am not referring to the kingpins who may no longer care about their qualification. I am referring to the average diamond that you look to for guidance. To assume that many of these people do not/or did not purchase volume to qualify at least once is silly. In other instances, many distributors miraculously went platinum thereby enabling an emerald to move on to diamond.

Why? Because it is how they have been taught to build the business. The language changes but the results are the same. When you are at 750 points many of distributors received a call from their upline encouraging them to buy 250 points. They say, “You will go 1000 and your group will see you and they will move on. Remember, leaders lead!” They call it “stretching.” The fact is that you just bought (manipulated) 25% of your business. What did this do to your upline? In many instances, it moved them along at your expense.

I discussed this in detail several years ago. I used my business as the example. I bought 2/3’s of my 6th leg in Honduras. I was there with a number of emeralds that qualified as diamonds alongside me. What was taking place was unspoken between us, as we all knew that the “language of it” was different than “stretching”. However, it was a practice that is taught to the newest person going after their first 1000 pin.

An interesting thing happens between the platinum and emerald levels; that is where the language changes. It is no longer “stretching”, it is “manipulating” or “buying volume.” The reason for the name change is simple; the upline does not want to share the tool money that now has to travel down to the new pin.

Important point: Whether you are at 750 going 1000 or an emerald going diamond, it is the same behavior, although the outcome is different. The 1000’s usually fall back to 800 points, but the new diamond gets a bigger piece of the tool money.

I do not know how many diamonds I spoke with that did the same thing. It is what they were taught as new distributors. Some bought vacuum cleaners, others bought vitamins, others sponsored family members that grew overnight, and others flew to foreign markets and came back with miracle stories. In groups where bonus checks and product pick-up was run through the upline and not the corporation the ability to transfer points was much easier.

As a disclaimer, I am not saying that this was true in every instance, but to assume it was uncommon is silly.

I believe that people need to understand that the loud voice booming through the microphone is not a wizard. In many instances it is quite the opposite. It is an individual that happened to work hard at the right time (I’ll discuss that in another commentary), get some lucky breaks along the way, and unfortunately, in many instances forgot the people that got them there.

Many diamonds I know are in denial, as they actually believe the publicity that precedes them. However, what many have forgotten is that the applause was taught by them to their teams. Many have a sense of entitlement to their position. While many are greedy, not all are. Many simply lack the courage to stand up to the kingpins.

The fact is however, that many of them are perpetuating something that they themselves did not do. Unfortunately, the army does not know this, so the army feels like they are losers and unable to accomplish something that is sold as “great.” The sad truth is, in my opinion, the average honorable distributor has not been told the truth in the first place.

Sincerely,
Bo

The preceding comments are based on my experiences and opinions.

Think and Grow Rich Blog

2005-08-11T14:56:00.000-04:00

Think and Grow Rich Blog

And stay positive! It is good to stay positive ;) Stay positive about your job, family and friends. Don't be negative and get sucked into scams like Quixtar.

Suspected Murderers Couldn't Pass as IBOs

2005-08-11T10:21:00.000-04:00

CNN.com - Cabbie: Couple's story didn't 'wash' - Aug 11, 2005

And

Full story

lawDawg reported on The Baboon Brief board:

Two fugitives suspected of having murdered a Tennessee prison guard in a courtroom escape couldn't convince their cabby they were headed to an Amway convention. What was the tell-tale clue that gave them away? Did the cabby know it's called "Quixtar" now? Nope:

"The cover story they gave me didn't really seem to wash too much," Wagers said. "I could kinda see through that. But I had no indication that these guys were really dangerous or they were on the run."

Wagers said he had doubts about the Hyattes' story because they "just didn't fit the type."

He said his suspicions weren't aroused by anything the couple said, except that they didn't try to aggressively recruit him after telling him they were Amway salespeople.

"You know, Amway people are all about Amway, and when they didn't -- when they didn't try any conversation further about it, that's when I pretty much thought, well, they're not with Amway," Wagers said.

During the ride, he said, he and his passengers "chitchatted about nonsensical things" and they told him they were from Virginia. They also explained that they were taking a cab to Columbus for an Amway conference because they had been involved in a car accident the day before.

"They didn't strike me as the Amway type because to be honest they weren't very pushy about their product and I've dealt with them before so -- that was my only real suspicion," Wagers said.

If you see it on CNN, The reporters and camera men where hysterical laughing in the background.

What a hoot!

A proud moment for Dick DeVos, Michigan's next Republican candidate for governor, and AmQuix IBO's everywhere.

Changes to the blog

2005-08-11T01:31:00.000-04:00

I have recently made some changes to this blog.

No more anonymous comments. Get a blogger account.
10 posts per page instead of 5
Recommended links update

I made these changes before

Trackback
Recent comments
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BlogRoll

IBOs, golden opportunity for you. Many of you have shown your dislike for this blog. So tell me:

You want me to close this blog?
If so, what are your reasons?

Passport Using Subliminal Marketing Tactics (satire)

2005-08-10T00:13:00.000-04:00

Late "Qrush" once accused QBlog for being a hired stooge of Bo Short. It seems wrong, but not so fast!

Look at the QBlog shop. Check out "Edify this" thong. Imagine a women wearing it. It will say "Edify this".

What will happen if she gets a wedgie? It will say:

"Ty this"

Seeing this subliminal message at the most desirable place will make you hug Ty. And we know Ty is the president of Passport.

Hence proved.....

Network Marketing Audio Training Clips

2005-08-10T00:06:00.000-04:00

Network Marketing Audio Training Clips

I've listened some of them, just for the heck of it. MLM tapes for free!

And no, I don't recommend MLM. But if you are one of those negative netword marketers who don't want to pay for some thing that is and should be free, Enjoy!

Also, I 'won' this book Think And Grow Rich in some website as a free download. I'm sharing my 'winning' with you.

You're welcome!

MLM is icky, always was always will

2005-08-09T13:49:00.000-04:00

MLM is really icky. Why is that? A lot of people who are not professional salesman join MLM and end up doing a lot of things they are not supposed to do. E.g. pressuring friends and family to buy stuff etc. or join them. How many of them do Natural Selling?

Majority of these people quit soon. And are replaced by new idiots. Cycle continues. MLM companies don't do much about it as such people are responcible for majority of their sales. In many cases, these people buy stuff they don't need to meet quota.

How can this be improved?

Why Amway changed its name to Quixtar?

2005-08-08T02:55:00.000-04:00

Why would a company with 30 years of brand recognition change its name? Same plan, same business model, same lines of IBOs, same products. Then why change the name? Just because it's moving online? A lot of business moved online. They didn't change their name.

QBlog explained it very well, as quoted below. I have the same question, why Randy Haugen is so much favourite of Quixtar corp that he is awarded business of other ppl when they lose arbitration? He screwed them big time, yet he's rewarded big time?

The Baboon Brief :: View topic - JUST RECEIVED A THREAT

To put it simply, Randy Haugen is the reason Quixtar exists today. Without Randy's stupid mistake (being recorded as he spread the P&G Satanism rumor) we'd still be calling the business Amway in North America.

Here's what happened.

Rumors start up in the 1980s about P&G being a bunch of Satanists. Coincidentally, P&G was the "boogeyman" that Amway reps used in their recruitment pitches. "You don't want your money for soap going to P&G when you could be spending it on your business." As an aside, what company has replaced P&G as the "monolithic corporate boogeyman" in Quixtar recruitment pitches today?

There was no clear evidence that Amway started the Satanism rumor but for years P&G suspected that Amway was behind it and both companies "worked" together to stop the rumor.

Randy Haugen sent an AmVox message clearly spreading the Satanism rumor in the late 1990s (check the date on that). Now P&G had their proof and the lawsuits began. Remember that discovery and expert opinion are often part of such lawsuits.

At about the same time, Sydney Schwartz and Ashley Wilkes were running sites and participating in discussion boards that were not only critical of Amway but started taking a close look at the tool businesses. Remember that until the late '90s and early 2000, there was no system-wide admission that tool money constituted any portion of the leadership revenue. It was all described as "covering costs" with a very modest kickback.

As the P&G lawsuit progressed, information became publicly available that proved what Schwartz and Wilkes had been saying all along -- The real money is in the tools, not Amway.

Two important documents came out of the P&G lawsuits:
1. Blakey Report and
2. Postma Memo.

Others dissatisfied with Amway were now beginning to turn to the Internet to tell their story (Jeff Probant for example) and people like Schwartz and Wilkes gained credibility as their information was detailed and factual. Amway realized it had a problem and began an aggressive campaign to shut down the growing numbers of websites through legal manipulation and intimidation. Some of that worked but as you know, once something hits the Internet it can't be removed... ever!

Amway starts to see a significant decline in revenue and the so-called kingpins demand action. There had been talk about tapping into the "e-commerce" boom and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to make a clean break from the Amway baggage and reinvent the business. Around the same time the BSMAA was drafted and shoved down the IBOs throats to provide protection to the tool distributors as more and more of the rank and file became aware of the real money involved with tools.

There are some details missing, feel free to fill them in. The main point is that Randy Haugen started a chain reaction that resulted in the formation of Quixtar (at least in part), the drafting of the BSMAA and an overall admission that the tool business is where the real money comes from. If Randy had never made those recorded comments P&G would never have had the ammo to sue Amway and much of the documentation and admission would never have surfaced to give Schwartz and Wilkes the data they needed to give their sites credibility.

So, thank you Randy.

What's amazed me is that after such a boneheaded act, Randy is still very much in the fold. A business that seemingly discards its trouble-makers with ease (anyone remember Team in Focus?) has held onto Randy Haugen through thick and thin. Why? My only guess is that he's personally protected by Dexter or Britt.