Mr Opendra's article rightly said
"there is no magical way to generate money other than hard work and wise use of
it". He couldn’t have put it better. Hard working people are rich. Even Thieves and corrupt Govt
officials have to work hard to earn real money. No money comes easy. You need to work hard and know ways
and means to skim money off the public money in
ingenious ways.
Even bribery takes a lot of hard and
smart work. There are honest hard workers too. They
too get rich. They get richer nowadays.. A good hard
working MNC executive earns quite a Packet. So Mr
Opendra wrote well. But, no offence meant, I don’t
agree with most of the other things he wrote. My
personal view though.
Someone once asked me the same thing.. Is Amway doing
any good? Isn’t Amway ruining the economy of Manipur..
Isn’t it a drain on our economy. Well I said it’s a
boon to the Manipur Economy.
Strange eh! Is it
because, all the money goes to the USA. Well how about
the Moreh goods.. Do we use anything Manipuri, leave
aside Indian. And we are still a part of India. We
still use the Rupee. We don’t have a separate economy.
If we did we would crumble. Lest not get into it now.
Since we have very less produce anyway, lets
not talk about imports for now. All trucks go out from
Manipur empty and came in full for that matter. Amway
is too small compared to the Moreh trade that takes
place. And the Moreh trade actually does wonders to
our economy. Again it’s a different topic.
Lets talk
about why Amway is a boon. Mr Opendra wrote about
hierarchy and the chain, in other words the Multi
Level hierarchy. The ones at the Top earn at the
expense of the bottom feeders. It is not the one at
the top but the one who works hardest and smartest who
gets the money at the expense of those who only saw
the easy money but refuse to work towards it. So
again, hard work pays.
Some one at the top who doesn’t
nurture his downstream will be OUT. In a state where
there is no industry, and no jobs Amway’s offered
opportunity to thousands.. Lets not talk about how
many Rupees got drained out of Manipur, lest talk
about how many people made a living out of it.
Everybody has equal chance of becoming successful. It
is a very democratic business. Only those who work
hard, who have perseverance survive.
Lets have some
respect for them, who works so hard. All the
successful Amway guys I know work like crazy. In a
land where no other industry could enter, Amway came
in unnoticed and touched the lives of many.
About the high cost of the products, let those
who can afford it use it. I for one use only Amway
Toothpaste. The price they charge is well worth the
quality. As long as there are people who can afford it
why stop them. Also, Amway products are usually bought
and used regularly by the Rich class.
And Most of the
rich class of Manipur haven’t earned money the honest
way. So in a way, its a good way to circulate back the
black money into the economy and feeding a lot of hard
working Amway guys in the process. Let the consumers
use it and in the process create some jobs for the
intermediaries which otherwise wouldn’t have been
there.
If the same argument is extrapolated to all the other
industries, why have TV, Fridges, Mobiles, and
anything thing that drains Manipur’s economy. Should
we forget that at least it creates some jobs in all
those retail outlets.. or should we say that only the
Shop owners are skimming the consumers.
Can anybody
imagine how many jobs will be created if Airtel were
to start their service tomorrow.. Should we forget the
Jobs that went away with Sahara and Bata. No open
commercial transaction is detrimental to a state’s
economy. For God’s sake, even a communist country like
China is embracing the Free market economy.. Let the
Consumer decide..
PS: But my dear friends who wants to join Amway. Don't
do it if you are not ready to sweat it out. Mr Opendra
rightly said "there is no magical way to generate
money other than hard work and wise use of it".
To read Opendro's article, click here .
Here is the reply from Opendro:
I appreciate Anothony's interest and elaborate analysis on amway and other business. I have intentionally omitted about the money drains
through Moreh town and Mao trucks, because we know to some extent that we are exchanging our money with some substance.
Anthony has elaborated more on the products sold by Amway. If I had known that Amway is more about multi-level marketing, I wouldn't have targetted
Amway at all in my article. I knew that they were also talking about a few products at discounts. My article has not tried to target at the product
they are selling. People may or may not buy, that is not my concern. Even though I have raised my concern about the kind of product or the range
of variety of products they are offering, that was not the primary target.
My first encounter and further investigation when I wronte the article were never about products. They were mostly about membership fee and ensured
returns through more membership enrolment under his name. Marketing the products was not the primary aim. If marketing was the primary aim, every
wise member of Amway would have tried to pull in all his/her unemployed members and relatives into the Amway business which was very open. It was not like that.
The catch was "getting huge pay at less investment". This blinded a lot of people and late in realization. In short no wise member of Amway would like to
earn money from marketing the product they are offering. They would rather earn money through more enrolment fees from members down the heirarchy..
If I'm wrong in this, I'm probably wrong in my understanding of the Amway business. And also I'm yet to hear anybody who has made money through Amway
by selling products.
However, I'm not wrong in my understanding of the mail order or smart money, which I talked in the same article. They don't have anything to sell.
They just have to pay initial membership fee and then collect more members under his referral scheme. They thus earn money. There is no intellectual or
substantial product involved. It is clearly like a bank in the sense that it earns money using others money. But bank does not depend on new enrolments
to pay the interest to the customer. Smart money or mail order neither pays interest nor return principal, but it pays a share of new enrolment fees under one's name.
This is very very unethical.
We must make some difference between pulling in money using marketing tactics and pulling in money using traps, wherein one does not have a retreat,
but trap more in the net.
# Opendro
* Anthony Tongbram, an MBA graduate from Symbiosis,Pune now working in MetLife, India contributes to e-pao.net regularly.
He can be contacted at [email protected]
This article was webcasted on Oct 8th 2004
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