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Amway-Wes

Amway WES Stockholm 2023 Experience

This is my story of attending an Amway seminar (WES) in Stockholm as an uninitiated guest.

The invitation

One ordinary Saturday I was bouldering with my friend at the Pasila Boulder Keskus. He had very recently moved into a new place close to the Tripla shopping center, and I was yet have visited him there. Thus, he invited me to visit him and his wife's new home. The apartment was in a newly constructed area, right behind the shopping center. His new home looked new and tidy, as one would expect, with plenty of space for hosting guests. We dined, having pulled pork as the main dish that he cooked in the oven for eight hours, and had a nice time.

At some point later into the evening his wife pulled him in closer, and quietly said something to him. What this something was would become apparent in a moment, as my friend hesitently asked me about Amway. Now, at the time I had already been made aware of the Amway business by the very same friend, so I had some idea what he was talking about. He and his wife proceeded with their sales pitch, trying to convince me to join the business. I knew that something unnatural was about to happend when his wife began to compliment me, describing me as a driven and motivated person. A bit awkwardly, I thanked her, not knowing what to expect. She then cut to the chase, and stated that I would be perfect a fit in the Amway business model. They both shared their personal motivations for partaking in the business, which in short can be summarized as financial independece and "freedom". This goal, they said, could be achieved by building up a passive income by actively recruting new people into the business, in addition to selling Amway products. As I had been hesitant of the business model before this evening, I still felt skeptical. I couldn't help but get the feeling that they were trying to sell me the idea of Amway as if they were missionaries spreading the good news. However, the news wasn't quite good enough for me to commit to the business then and there.

The slightly strange and awkward situation turned into a more pleasant one, when they let me know of an Amway seminar that was taking place in Stockholm, Sweden in a month's time. They expressed their excitement for it, and recalled a previous seminar they had attended in Tallin, Estonia. My friend described the seminars as "a lot of fun" and that they have great speakers sharing their stories of success in the business. They invited me to join them in the seminar as a guest, an invitation I was first hesitant to accept. Later I decided to agree to join them on their trip, as I had wanted to see Stockholm for some time.

The Seminar

We arrived in Stockholm early Friday morning, had some breakfast at our hotel, Scandic Malmen, and walked to the old town for some sightseeing. Not many places were open so early in the morning, but over the course of the day, we managed to visit the Royal castle and the surrounding areas of old town.

Our schedule for the seminar was as follows:

I wasn't quite sure what expect, so I experienced them with an open mind.

TODO: The Finnish people in the WES group, describe them

Day 1

The first seminar day was short, just three hours with a small break in between. First the seminar presenters welcomed us to the seminar with humor and messages of motivation. The most memorable thing they said was that success was only possible by attending Amway Seminars, such as the one we were attending. I found it a bit peculiar, and didn't yet understand why they would say that.

One of the speakers were a Polish married couple, who had recently reached the highest level achievable, diamond. The different levels, from bronze to diamond, are determined by the size and level of your downline, and the amount of sales that occur in your group (group = you + your downline (aka. the people you have recruited, and they have recruited etc.)). Loud dance music played in the background as they were introduced by the presenters and they walked on the stage. Marcin and Monika Maciejak. Monika danced like an electrified monkey to the rhythm of the music. The music played for a good time, and once it was over and I was expecting for the presentation to begin, the music started playing again. And Monika started dancing again. And everybody clapped. At this point it's worth mentioning that whenever any new speaker walked on the stage or was finished with their presentation, everyone would stand up from their seats to clap. I found this strange and overly glorifying of the speakers, as they didn't seem to have anything particularly inspiring to say. Monika and Marcin talked about their history in the business. Marcin shared that he got into the business when he was only 17 years old, invited by his own mother, who was involved in the business. He and his wife, Monika, shared their dreams of freedom and financial independence, similar to my friend and his wife. Monika was an eccentric and energetic personality, and she shared her experience of staying on target, staying motivated, despite what everyone else says about her.

The talk was boring, but I did enjoy a rhetorical trick that Marcin used in order to make a point. He first told a joke, in which two men were carrying several pieces of heavy furniture to the 27th floor of an apartment building. At one point, one of the men told the other that he has good news and bad news. The other man asked, so what's the good news? The man replied that the good news is that they're already on the 17th floor. So what's the bad news then? That they're in the wrong building. It was a pleasant and light hearted joke, and he cleaverly shifted the discussion from this joke to the topic of Amway. He said, when you do business with Amway, you can be assured that you are in the correct building, and regarding which floor you are on, is up to you. I thought this analogy was cleaver, and applicable in mnay different contexts, not just Amway.

After the Polish couple, some Norwegian guy named Rolf hopped on the stage. He appeared to be a young boomer, maybe in his sixties, and you could hear from his talk. He talked about pulling yourself from your bootstraps and putting in the effort to make your dreams come true. His dreams were about having nice cars and travelling, providing experiences to his children and grandchildren. He kept repeating a phrase, which I found to be a bit cringy. Every now and then, he would formulate his sentences in such a way that he would first say something along the lines of "then I took my family to Hawai" or "I bought that car that I wanted" followed by "to keep the dream alive". And I couldn't help but ask the question, why does the dream need to be kept alive? Are you not living the dream? Have you still not reached your dreams? I felt bad for Rolf, he seemed like an honest person who had fallen into the trap of hedonism, where you can never get enough.

And indeed, that was my general impression of all the talks. Every speaker dreamt of being rich and travelling and having nice cars or yachts. The atmosphere was very materialistic. But I felt as if they tried to hide their materialism by keeping the focus on the importance of dreams and being free. The freedom they talked about, of course, was about having material opportunities, but all of them were slaves to their passions. Another thing I sensed in the atmosphere was the negative attitude towards so-called normal work. I must clarify that none of the speakers ever explicitly stated that normal work is somehow bad, or less dignifying, but many of them did refer to it as "the rat race", and as something not worth pursuing. These attitudes really defined the entire theme of the seminar: normal jobs suck and we all like to travel and buy expensive things, and working for Amway fixes both of these issues, if you work hard enough.

Day 2

The second seminar day was basically the same as the first one, just speakers hyping up the crowd to keep working on their Amway businesses to achieve their dreams. There were two standout momements. The first standout moment occurred when some married couple in their sixties was interviewed on stage. The man was obviously nervous being on stage, as he blushed, had a shaky voice, and kept doing something with his hands, as he couldn't seem to find a comfortable way to hold his hands steady. He and his wife were asked about their experience in the business, and they gave the usual answers. He seemed like a humble person, someone who doesn't like to brag about their own accomplishments. The man interviewing him asked him about his boat. Apparently the guy has his own massive sailboat in the mediterranean region where he and his wife travel and ejoy the good life. The funny thing was that he only gave very short answers regarding the boat, as if he didn't want to talk about it. However, the interviewer kept pushing him about it asking him questions like "how big is the boat", "how much have you enjoyed the boat" and "wasn't this boat one of your dreams?". How should I interpret this, but by assuming that the interviewer wanted to paint the most materialistically pleasing image of what could look like if you commited to Amway. Sad. The saddest part regarding the couple was that they said to have worked their Amway business on their 30th aniversary. The interviewer gave them praise for their commitment to the cause, and all were amazed and clapped. Except for me, I was saddened by this fact. All I could think of was that this poor couple is still chasing after their materialistic dream after all these years, and are incapable of taking a break even for their anniversary. Truly, hedonism is the bane of humanity.

The second notable speaker was some British guy (surname Lowe) who was apparently a legendary figure in the Amway scene. He was a great speaker, funny and charismatic, and he was the only one to give advice, albeit very generic and not super deep and insightful. He shared a few quotes of Warren Buffet, one being about the low tide revealing those who were swimming without swimming trunks. All in all a pretty cool talk, but I kept waiting for more.

All this time I had been waiting for a truly meaningful and informative presentation, but all I got was hype. I completely and utterly failed to understand why would anyone want to come to these seminars, since they're all just hype where you don't learn anything new! What's the point?

It's worth pointing out that many of the speakers with great passion expressed their gratitude to the recordings, tapes and online content that Amway had provided them to grow their businesses. This material is instructive, learning material, but I never got any impression of what the material contained. I could only infer that the material itself taught the listener to stay motivated, to chase your dreams, and additionally some general sales and marketing tips. But the speakers at the seminars really appreciated them, as if they were a gold mine.

During the lunch break I asked my friends wife about her expectations for the seminar. I asked her why she wanted to go to Amway seminars and what did she expect to get out of them. Her reply was messy, but I could parse out the basic gist of it: she attended the seminars precisely for the hype. The success stories motivate her to keep going, and that's it. This did not paint a good picture of the reality of how the Amway IBOs (independent business owner) feel about their work. Is the picture not getting clearer now? It would seem that working for Amway is not that inspiring by itself, and the only thing motivating them to keep going is their dream of a better materialistic future, full of travelling and expensive cars. But even this dream isn't fully enough to motivate them, they need to attend Amway seminars on a regular basis to stay motivated! That's at least once or twice a year! None of these people come from poverty, they already have all they need. They just want more. Is this not the definition of hedonism? And hedonism, is what Amway promotes.

Going home

TODO: On the ship: Erna pushing Ville to get me registered? TODO: Back in Helsinki: Ville still feeling pressured to get me registered quickly?

TODO: ## Conclusion