On Friday I'm giving my close friend an intervention, for the brain washing addiction that is, multi level marketing. Bio: First off let me go about by saying that my friend is a great guy, nicest guy ever, very gullible, hard worker, ambitious & the type of person to try to jump in any business opportunity (good or bad). His great grandma passed away about a year ago & he told me he inherited a lot of money. To be honest, I really don't know the details on his money situation I just know he has a lot of money from that inheritance since he bought a brand new 65k$ infinity. He doesn't have a stable job & he does not go to college. He's in his early 20's. Prologue: About 3 months ago he joined this MLM company called WakeUpNow. He tried recruiting me & a bunch of our other friends into it. He successfully recruited 4/7 of us, not including me. Now the 4 that joined did/do not attend college, the 3 that didn't join are currently attending college including me. He went as so far to tell me that I could have a BMW M6 & a brand new Harley Davidson Sportster. Ultimately the talk went quiet after a month & nobody talked about it again. Pretty sure they all lost around 700$ & my friend that did all the recruiting probably lost around a thousand. I decided not to pull the "i told you so" card cause he's a nice guy & sometimes all of us have to burn our hand on the oven to learn that it's hot. Present day: Anyway 2 days ago my same friend told me he was picking me up that he needed my help to handle some business, I said sure why not. He surprises me by taking me to a ****ing MLM company seminar at a local university meeting room, this time from a company named ACN. He simply tells me "just have an open mind bro". After an hour of listening to all their predictable bull****, about why they're not a pyramid scheme, about why it's better than other companies because you can make residual income, about why it's legit 'cause Donald Trump mentioned it in a interview & about why they're different because they have an actual product (they don't)... I was finally able to leave but not before my friend tells "trust me man it's different from wakupnow, this is legit, so what'd ya think?". I could've broken his heart right there, told him that the only source of income they have is all the fees the "ibos" have to pay, about how the initial fee is 500$ but you only have a 10 day refund (going to all the meetings & realizing they're bull**** takes about 20 days, what a coincidence) but I quickly devised a plan in my head, to give him an intervention. Pre-Intervention: Let me start by saying that I told him I was interested (not) but I needed time so I could get the money (so I could set this intervention up). I then went home did some research on ACN to see if it was really bull****, well it was. They're financial reports are horrendous, the reviews are brutal & the stack of complaints filed against the company reach Yao Ming's winery in China. This guy's kind of hard headed so I decided to ask my mom to help out with this intervention. I know that sounds stupid but my mom is a high ranking managing director of AON construction services. She knows her stuff. She never went to college due to growing up with a poor family in Nicaragua, arrived in the US around 20, got a job as a secretary at Marsh when she was 25, went up from there. She's trilingual being completely fluent in Spanish, English & French with no accent whatsoever. She doesn't believe in fast money, she believes in having to work hard to get what you want. Now, how we're setting this up is that I gave him a proposal, if you can convince my mom about the company's legitimacy then I'm signing up that same night (he probably thinks my mom's a little Hispanic lady with a heavy accent). So he's going to come over on Friday with one his "reps" & pitch the plan to my mom & I. Then we'll give him a rebuttal which will include various points on why this company is defective & how he's about to lose a lot of money (again). The thing is, this might not be enough to convince him, especially with the relentless "mentors" they have filling his head deception. I have a few great reviews with a lot of statistics & personal failures with ACN but I wanted to see if any of you guys could add some ammo? I know there's a couple of wise, life savvy souls on this board so I said hey why not? If you guys also have any experiences with situations similar to this sharing them would be appreciated. All I ask is that you keep the personal questions to a minimum, I know how nosey cltuchfans can get. Thanks in advance guys.
You really won't be able to convince him, he will have to fail on his own. People who get into these things are very susceptible to being programmed... he will probably have more of these "problems" in the future.
This. However in the small chance that you do get him to see the truth. I would recommend that you find him a good financial advisor. If his inheritance is truly what it seems then he can live well if he invests wisely. A person like him who is easily susceptible to investing his money in idiotic places should have his money tied up into long term mutual funds that will protect his money from himself.
Embarrassing your friend in front of his mentor or whatever they call it, will not work, you won't even be able to finish the argument most likely. Need to do it with just you and him, there's plenty of information to prove to him it's a bad idea without him feeling like you want to embarrass him.
No point in the intervention. You said he was hard headed. He will just move on to the next opportunity saying it is different. Just consider your time wasted at this point your only loss. Remain friends with him, but just tell him you aren't interested in his business ventures whenever he brings it up. He will learn when he burns through half his cash. Rough, but that is the best teacher.
I went to play a cash game(poker) and a guy(O...) and gal(L...) from ACN was at this place...I was hella pissed that this was at the game...and really wanted to leave...after an hour or so of this BS...ended up leaving. I regret giving him my contact info..and really regret sitting thru that BS...They apparently have large meeting at a couple of locations on Tuesday and Saturday. Im not in business or mgmt, but the entire structure of this ACN looks bound to fail; and as the company decides to collapse, the middle and bottom tier workers are gonna loose time and money...Their top dawgs of the company might ve tried a last ditch effort to do something drastic to con people just like you. I get that they are your friends, but you would be a doing them a great disservice if you didnt tell them how u really feel. anyone that asks you to join something with a startup fee of $500.00 and promises you chance to make more money by really not doing much is just fooling you. Money earned is always through hard work and dedication. You might as well invest that 500.00 in the lotto or betting on 0/00 on the Roulette table. You may just have a better chance of winning that.
He is in his early 20's with a $65k car and no college education. Let him have fun before the music stops playing. Sometimes, people need to fail in order to learn.
There's a nurse telling me he can take to me places I ain't never been. Pyramid scheme. I wonder why is he still working then. He says I can't be lazy and play video games all day long. I said beetch, I just got he ps4.
First, say that his "rep" isn't welcome at your house. When he gets there just have a heartfelt talk with him while calmly going over the facts. Try to explain it all to him; don't try to argue with him.
If you're 20-something and don't have a job 99% of the time you've done something wrong in college. Whether that be partying too much, not caring about your studies, etc. Could be all of the above. Just stay friends with him but NEVER do anything above social activities.
I'm not a 20-something and I do have a job, but I think this is dead wrong. Unless you are talking about going years without a job. I know family members that did very well in college, but had quite a bit of trouble finding that first job out of school.
Hey may be a nice guy, but the above is all I needed to read to know that your friend is not very smart. You're a really good friend to try to talk some sense into him, but he will probably have to keep failing until he has nothing else to lose.
Disagree with this. The more effective way is going to be bringing up the facts directly to the rep and trapping that guy. Your friend won't believe you if you tell him one thing and he goes back to the rep and they tell him something different. He needs to see the rep being unable to answer questions or getting tangled in knots. That's the most likely the way he'll start questioning the organization himself.
Sounds like he's already failed on his own and is making the same mistake again. I think this is a brilliant plan, honestly. You're not just attacking him by telling him how stupid he is to believe this. He won't realize it's a set-up, I don't think. Plus, like Major said, him watching the rep struggle to answer what I'm sure will be great rebuttals by your mom, your friend will be more likely to see what a bad idea that is.
I understand that POV and think it could be a good approach, but I still stick with what I said before. I'm assuming the rep knows what ACN really is and is well-versed in defending it against the usual stuff. Or, the rep is so far gone into the make-believe world this company pushes that he is beyond saving. So that's why I wouldn't even bother with the dude. The friend is the one I would care about. And trying to debate or argue with him would put him in a defensive mode where he's not likely to really listen and reflect on what's being said. Plus, based on what has been said by the OP, this friend doesn't exactly sound like Mr. Reason and Logic. He could likely be swayed (yet again) by some of the hollow talking points the rep would have. But this is all assuming this friend is someone with whom you have a close relationship. I have a few friends who are tied up in MLMs and I just smile and let them go on their merry way, losing money and annoying friends as they so often do. But there are other friends I'm closer with who I would try to get them to drop it/not join. And my method would be more inviting them out somewhere and have a nice, long, calm talk, away from the MLM noise.
Never did the OP say he was going to attack him. His friend and rep is going to give his spiel to his mother and his mother is going to ask the right questions to hopefully make his friend rethink this company. If anything, your approach would make him more defensive. Having the rep come along will make the friend believe there are no ulterior motives behind it. It's simply "if you can convince my mom, you can convince me". Of course, I hope the OP is right about his mom.
The first step these MLM "mentors" take is to tell the jabrones that their "friends" will become jealous of their success or not understand. You know, since people fear what they do not understand (MLM'er took rule #1 from Charles Xavier). They are programmed to think their friends are against them. They even say your income is a direct average of your 5 closest friends and that you need to start hanging with higher income people (like your mentor who makes $816/year selling pee-pee soap). Just give up on this jabroni.
That's awesome now it'll be easier for me to visit it^ -------------------------- Definitely feeling confident with my approach, not going to attack him at all. It'll be 2 on 2 thing so it won't feel like an ambush (like they're so often programmed to make you feel at a recruiting "meeting"). I could care less about reverting the rep. She doesn't seem too smart, not that illiteracy necessarily makes a person stupid, but while she was speaking at the seminar I could definitely count the double negatives she said with both my hands & some toes. I'll update you guys Friday night/Saturday afternoon on how it goes, some good feedback so far.
