BWW function promotion lies and horrors

Winter conference/dream night is coming soon and I am sure there are promotions after every open meeting for the function. Ah, how many lies to promote the function!!!

First lie: the number of people who are expected to attend. They usually hype the numbers.

In BWW, they usually conduct the East coast function in Richmond, VA at the Richmond coliseum. Different IBOs say anywhere from 17,000 to 30,000 is the number of people expected to attend. If you read the wikipedia page on Richmond coliseum, the capacity is clearly mentioned as

Capacity
13,553 (concerts)
11,992 (basketball)
11,088 (hockey)

Even if there are chairs on the floor adding 2000 people, it still comes to only 15,000.

Same deal in California. The function usually happens in San Jose civic auditorium. The IBOs claim that 6,000 to 8,000 people are going to attend. The capacity of the auditorium is clearly mentioned as 3,000!

Second lie: they say about 15 to 20 multi-millionaires and "financially free" people are going to come and teach.

These are unqualified statements, especially in California, Texas and mid-West functions, because most speakers are only emeralds. Most of them have full-time jobs, so they are not financially free. Also many of them are fake emeralds - Amway itself accepts this on their blog here. Also many diamonds are not really even millionaires, forget "multi" millionaires. I accept that some guys qualify, maybe two or three speakers, in these smaller functions.

Third lie: Nobody makes money by a prospect attending function.

Lot of people make money. First of all, many of the coliseums are free to rent because the coliseum makes money via parking and food sales (I know at least this is true for Richmond coliseum). Second, they ask you who your upline emerald and diamond are before buying a ticket. Many of your uplines and mainly, the function speakers do get paid from the money you paid to purchase the function ticket.

Fourth lie: The event is already sold out.

The BWW guys will sell tickets, even if the coliseums are full. In my experience, only once there was an overflow situation in BWW in east coast for about 100 or 200 people (long time ago, when John & Jennie Bell Crowe and Jack & Magee Spencer were still in BWW)! There are usually hundreds or thousands of empty seats in all functions!

Fifth lie: The next major function is one year from now.

Major functions happen once every 3 months. The open meeting speakers simply say "when is the next winter? next year... so you need to wait one year to attend the next function." So what about the spring leadership? (Oh, am I forgetting that it is a different function?)

Sixth lie: The speakers at the function.

They usually show pictures of the top BWW diamonds and say they will all be there. Maybe this is true for East coast functions, but for California and Texas functions, not all diamonds speak!

Seventh lie: This is a lie told before the function to all new guys. The up line cautions the new IBO by telling "You need to use grocery store approach in the function. When you go to grocery store, you only pick up what you want. You don't care about rest of the stuff... like, if you are a vegetarian, you do not care about the meat section. Same way, take what you want from the function and do not worry about the rest..."

This is typical cult training, because initially many things told from stage will not make sense to you. Some points will make you mad, but your up line already prepared you, so you ignore it. Remember, whatever each speaker tells from stage is exactly what BWW is. There is no grocery store approach. While you may initially ignore them thinking grocery store approach, BWW will bombard you the same statements with CDs and more functions soon. The more you hear something, the more you believe it to be true. So if you don't like even one thing at the function, then be wise and walk away! Otherwise you will soon lose your identity with BWW training and will believe whatever they say!

So like Kumar sings on his CD, I want to sing the Hindi movie song "la la lai lai... la la lala lai.. lai... lie... lie..."

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Ok, next some of the horrors I experienced in BWW functions and conferences:

1. There are huge queues that people form roughly 7 to 8 hours before each session begins on Fridays and Saturdays. Many IBOs do not sleep in their hotel rooms on Friday nights; they simply wait outside the coliseum door, sometimes in open! (Usually new IBOs stay in hotel room and their uplines stand in queues and get the new IBOs some front seats.) While front row mentality is good, what I always saw was "front row hooliganism". Many IBOs will crush you, shove you aside, jump over you, cut lines mercilessly and run a 100-metre dash once the coliseum door opens! Then there are "security" IBOs to police these guys. Many IBOs reserve multiple seats, when the "BWW policy" is 2 seats per person - one for yourself and one for your spouse or down line. But many times, many IBOs fight and take multiple seats! This is prime example of how much BWW IBOs are brain washed! (I was no exception when I was in BWW, but I was always irritated by this.)

2. Night owls: The function timings are already too late - they end around mid night. But they do not leave you after that. They take you to upline diamond night owl, which goes up to 1:30 AM. Then your up line emerald or platinum will hold another night owl till 3 AM. So forget your sleep. (XS and rhodiola never helped me stay up for anything :-).)

3. Noise inside the function: Amway business may not be for you, if you hate noisy environments. Pretty much all Amway meetings are purposely made very noisy - to show excitement and "attract" new people. Functions are especially extremely noisy.

4. IBOs rushing to cheer for diamonds: Before every speaker starts speaking, several IBOs rush to the front to cheer for them. IBOs run like crazy to create an "excited" environment. If you are not careful, you may be stepped on and crushed.

5. Food: You have to pretty much survive on nutrilite food bars for all 3 days. Your up line will load you with them, but by the time you eat your 3rd bar, you will be craving for some proper food. You dare not step out, especially if you are a new IBO. Your up line will come rushing after you to see where you are going. (You know, you may miss some important point the speaker is making.) If you brought any "ethnic" food inside the function and eat it, your upline will make some indirect comments about you in the night/day owl so you better not eat anything nice for those 3 days.

6. Your outputs: well, this is embarrassingly "cult"ish. They ask you not to go for #1 or #2 because, again, you may miss a golden statement. So empty your bladder and bowels before going in. You need to hold it for 4 hours minimum. (Tip to get good seat: Go inside without emptying your bowels. You can clear all the people around you pretty quickly :-)).

7. Veteran IBO: If you are a seasoned IBO without any new people the function pretty much "stinks" for you. But you dare not keep a sad face. You will be severely chastised by your up line.

8. Cheering: You need to rotate your hand above your head and say "uh......... uh... uh.. freedom" and punch your fist in the air - else you won't be "part of the team" ... and in some cases scream "flush that stinking job" after that... (don't flush it too soon!)

9. Photos: If you do not like to take too many pictures of yourself with others, let your up line know strictly. They will force you to take pix with several "top leaders".

10. Music: If you do not like to party and dance, skip the music sessions before the training sessions. They are extremely noisy! Your up line may not allow though, because you are not setting the right example for your down lines...

With that said, there are lot of good points covered in the conference... very good training on many things! Except most people in BWW do not follow them. What they teach from stage and what is actually practiced were totally different in my experience! What a pity that I believed and did whatever they taught from stage and put up with my horrible up lines, and still did not succeed after several years! (By the way, I am not sitting with just my underwear and blogging now like diamonds say about bloggers like me, in case you were wondering...)