As a 20 something year old now, I have been approached by a lot of people (mostly friends) with the opportunity of a lifetime. The chance to get into a breakthrough nutritional company of sorts while it’s in hyper growth and the chance to make a ton of money while helping everyone around me. Unfortunatly, what they were actually pitching me on was the opportunity to get involved in a pyramid scheme. For those of you who don’t know what a pyramid scheme is, it’s a non-sustainable business model that involves promising participants payment or services, primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme. Essentially, a portion of all the money you make goes to the person above you and you claim portions of everyone whom you recruit to sell below you. Luckily for me, I was smart enough to be able to see through the claims of quick riches and fast cars.. I’m not going to name names but these companies almost always consist of some type of nutritional product(s) and always requires you to do “network marketing” AKA bug the hell out of your friends to buy.
Below is a talk track I made up that pretty much covers their pitch. Does this sound familiar to you at all? (Energy-Flex is a company I made up)
I have this new, INCREDIBLE, product I want to tell you about. You’re going to lose weight, gain lean muscle and have boundless energy. Don’t take my word for it though, Dr. Sanjay Gupta backs up all of these claims. On top of that, Kurt Warner used our product during his Super Bowl regime on the Cardinals and told us that he never had more energy going to the 4th quarter than when he took Energy-Flex.
So here’s the deal, all you have to do is put down $1,100 for your first shipment of Energy-Flex and you will be an independent business owner. However, you really see the value if you sign up for automatic montly shipments as you’ll save $100 per shipment which will increase your return on investment . You’re earnings are boundless and will multiply for each person your recruit to be a part of your team selling Energy-Flex as you get a portion of their sales. At 5 people, you’re breaking even and at 20 people, oh man, you’re making like $52,000 a year. A friend of mine makes close to $200,000 a year off of this! You’re an independent business owner (IBO) and I’ll even give you all of these nifty marketing and powerpoint materials so you can better present to your friends. I suggest you start reaching out to your friends IMMEDIATELY as network marketing is the fastest growing industry in the states and Energy-Flex is the fastest growing company.
Don’t believe me that you can make boatloads of money? We’re having a conference in 2 weeks in DC. You should come. Our top rain maker is going to be there and he’s going to talk about his successes. Last time he showed up in his Lamborghini. As a matter of fact, my good friend just got a Mercedes Benz paid for by Energy-Flex for his sales. Here’s a pic! So what do you say we get you signed up?
So lets say you ask them “Isn’t this a pyramid scheme”? This is their general response. “Aren’t all companies pyramid schemes? I mean look, you work for your CEO and he is at the top. That’s pyramid shaped right?” WRONG! First off, I don’t work on straight commission. Second, I don’t put money directly into the CEO’s wallet, even if I work in sales!
Generally speaking, these people prey on high school students, college students and
people without a college education. The reason why they do that is because they know they can persuade people in those audiences with promises of a lavish lifestyle and a lot of money in a short period of time. Be wary when you hear something that is too good to be true because odds are it is exactly that. Get rich quick schemes are never actually real.
Here’s a tip. If you’re considering joining something that may seem too good to be true, try “googling” the company name. If one of the first things that pops up is “company name scam” then it is definitely a scam. You’ll never see “scam” pop up when googling a company like Microsoft or State street.
Don’t get me wrong. You DO have the opportunity to make money selling the product. However, in my opinion, you can be doing something much more constructive with your time. The odds of you making it big off of a network marketing company is slim, whereas the odds of you landing a high paying job from working multiple internships is much higher.
