For those of you who don't know what Network Marketing or Multilevel Marketing is, it is when you sell products retail on one side and recruit people to join your company on the other. When they join your company, you train them how to build their business and you make a small commission on every thing they do thru their company. Then they turn around and sell products and recruit people to join them in their business, and on and on it goes. Each company has their own compensation plans and benefits.
Like Enron or Worldcom in the corporate world, there are some unscrupulous players in the Network Marketing world. When Enron or Worldcom broke in the news, did you immediately distrust every corporation in America? I have to admit it made me wonder and watch a little more closely. If I buy stock, it makes me do a little more research than I might have done before all these corporations got found out. But aren't there frivolous lawsuits filed in this country every day by people that think their stupidity should be paid for by the large companies? (The lady who burnt her crotch with hot coffee and sued McDonald's comes to mind).
The latest in the Network Marketing companies to get sued is YTB or YourTravelBiz.com by the Attorney General in our great state of California. Being a Network Marketer myself with Amway and YTB, I have to say that it never ceases to amaze me the double standards that exist and the frivolousness of some lawsuits. Why is it that as a company grows in huge proportions, the little guys who didn't have the idea first, sue? Why is it that America feels that if you make it big you should have to share it with everybody instead of just finding a better way? Isn't one of the oldest sayings about "building a better mousetrap?"
I personally think Bill Gates is a genius. He was smart enough to come up with the idea of going to all the computer companies and getting them to contract to use his operating systems on all their computers. I think that's brilliant! What happens? America punishes him for being so smart and makes him "break up" microsoft. Why? Because the littler guys like Linux, etc. started whining about not getting their fair share. Why shouldn't they just have to come up with a better idea for beating the competition?
You're probably wondering what that has to do with Amway or YTB. Through the years Amway/Quixtar has grown and grown. As they have grown they have been sued by I can't tell you how many companies, etc. Yet Amway/Quixtar today is bigger and better than ever. A very stable conglomeration of companies that has been around for over 50 yrs. They're here to stay. Like Amway, YTB is growing like crazy on the travel scene. According to Travel Weekly, a very respected publication for the travel industry, they have gone from 36th to the 26th largest seller of travel from 2006 to 2007. They have one of the best compensation plans in the industry for Network Marketers and have one the Pinnacle Award, one of their highest honors, from Carnival Cruise Lines. They are on the New York Stock Exchange, which I admit hasn't been doing so good lately, and are members of the Direct Selling Association, all of which have standards that had to be met by YTB. Yet our great Attorney General, Jerry Brown, (who I didn't think was good for California when he was Governor) has decided to file suit.
The Attorney General has decided YTB is a "pyramid scheme". For those of you who aren't old enough to remember what a pyramid scheme is, people would pay to sit in someone's livingroom and be part of a growing ladder of people paying. According to Wikipedia it is:
A pyramid scheme is a non-sustainable business model that involves the exchange of money primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, without any product or service being delivered. This is definitely not Amway/Quixtar or YTB. With both you are getting something for your money.
Look around you. Everything we do is a virtual "pyramid scheme". Corporate America is built on one of the biggest pyramid schemes yet. All the little guys on the bottom make money for the big guys on the top. Do you think your employer is paying you what he makes from your work? Heck no. Multi level Marketing, or Network Marketing, gives everyone a chance to be the "big guy at the top." And just like in Corporate America there will always be "disgruntled" workers, especially those that don't want to put in the time or effort but want to get handed the money. And just like Linux and Microsoft, now the traditional travel agencies, upset with YTB's growth and numbers, instead of coming up with a better competitive idea, are whining about YTB, obviously loud enough to be heard by the Attorney General of California.
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