My acknowledgement to the contributors to this post for Sdr. Edzham (aka Eddie), Sdr. Shahrul (aka Boy) and Sdr. Shahrul Nizam (aka Saku). Thanks for the input guys.
Truth be told that the discussion on this topic was made many years ago but the only reason why I never took it seriously before to discuss about it in thorough was because that this issue may strike a sensitive chord to many out there. As most of us know, the idea of Multi Level Marketing schemes, call it MLM, pyramid schemes, Skim Cepat Kaya, is no longer a new issue among all of us Malaysian as I am sure that many have met, been introduced or even got themselves involved with this. Hence why I have always been very careful when addressing this issue.
Let it be known beforehand, that I have always been AGAINST the idea of MLM based businesses, simply because, on my humble opinion, that the business pries on those who believe that there is an easier solution to make money from the traditional workspace that we all know. These are companies that built their business based on a network scheme that are supported by those who are given empty promises and false hopes on how easy it is to run the business of this nature. Truth is that it is not.I remember a couple of years back I was told by a close friend of mine that there is a dinner function that she wanted me to attend. I have to admit that if I wasn't that easily persuaded with free food, I wouldn't have gotten myself into the mess in the first place. What was thought as a dinner function ended up being a 3 hour seminar on a MLM scheme that they wanted to introduce to us. Break down of the seminar, they took not more than 25 minutes explaining what exactly is their product and the next 2 1/2 hours is spent by the seminar giver showing to the people in the hall how much money does he have in his account, how he gets money every month from doing absolutely nothing, and even had a few testimonial givers from the crowd. One lady said this:
"Lepas saya join ****** ni, hari-hari saya tak payah nak pegi kerje. Duduk rumah, jaga anak, jumpa kawan. Sedar sedar bila saya check bank account saya, terus je masuk duit. Gembiranya saya! HEHEHHEHEHEHHEHEHEH"
Thats right, include in the shrieking laughter above. Of course, the remainder 5 minutes of the seminar was when they served us cordial orange drinks. I will never forget how they locked us in the room when I wanted to leave the minute I realized what all this was about. I will never forget how they kept convincing me to stay and listen 1 hour later when I wanted leave. I will never forget how every time I wanted to point out the flaws of the seminar they stopped me because they realized I can actually speak my mind. Most importantly I can never forget the look on the faces of the people attending with their eyes actually believing that this would be the easier option to earn money.
The thing that I have against this business is not just because I was locked up in that god forsaken seminar that time but rather the principle that their based their business on. Truth is, the promises of an easy scheme to get money is all mere bull. I know people who got themselves involved with these business and ended up spending thousands of ringgit to pay for the initial cost of the scheme and only to realize that it is not as easy as it was told. In the end, they get nothing in return.
I am fully aware that the prospect that was given to these kids is always great. Apart from that I am also fully aware that the reason why these companies target local university students are always because of two things. These kids are naive enough to believe anything a guy with a tight suit and a nice car has to say and they have their university loan money at their disposal. The exact right concoction of a perfect network business.
Today, these businesses have evolved their range to even advertising via the internet, with the exact same promise that they gave to me in that very seminar. Stay at home, earn big bucks. Are we Malaysians that naive to honestly believe that this would work? Are we still that stupid to think that by entering into these schemes, our monetary needs are all sorted? As much as people out there would not want to admit, companies of these nature are thriving on our own naivety with the promises that they make to us.
I question one thing to those out there who promotes this business to others. If the business is really that easy as how they claim, by paying them money to get involve with the scheme and finding usually 3 or 5 people only to their network, WHY ARE THOSE WHO FAIL? To give such foolproof promises to people means that this scheme has no room for error. Besides, nothing that easy should have any failures right?
Of course, there are those who made it. There are those who really stuck their necks out and worked to make their business work and fortunately for me, I was given an opportunity to discuss this with someone that actually made it happen. He mentioned that he struggled to so much adversity in order for him to make his connection to where he is right now and none of this was mentioned to him when he first joined. He didn't just believed in the promises that was given to him but he joined the scheme and persevered to a lot of disappointments before actually getting to where he is right now. In the end of the day, those promises are mere marketing scheme to promote the product itself but not really saying that the business would be easy. It still takes hard work and it still takes a lot of the necessary skills that it takes before getting to where you want to achieve in the MLM business. Why exactly that this business gets a lot of stick is simply because there are idiots out there who joined in the scheme and make them look like either they are better of than those who work on a daily basis OR make them seem that they already are successful businessmen before getting anything started.
In the end I honestly implore those out there to really think for themselves of the risk and nature of businesses before getting involved into one, rather than simply believing the very nature of the promises made by one man in a seminar. The clincher here, nothing comes easy in life and that is the universal rule that should apply to everything. I agree that legally there is nothing wrong with the business however, I question the ethics of the business for those who pry on people that would willingly believe that this would bring them big bucks without working. Quite honestly that if someone would be able to convince me that is true, I would believe that the next lottery ticket that I buy would win me RM100 million. We all know thats never going to happen.
my mum used to do that.. but she stopped because it wasnt easy.. =)
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