Allow me to prefix the post with something completely different: a cute snap of Yuri from SNSD holding a baby.
Ngawwwwww~~
...Anyway, continuing
where we left off, David, X and myself were sitting at a table in Infusion waiting for X's "cool friend" to make an appearance.
It wasn't long till a familiar face came strolling in. A sizable young Asian guy, (I'd put him at 5'10") with spiked-up hair and a narrow beard hugging his jawline like tiny black tinsel, approached us and gave us a solid handshake each. His name was Louie and he turned out to be from the same high school as us but one year our senior, I had never met him before but I recognized that seedy countenance from somewhere - evidently it was from high school.
His attire was much more complete than X's and appropriately impressive: a matching suit jacket and pant combo with black dress shoes and a bold tie, all of it topped off with a small oval badge,
'USANA GOLD', pinned proudly to his lapel. Importantly, his fingernails were neatly trimmed, too.
After feigning interest in our personal lives, he bolted into an exploration of a life of riches without the need for any qualifications or a job.
"I want to retire when I'm 25," he boasted, "do you think that's possible, David?"
Admiral Ackbar plays along and replies concisely, "No, I can't see how it is."
"What about you, Jason?", he says turning to me, "What do you think?"And so he continued to explain to us in this manner, how he got
rich and how X is going to get
rich and how we could totally get
rich, too! It was too good to refuse!
"Making money with your friends" was one way he chose to put it.
So here's how this scheme supposedly works (Louie calls it
'network marketing'):
You buy the product (health supplements from USANA) off of X for $200/month and USANA pays him a commission via points he earns each month.Each sucker participant will only have a maximum of two others directly underneath them but you will also earn points from further layers underneath the two.Since you still earn points from layers beyond the two directly beneath you, you have incentive to help others sign more people up and you help each other earn money this way.When points are earned, commissions are paid in tiers, so you will not receive any (extra) income until you reach a certain amount of points.Moreover, ideally, you will love using the product and naturally recommend your family and friends to slap $200/month down for these pills.Pretty simple, right? And if you're a
DARING ENTREPRENEUR like our dear Louie, you'll be
making claiming to make $100k/year after 18 months working for USANA.
Allow me to tear this apart.
True achievement is a direct result of
effort. If someone offers you something like this, a get-rich-quick scheme, it doesn't matter if it's authentic or not because even if you manage to scoop up $1m in one week, you have achieved nothing - you're just a looter of humanity.
Okay, maybe I'm getting way too philosophical way too quick. Approach it this way: if you sign yourself up to this, the only certainty is that
you will be paying $200/month.
Naturally, you will start off hopeful and enthusiastic to participate in the scheme. You may get some easy wins like your grandma or the man down the street whose English is not very good. But you will not be offsetting the $200/month by much yet.
Evidence? X has been a part of the scheme for approximately a year and
claims that he is
about to receive his
first cheque for $66.
If that is not enough, consider the fact that you will be signing up people to do the same.
Moreover, I think an important aspect of the scheme is its ability to
prey on people with low self-esteem. Individuals such as these evidently do not think much of themselves and may very well wish to do something great. So when an opportunity such as this comes along:
"Great!" they'll think, "Now I'll show the world what I've got! And in no time, too."When really, nothing has or will be done if they continue to subscribe to their defeatist (i.e. loser) mentality.
Do not be mistaken, I do have compassion for and empathize with those lacking self-confidence and a belief in their own abilities, but when they try to conscript me to their ranks - it gets personal. Moreover, when USANA recognizes that these individuals are out there and specifically seeks to exploit them, I willingly turn my back on the lot of them.
It is all pretty disgusting. Please watch out for it.
PS. I apologize for the ENORMOUS post. I just didn't want people waiting another three days for a pt3.
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