Okay folks! I won't beat around the bush and waste a bunch of your time, so I will move this along as smoothly and interestingly as possible. But first of all I think it is necessary to give you a little background information to help you understand what stage of my life I was in directly prior to being "prospected" into the business. And also for the record, to protect the names of the people I write about, I am changing their names to fictional ones.

Jim was a promising intelligent man, and I trusted him and his judgement completely. When I married him, he was in school studying engineering, and in his junior year. Wow I thought I had a real catch! Shortly after we married, Jim dropped out of school, because he felt he needed a break to enjoy our marriage for a while. I should have thrown a tremendous fit, but because I wanted to be supportive of my husband, and for lack of knowing any better, I didn't say a word. I just felt like he knew what he was doing, and I did want to spend more time with him.

Soon it became very apparent that he had no intentions of returning to school, and made up excuses why he couldn't continue. I knew that we needed to do something! I didn't want us to just be "ordinary" people, because I grew up around entrepreneurs, money, and success all my life. I had my own ideas of how we should be living, and I wanted us to be successful like certain members in my family. I could have gone to school myself, but at the time was very distracted by my husband and his needs. (Bad mistake!)

I started to voice that I felt we should try to start our own business, since college was something he didn't want to pursue anymore. We both had decent jobs, and made enough money to live on, with some to spare. But we still wanted more, and he thought having our own business was a fantastic idea!

We tried many different business ideas that Jim conjured up, and each one of these ventures failed miserably! I was growing steadily impatient, and getting really sick and tired of not getting anywhere in life. I was also a little disappointed in Jim for dropping out of school. Being that I am a public person by nature, I voiced some of my concerns, opinions, and gripes to the person who eventually struck up the nerve to prospect me, Gayla.

Now this gal was a very interesting character, and she and I started out on awful terms. When Gayla first started to work at the hospital in my department, she and I butted heads like two male rams during mating season! I hated her, and she hated me. I thought she was an arrogant witch (putting it lightly) who didn't deserve the time of day from me, and she probably thought the same thing about me as well, because I could be a little spitfire when I wanted to! I remember one time she had been asked to be a speaker at a meeting the hospital was conducting for educational purposes, and I was pretty ticked off, because I wasn't asked to be a speaker! I was a good speaker, and I had been working in the department longer then she. So I went to this inservice and sat right in the front row, and leered at her!

She got so distracted and nervous that she totally froze up, and stuttered, and couldn't get anything intelligent out of her mouth! I was inwardly very satisfied, as I am positive she could see it in my face, and it was all I could do to keep from bursting out in laughter. Then immediately I became awkwardly horrified for her, and felt terribly ashamed for being so mean spirited.

It was amazing the interest in me she took all of a sudden! She wanted me to come to her house, and go shopping with her, and have lunch with her everyday, and so on. She would confide in me and ask my opinion on many things. I felt like I was pretty hot stuff!

When we went shopping, she would always point out the nicest of things, and say stuff like, "Wow wouldn't it be great to have that!" or "How would you like to make enough money to go shopping and buy anything you wanted whenever you felt like it?"

I at some point in time began to voice my concerns to her about my future, and my desires to make something of myself. And how I wish Jim and I could make a business work! Lo and behold she had a solution! She asked me where I thought I would be five years down the road, and what my goals were. She asked me if I really wanted to get serious about owning my own business, and become successful, having money to blow and freedom to boot! Of course I was all ears. (And she of course was thrilled to have such a perfect "Prospect" ripe for the taking.)

Gayla told me that she had been let in on a "business opportunity" and that it was the best "business opportunity" she had ever seen! She said because we were such "good" friends, and that she wanted to see me happy, she felt like I really needed to be let in on the secret too. I asked her some pretty fundamental questions like: "What is it?" "How long have you been doing this?" "Does your husband like it?" "Are you making money?" etc...

She said she couldn't really explain it to me very well, and that she felt it would be much better if Jim and I came to a "business meeting" with her and her husband Rudy. She said we would have the opportunity to meet some really sharp successful people, and have all our questions answered. She said it would be fun, and that it wouldn't take too long (Is four hours a long time?) and we could all go out for coffee at Denny's afterwards.

It was settled. She and Rudy were to pick me and Jim up from our place on Tuesday evening, the next night. I was a bit nervous and so was Jim, because he had no idea what I had come home babbling about, but since I said two words money and freedom, he was ready to listen. (The proverbial apple had been bitten.)

I have to say right now because I just can't wait to tell you about it, that everyone in Amway is supposed to love each other, and trust each other. I had a voice inside nagging me after a point about Gayla, but I didn't listen. She ended up trying to get Jim to jump in the sack with her! More on this later......

We arrived at our destination finally, which was about a 45 minute drive. We ended up at a motel and noticed lots of people were going inside the main lobby. The men were dressed in business suits, as were Jim and Rudy. And the women were dressed pretty much the same, with an occasional woman sticking out dressed to kill! These women turned out to be wives of the "Diamonds" that were there. I was really curious, and couldn't wait to get inside to see what all the commotion was about.

We came down a hall to another lobby of some sorts, and then we stopped. All of those other people that had my attention earlier were waiting to get inside a room. Our meeting destination was revealed. I was quite surprised, and had no idea what was going on! Gayla and Rudy never mentioned that so many other people were being let in on the "secret" as well. My anticipation and curiosity grew.

I noticed that a few men were constantly mingling and mixing in with the excitable crowd of people. They had stern looks on their faces until they were face to face with someone, or being introduced to someone. They hurried around nervously, and I couldn't figure out what they could be doing! When talking to different people, they had warm and genuine smiles on their faces, shook hands, laughed, flashed big rings on their fingers, and seemed important. One man in particular stood out, and walked by us frequently.

At some point Gayla and Rudy introduced us to a couple they claimed to be some of their "business associates" (I will introduce them to you as Dianna and Mark.) Who turned out to be up-line from us, and Gayla's and Rudy's sponsors.

Dianna was a young woman in her early 30's, and Mark in his late 30's. They were both very nice and conversational, and said they would hang around us for the evening if we didn't mind. Mark went on an on about how glad he was to see us, and meet us. He said he had heard quite a bit about us already, and could see why Gayla wanted to bring us to the meeting. Mark even said he thought we would find Amway very interesting, and his wife had a very strange reaction! At the time I had no idea what was happening, and I never even heard of Amway.

The next thing I knew, the man who was bustling around that I had noticed walking by us a few times, quickly come up to us and said "Mark, I need to see you a moment please." They walked away briskly. Now pay attention to this part, because it will have much significance to you later, if you read that far.

Finally, the meeting room was opened and everyone filed in to a pretty good size room, and we all sat in very uncomfortable brown plastic, and metal chairs, that were crowded entirely too close together! A white dry board was set up in the front of the room, and a podium stood close by that.

The man that had come to take Mark aside, had gone to the front of the room, and began speaking. His name in this story will be Frank, and he turned out to be the "silver direct" in our immediate up-line. Frank made a few announcements that really didn't mean much to me at the time, about books and tapes, but later proved to be a huge part of the business, then began drawing on the white board...

We (the suckers) were fed all kinds of reasons why we were not successful, and how we could change all that by following a simple tried and true plan! I should mention that they kept saying "simple plan" and then would say right away that although the plan was simple, the business was not easy to build, and not going to happen over night. This was how they lent credibility to themselves in the eyes of us more skeptical suckers. It's amazing really how they kept flipping back and forth from "simple" to "not easy". I am willing to venture that those of you who are in the business already are quite familiar with that tactic.

Well anyway, on to the circles. The speaker quickly and decisively drew his little circles on that white board. I looked around the room, and noticed people were fast and furiously scribbling down notes. The fervor of the speaker increased, as he got more and more in depth. I did note however that even though he went on for quite some time, my questions still had not been answered. All I kept hearing over and over was "Follow the plan".

After a quick run through of the circles he finished. He at that point in time told us we were in store for a very major surprise, and treat! He said, "All the way from Oklahoma, a Diamond Distributor who I have grown to know and love who is in my upline, has come to speak to us tonight folks! Lets all give a big round of applause for this amazing man, and hear his story!" "You will want to listen to this man, because he has gone from rags to riches! He used to drive a Dr. Pepper truck, barely making ends meet (which I think is interesting, because truckers make good money generally) until he came aboard and turned his life around!"

Well, at this point I wasn't sure what I thought. I was very intrigued of course, but more then that, I think I was just in a state of disbelief.

He told us about his wonderful vacations with his son to exotic places. In particular I remember about how he and his son stayed in a hotel under the sea. And how wonderful it was to ride in his perfect environmentally controlled Mercedez Benz with the moon roof open in the dead of winter. And how great it was to get into the car and immediately the cold seats would warm up from special customizing technology he had installed in his vehicle. And how fabulous it was to look up at the stars on a cold clear night through the moon roof and not hear a bit of wind as the car drove through winding mountain roads....

He told us all about how great it was to spend time with his son and not have to worry about a thing, and how great it was to just sit on the beach and know the money is rolling in! ("Aint it great!!") This was when he started to talk about how the business would offer great security in future family generations because of the royalties that would flow in without effort!

He said that after building the business to Diamond level, one could retire and live an extremely comfortable life from bonus money, including a "healthy percentage" of the annual Amway product sales or something like that. He quickly pointed out the millions and millions of dollars that was pouring into the company each year. And went into some future projections for sales, which I wish I can remember the figures we were given, but can't. On and on he went with all this stuff that seemed to make sense and seemed very credible at the time.

We of course had tons and tons of questions that we wanted answers to and probably asked every question in the book that they were prepared to answer. I do remember however that some of our questions were flat out diverted and not answered. I was even suspicious and alarmed by not having everything answered and started to get a bit testy with Frank. I really didn't like him much from the beginning, and never did like him. He was very "country" on the outside, but on the inside there was something about him I just didn't trust, although I couldn't put my finger on it. Once again I failed to listen to the voice inside.

Remember how I told you back in the beginning of my story how Frank had pulled Mark off to one side? I am going to tell you why now. Amway has been around for years and years and more years. They started out as a little "soap company" and wanted desperately (still do) to shake the image of the door to door soap peddler, because this is a "serious business"...at least we were told this. But the actual reasoning goes into more depth. Many people will not give Amway the time of day if they know from the get go that this so called "Business Opportunity" is in actuality Amway. Many people I encountered and prospected had already been previously prospected and were either way turned off by the business after being involved or knew of someone who had a terrible experience. One man even told me I was involved in a "cult" and that his wife had suffered some really terrible experiences being a distributor. I thought he was just a "dream busting loser afraid of success".

As new distributors, we were told not to mention to any new "Prospect" the word Amway until it could no longer be avoided, but only after getting a prospect to an actual meeting, and not until after they had seen the circles! The rationale we were given was that it could settle a preconceived notion in someone's head that Amway was a namby pamby soap company, preventing the "Prospect" from making the best decision possible before seeing all the facts. Yeah right! (Is the word "Prospect" grating on your nerves yet?)

When Mark had let the word "Amway" slip passed his lips and into our ears before we had seen the circles, he broke one of the cardinal rules! And boy howdy Frank came rushing over quick to pull Mark aside and shut him up! I often to this day wonder how he heard Mark from across the room with all the talking people in between! Perhaps he was a master at lip reading, and had been keeping more of an observation over us then I ever realized!

This deceptive part of the business was one of the reasons that eventually caused me to quit. As well as the fact that I lost lots and lots of money, my marriage (Amway wasn't fully responsible for this, but definitely played a part) and almost lost my life! Stay tuned for the car crash story and many other tales of the "Perils of Amway Part Two" when this gripping saga continues!

• Read on to part 2.
• Go back to Russell's Amway page.