I’ve always thought that people, in general, were too smart to get involved in MLM schemes, especially given how much information is available about the deceptive nature of the practice. If you’ve heard of MLM, you’ve heard that it’s a scam, and you should be too smart to fall for it. It’s not that hard to spot an MLM scheme. Most of them involve buy-ins. What kind of job requires you to pay your employer? I mean, seriously? How do you get pulled into something like that? Maybe it’s the fault of the economy, that people are getting desperate and trying to find any way they can to make money, but ever since I got back to the US, I’ve been constantly bothered by people I know here about joining MLM schemes.
Guys, I’m not doing it. MLM is a waste of money. I have better things to do with my time, like use my full ride scholarship and living allowance from the VA to get my master’s degree, without having to work at the same time, and then getting a real job to make real money; honest money that wasn’t made by screwing over my friends and past or present colleagues.
The situation is doubly disappointing to me because, for these people to assume that I’d join their MLM scheme, well, it means they think I’m gullible, or stupid, or both. One person even tried to hang something over my head to make me feel emotionally obligated to participate in their MLM. That’s disrespectful to start with, and is a good way to make me want to completely break off contact with a person. These people fell for the sucker punch, and they either want to drag me, and other people down with them, perhaps to make up their losses, or they never really gave a damn about me anyway and want to screw me over to get rich.
Well, I’m not stupid. Perhaps there is money to be made in MLM, but I’m not the kind of guy to go around ruining all of my relationships with people by tricking them, or trying to trick them, into jumping into some MLM scheme. I find it very annoying that anyone would even approach me with this nonsense in the first place, and absolutely rude that, once told that I’m not interested, they would persist in spamming me with messages about it, sometimes attempting to lead into a conversation about it under other pretenses, like needing help, or wanting to meet to celebrate Veteran’s Day.
In a way, I feel bad for these people, because they’re caught, but I’m not going to let myself get pulled in with them. If they can’t take a hint, then the next step will be to completely cut them off, blocking phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and yes, even unfriending them on Facebook.
MLM and me. It’s not happening.
Bradley Farless 