got a call from one of my ex-colleague about sharing a business plan wth me yesterday. initially i thought he wanted me to invest in his start-up and so i agreed to attend. then i got an sms from him telling me that it is a presentation and will last about 1.5hrs. i tried to ask further but got no further inputs. i felt uneasy. thought about it and concluded that it would be an mlm presentation. that has been a common tactic used by mlm members to get people to attend home presentations - do not tell anything. get the people to the house first.
and i was right. when i reached his home, there were altogether 5 persons, including my ex-colleague) waiting for me. and in no time, another person (who also was my ex-colleague) turned up for the presentation. and the briefing started with a video about how one could earn tons of passive income. this was followed by a business plan presentation. interestingly, the brief did not mention what this company was and kept talking about profits la la la until much later. and in the later parts of the brief, 3 other persons came up to talk. these, i realized, were the leaders of the 2 presenters. and they kept on with the pace of trying to get us to sign up as members. and to end the presentation, another vcd was shown. this time, it was about their seminar in malaysia. watching the vcd, i felt uneasy. they are all so fired up. people waving their hands, people looking like as though they were in a trance, etc. and at some point, i thought i was watching a cult.
once the presentation ended, the team of 5 splitted up and focused on talking to us separately. the other guy who attended the talk signed up and left not too long. that was when all 5 came onto me and tried to get me to sign up. i never like to be made to feel cornered. but that was how i felt when i was there. as i was clear about not wanting to get into mlm, i kept my composure and nicely told them that what they presented was all good and nice but that my life's path is not aligned to what they presented. their tactics was clear. the young presenters tried hard and kept eye contact with their team leads. but eventually, they knew they could get me to join and the two team leads came in. i resisted (nicely). and eventually, i decided i should leave. even then, they did not want to let me go and handed me a series of cds to listened. and as expected, it was further hard selling...
sighs...
ps: after listening to the cds they passed to me, i was even more convinced i should not get myself involved in mlm.
and i was right. when i reached his home, there were altogether 5 persons, including my ex-colleague) waiting for me. and in no time, another person (who also was my ex-colleague) turned up for the presentation. and the briefing started with a video about how one could earn tons of passive income. this was followed by a business plan presentation. interestingly, the brief did not mention what this company was and kept talking about profits la la la until much later. and in the later parts of the brief, 3 other persons came up to talk. these, i realized, were the leaders of the 2 presenters. and they kept on with the pace of trying to get us to sign up as members. and to end the presentation, another vcd was shown. this time, it was about their seminar in malaysia. watching the vcd, i felt uneasy. they are all so fired up. people waving their hands, people looking like as though they were in a trance, etc. and at some point, i thought i was watching a cult.
once the presentation ended, the team of 5 splitted up and focused on talking to us separately. the other guy who attended the talk signed up and left not too long. that was when all 5 came onto me and tried to get me to sign up. i never like to be made to feel cornered. but that was how i felt when i was there. as i was clear about not wanting to get into mlm, i kept my composure and nicely told them that what they presented was all good and nice but that my life's path is not aligned to what they presented. their tactics was clear. the young presenters tried hard and kept eye contact with their team leads. but eventually, they knew they could get me to join and the two team leads came in. i resisted (nicely). and eventually, i decided i should leave. even then, they did not want to let me go and handed me a series of cds to listened. and as expected, it was further hard selling...
sighs...
ps: after listening to the cds they passed to me, i was even more convinced i should not get myself involved in mlm.
3 comments:
Yeah, MLMs are like that. Seems like a cult. Just keep saying no, no, no like a broken record and you will be safe.
Jay SG
heh heh... i am still safe... :-)
it's good if u are the the tip of the pyramid, but if u r at the bottom, u will be feeding the "leeches"
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