Heh, Amway still going strong after all these years. Heard about them a long time back, same promises as usual. Almost got sucked into it before a good friend spent an hour with me and utterly killed the idea. He had a lot of influence over me and was older so i trusted him on it.
The ppl most vulnerable to these sorts of schemes are those uncertain about their future. Therefore any developing country is excellent ground to exploit this insecurity.
They make you believe you can do anything, which is good in a way. If you think like that then why only do Amway you can do whatever else you want. Course the trick is to motivate yourself. Greed is a one way, a thrist for knowledge & achievement is another or maybe you just like doing what it is you do, there can be any reason.
Technically, there isn't anything illegal about it. Just that you need to understand there are targets to meet. And those targets are not as easy as its made out to be. If you are in a position where you can exploit the situation then you are onto something. But someone without the skills of salesmanship is going to struggle. Selling is all about emotions, if you are an analytical person then this isn't going to be a strong point. Unless you have influence and exploit that which means you're going to be higher up rather than somebody just starting off. Otherwise you're a born salesman. if that 12st pass can make big bucks, just imagine what he could do selling other stuff.
To succeed at this you've got to be able to make somebody buy stuff 5 mins after meeting them. You have to be a very astute study of human psychology to do that. Make them trust you in a short while and then work them and bag the deal.
The hack here and far easier win is to get others to buy into the deal than actually sell the products isn't it. This is why more ppl have heard about amway 'scam' than know about the actual products they sell. I bet Amway makes more money through this ABO business than actual proceeds from their products. So if you are a good public speaker you can score far more customers for your ABO than with your friends & relatives. This is the best route as you don't risk any relationships at all.