EPT+ Show Spoiler +
Last Monday I had an interview for a job and afterwards I just hung out and sat around in the park in the city because I was waiting for my cousin to get off work so we can go home together. While I was waiting (decked out in my suit and tie) some elderly Chinese guy in a suit comes up to me and starts speaking Mandarin to me. He realizes that I don't speak Mandarin (I'm Cantonese and have taken maybe a year of Mandarin in college) and starts speaking to me English.
He starts talking to me and started asking me whats my current job, what am I doing at the park etc. I handed him my resume and he takes a look at it. He likes the fact that I have a college degree and starts telling me about this book ( one of the Rich dad poor dad series: http://www.formorebusiness.com/news/business_school.pdf ) and started telling me all this random crap about quadrants and whatnot.
I ended up listening to him for 30min-an hour because my cousin ran late at work. Before I left, he gives me his business card and invites me to his house so we can talk about it some more tomorrow. Yeah I know it sounds sketchy as hell but I figured that I might as well go and check it out since theres nothing to lose for me.
I got to his apartment at 2pm the next day and he starts telling me about this great program/company called Market America and I immediately knew what was going on.
I actually had a really close roommate who used to do Market America and he used to tell me all about it. Shit we actually stayed up an entire night discussing it and at the end it got real emotional. He resents people calling it a "Pyramid scheme" because when his mom came to America (he's Chinese), she didn't have money or know a lick of English. When she picked up the MA program, her family/friends laughed and basically said wtf are you doing? don't waste your time with this bullshit. Well she worked hard and really believed in the Market America system and nowadays she makes a decent amount from MA (probably in the 70k range?) and she doesn't even have to work.
Now the old guy was pushing it pretty hard. He was explaining it to me how it works (btw whether or not MA is a pyramid scheme, I think it's bloody genius for them to adapt to the internet age by expanding online). It was a pretty effective sales pitch, he was going through this handbook that he had and was rattling off names and how much they make left and right. Honestly my concept of 'money' is so poor that all the big numbers hardly means anything to me.
2 bloody hours into it he puts on the pressure and tells me that I should really attend a meeting because he can't explain everything well since English isn't his first language and hey guess what? There's actually a meeting in Flushing tonight (about 45mins from where he lived by train) and we can grab dinner go together.
I start hemming and hawing because I didn't want to go and was too much of a pussy to say it to his face so he tells me that if I'm busy tonight (which isn't because he deducted that I don't have a GF and job searching is generally a daytime activity), there's another great meeting tomorrow! and if I can't make it to that one, there's a meeting on Friday!
I was sitting there going "FML" and thinking that I can't believe I fell for that one because I knew that they have frequent meeting from my friend. He see's that I need more convincing so he calls up some random guy (one of the speakers at the meeting... probably someone who's a veteran recruiter) who used to be a software engineer and gives the phone to me. The guy basically told me that I should go because I'll meet people, make some connections and who knows? Maybe someone will be impressed by you/your resume and give you an interview.
I mean it makes sense to go because I know that a lot of people at the meetings have connections and lot of people attend according to my friend but I figured that if I'm basically succumbing to the pressure now, then I have absolutely no chance of resisting if I actually go to the meeting.
He starts talking to me and started asking me whats my current job, what am I doing at the park etc. I handed him my resume and he takes a look at it. He likes the fact that I have a college degree and starts telling me about this book ( one of the Rich dad poor dad series: http://www.formorebusiness.com/news/business_school.pdf ) and started telling me all this random crap about quadrants and whatnot.
I ended up listening to him for 30min-an hour because my cousin ran late at work. Before I left, he gives me his business card and invites me to his house so we can talk about it some more tomorrow. Yeah I know it sounds sketchy as hell but I figured that I might as well go and check it out since theres nothing to lose for me.
I got to his apartment at 2pm the next day and he starts telling me about this great program/company called Market America and I immediately knew what was going on.
I actually had a really close roommate who used to do Market America and he used to tell me all about it. Shit we actually stayed up an entire night discussing it and at the end it got real emotional. He resents people calling it a "Pyramid scheme" because when his mom came to America (he's Chinese), she didn't have money or know a lick of English. When she picked up the MA program, her family/friends laughed and basically said wtf are you doing? don't waste your time with this bullshit. Well she worked hard and really believed in the Market America system and nowadays she makes a decent amount from MA (probably in the 70k range?) and she doesn't even have to work.
Now the old guy was pushing it pretty hard. He was explaining it to me how it works (btw whether or not MA is a pyramid scheme, I think it's bloody genius for them to adapt to the internet age by expanding online). It was a pretty effective sales pitch, he was going through this handbook that he had and was rattling off names and how much they make left and right. Honestly my concept of 'money' is so poor that all the big numbers hardly means anything to me.
2 bloody hours into it he puts on the pressure and tells me that I should really attend a meeting because he can't explain everything well since English isn't his first language and hey guess what? There's actually a meeting in Flushing tonight (about 45mins from where he lived by train) and we can grab dinner go together.
I start hemming and hawing because I didn't want to go and was too much of a pussy to say it to his face so he tells me that if I'm busy tonight (which isn't because he deducted that I don't have a GF and job searching is generally a daytime activity), there's another great meeting tomorrow! and if I can't make it to that one, there's a meeting on Friday!
I was sitting there going "FML" and thinking that I can't believe I fell for that one because I knew that they have frequent meeting from my friend. He see's that I need more convincing so he calls up some random guy (one of the speakers at the meeting... probably someone who's a veteran recruiter) who used to be a software engineer and gives the phone to me. The guy basically told me that I should go because I'll meet people, make some connections and who knows? Maybe someone will be impressed by you/your resume and give you an interview.
I mean it makes sense to go because I know that a lot of people at the meetings have connections and lot of people attend according to my friend but I figured that if I'm basically succumbing to the pressure now, then I have absolutely no chance of resisting if I actually go to the meeting.
So at the end I ended not going but I'm still curious about Market America. Googling it is useless because it usually boils down to a pyramid scheme vs legit business debate. Trying to google the company actually feels a lot like googling Scientology, like they give you nothing but fluff/BS information (I have fully read the scientology handbook for a paper I once did) and encourage you to go to a meeting every 5 pages to find out more information.
I really wish I can explain how the company operates but I feel like I don't know enough about the company to explain it well. Part of the reason that I actually wanted to attend the meeting was so I can figure out/understand how it works. I was speaking to another friend who also roomed with us during college and he swore that you had to buy $XYZ of MA products every month and that was why we had so much MA crap around the apartment. Personally I've never heard of anyone having to buy X amount of products a month but that's also probably because it's some sort of advance sales tactics... and they probably won't tell you until you get to the meeting or after you join the program/company.
So is there anyone who is/was actually involved with the program and can spill more information about it? I mean I find the company fairly suspicious because the old guy was selling/pushing it so hard. Honestly it was pretty effective but I already knew a lot about the company beforehand but at the same time I know the company is somewhat legit because I have living proof in my friend's mom that it actually works.
