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Active: 1246 users

Market America, how does it work?

Blogs > crazeman
Post a Reply
crazeman
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
664 Posts
October 31 2010 18:13 GMT
#1
Ok first blog post here... and this got really long, so I put the intro/story inside the spoiler tags...

+ 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.



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.

asianskill
Profile Blog Joined August 2009
United States289 Posts
October 31 2010 18:30 GMT
#2
My understanding is that you have to put certain amount of investment in it. Only the people that are really devoted to it will see profits while people who don't put in any effort (a majority) will lose their first investment. The company makes so much money off people who never really put forth effort they can pay people who do put their whole lives into it.
herrro
mucker
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
United States1120 Posts
October 31 2010 19:02 GMT
#3
On November 01 2010 03:13 crazeman wrote:
Honestly my concept of 'money' is so poor that all the big numbers hardly means anything to me.


Sounds like even if it isn't a scam it wouldn't be a good idea for you.
It's supposed to be automatic but actually you have to press this button.
fredd
Profile Blog Joined May 2008
Estonia256 Posts
October 31 2010 19:04 GMT
#4
Magnets.
sup
bbq ftw
Profile Joined September 2010
United States139 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-10-31 19:35:51
October 31 2010 19:34 GMT
#5
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.

Internal BS detector should be at maximum.

Think about it this way, if all those infomercials for get rich quick schemes actually worked, why would they need to advertise?
Shigy
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States346 Posts
October 31 2010 19:49 GMT
#6
i'm going to graduate college soon and i'll share my experience with pyramid schemes and the like. i've been approached by both Vector Marketing and World Financial Group. both firm names sounded good so i was into it (as a young naive business student).

i attended the vector marketing "group interview". if you know anything about the firm you will lol, it's pretty terrible. they tell you to dress formally and then you go into their 'office' which is plastered with posters saying "you can do it" and "beat *insert neighboring city office*" in sales. there is a boombox playing what would be lady gaga if she were popular at the time. your application consists of 8.5x11 page that asks only the very basics like name, contact info, eligibility to work. long story short if you google it it doesn't look so good. btw wanna sell knives? lol

then World Financial Group... i was at target after work (wearing a tie) and some lady approached me and said i was dressed sharp. i was basically thinking wtf. she proceeded to tell me that she wants to hire some young professionals??? i said ok, gave her my number and shrugged it off. she called me over and over trying to get me to meet with her. i finally googled her firm and i think that there's a good rule about where you work:

avoid working for a company whose credibility is widely questioned



just my 2 cents, i don't doubt you can make money here - but it these types of groups only payout to those willing to sellout to friends, family, and strangers as a pushy salesperson
aokces
Profile Joined October 2006
United States309 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-10-31 20:01:54
October 31 2010 19:55 GMT
#7
On November 01 2010 03:30 asianskill wrote:
My understanding is that you have to put certain amount of investment in it. Only the people that are really devoted to it will see profits while people who don't put in any effort (a majority) will lose their first investment. The company makes so much money off people who never really put forth effort they can pay people who do put their whole lives into it.


That's pretty much how I see it. What it really comes down to is how good/dedicated of a salesperson you are at all their various products, and if your social network consists of people _____ enough to buy stuff from you. But personally I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

I had a co-worker drag me into one of those meetings, and he claimed it was something else altogether involving Google which was really BS. Of course he had the car so I had to stay for the whole 2 hrs or so. While I wanted to shout out "pyramid scheme!" inside my head they were showing me all this stuff about these vitamins that they're selling. The problem was, after the 2hrs I still wasn't sure what the heck they do for business... (Just like Vector Marketing... they don't tell you upfront that YOU'RE GOING TO BE A KNIFE SALESMAN!) The people there all had a overly friendly atmosphere that basically screams SCAM. After the meeting I just politely told him never to mention MA to me again.

A few months later I noticed another one of my co-workers was putting up facebook notices regarding the stuff he's selling on MA... I though it was hilarious.

EDIT: Related comic strip below, illustrates the situation pretty well :D
http://www.kiwisbybeat.com/great83.html
http://www.kiwisbybeat.com/great84.html
http://www.kiwisbybeat.com/great85.html
jamesr12
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States1549 Posts
October 31 2010 20:08 GMT
#8
they arent reallllly scams persay. The fact is you can make money doing these things it just isnt easy. Read everything carefully understand what you are actually signning and decide if it is right for you.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=306479
rsoteras
Profile Joined May 2014
United States1 Post
May 04 2014 12:14 GMT
#9
--- Nuked ---
Pavel DreamBig Vasil
Profile Joined July 2014
United States1 Post
July 09 2014 06:41 GMT
#10
--- Nuked ---
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