The Biggest Scam “The Business of the 21st Century by Robert Kiyosaki”
Yes, you heard it right by Robert Kiyosaki. This Scam is nothing new; it has been going on for decades and people are still being manipulated. The first time I heard about this was when I was in high school when one of my Dad’s close friends joined this program and was recruiting people to be part of this scheme. Keep in mind this was almost a decade ago. “A Decade” where people have lost money and the so-called “Wannabe Entrepreneurs” have made a profit just by false hope and emotional play. The point of me, addressing this as an issue is nothing to point fingers at a bunch of people or an individual, as it is being practiced all over the world. Some sense-less people try to steal your hard-earned money right in front of you with a promising dream of a large monthly income where preying on people’s emotions using their past trauma to leave the 9-5 rat race. It’s about to get exciting from here on, for the past 2-3 weeks they got in touch with me with little to no knowledge of my background. I got a detailed overview of what they are trying to sell and how it has evolved in the years and what has led me to point fingers at Robert Kiyosaki’s book for general reasons. Now I could have just moved on with my life without even writing this but somewhere down the line, I would be having a sense of guilt when I did have the medium to communicate and be transparent to a community that’s growing, but I chose to keep quiet due to my busy schedule would sound as a lame and pathetic excuse.
MY PAST
It happened during my High School days when we were at my old house back in India. My father’s friend whom he has known for many years tried to sell out the scheme when he came for a visit. He had broken down what the overall business is about and how you can make a side income from it. At that time it was known as ‘Chain Marketing’ where you sell the product among the members of the group, which means once you get into their chain network you are the consumer where you pay for the product.
Now you might be thinking what kind of product are they targeting and how can you make money by you being the purchaser?
It was none other than the ‘Amway products’ which was chosen as the commodity to target the members. The products are widely ranged from Cosmetic to Vitamin and Ayurvedic Tablets. So, to briefly summarise it’s a renowned establishment where the products are used on a day-to-day basis by many people which makes it easier to sell. Now where is the money factor behind it and how do they make money? By bringing more people into the market through selling the scheme. So, every member has to bring additional 10-20 fold people under him through the same medium, and once they purchase the product, you get a certain commission bracket and this keeps spreading like a disease.
Probably you might be thinking okay so what’s wrong with it and what makes this a scam?
The above images illustrate what Business and Real-world marketing looks like. A simple classification can be done, in the Business approach only the top-tier people benefit from this model. This means the top three levels hold the majority of profit and money scalping, whereas, the majority of the below tiers don’t even make money or they lose more than they have invested. This creates an imbalance within the structure and the terms and conditions signify that there is no refund policy, once you have invested you can’t get it back. So the only choice left in your hand is to bring more people your friends, relatives, and outsiders which would help in getting your money back while others lose theirs. Whereas in the other image, no one person is benefitting from the network wholly everyone progresses on an equal length, this is real-world marketing. You build connection, knowledge, diversity, and better ideas.
MY PRESENT
After a decade, currently living in Australia, for more than 4 years. This same model was brought in front of me by a different name called ‘Network Marketing’. Coincidently, I got to know it through one of my friends in Australia where his mentor is helping him achieve passive income through this means.
The story begins when me and my former work colleague were in touch for some period and used to have great conversations about money-making strategies, passive income, and self-development outside work where our thoughts and ideas were similar and empowering, so one day we planned to get into a Zoom call had a chat for almost 2 hrs, a great exchange in getting to know each other well. During that call, l learned about his journey and how he was proud to get in touch with his mentor who has helped him generate passive income outside his work with no fees everything for free. Now, that’s just one big lifetime opportunity to learn something new with nothing to lose but he never mentioned what the passive income was about, and I had no clue on what was coming ahead.
After 2 days, he brought up a piece of good news mentioning that his mentor wants to know more about me, and we planned a time for a WhatsApp call. This all went great we got to know each other and knew she was mentoring my friend to achieve success where he literally quit his 9-5 well-paying job for the scheme and still they didn’t mention to me what was the passive income. So, the next week I get an update from the mentor herself to get into a Zoom call, so we can see our faces and build trust and relationships. The topic discussed was totally the same nothing changed that what we had in our previous call, still have no idea what the mentorship was about. As I had seen the face, I did some research and got into her social media page, status to be precise as Singer, Entrepreneur, helping people do more of what they love, Mindset and Business Coaching. Okay, a well-written brief overview, good I scrolled through the photos nothing specific to understand what the business was about and the mentoring program. This put up a big question mark right in front of me on what to look forward to.
Finally, we had our next video call, she asked a couple of questions like where you see yourself in 5 Years, will the current journey help you achieve it and on a scale of 1-10 where you see yourself now this seriously felt like I was in some TikTok interview lol. After the questionnaire, she asked me have you heard about “Network Marketing”. Okay, the term is new to me, and had no idea what it was about but was guessing it to be somewhat like Real-world marketing as in the picture above. Things were all good she recommended me a book by “Robert Kiyosaki – The Business of the 21st Century”.
Great, one of the most renowned business tycoons, I have heard about him seen in major social media platforms and understand what his ideologies are and how he generated wealth through passive and business portfolios. But when I read his book, he was addressing a business idea that he has neither implemented in his life but has only got inspired by one of his friends. Now that’s some lame way to write a whole book when you, yourself are an outsider to the business model, there is no continuity and it just felt like they were having a discussion on what Networking Marketing was about. Overall, just a feel-good review nothing more to decipher. But through that reading, I understood what the business proposal was about and this flipped the switch in me and the decade-long dispute between my dad and his friend came to mind. He neither became a member of the shitty scam but he was willing to help his friend just by investing some money. But it all went like turmoil, and they stopped talking for a while after a few years, we found out the scheme had to be closed many people lost their money and they still didn’t receive a single penny back.
Further down the line, I had my final moment to chat with the fake mentor, also a wannabe Entrepreneur. This time I was excited to see their faces and laugh internally like no other when I caught them off guard by disclosing my past when they asked me about what was the insight that I got from the book. My friend was shocked, his mentor didn’t have any words to formulate the understanding and was left speechless. However, she did try her very best to convince me that what they do is not a scam. My friend didn’t even say a single word during the 2hr debate he was too astounded by my past information that he immediately knew that this would not work.
The mentor was totally focused on getting me convinced, she showed me a presentation of what their business was about, and this is where they surprised me even more, they also do sell Amway products to their members. I mean, come on a decade-long history of Deja Vu is happening right in front of me. She mentioned how the business has been functioning for 60 years and the estimated income I can earn is around $18k every month leading to a six-figure annual income. The only thing I had to do was bring 30 more people into the pyramid scheme and I would be living my dream life. What a Fancy and Ponzi idea to make people believe that they are doing something extraordinary and are about to change life like no other.
Finally, to my dear friend, I know you will be reading this as I didn’t respond to you after what happened. I also know that you have been with her for almost 2yrs now and I am hoping you didn’t try to evaluate the process from this side. I do understand you have a family to provide for, and you are trying your best to achieve your goals and aspirations, but this is not the right way to make it happen. Furthermore, mark my words you will destroy your time, energy, and relationship if you keep going like this. Being ignorant and if you still cosign with it you are just making a fool out of yourself. This post was also to pen down my feelings and I feel I did my best to communicate with the wider audience. Please be aware of your surroundings and try to do some research before investing your time, energy, and money into something.
Do let me know in the comments about your thoughts and whether you have come across anything similar. Also don’t forget to subscribe, so you can get access to weekly newsletters from this channel. Till then peace, love, and prosperity to all.