SUBMITTED: Friday, March 02, 2007
POSTED: Friday, March 02, 2007
For some reason I can't give out the link to my blog, so here is the shorter version:
I suddenly ran into a Chinese guy in school and he told me to come to work for a technology firm. I should be there early and dressed up.
When I got to the hotel, the guy already there with 2 other guys. They are waiting outside the hotel. At first glance, I thought: "It seems like a good company. Lots of people in line, all were dressed up and everything." We waited for an hour to get inside the hotel, and also another hour because there wasn't enough people to fill the room. I talked to 2 new guys, who were the first-timer like me. Both of them were recently graduated and was introduced here by a Yor rep when they were at job fair, she was very nice-looking Asian girl by the way. My friend, whose name is T, and his friend R, and the pretty Asian girl W, constantly brag about how big and potential this business is. Especially the guy R, he kept talking non-stop and non-stop about the money, about the manager who is only 24 years old but making millions of dollars, to the point that it is became annoying, and I started to have doubt. While we were talking, the speaker of the night walked in. He was accompany with about 7, 8 people and they looked pretty much like President of the U.S with body guards. They walked very serious, straight, fast, and no attention to anybody around.
Finally we got into the big room, lots of people, must be around 200 people. I rushed into the front, about 5 rows behind the top one. The girl started the event was an African-American girl. She looked very young, and very nice smile. She talked a bit of introduction. The crowd was very excited and the atsmophere was overwhemingly positive. Finally, the lights turned off for the 7-minute video in the big projector.
The video, as I expected, was nothing but a sucessful story from the founder Dennis Wong. They ask if you want a second income besides your current job? What if you there is an accident? In case of emergency? The movie show a homeless person, the switch to upbeat music with glamour scene of people having a fun party. Duh, it's obvious that having the second source of income is good, everybody knows that. What I want to know is how to make the money, NOT how necessary to have extra source of income. The video was good though, the way the founder Dennis Wong narrative with his own voice, fast tempo, and the nice music surely get you warm up for the long 2 hours of waiting outside.
Then the girl came back and introduced the man speaker, the guy who walked like a President I've mentioned earlier. I can tell this guy is young and charming. His introduction was all about the girl. How smart she is, and how she has helped the company blah blah. Then he switch to the money subject, asking so obvious questions such as: "Who here want to have more money?" The crowd was very enthusiatic. Too enthusiatic that the astmophere became kind of fake. There is always someone respond to his mark very positively: "That's right!" "Yeah!" When he says something: "Raise your hand if you want" Everybody was raising their hand like a robot, except me and a 2 guys in front of me. He then said: "If you couldn't raise your hand to show your positive attitude, you should remove yourself from here." I knew he was implying me and a few others, but I didn't care.
Funny thing happened, at one point he asked: "To start a small business requires lots of initial investment, to open a Mc Donal restaurent in NY, you need 1.3 mil, who here has that kind of money?" And 1 of the 2 guys I mentioned above raised his hand. He seemed confident so I guess he's a business man who was curious about what this presentation is about.
As for the content of the evening, nothing informative was show. The screen showed the evolution of Microsoft PC, then cell phone, then internet. His point was that at the time people had those things, nobody believe they worked out, and look how popular they are today. He use them as an exampels to say that the broadband phone will be the next big thing. It's 300 billions dollars pipe with no source to back up that data. You know when you look at newspaper advertising, there is usually the * right next to the *supposely* big words, then at the bottom they show the source to validate the claim?
Nothing like that here. He then said that there are A, B and C type of people, and the A type are the hungry-type people who want to be success. I also like the analogy: "If I'm telling you to pay $1000 in order to have the key to my $50,000 car outside, would you do it?" then "we usually think about the 50K result but never thought about what lead us into that 50K, the $1000." And finally the screen showed the cost of started package: $390. He even went on to say: "If you don't have money, use your credit card because you will get those back after a week, and don't ever tell me that you don't have $390, because if you're 18 and don't have that amount, you have problem." As usual, the crowed agreed enthusiastically: "Yeah!"
He then introduced 3 people upstart, 1 asian girl, 1 asian guy (also the guy who tried to get me pay at the end) and 1 black guy to tell their own story. At this point the 2 guy sit in front of me left, and they were shood to walk out using the right aisle not the center one. I guess a lot of Reps were pissed because even though there were only 2 people left, it wasn't suppose to happen at all. I guess being having 1.3 million dollars, he was no stranger with MLM pyramic scheme. After they left for 10 mins, the speaker said: "Those people who left are C people, they don't have desire blah blah"
My guess was that 60% of people were Reps and 40% were new people like me. For the total of 200-300 people, that is about 120 new people. Assuming 100 of them signed up after the presentation, that is $39,000 right there in one night. And even though they have to pay for the room in New Yorker hotel, I then realized that they have it every week (Thursday and Sunday) so the price would not be so expensive with the long-term contract.
At the end, the gir W tried to sign me up. I told her nicely: "I think this is working but I need time to think about it." Then she said: "So I guess you're B type people" (B type is people who wants to do business but with hestitation) and I said: "I guess so." She didn't know what else to say. She then brought example: "You know Donal Trump? I talked to him and he said the only way to get rich is Network Marketing. I didn't say that, he said that himself" Still no response from me, the Asian guy, who was stand in the podium earlier, jumped in: "Tell you what, when I first got here I was like you, but I signed up a week later, and I lost my spot to someone else. And now that person makes a lot more money than me."
I told him that I'm skeptical and I need more time to research, and that the presentation is still lacking information. He then told me: "Why you don't give me a deposit so I can hold the spot for you?" I still said "No" I thanked him, say good bye to my college friend T and walked out of there. At that time, I realized I was the ONLY one who walked out. Most people were still in there with the Reps like a sale man tries to sell you a car.
I feel sorry for those people who stay. I'm not saying I'm smarter than them, because even if they use a little common sense, they would realize that there is something seriously wrong:
1. As I said, when I first got in, the reps, who are my friend and friend's friend, boasting all about how young, smart, and rich the manager is. Who cares really? Am I here to know about someone else's wealth? I'm here to have opportunity to make money for myself.
2. From the beginning to the end, the most word you would here is: "Money." How to be your own boss, how to getting raise, how to get paid by the company to travel etc. Even before getting into the room, that turned me off big time. I mean: "Is this what those people really believe in? Money?" Life is NOT always about the money. If it is, then where is the "group work, great relationships" that they have been talking about? Even T asked me: "What's your dream car?" and he said: "My dream is that I have a big house, nice car, and a wife."
3. The whole crowed is very fake. Remember there were at least 50% of people there were the Reps themselves, and they took notes. Duh, how long have you guys been in this same video and speech already? They cheered very enthusiastically, and raised their hand like a robot. UP! DOWN!
4. No legitimate business wants to get your money up front so desperately. I meant, the company don't care about your background, how good you are, they take you as long as you have the money. They talk so little about product but so much about how much money you would make by joining them. If that isn't a red flag then I don't really know what is.
I'm pretty sure that Yor is a scam MLM company, they make money by recruiting new people, not by selling product. They do have a policy where one reps have to find at least 2 customers, but that is just a way to run around the legal issue. Please read the links I've listed above before wasting your time and money to feed those unethical pigs.
I did send email telling my friend who referred me about this company. I know he's a good guy and was brainwashed by them. I haven't heard reply from him, but I already done what I had to. Listen to me or not is up to him now.
P.S Please excuse me for poor grammar and spelling errors, I'm in rush right now to let my thoughts out (afraid I'd forget)