Why Only MLMs Can Kill MLMs

Modern MBA · Advanced ·🚀 Entrepreneurship & Startups ·2w ago

About this lesson

If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, try NetSuite Next for free at https://netsuite.ai/modernmba Like today's prediction markets and online casinos, MLMs walk a thin line between legal and illegal, and they intentionally ride the gray area as long as possible. They promise life-changing fortunes, empowerment, freedom, and entrepreneurship to anyone willing to sell. They all claim their products are too advanced and innovative to ever sit on store shelves, so the only way to buy these groundbreaking inventions is behind closed doors through individual reps. They parade scientists, doctors, nutritionists, or PhDs in white lab coats to serve as proof that their products actually work. They throw glamorous events with dancers and motivational speakers, give away cars, cruises, jewelry, and make sure their success and generosity is filmed for all to see. And the best sellers are crowned crazy titles like Presidential Black Diamond Executive, talk up their lifestyles as new millionaires, and hammer home that if you work just as hard as they did selling these products - with enough perseverance, you too can one day be on the stage just like them. Whenever these companies crossed the line in one country, they'd simply pack up and redeploy the same playbook in another country with weaker regulation and fewer consumer protections. Keep in mind—the companies we've named are just the few that got big enough to IPO. Beyond the public markets lies an even bigger graveyard filled with generations of dead, bankrupt, and defunct MLMs that peddled everything from essential oils and leggings to miracle juices and survival seeds. It's easy to cry "scam" and write off every MLM as a pyramid scheme. But it's far more useful to understand why the model exists at all, what problem it solves, and the organizational and psychological strategies the biggest players use to exploit millions of people every year. The model is scummy but it's also extraordinarily effective.

Original Description

If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, try NetSuite Next for free at https://netsuite.ai/modernmba Like today's prediction markets and online casinos, MLMs walk a thin line between legal and illegal, and they intentionally ride the gray area as long as possible. They promise life-changing fortunes, empowerment, freedom, and entrepreneurship to anyone willing to sell. They all claim their products are too advanced and innovative to ever sit on store shelves, so the only way to buy these groundbreaking inventions is behind closed doors through individual reps. They parade scientists, doctors, nutritionists, or PhDs in white lab coats to serve as proof that their products actually work. They throw glamorous events with dancers and motivational speakers, give away cars, cruises, jewelry, and make sure their success and generosity is filmed for all to see. And the best sellers are crowned crazy titles like Presidential Black Diamond Executive, talk up their lifestyles as new millionaires, and hammer home that if you work just as hard as they did selling these products - with enough perseverance, you too can one day be on the stage just like them. Whenever these companies crossed the line in one country, they'd simply pack up and redeploy the same playbook in another country with weaker regulation and fewer consumer protections. Keep in mind—the companies we've named are just the few that got big enough to IPO. Beyond the public markets lies an even bigger graveyard filled with generations of dead, bankrupt, and defunct MLMs that peddled everything from essential oils and leggings to miracle juices and survival seeds. It's easy to cry "scam" and write off every MLM as a pyramid scheme. But it's far more useful to understand why the model exists at all, what problem it solves, and the organizational and psychological strategies the biggest players use to exploit millions of people every year. The model is scummy but it's also extraordinarily effective.
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