Lampe Berger worth doing?

This is an email from Andrew, talking about whether this business is worth doing.
I got a few comments, though. When a population rise, it doesn't mean that the wealth per person becomes less. Wealth is created, not by having more money, but having more people supplying more products and services that others want. Don't get it?

For example, lets look back at the Spanish conquerors of the South America. They thought by getting more gold from the natives and shipping it back to their country, they would be wealthy.
But the problem arises, when there's too much gold, and nobody supplies something. When supply is low, prices goes up.

Wealth doesn't mean having more money, or gold.

Massive amounts of gold and silver were imported from the New World into Spain's coffers. However, in the long run this hurt the Spanish economy much more than it helped it. The bullion caused high inflation rates, which undermined the competitivenes of Spanish industry and commerce (its effects being discussed by the ubiquitous School of Salamanca and the arbitristas).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Spain

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Hi all,

i have some points to share with all of u, no matter u're pro- or anti-LB, i hope it helps you to think of whether what u're doing is in the right direction or not.

frequently, i've heard the same talk by MLM agents, when explaining the benefits of their marketing plan, about the uncertainties of ur future. They'll ask questions like;

1) "what if u met an accident and u died/paralysed without any source of income left for ur family?",
2) "what if u lost ur job and due to ur qualifications/age/gender, there are not much job opportunity for you?",
3) "if u work for ppl, u're nobody, u're not important, u're used for other ppl's benefit, u have no dignity, blablabla..."
4) "why do you want to work for someone else till pencen, when u can be ur own boss?",
5) "why put ur effort to generate income for others when u can do it for urself?"
6) "don't u want to earn more money and retire early?"

and many others and so on and so forth...

sometimes, these questions does arouse ppl's thoughts, especially for those who had worked for some time and found little enjoyment or returns from it. it also got some young minds thinking, bcoz they dont want to go through such hardship to attain something. we all know how hot blooded young ppl are. how much they want to find short and easy ways to everything.

thus these situations sets the perfect condition for MLMs to feed into ur fears. in one way of speaking, they present itself to be an alternative route to reach that pedestal high up in the sky. they promise u high income that seems unreachable by just working. they promise u a future where everything is secure and u can just laze around shake legs till the day u die.

but is it? have we ever sit down, and pour on a deep thought about this? is working really bad? is the experience that u can learn from that doesnt worth it? when challenge comes in ur work doesn't it teaches u to persevere and to emerge hardier than before? oh, it's so hard eh? so what makes u think that to recruit ppl into ur "marketing plan" is any easier? what difference it makes from working?

ok, so some will say, it's the rewards that matters. u work hard find downlines now, in the end u will succeed! u will reach higher level and better rewards. u can go higher! so what difference it makes from working hard (as an employee) now, learn all the stuffs, be an excellent employee, get promoted, get salary increment?

No matter how much u'd like to believe how high u're in LB as a count or marquis, u're still as comparable as to a middle management employee. yes, u do have ppl under u, yet u still have ppl above u! Yes, MLMs can promise that u can reach this and that level, but actually, how many did? It's the same as the corporate ladder, where only few who may clinch the title of a CEO, Managing Director, General Manager, blahblahblah... so wats the difference between working for some companies with working in MLM? u work for the one above u too! they say u work for urself, but ironically, those above u earns a portion of ur "income" too! What kind of "Ur Own Boss" is this?

oh, some will talk about job security... what happen if u get retrenched? frankly, if u've been working hard improving urself, with ur capabilities, u dont have to fear ur company retrenching u. when a retrenchment occurs the company trims off excesses, but retains the best to keep the company running. in fact the company needs u more than u need them. it all depends on how u play ur cards. have u been improving urself? have u proved urself to be invaluable to ur employer? an employee that they can't do without? in fact the boss cant do everything by himself, can he? so, keep this in mind, the boss is stupid. he employs you to do things that he dont know how to do!

oh, MLM agents also talked about the amount of income. what if the economy is bad, and company has to cut down on spending, thus ur salary also affected? but do they ever tell u that their high figure income from their "marketing plan" is not guaranteed to pour in forever also? they still have to recruit in order to generate "income". so where is the security in that? what will happen when the market reaches saturation and there'll be no more interested prospects for recruitment? frankly, when economy is bad, how many ppl would want to spend hundreds on some fragrance lamp? or better still, how many ppl would have the money to pour in to join as franchisee (rm2345) or upgrade to count (rm30k)? everybody would tighten their belt for sure!!

fine, they may argue about the ever rising population so the market is there, but have u ever thought that when populations rise, a nation's wealth pie has to be shared with more ppl? in the end everyone will get smaller portions. and where will u get ur money to invest into ur so-called "business" then? if u dont work in the first place, where do you find the money to throw into ur "business"? LOAN?

well yes, why not? ur upline says that all business starts also borrow money from banks to start their business. so it must be true. NO. not entirely true. allow me to share some business knowledge with you. Smart, shrewd and successful businesmen will try to minimise their debt amount and any other financial obligations in their business. for the established business, they offer shares and u get capital from share buyers. by issuing shares does not neccessarily mean ur company have to go to the board or trading in stock market. there's more to how to gain capital to start a business but i would have to write a textbook for it.

Meanwhile for a start-up, instead of loans from the bank, they offer partnerships and profit sharing with their suppliers and/or distributor and/or resellers. supply now, sell, earn revenue and profit. pay agreed % of profit to offset the cost. done deal. and u dont have to bear interest cost nor the risk of the banks knocking on ur door. Some will say, hey, that's what DCHL is already been doing! They supply the lamps, YOU sell, DCHL give urewards as profit sharing la, rite? So why the hell are you paying rm2345 and/or rm30k for??? I'm talking about starting up with extremely low or ZERO cost lah!! wan some examples? Bill Gates' first step was to sell his first tic-tac-toe software game at the age 13. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, started off with minimal cost as Google is actually spawned from their PhD research project. Now who said belajar tinggi-tinggi also tak guna?

now, let's talk about in case of death/paralysis. u cant work, no income, who'd be supporting ur family then?? well my man, that's what SOCSO, EPF savings and insurance are for! Insurance has been introduced for decades and it has certainly serve it functions. do u have a personal insurance plan? well if u dont , it's time to consider one. Insurance has been in the works even when there are no MLMs promising u this and that. what's wrong with sticking to a tried and tested method? it may not has the speed nor size of reward like some MLMs, but it certainly has guarantees.

Let's tak about "Dignity" of 9-5 jobs. frankly to me, it's a subjective matter. How many ppl are actually satisfied with their jobs. Not many, i can say, but we cant deny the fact that there are still ppl who are proud with and love what they're doing. Or the number of ppl who actually strives to make their work conditions better. Keep this in mind. Dignity of a job depends on ur attitude towards ur job and not how ppl perceive ur job as... they're not u and u're not them. and u have no obligation to please them save for urself.

Nevertheless, i'm not saying that all MLM agents are bad, or doing direct selling is useless. There are ppl who're just born for that "job". It falls back on whether u're that "type" of person or not. Be honest with urself and ask ur heart. is it really so good? there's a chinese proverb that says, "there'll always be masters in every field (of work)" (for for chut zhong yuen, read in cantonese). Do what u want or enjoy. Do what u does best. Do not let promises of wealth blind you.

Andrew