People with an agenda

During events, I am always glad to have the opportunity to meet new people and exchange contacts, in many occasions I get to meet interesting people and listening to their wisdom, each of them having slightly different interest and expertise, I am always glad to know their little insight of things.

At times, I run into people who take advantage of events for their own selfish purposes. Armed with their buzzword - yumcha, they make me think it's a catching up session to understand a new friend better.

But not when it's revealed to be another gimmick used to promote direct selling/multi-level marketing! That's the part I fucking hate. They're always there to lure new people in, taking advantage of networks, hoping that newbies will buy their products/services or join their company.

Knowing the fact that products sold by direct selling companies doesn't cost 1 or 2 bucks but at least hundreds of bucks, that's not the amount I can afford to fork out. People in the direct selling line are not hoping for a one off sale, in actual fact they are hoping that I'll become one of them and buy products from their company on a regular basis. Why should I pay more for something easily available elsewhere? Do I enjoy better life with your products? Will I have lower standard of living if I don't use your product(s)?

The compensation plan for direct selling always look impressive on paper, making people going over the moon the moment they heard about it. Talk is cheap, when it comes to reaching the volume for a rank or whatnot, reaching it becomes the hardest thing to do. Why is this so? The direct selling model encourages members to generate repeat sales, in turn requiring customers to buy products on a regular basis. Furthermore, the products are pricey, it simply becomes the fact that turns many off. Not only that, from experience, direct selling has ruined many meaningful friendships.

From my experience, I come to know that some members of direct selling set up career development centre to attract new people with courses and motivational talks, along with spins like "providing a loving environment" and "in a family". Knowing the fact that they rely on sales of their direct selling products for income, I feel this practice is not genuine "loving" but faking everything, it's all an illusion.

If you have a hidden agenda in meeting new people, what are friends really for? You risk straining relationships and reputation to earn yourself a living. People not your cash cows. Even the Jews do not rely on friends for business.