Amway part 1 and 2

I know it's been a little while since I last posted, and since my last post I caught the flu and was feeling real out of it for a few days. I don't remember the last time I caught the flu so it surprised me how fast it made my body weak. And after catching it I began to feel more empathy for the kids at school that have been catching it left and right - but also curious as to who was the bugger that got me sick...

I had an experience last weekend I think worth sharing but first I need to backtrack a little bit to put it into context. In October my buddy invited me to a sort of 'dinner party' that he said had something to do with a company called Amway, which I later found out was from the states. My friend got invited to this by an acquaintance he used to work with and this acquaintance is now affiliated with Amway. I being a friend of his friend got invited too.

So we arrived at a house and walked into a living room full of older Japanese men - ranging from a couple of guys around 30 to men in their 40's and 50's. We were the youngest by far and I felt a little awkward just stepping (bare)foot into this living room. We sat down and all turned to our host, the oldest among the Japanese men. He began the evening by playing a promotional DVD that was animated, had something to do with how to succeed, and was naturally in Japanese. After we watched the DVD our host began his introductory pitch about Amway, an American company. He, knowing I was American, looked at me a few times during the speech and I, knowing that I had some kind of distant relationship to this company, felt obliged to keep good eye contact and nod a few times in agreement with statements that may as well have been in Estonian.

Despite the entire speech being spoken in (fluent) Japanese I believe I caught the gist of the gist of what he was talking about. The rags to riches narrative of the 2 dudes who started Amway was a springboard from which this man leaped into an overview of Amway's 'ethos,' which had something to do with a formula for success involving time, capital, risk, etc... At one point he did bring out one of Amway's cleaning products, demonstrating the cleaning power of its solution vs. an ordinary solution in removing a stain on a small mirror. At this point, about 2 hours into the evening I realized I didn't know a few important things: what the heck Amway really sells and how much longer this schpeel was going to last. I did know this was an unusual Saturday night activity for me and one that I felt okay about not having to repeat. To be fair after the speech we did have food and drinks and talked informally amongst ourselves and and I generally enjoyed the rest of my evening.

Two days ago I went with my friend to his acquaintance's house to have lunch. This is the house of a guy he knew, not of a guy's he didn't. Also this lunch was only among 5 people - me, my friend, my friend's acquaintance, his wife, and his friend. I can't say there was anything at all formal about the invitation (I made sure ask) or the lunch. The experience became interesting after I noticed an entire cupboard full of Amway products in their bathroom cupboard. Then I saw vitamins and supplements from Amway lining an entire shelf in their kitchen. Then he and his wife began explaining a few products from an Amway catalog. "So they like Amway crap a lot," I thought. Then after lunch he began giving my friend and I an Amway pitch that sounded way too similar to the one I heard the month before. He even pulled out an Amway portfolio that had a couple of pics of those Americans who started the company (Rich who used to be poor and the other guy whose name I can't remember).

What started to make me sick was when I heard those same bullet points that were blasted at me before - something about having time, money, chance, etc... it was more than enough for me to interrupt him. I said (in Japanese) - "No thanks." "I don't want to own a company," "I don't need this right now." I told him my dream was to become a college professor. He replied to the effect of "This isn't necessary?" I said yes. He began to talk about how I would still need money, time was still a factor (I think a review of the bullet points) and turned to my friend. "What about you?" In a more finessed Japanese style response he gave him the runaround. And after leaving we agreed once more the food and drinks were tasty.