2012 - 33 : The "night"...mlm

So last Monday i came across a blog anti-MLM Aidid Muaddib. His language is very bitter and he just hate multi-level marketing. Something about his language and writing that attracted people to his blog. Reading through his blog can make any MLMians felt stabbed to their very core. If we filter all the bitterness, he did have a valid point and somehow we can tell that he did his research since he always have applauding reference and knowledge...meaning that somehow he has an established education background.
I dont really care about MLM before until somehow last year i almost got myself into joining an MLM. This was how it started.
A good friend of mine gave me a call asking me to accompany her to her friend (let called her A) raya open house on Saturday. So i went. She told me that recently she got into a business with her business partner A and their business was doing well. Meeting her friend A,a very nice and friendly lady, had a little talk about her business and told me how it helped her with her wedding expense (she's just get hitched) Her husband was also one of their business partner. After reading Rich Dad Poor Dad, i got a little bit influence by financially independent ideology and the business seemed like an interesting idea to me. A told me that there will be a business conference the day after (Sunday) and invited me to join to get a better understanding. So i went.
Sunday morning, my friend picked me up to the business conference at Istana Hotel KL. She sponsored my whole business training expenses that day. At the conference i met other business partners B,C,D, E,F..... They were all highly motivated people. Talking about how the business change their life. The business seminar started. Then i hit me that this was what people called MLM (yeah...i was that slow...but excuse me MLM-virgin here...).  Everything seemed very good. They presented their product testimonial which seem like proven products. But the brochure looked a little bit off. With the spelling mistake, unconvincing cheap look.   Then they started to talked about the "business" organization and all the typical pyramid figure came into picture with all the fancy term for each level and how much they earned. The high ranking people in the organization were wearing fancy outfit with a very fancy title and 6 figure income (not included decimal point ok......they claimed). They were very friendly and asked me to visit their office the next day.
On Monday, i told Lina about the "business" seminar that i went. I was surprised when she seemed to be like well-expose to what i experience a day before. Her advice was "enjoy all the fun things. it wont hurt but be extra careful if you want to join". In the evening i went to their office. they have another talk that i somehow join and also they gave me one to one tutorial about the "business".
On Tuesday, i met with A and her husband with a couple more business partners. they taught me the calculation on how the "profit" flow.  At almost the end of the session, A's husband handed me a loan application form. Apparently to be less struggling business member you need to be at certain level of the pyramid where to be at that level you need to invest RM34k. He told me that he made loan for 10 years for that business about a year ago. When i asked him whether he has done paying the loan, he said " Why i need to repay the loan fast  when i can enjoy all the money". It struck me...."why do you want to be in debt for 10 years, when your earn up to 5 figures/ months".
So i didnt join because;

1. The product - for the Taiwan-made unknown product, the price is quite high compared to established brand. It wont survive the free market. How can i sell something that i dont believe in.
2. The loan - i wont make a long term financial commitment for stg that i dont believed in.
3. The money - everytime they say that the business is easy money, i always wondering who get hurt. 
4. The Mercedes/BMW - they showed too many "successful" leader in the "business" taking picture with Mercedes/BMW. I dont like Mercedes/BMW because it represent typical old, pretentious man. If it was Audi, i might consider...haha..jk..

i got nothing against MLM. But now everytime i met my friend, i felt a little bit awkward. I never asked her about her business and we just sort of pretend it never happened and talked like usual.