<prompt> Human: Hi rpersonalfinance! I was told to x-post this here:A friend of mine lets call himher Alex is trying to recruit me into hisher Amway team and I would like to understand what this corporation is about from people who are more familiar with the businessentrepreneuring world.I know that the general sentiment toward Amway is that its a scam. They make money from selling motivational products by convincing people that theyll make millions if they follow exactly as Amway says or in this case the mentors at World Wide Dream Builders, which is associated with Amway. I got a chance to meet many IBOs at a gathering and so far no one has tried to sell me anything. In fact, from what it looks like, it seems that quite a few of these people are making a decent income. I asked several of the higher ups one of them was the guy doing the big talk what they think about the criticisms about Amways business model and horror stories and the common response was this and Im paraphrasing: Amway is much like Heinz ketchup; it manufactures a product. IBOs are like a supermarket from where consumers can buy the product. It isnt really Amways fault if an IBO fails, much in the same way that it isnt Heinzs fault if a supermarket fails. The network marketing business can be thought of as a gym membership. It takes hard work, time and consistency to see results. Most people are simply too impatient to see the results and they give up not realizing that it takes 2-5 years to run a successful business. Sounds reasonable to me.From what Alex has described to me, the only way the higher ups can make money is if I make money, but not by taking a cut of my earnings. If I make a certain amount of PV, then Amway will give a bonus to my mentor for helping make that much PV.Another point that got my curiosity was that some of these people are VERY intelligent. I dont want to mention their accolades because I feel like that would be giving too much away. It strikes me as pertinent when I see people as smart as the ones Ive met go in a business that outsiders see as a fools errand. It makes it seem credible.The qualification process to become an IBO for this specific team of Amway IBOs is also quite gruelling. Ive committed at least 6 hrs sitting down with Alex and read a book Business of the 21st Century as homework and apparently I have several more sit downs with himher left before I get an offer to join their team. It seems inefficient do spend so much time doing this for a pyramid scheme because one would make more money by recruiting as many people as possible in a short amount of time.Alex did explain to me that I would have to pay a 70 fee for an IBO license or something and that it would have to be about 150mo to keep my website up and whatnot. As soon as heshe said that I told himher I dont make 150mo to see what heshe would do. Heshe said that I dont have to worry about it. Theyll help me make 150mo no problem. AND there is a 6 month money back guarantee, so if after 6 months I feel like its not for me, theyll refund everything.So help me out rpersonalfinance. Does this seem like a legitimate business that a 19 yo can operate?  <response>: Ask for a copy of someones tax return. This is what I always do. Youre making all this money you say you are? Then youre reporting it to the IRS, and I want to see what you reported.Ive yet to find anyone who will do this for me. 