“Selling the Dream: The Billion-Dollar Industry Bankrupting Americans”
by Jane Marie
2024/Atria $29/309 pages
It sounded like a good idea. Eighteen years old, a dropout, and unemployed, Jane Marie saw a TV ad for what she knew was “a pyramid scheme.” It wasn’t her first go-around with an MLM (multi-level marketing) scheme but it was her last.
How did she get suckered twice? Surprisingly easily, actually.
MLMs all “work in basically the same way.” The business’s owners and early joiners sit at the top of a pyramid and “set out to recruit teams of sellers” who recruit more teams of sellers. Awhile back, extensive research showed that “as many as 99% of those who do join [an MLM business] make no money or even lose money.” That includes Amway, LuLaRoe, and most other pyramid-driven, work-at-home, get-rich schemes.
So how do you avoid being taken in by a scheme? Slow down and ask questions. Where’s the money coming from and how do you get yours? What does the government say about the business?
Author Jane Marie writes about multi-level marketing from the point-of-view of someone who was the average age and gender of MLM sellers, and who knew better than to get involved, but did anyway. Her front-row peek is told personally and honestly, which gains a reader’s trust pretty quickly, and Marie’s sense of humor helps keep it. She’ll also hold your interest with a nice history of how MLMs are created and maintained; how they are regulated (or not); and why people sign on, even against their better judgment.
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