Post by maliss619 on Jul 1, 2009 16:18:54 GMT -5
Before you try to judge me, read my entire story.
My story is simple but seems to be a little different then any of yours.
I was living in a two bed room apartment with about 8 people at the time. I was the only one with a job. I worked at a hamburger restaurant making next to nothing. I found the add on Monster.com and a few days later got a call telling me to come in for an interview. I interviewed with a guy named Stuart Witkowski. He was sharply dressed and very respectable. He sent me back on my Day of O' with a guy named Austin who took me out and showed me how it's done. I loved every minuet of it. We worked through a car sales district, hitting all the garages and car lots and everything. He sold everything in his car and then took me to lunch where things were explained and I instantly jumped on it.
I was introduced to his leader, Manny "Money Bags" Santos who was the number one merchandiser in the country. If you guys were in the clearance division and really got as far as you have, you must have heard about this guy at least once. He recruited me onto his team and showed me everything and like they wanted, I copied him. I started to become him and before I knew it, money was so easy to take from people. I would ask a guy for a cigarette and he'd end up dropping 70 bucks on me.
Here's the thing....off of a product that costs 10 bucks you make 2 dollars provided you collect the tax. I would be given enough merch to collect about 700 bucks which at the end of the day I'd take home about about 125-150, sometimes near 200 a day from tips.
Yes I did take tips. "Thank you sir I appreciate it. It's really hot out here though. Shoot me another buck so I can grab a drink, yeah?" You'd be surprised at how well it works.
Selling crappy books and toys and useless junk to people was easy as long as you didn't look at it as a sales job. You just have to remember L-O-A (refer to the glossary and terms the site administrator put together) (hats off to you by the way. I read the entire glossary and it all was very accurate and well put together)
LOA was simple. Just see as many people as possible and get as many "No's" as you can while maintaining a positive outlook. My mentality was "they said no...so what. Move on, forget about it, and find the next person." Eventually someone says yes. LOA can be explained like this....If you drive down the freeway at 100 mph every single day you may not get caught today, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually a cop will find you and get you, right? If you're looking for a specific toy for your kid on Christmas and you go to enough toy sores, eventually you will find it. It's got nothing to do with skill or being a smooth talker. Just have a good personality and try to talk to as many people as you can.
Day after day I pulled dollar after dollar out. Money was good. I bought a used 2001 BMW 325i from money I saved up in the field. My parents have always been supportive of my decisions in life so they didn't mind me being in this "cult". I moved out of the apartment with my friends and back home so I could save some more money. I lived with them all through my time as a distributor until I got promoted later on.
Manny got promoted to an office in Chula Vista (a city in southern san diego near the border of mexico) by the Regional VP Scott Williams. That's another HUGE name in the business I'm sure you guys know of. Scott is astounding in his ways. He can mold anyones mind perfectly.
Manny's office took off. We were bringing in new guys all the time, losing many, but retaining just enough to keep things going.
Of course I worked long hours. It was 6 days a week, nearly 12 hours a day but to me I figured a lot of hard work in the beginning and I'd pull myself into an office and start things on my own. It'd be worth it.
The business taught me about work ethic. It taught me about determination and goals and pride. I accomplished a lot mentally just by being there and I really enjoyed all of it.
Owners weekend rolled around and that was a real treat.
The Acapulco Princess is a 5 star resort in Mexico with EVERYTHING you can imagine in luxury. Manny took me and one other guy with him and we seriously had the time of our lives. we were all given a wrist band that entitled us to anything for free. I had lobster and long island ice teas at 2 in the morning. I was sitting in the pool at the swim up bar with Scott Williams and Harmony Hunt beside me, sipping a margarita. All I had to pay for was my determination and hard work in the field before hand.
So after owners weekend I got promoted to my own outside deal. I opened an office in the eastern part of San Diego in a city called El Cajon. I loved it. I was able to afford my own condo. I'd bring my dogs to the office with me every day. I'd do interviews, run meetings, take conference calls and by 1 in the afternoon me and my dogs would relax. I'd play some ps2 in the office, go get a haircut, take a nap on my desk.
But reality kicked in gear after about 3 months of being an owner. Sure, my bills were payed. I had a great car. And I'd do little to nothing for most of the day while my crew went out and made money for us. But then one day, one of my leaders walked into my office and sat down with me. He expressed his problems about how he was struggling in the field and couldn't seem to make his bills on time because of his lack of income. I kept feeding him everything I've been told, telling him that he just needs to get consistant and stick it out. I'd pair him up with my best guys and hope they'd retrain him. I even sent him on a road trip with one of my guys to Inglewood to work with David Apple and he still had trouble. But as long as he was working for me I was making money and Manny was making money and Scott was making money. If they knew I'd gotten rid of someone that still wanted to be in I'd have my head chopped off.
Then he came in another day and told me about how he needed to go home for the day because his wife had just left him, taking their two kids with her because he couldn't provide. But what I was taught, as long as they still have a drive for the oppurtunity, they should stick it out, so I took him out and worked with him in each door. He improved a little but it just didn't seem he was getting it down. Finally I gave in and told him, after a week of retraining personally, he should look into a career somewhere else with little to no sales aspects. He left that day.
About a month later one of my guys told me they saw him in the field, sleeping behind a dumpster. I went to that dumpster and found him there with a bottle of vodka in his hand. He told me that he was evicted from his apartment and his car was taken by the bank. I bought him lunch, a pair of shoes, and a new jacket and told him he could sleep in my office's warehouse as long as he went back to work with me and put his best effort into the job. He agreed. He stayed in my office for about 3 days but then disappeared. About a week I then came across an article in the paper saying that he had been killed after trying to rob a taco shop unsuccessfully and being gunned down by a police officer. They said it was believed he wanted to die.
The business did it to him.
When you're in there and you meet the managers, owners, VP's, and what not you are told of wealth, fortune, exotic life styles, and so much more. But what you don't realize is it's not meant for everyone who walks through that door like they want you to believe. Sure, there is no doubt in my mind it's entirely possible to become a millionaire in this.
I sent all my guys back to Clairemont with Scott Williams a week later, laid my secretary off, and closed my office within the month. I shouldn't have pushed him for my own gain, or worse, the companies gain.
If I stuck around I'm sure I'd be driving a porsche and living in a mansion but I can't be part of something like this. I'm not greedy.
The "cows" are 90% of the population and the "rhinos" are 10%. When that 90% gets sucked in and fails but becomes too addicted to the atmosphere and success everyone else has, they wither away and die, like many of you have spoke of.
I don't believe at all that DS MAX is a thieving company or even some sort of cult. Anyone who says it is is honestly just misdirected. Just because you had a bad experience in the company doesn't mean you need to bash it. It just means you aren't cut out to be part of it. And so what? It's not a bad thing. We need doctors and lawyers and dentists and such. You're not meant to be a part of this, that's all.
I was able to do it and be a success, but honestly, there's too much greed involved. Scott Williams wants money. He doesn't want people to quit because even if they only make 20 bucks for him a month, they are still making money for him. That's the deception. It's not a bad company...it's just got a bad frame. I think that if they didn't try to force everyone to do it and stick around then things would be better.
Thus I am neither for, nor against this company. I now am a dog groomer and own my own shop with four employee's under me. I really do not regret working there because it taught me the manager mentality, work ethic, determination, drive, and goal setting I needed to run my own business. I was able to save, in total after having bought a car, close to 13,000 in the year and a half I worked there.
I wouldn't go back and do it again because I am much happier now. I make a good living in an honest business myself. But I don't think this organization should be man-handled like a lot of people try to do.
It's not meant for everyone. Don't get sucked in if you can't handle it. Because if you can't do it, it WILL destroy you. But if you can deal with the huge negatives to come your way and the obstacles that you will encounter, it WILL make you.
I hope my story will influence some people. I, like all of you, got out of the business in a negative way. but unlike many of you I don't look at it negatively. I love everything it's taught me and the people I've met. Just ask yourself why you quit....were you not making money? If you weren't, were you REALLY following ALL the 8 steps, 5 steps, Fugi's? Did you really talk to every person you saw? Did you maintain a positive attitude? Because there isn't a reason you shouldn't have made some money if you had been. If you didn't then honestly it's not a bad thing, you just weren't meant for it. There are plenty of other careers out there...be a doctor. Be a lawyer, be an artist, musician, actor, video game designer, train operator, cab driver...whatever.....but please don't bash on a company because it wasn't your cup of tea. If your loved ones are hooked into it and they are struggling, tell them to get out and change their life but don't tell them it's because this is a scam or cult or whatever....it's just plain childish to do so. If I've offended anyone then I'm sorry but that's just the facts and this is a forum where we are invited to express our stories and opinions... Thats what I did and if this bothers you then maybe writing in forums isn't your cup of tea either. Thank you for reading thus far. I'll be happy to converse with anyone regarding this subject further if need be. And to the Administrator I love what you've done with the site. It's very impressive and I hope that you won't look at my post as closed minded dribble but rather optimism.
My story is simple but seems to be a little different then any of yours.
I was living in a two bed room apartment with about 8 people at the time. I was the only one with a job. I worked at a hamburger restaurant making next to nothing. I found the add on Monster.com and a few days later got a call telling me to come in for an interview. I interviewed with a guy named Stuart Witkowski. He was sharply dressed and very respectable. He sent me back on my Day of O' with a guy named Austin who took me out and showed me how it's done. I loved every minuet of it. We worked through a car sales district, hitting all the garages and car lots and everything. He sold everything in his car and then took me to lunch where things were explained and I instantly jumped on it.
I was introduced to his leader, Manny "Money Bags" Santos who was the number one merchandiser in the country. If you guys were in the clearance division and really got as far as you have, you must have heard about this guy at least once. He recruited me onto his team and showed me everything and like they wanted, I copied him. I started to become him and before I knew it, money was so easy to take from people. I would ask a guy for a cigarette and he'd end up dropping 70 bucks on me.
Here's the thing....off of a product that costs 10 bucks you make 2 dollars provided you collect the tax. I would be given enough merch to collect about 700 bucks which at the end of the day I'd take home about about 125-150, sometimes near 200 a day from tips.
Yes I did take tips. "Thank you sir I appreciate it. It's really hot out here though. Shoot me another buck so I can grab a drink, yeah?" You'd be surprised at how well it works.
Selling crappy books and toys and useless junk to people was easy as long as you didn't look at it as a sales job. You just have to remember L-O-A (refer to the glossary and terms the site administrator put together) (hats off to you by the way. I read the entire glossary and it all was very accurate and well put together)
LOA was simple. Just see as many people as possible and get as many "No's" as you can while maintaining a positive outlook. My mentality was "they said no...so what. Move on, forget about it, and find the next person." Eventually someone says yes. LOA can be explained like this....If you drive down the freeway at 100 mph every single day you may not get caught today, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually a cop will find you and get you, right? If you're looking for a specific toy for your kid on Christmas and you go to enough toy sores, eventually you will find it. It's got nothing to do with skill or being a smooth talker. Just have a good personality and try to talk to as many people as you can.
Day after day I pulled dollar after dollar out. Money was good. I bought a used 2001 BMW 325i from money I saved up in the field. My parents have always been supportive of my decisions in life so they didn't mind me being in this "cult". I moved out of the apartment with my friends and back home so I could save some more money. I lived with them all through my time as a distributor until I got promoted later on.
Manny got promoted to an office in Chula Vista (a city in southern san diego near the border of mexico) by the Regional VP Scott Williams. That's another HUGE name in the business I'm sure you guys know of. Scott is astounding in his ways. He can mold anyones mind perfectly.
Manny's office took off. We were bringing in new guys all the time, losing many, but retaining just enough to keep things going.
Of course I worked long hours. It was 6 days a week, nearly 12 hours a day but to me I figured a lot of hard work in the beginning and I'd pull myself into an office and start things on my own. It'd be worth it.
The business taught me about work ethic. It taught me about determination and goals and pride. I accomplished a lot mentally just by being there and I really enjoyed all of it.
Owners weekend rolled around and that was a real treat.
The Acapulco Princess is a 5 star resort in Mexico with EVERYTHING you can imagine in luxury. Manny took me and one other guy with him and we seriously had the time of our lives. we were all given a wrist band that entitled us to anything for free. I had lobster and long island ice teas at 2 in the morning. I was sitting in the pool at the swim up bar with Scott Williams and Harmony Hunt beside me, sipping a margarita. All I had to pay for was my determination and hard work in the field before hand.
So after owners weekend I got promoted to my own outside deal. I opened an office in the eastern part of San Diego in a city called El Cajon. I loved it. I was able to afford my own condo. I'd bring my dogs to the office with me every day. I'd do interviews, run meetings, take conference calls and by 1 in the afternoon me and my dogs would relax. I'd play some ps2 in the office, go get a haircut, take a nap on my desk.
But reality kicked in gear after about 3 months of being an owner. Sure, my bills were payed. I had a great car. And I'd do little to nothing for most of the day while my crew went out and made money for us. But then one day, one of my leaders walked into my office and sat down with me. He expressed his problems about how he was struggling in the field and couldn't seem to make his bills on time because of his lack of income. I kept feeding him everything I've been told, telling him that he just needs to get consistant and stick it out. I'd pair him up with my best guys and hope they'd retrain him. I even sent him on a road trip with one of my guys to Inglewood to work with David Apple and he still had trouble. But as long as he was working for me I was making money and Manny was making money and Scott was making money. If they knew I'd gotten rid of someone that still wanted to be in I'd have my head chopped off.
Then he came in another day and told me about how he needed to go home for the day because his wife had just left him, taking their two kids with her because he couldn't provide. But what I was taught, as long as they still have a drive for the oppurtunity, they should stick it out, so I took him out and worked with him in each door. He improved a little but it just didn't seem he was getting it down. Finally I gave in and told him, after a week of retraining personally, he should look into a career somewhere else with little to no sales aspects. He left that day.
About a month later one of my guys told me they saw him in the field, sleeping behind a dumpster. I went to that dumpster and found him there with a bottle of vodka in his hand. He told me that he was evicted from his apartment and his car was taken by the bank. I bought him lunch, a pair of shoes, and a new jacket and told him he could sleep in my office's warehouse as long as he went back to work with me and put his best effort into the job. He agreed. He stayed in my office for about 3 days but then disappeared. About a week I then came across an article in the paper saying that he had been killed after trying to rob a taco shop unsuccessfully and being gunned down by a police officer. They said it was believed he wanted to die.
The business did it to him.
When you're in there and you meet the managers, owners, VP's, and what not you are told of wealth, fortune, exotic life styles, and so much more. But what you don't realize is it's not meant for everyone who walks through that door like they want you to believe. Sure, there is no doubt in my mind it's entirely possible to become a millionaire in this.
I sent all my guys back to Clairemont with Scott Williams a week later, laid my secretary off, and closed my office within the month. I shouldn't have pushed him for my own gain, or worse, the companies gain.
If I stuck around I'm sure I'd be driving a porsche and living in a mansion but I can't be part of something like this. I'm not greedy.
The "cows" are 90% of the population and the "rhinos" are 10%. When that 90% gets sucked in and fails but becomes too addicted to the atmosphere and success everyone else has, they wither away and die, like many of you have spoke of.
I don't believe at all that DS MAX is a thieving company or even some sort of cult. Anyone who says it is is honestly just misdirected. Just because you had a bad experience in the company doesn't mean you need to bash it. It just means you aren't cut out to be part of it. And so what? It's not a bad thing. We need doctors and lawyers and dentists and such. You're not meant to be a part of this, that's all.
I was able to do it and be a success, but honestly, there's too much greed involved. Scott Williams wants money. He doesn't want people to quit because even if they only make 20 bucks for him a month, they are still making money for him. That's the deception. It's not a bad company...it's just got a bad frame. I think that if they didn't try to force everyone to do it and stick around then things would be better.
Thus I am neither for, nor against this company. I now am a dog groomer and own my own shop with four employee's under me. I really do not regret working there because it taught me the manager mentality, work ethic, determination, drive, and goal setting I needed to run my own business. I was able to save, in total after having bought a car, close to 13,000 in the year and a half I worked there.
I wouldn't go back and do it again because I am much happier now. I make a good living in an honest business myself. But I don't think this organization should be man-handled like a lot of people try to do.
It's not meant for everyone. Don't get sucked in if you can't handle it. Because if you can't do it, it WILL destroy you. But if you can deal with the huge negatives to come your way and the obstacles that you will encounter, it WILL make you.
I hope my story will influence some people. I, like all of you, got out of the business in a negative way. but unlike many of you I don't look at it negatively. I love everything it's taught me and the people I've met. Just ask yourself why you quit....were you not making money? If you weren't, were you REALLY following ALL the 8 steps, 5 steps, Fugi's? Did you really talk to every person you saw? Did you maintain a positive attitude? Because there isn't a reason you shouldn't have made some money if you had been. If you didn't then honestly it's not a bad thing, you just weren't meant for it. There are plenty of other careers out there...be a doctor. Be a lawyer, be an artist, musician, actor, video game designer, train operator, cab driver...whatever.....but please don't bash on a company because it wasn't your cup of tea. If your loved ones are hooked into it and they are struggling, tell them to get out and change their life but don't tell them it's because this is a scam or cult or whatever....it's just plain childish to do so. If I've offended anyone then I'm sorry but that's just the facts and this is a forum where we are invited to express our stories and opinions... Thats what I did and if this bothers you then maybe writing in forums isn't your cup of tea either. Thank you for reading thus far. I'll be happy to converse with anyone regarding this subject further if need be. And to the Administrator I love what you've done with the site. It's very impressive and I hope that you won't look at my post as closed minded dribble but rather optimism.