An old friend whom I have not heard from in donkey’s years called yesterday.
“Hey Fa! How are you? How are your kids? How are your mom and dad? How’s your work? Still writing, eh?”
As surprised as I was to hear from him, I wondered about the true intent of his call.
“Everything is good. Nice to hear from you after all this while,” I said, trying to sound chirpy so as not to offend him.
You see, I’m wise beyond my 42 years. I know for a fact that when old friends call from out of the blue sounding concerned about how you’ve been and reminiscing about the good old times, it’s only because they want something. And from my personal experience, there are only three possibilities – money, a favour or MLM.
“So, what’s up with you? Still working at the bank?” I asked, hoping to dig some useful information from him.
“Wow. You sound happy. I am glad everything is working out for you,” I said cynically as I mentally crossed out the first two reasons.
And then he said what I had been dreading all along.
“That’s actually the reason I rang. Fa, I want to share some information with you about this business I am doing…” As I heard him utter those words, I automatically began hitting my head against the window of my parked car.
“MLM?” I asked point blank.
“It has a great business model, Fa. It’s really fantastic.”
“I’m sure it is.”
“I am serious, Fa. In just three months, I started earning more than what I used to earn at the bank. And some of my friends are even making almost thirty thousand a month.
“Good for them,” I said, trying desperately to conceal my irritation.
“Can you imagine making thirty thousand a month just by dedicating a few hours a day to this business?”
“…a few hours a day doing what exactly?” I asked.
“Let’s meet up, Fa. I can answer all your questions and show you the products we have. I am sure you will love it.”
“Ah, products! Does the business also require me to call up all my old friends whom I have not contacted in ages and try to sell them the products and membership? Sounds like MLM to me alright.”
“Come on Fa. I called you because this is a very good opportunity for you. As a single mother, you cannot miss it…”
I hung up after promising I would consider his invitation. However, little did he know, he is not the first “friend” to call me with such a fantastic “opportunity”.
I have been down this road before. A few years ago, not wanting to let my friends down, I joined a number of enterprises only to end up purchasing products I never used. In the meantime, I lost precious money, time and energy. And miraculously, right after losing so much, those very friends who once chased me all over town for that one cup of coffee, disappeared into thin air.
Every time the economy goes downhill, and people start struggling financially, more and more friends emerge from out of the woodwork with out-of-this-world business opportunities sounding very much like get-rich-quick-schemes. First, they tell you how much they’ve missed you and when you fall for that, they shove their business models and products down your throat until you buy something.
For heaven’s sake, why do they do that? Do they have no respect for friendship?
To all my friends in MLM…
Please stop building your network of customers by selling “opportunities” to me. I know this is a recruiting strategy but friendship is not about opportunity – it is about responsibility. And by using my friendship to trap me and our other friends into some business we are not even in the least bit interested in, you are not being responsible at all.
Truth is – I don’t care how fantastic the business model is; I don’t care how amazing the product is; I don’t care how much money I can make. I just want you to be my friend.
So please stop manipulating our friendship to generate your personal wealth.
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” – Warren Buffett
Fa Abdul is an FMT columnist.
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