Takeaways

• By the count of a consumer regulator in the United States, seventy-two percent of the distributors of one large company that sold nutrition products earned nothing from it in two thousand and sixteen, and another eighteen percent earned under two hundred and fifty dollars; the regulator said that income at the level that could earn every reward depended on recruiting. In two thousand and twenty-four, the regulator's staff read seventy income statements that multi-level marketing companies publish about themselves: not one counted all of the members' costs, and in most of those that said so, more than half of members earned nothing.
• The test is where the money enters. An M-Pesa agent in Kenya is paid a commission each time a stranger deposits or withdraws cash; nobody is paid because the agent joined. In a recruiting chain, money enters when a new member pays, and flows up.
• Something to try: before you pay to join anything, ask the person recruiting you three questions. How much did you make last year, after expenses? What were your expenses? And if I never recruit anyone, who pays me? No numbers, no joining.