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Please help my mom, she's stupid :)

angell_m

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Legal drugs make me psychotic. Wouldn't recommend them.
 

stringstheory

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I understand how tough it can be trying to help someone who is so incompetent as something so "basic"; believe me, my father has been trying to help me learn stuff like this for a while now and the frustration on his end is pretty great :alttongue:

But it is as you said:

A child with self esteem problems needs to be nurtured and guided with discipline but lots of compassion. She's really like a child in this respect but, well, she's old and no one's got the time or motivation to spend time on her beyond a few hours or days like her friends have done.

She might be old, but that doesn't mean she's going to miraculously get it all figured out because she's an adult. From what framework is she supposed to start? If the way you describe her is true, how do you expect her to understand the way such things work? And i don't mean know, as in knowing the things you tell her that come much easier to you (seemingly), i mean understand. Simply because she is an adult? Remember, you learned this stuff too, at some point, and I'm sure it didn't just happen. You were privileged to learn such things at a more opportune time than she.

You wouldn't throw anyone who has never swam before into a pool and expect them to figure it out, regardless of their age, so why the condescending attitude? What exactly will that fix? I would examine that more, if you really want to help your mother it wouldn't hurt you to actually reach out and HELP her and respect that learning to do such things takes time, especially as one ages.
 

ceecee

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How do you build the first bit of confidence in someone who's got none and who's been beat up all their life and who sees nothing but scarcity?

Clearly by verbally and emotionally beating up on them some more. :nice:


How about finding her some professional help? Just a thought.
 

Randomnity

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1. introducing her to multilevel marketing
:shock: You introduced your financially-illiterate mother to pyramid schemes??

My mom falls for those all the time. She hasn't learned yet that the guys at the top make money, sure, at the expense of people on the bottom like her. :doh:

I wish I had an answer for you though, since my mom is somewhat similar (though not stupid, more out of touch with reality).
 

ocean

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:shock: You introduced your financially-illiterate mother to pyramid schemes??

My mom falls for those all the time. She hasn't learned yet that the guys at the top make money, sure, at the expense of people on the bottom like her. :doh:

I wish I had an answer for you though, since my mom is somewhat similar (though not stupid, more out of touch with reality).

From your comments I take it you have not experienced multilevel marketing first hand but you've heard all the opinions.

Multilevel marketing is a legitimate business model with a solid support structure. People at the top got to the top by starting at the bottom (unless they actually started the company, which is even harder).

Ultimately successful people are always envied and people find all sorts of excuses to avoid putting in the effort... this is not unique to multilevel marketing.

My mother met a fantastic support structure in that company, she met people who could relate to her, and she attended seminars for very little money that she'd never have gone to otherwise.
 

Randomnity

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lmao. I sure have experienced them second hand - I'm not dumb enough to go into it myself, but my mom and much of her family and several of her adult friends are gullible enough to think they'll make money and end up losing money and wasting a ton of time. Have not met a single person who's made enough money to justify the time (<<< min. wage) and most have actually lost money overall.

I've seen them join a bunch of different, even somewhat well known companies, and they all have the same result. You don't make money but instead alienate your friends and family by trying to sell this overpriced crap to them and trying to profit off them by pushing them to join you in selling voerpriced crap.

wikipedia says:
* The Times: "The Government investigation claims to have revealed that just 10 per cent of Amway's agents in Britain make any profit, with less than one in ten selling a single item of the group's products."[20]
* Scheibeler, a high level "Emerald" Amway member: "UK Justice Norris found in 2008 that out of an IBO [Independent Business Owners] population of 33,000, 'only about 90 made sufficient incomes to cover the costs of actively building their business.' That's a 99.7 percent loss rate for investors."[21]
* Newsweek: based on Mona Vie's own 2007 income disclosure statement "fewer than 1 percent qualified for commissions and of those, only 10 percent made more than $100 a week."[22]
* Business Students Focus on Ethics: "In the USA, the average annual income from MLM for 90% MLM members is no more than US $5,000, which is far from being a sufficient means of making a living (San Lian Life Weekly 1998)"[23]
* USAToday: "While earning potential varies by company and sales ability, DSA says the median annual income for those in direct sales is $2,400."[24]

And my personal experience backs that up. While I have no doubt a few people work well in those systems (mostly by dragging other people into the mess) it is worse than a waste of time for most people, it's actually a liability. ugh.

I hope your mom is lucky, I guess.
 

Totenkindly

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As far as I can tell, it can be difficult to discern between a legitimate multilevel marketing scheme and a pyramid scheme, esp with the latter labeling themselves as the former. One has to be cautious and discerning.

As far as Amway goes... it sucks.

Here are some other issues:
What's Wrong With Multi-Level Marketing?
 

ocean

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As far as I can tell, it can be difficult to discern between a legitimate multilevel marketing scheme and a pyramid scheme, esp with the latter labeling themselves as the former. One has to be cautious and discerning.

As far as Amway goes... it sucks.

Here are some other issues:
What's Wrong With Multi-Level Marketing?

My upline was making six hundred thousand us dollars a month. They worked their butt off to get there, spent years putting up street signs and invested all they had into mailing lists. They were hard working people. And those who complain and have feelings of entitlement and you call them up and they've put like 3 signs the past week... yes those won't get anywhere. It's ok. 99% of species that ever lived are now extinct. Not everyone needs to make it (though your school system may have tacitly taught you otherwise).
 
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