Ramit Sethi: [00:15:00] Mm-hmm. How much do you make from your current company?
Arly: [00:15:06] $300.
Ramit Sethi: [00:15:08] Per month. Uh-huh. How much are you going to make next month?
Arly: [00:15:14] Same.
Ramit Sethi: [00:15:15] Yeah. And, Arly, what kind of business is this?
Arly: [00:15:18] Network marketing.
Ramit Sethi: [00:15:21] What are you selling?
Arly: [00:15:23] Essential oils.
Ramit Sethi: [00:15:25] No. Network marketing selling essential oils, oh, my God, is there a bigger scam on Earth? Arly, how did you get into this, a Facebook group?
Arly: [00:15:44] No, no. Somebody that I know.
Ramit Sethi: [00:15:47] Oh, God. And what did they tell you, if you get in, then you can make a bunch of passive income, and then other people will be working for you, that kind of thing?
Arly: [00:15:56] Yeah, something like that.
Ramit Sethi: [00:15:58] Mm-hmm. And is your friend making all that money?
Arly: [00:16:01] She is actually.
Ramit Sethi: [00:16:03] Uh-huh. What kind of car does she drive?
Arly: [00:16:06] She drives a Porsche Cayenne.
Ramit Sethi: [00:16:08] Yeah. It’s no good. No good. You’re not going to make it with this business. Do you know the percentage of people who succeed with this type of business?
Arly: [00:16:19] Yes, I do.
Ramit Sethi: [00:16:20] What is it?
Arly: [00:16:20] It’s like 1%.
Ramit Sethi: [00:16:22] Yeah. And how long have you been doing this for?
Arly: [00:16:25] About three years. I did it part-time before, so-
Ramit Sethi: [00:16:30] Arly, you’re the 99% of people. It doesn’t work. You’re the exact person. You’ve paid, you bought all these things, you’ve been spending all this time, you used to make $56,000 a year, your finances have gotten worse, you are the 99% of people for whom this doesn’t work. What do you think? Talk to me. It’s okay. This is tough to hear, I know. Talk to me. I want to hear what’s going through your mind. Is it difficult to hear? No. You’re shaking your head no. Is it surprising to hear? No.
Arly: [00:17:24] It’s not, because it’s something that I have voiced before to Martin, many times, actually, but I had to leave my corporate job, because I was just not happy doing that. I was just not happy. And the stress and everything that came with that specific job led me down a path of anxiety and depression, so I needed to leave it regardless. Regardless. So, though I understand that me going back to corporate would help us financially, to put my mental health, what’s the word I’m looking for?
Ramit Sethi: [00:18:05] At risk.
Arly: [00:18:06] At risk, it’s not very appealing. I work in customer service, so I mean, that’s—so it’s really, really tough to come to terms with that.
Ramit Sethi: [00:18:25] Yeah. I agree with a lot of what you said. I don’t want you to have to go and compromise your mental health. I’m not telling you, you have to go back to the company that you used to work for, that caused you to feel this way. First of all, I can’t tell you to do anything. This is your life and the two of you make decisions. What I can do is point out some things you may not have considered. Okay. I totally understand if you have to leave a job because it’s not serving, and you did that. That was pretty courageous. Unfortunately, you took a wrong turn.
I hate multilevel marketing and I hate network marketing. It’s almost always a scam. When 99% of people fail at something, you can generally treat that like a red flag. These business models are structurally corrupt and they intentionally prey on vulnerable people, including minorities and the poor. The quintessential example is a stay-at-home mom who joins a Facebook group of other moms pushing some MLM with dubious results. Data has shown very clearly that the vast majority of people in this industry make no money, but the people who join these scams also have to take responsibility.