More on 'Reading Others'...

I love reading the posts of other bloggers (yes, I routinely read all the people I have linked on this page and I hope to add more). Ok enough with the shameless promotion, both of self and others.

Mama of 2 had a wonderful blog today. I am posting this one day early so this is my actual post for Wed. As I will not be home today (er...tomorrow).

By the way has anybody seen that Liberty Mutual commercial where the dad in a bathrobe stands in front of his garage reading a paper until the daughter and friend both 'buckle up?'

How cool is that dad!! I bet he is a SAHD too!! (ok, really this is the end of the shameless promotions!)

Mama of 2 posted a wicked funny blog about 'Get Rich Quick' schemes and how they backfire on those naive enough to give them a try.

I had two experiences with (ok, one is my parents) with Amway.

1- Mom and Dad had some very close 'friends' when they lived in WV. But since both mom and dad were from the Buckeye State, dad found a way to move his career back to the home State. After the move their friends would keep in touch with phone calls and letters and one day actually asked if they could make a visit.

My parental units were delighted. Plans were made, special meals prepared and babysitters lined up. The kids were to spend the night elsewhere, so as not to interfere with the adults.

So the big night arrives, the couple arrives and, proceeds to set up a slide projector and an easel (the one with the poster sized paper) and spends 21/2 hours trying to sell mom and dad on how great Amway was.

They would not move off of the topic. At all.

Now folks, dad is not a soft target here. I have seen him invite a vacuum salesmen into his house and have the poor soul completely clean his house just to get the free 2-liter of soda offered.
Imagine what his reaction was to his 'friends' sales pitch.

The year was 1979 and we have not heard from these people once from that night to present...

2- The Wife worked at a local bank branch and met one of her customers at a grocery store. The man then 'whipped out' his Amway pitch and being bred with manners, she politely listened and invited him to our house.

After listening to his sales pitch and making polite remarks like, 'I might be able to show that to some people at work' or 'wow, a cleaning product like that would be nice,' we managed to get Mr. Amway out of the house (apartment). But first we scheduled another meeting in which we were supposed to cough up $200 for the basic starter kit (and if we sold anything 75% of our sales would go to Mr. Amway).

After crunching the numbers, for which both of us already knew would come out unfavorably toward us, the Boss informed me that she had an appointment on the day we were to again meet with Mr. Amway.

Huh? Apparently I was better at this type of thing (confrontations) and would I please handle the matter (send him packing like a Carpetbagger during the Reconstruction of the South). Oh, since he was a 'valued' customer of the bank, could I nice about it?

The meeting with Mr. Amway started out nicely, until I informed him we were not interested. Seeing his money vanishing, Mr. Amway tried guilting it out of me.
"What about all those things you said about selling to your co-workers and how much you liked the product?"

Well, he had me there. I did say those things. I could only look him in the eyes and tell the truth.
"Well, to be honest I lied. I really had no intention of doing this."
"Why the hell did you invite me over here if you were not interested?"
"I never actually invited you. (the boss) did and she was just trying to be nice."

A few more attempts at cracking my wallet open ensued and then this line was tossed out...

"So what do you have against making money?"

EXCUSE ME? The government does not take as much earnings as Mr. Amway planned on taking. As a matter-of-fact, he sat there with a Cheshire Cat smile on his face as he told us how much we stood to lose (er...gain).

Keeping in mind that he was a valued customer, I clamped down on my natural tendencies. Being a red-head, from a very competitive family largely dominated by boys, well let's say that IF I lost my temper I would have been patching dry wall for a week!

Instead I did rather firmly invite his ass to leave. However, I did leave the question of whether or not the patio door was opened or shut as he left to be up to his discretion.

It really is true. One should never go into business with Family or Friends.