The Opportunity

Utah is heavily influenced with MLM, business opportunities, get rich quick, schemes. Some of them are good. In fact, I've been involved with one for years and years and have been semi-successful with it. They thrive in Utah culture because they are so similar to the church: recruiting. Mormons are natural born recruiters.

A few years ago I joined an opportunity that I really thought had potential. It was so similar to Mormonism that I noticed it, even as a TBM.

As an investigator of this opportunity, I felt rushed into joining. The upline was manipulating.

As a new member, I was told that the opportunity was a "plan B" business. You kept your job and built your business in your spare time. Only when your new income surpassed your job income, did you quit. However, once I joined, I soon discovered that the leadership expected us to go to every meeting, every convention. We were to jump into the opportunity with both feet. Whatever happened to "plan B"?

As a new member, naturally the leadership helps you learn the business and goes on appointments with you. However, those who joined and did not immediately jump in with both feet were told by the leadership that they wouldn't help them. I especially remember hearing this regarding the large convention in Anaheim, CA.

Anyone who didn't attend convention were shunned by the leadership. So, I spent money that I didn't have and attended the convention, sick. It was an 8 or 9 hour drive from SLC to Anaheim and I was stuck in the back seat of an extended cab pickup truck, both ways.

Leadership promised that the convention would change our lives. All it did was give me a numb rear end. I failed to see what all the hype was about.

One other thing that bothered me was how much the leadership or upline was praised by everyone. The guy who introduced the opportunity to Utah was a young, returned missionary and he was cocky as hell. While I was stuffed in the back of a truck, he drove an Escalade. I was appalled at his vanity.

Hopefully you can see the parallels between this opportunity and the LDS church. It wasn't long before I just quit going to meetings. They wanted me early every Saturday morning to attend a meeting (which was nothing but hype) and was exactly the same every time.

It was eating away at my life. The final straw was when I received the annual renewal form. I was supposed to pay every year just to keep my membership active. That was it. I let it expire and haven't regretted it for a minute.

The LDS church is no different. They want your time, talents, and money. They don't tell you the whole picture until you're already committed. Then they suck everything you've got.