I think it's got to do with the people you meet. Every company/business will have bad and good people.
I'm 20 and was in Amway for two months but I had been attending meetings, seminars and all that (spent about 20 bucks cuz every seminar was two bucks) for the past three months before officially joining because I was suspicious. I quit after two months because I realise I HAD to buy products in order to try them and sell them ( they told me u have to like your products in order to honestly sell them), and I had to pay for maaaaany other stuff (books, cds, subscription, seminars, trips). I'm fortunate to have met a nice bunch of people who were honest and stuff (remember I stayed around to observe).
What I didn't like was that in order to find people, I couldn't be straightforward and tell them the business. I had to twist and turn my words without getting to the point. It feels... shady. And I didn't like how the seminars were like. It may be 'motivating' to some but I felt more 'weirded out' like as if they were trying to 'brainwash' people. Yes it can be motivating cuz they always emphasize the 'rewards' you'll get if u work hard in the biz. I didn't like listening to the cds. They were really... 'brainwashy'. But the books were good cuz they were more towards self development.
Even after joining I was still on the fence. My fam didn't agree with me either. My bf however, is entirely convinced and totally into the biz. I'm so scared and worried for him. He listens religiously and is super motivated (partly because he has a lot of pressure financially). Everytime we talk about amway, we somehow end up fighting. I'm scared he's sucked into this. The group of people are nice but I do sometimes encounter hostility from some towards people who are uninterested.
I'm so afraid of how the future will be like for my bf and our future together. He's not a lazy dumb or mean person. He's hardworking and he did research on this biz before joining. He saw lots of anti amway but after encountering this one web site called The Truth of Amway (or something like that), he got convinced to join. I even told him there're so many webs stating not so good stuff but only one web that supports amway and ure gonna believe the one web? .. sigh... I'll definitely stick by him thru thick n thin and hopefully one day he realises it's not a good idea. I'm just scared he's gonna break things off. He's just desperately to gain financial freedom as fast as possible due to personal reasons.