by Sarah Gerard
159. “It is perfectly natural for the human mind to seek to escape from its troubles by running away from present environments or by planning some change on the material plane”: Ibid., 12.
160. “You need take no part in the outer demonstration of relief from conditions”: Ibid.
161. “Inharmony cannot remain in any home where even one member daily practices [an] hour of the presence of God”: Ibid., 10.
162. “Unfortunately, my faith kept me in the relationship too long”: Osmundson, interview, July 13, 2015.
163. “I don’t know if it’s possible”: Osmundson, interview, July 13, 2015.
Going Diamond
1. Some call it a pyramid scheme: O’Donnell, “Multilevel Marketing or ‘Pyramid?’ Sales People Find It Hard to Earn Much.”
2. claimed transglobal sales of $9.5 billion: Martinez, “Amway’s 2015 Revenues Fall to Lowest Level in 5 Years.”
3. a second year of decline for Alticor, whose sales in 2014 totaled $10.8 billion: Coffey and de Jong, “Amway Billionaires Debut After Bad Year for Direct Seller.”
4. It is the biggest direct-selling company in the world: Coffey and de Jong, “Amway Billionaires Debut After Bad Year for Direct Seller.”
5. “selling” Amway products: Roth, “Dreams Incorporated.”
6. who then distribute Amway products to other distributors they sign up: Amway, Business Reference Guide.
7. multimillion-dollar lawsuits and other legal actions on almost every continent: Wikipedia, s.v. “Amway.”
8. After all, less than 1 percent of Amway distributors go Diamond: Amway, Business Reference Guide; Pyramid Scheme Alert, “Study of Ten Major MLMs and Amway/Quixtar.”
9. all yards are maintained by the Bayou Club’s landscapers: Realtor 1, interview, July 16, 2015.
10. when they commissioned him to write the first “official” history of the Amway Corporation: Cross, Choices with Clout, xi.
11. change negative self-talk into positive self-talk: Cross, Amway, 46.
12. if they can’t train them to be positive: Ibid., 100–102.
13. a central reason why Amway is so successful: Ibid., 99–103.
14. “a skill that has to be learned, practiced, and put into action”: Ibid., 99.
15. “practice the art . . . on a daily basis”: Ibid.
16. “Most people think the kitchen needs updating”: Realtor 1, interview, July 16, 2015.
17. Rich was fourteen: DeVos, Simply Rich, 31.
18. He was walking two miles through the snow to his high school: Ibid., 27.
19. “already being an enterprising type, I had an idea”: Ibid., 28.
20. “I thought a ride in this car would surely beat the bus, a streetcar, or walking”: Ibid.
21. running a pilot school: Ibid., 50.
22. comedy-of-errors trip on a sailboat: Ibid., 58–69.
23. for which Jay’s second cousin and his parents are already distributors: Ibid., 74.
24. “Until then, there had been no official government position on what type of claims could be made about dietary supplements”: Ibid., 85.
25. let nothing stand in your way, then success is guaranteed: Cross, Amway, 45.
26. Rich DeVos calls “Compassionate Capitalism”: DeVos, Compassionate Capitalism.
27. Amway’s first original product: DeVos, Simply Rich, 97.
28. investigation of Amway, by the Federal Trade Commission in 1975: Ibid., 126.
29. “misunderstanding of business principles and an attack on free enterprise”: Ibid., 131.
30. challenges free enterprise, and thus freedom itself: Cross, Amway, 94–99.
31. “I wish they would take responsibility for their own actions instead of trying to blame the business”: DeVos, Simply Rich, 130.
32. they lack faith in their ability to succeed, and thus the necessary determination: Cross, Amway, 86–87.
33. millions worldwide: DeVos, Simply Rich, 153–154.
34. YouTube video uploaded in 2011: “Amway Function,” YouTube video.
35. “All it took was the willingness to work hard to achieve a dream”: DeVos, Simply Rich, 87.
36. “This is Renata, my assistant”: Realtor 2, interview, August 8, 2015.
37. “This would make a good nursery”: Ibid.
38. “Listen to Alcimon and Marie-Chantale Colas”: Cross, Amway, 6.
39. “Listen to Sevgi Corapci”: Ibid., 3.
40. “I was a salaried man working in a company for eight years”: Ibid.
41. “they noticed I became more optimistic and more healthy”: Ibid.
42. Listen to Rosemarie and Otto Steiner-Lang: Ibid.
43. beating boredom and passivity, spending more time with family, and earning the admiration of others: Ibid., 5.
44. A housewife can do it: Ibid.
45. The physically enfeebled can do it: Ibid., 36.
46. pioneering move onto the World Wide Web: Ibid., 69–81.
47. “Amway Distributor Profile”: Ibid., 172–192.
48. “Bootstraps Philosophy”: Ibid., 13–33.
49. Amway’s foreign expansion strategy: Ibid., 135–153.
50. “sell products and keep on generating volume”: Ibid., 181.
51. Not in retail stores: Amway, Business Reference Guide, D-13–D-14.
52. Amway distributors can only sell their products directly to the public, or to other Amway distributors: Ibid., D-4.
53. in blind tests, Amway products often score poorly: O’Donnell, “Multilevel Marketing or ‘Pyramid?’”
54. “putting free enterprise in the hands of the common man and woman”: Cross, Amway, 8.
55. making any sacrifices necessary: Ibid., 113–115.
56. Amway was bigger than making money; it was a way to overhaul your lifestyle and live your dreams: Ibid., 121.
57. Yager, who didn’t let a stroke stop him: “Yager, Dexter & Birdie,” Unofficial Amway Wiki.
58. even as he was learning to walk and speak again: Cross, Amway 121–122.
59. “just performance”: Ibid., 108–110.
60. “Tastewise, it may not be your taste”: Realtor 3, interview, August 8, 2015.
61. “Money—and what it can buy—is the universally recognizable indicator of success”: Cross, Amway, 79.
62. Negativity causes failure: Cross, Amway, 91.
63. Cross spent the ten years after writing Commitment to Excellence researching the two men: Cross, Choices with Clout, xi.
64. “Are you ready now?”: Cross, Amway, 101–102.
65. yourself, family, community, free enterprise, America, and faith itself: Ibid., 86.
66. it doesn’t endorse a single religion: DeVos, Simply Rich, 217–218.
67. people of all races, political affiliations, and creeds succeeding in Amway: Ibid.
68. recruiting more distributors: Cross, Amway, 87.
69. persisting in The Business through every hardship: Ibid., 111–112.
70. Free enterprise is a blessing from God: DeVos, Simply Rich, 217.
71. In 2016, Forbes estimated Rich DeVos’s net worth to be $4.8 billion: “The World’s Billionaires,” Forbes.
72. you’d never do anything more than take the bus: DeVos, Simply Rich, 186–187.
73. $1 million renovation: “Welcome to The Bayou Club,” Bayou Club.
74. new roof: Dale, interview, July 16, 2015.
75. “even among the ultradwarf cultivars, there is no other grass capable of producing the incredible ball roll of a well-maintained Champion green”: “Champion: The Ultimate Bermudagrass Putting Surface,” Champion Turf Farms.
76. He tells us the club no longer has an initiation fee: Dale, interview, July 16, 2015.
77. lifetime charity donations of $1.2 billion: “America’s 50 Top Givers,” Forbes.
78. Most of that money has stayed in West Michigan: Martinez, “$1.2 Billion in Donations Puts DeVos Family in Forbes Top Philanthropy List.”
79. have bequeathed
a considerable portion of Grand Rapids: DeVos, Simply Rich, 221–231.
80. often credited for catalyzing the revitalization of downtown: Helderop, “Detroit Can Learn a Thing or Two from Grand Rapids.”
81. Much of it went to public schools and Grand Rapids–based hospitals, arts programs, and faith-based organizations providing services to the homeless: Martinez, “How and Why the DeVos Family Gives Away Billions.”
82. That same year over $4 million of DeVos money went to Hope College: “Where DeVos Family Donates Millions,” Mlive.com.
83. Reformed Church in America—in which Rich DeVos was raised: DeVos, Simply Rich, 213–214.
84. while $2.2 million went to Calvin College, associated with the Christian Reformed Church in North America: “Where DeVos Family Donates Millions,” Mlive.com.
85. 13 percent went to churches and faith-based organizations: Martinez, “How and Why the DeVos Family Gives Away Billions.”
86. $1.05 million to the Chicago-based Willow Creek Community: Where DeVos Family Donates Millions,” Mlive.com.
87. “The Christian church and Christian education are high on our list of giving”: DeVos, Simply Rich, 278.
88. “My giving it puts the money in better hands than the government’s”: Ibid.
89. Donors who meet at The Gathering dispense upwards of $1 billion a year in grants: Michaelson, “The $1-Billion-a-Year Right-Wing Conspiracy You Haven’t Heard Of.”
90. earning comparisons to the Kochs: Kroll, “Meet the New Kochs.”
91. candidates like Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum: Bennett, “The Ultra-Rich, Ultra-Conservative DeVos Family.”
92. Jeb Bush: Reens, “DeVos Family Goes All-In on Marco Rubio GOP Presidential Race.”
93. Scott Walker: Willis, “To Understand Scott Walker’s Strengths, Look at His Donors.”
94. Marco Rubio: Reens, “DeVos Family Goes All-In on Marco Rubio GOP Presidential Race.”
95. ultraconservative organizations like Focus on the Family: Bennett, “The Ultra-Rich, Ultra-Conservative DeVos Family.”
96. and the Family Research Council: Kroll, “Meet the New Kochs.”
97. Alliance Defending Freedom: Martinez, “How and Why the DeVos Family Gives Away Billions.”
98. the right’s preeminent legal defense fund: Michaelson, “The $1-Billion-a-Year Right-Wing Conspiracy You Haven’t Heard Of.”
99. the Heritage Foundation: “Where DeVos Family Donates Millions,” Mlive.com.
100. DeVos family donations accounted for over half of those made to the Michigan Republican Party: “DeVos Family Responsible for HALF of Campaign Contributions to Michigan House Republicans in Last Quarter of 2015,” Eclectablog.
101. made an unsuccessful run for Michigan governor in 2006: Bennett, “The Ultra-Rich, Ultra-Conservative DeVos Family.”
102. and now chairs the board of directors of the American Federation for Children: “About,” Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation.
103. appointed DeVos as finance chairman of the Republican National Committee: DeVos, Simply Rich, 237–238.
104. “which is a pretty solid Christian principle”: Crawford, “What About NBA’s Homophobic Owner?”
105. “We also thought the ads might further help Amway distributors recognize the importance of free enterprise to their success”: DeVos, Simply Rich, 238.
106. Dexter Yager used Amway’s extensive voice mail system: Burstein and Lauerman, “She Did It Amway.”
107. “strong conservative”: Bradsher, “And One Who Tries to Work Things Out.”
108. Republican “infomercials” airing on televangelist Pat Robertson’s Family Channel: Burstein and Lauerman, “She Did It Amway.”
109. “Master Dream Builder”: Cross, Amway, 92.
110. Yager’s business now employs four million Amway team members in over forty countries: Wealth Generators, “Dexter Yager.”
111. “Yager System,” one of the first and most profitable motivational “tools” businesses run by Amway distributors: Kneale and Lambert, “Climb to the Top.”
112. the Yager Group is still today an Amway-approved training provider: “Amway Approved Provider—Yager Group,” Amway.
113. “Admirers speak of him with reverence, as if his next plateau of Amway achievement were sainthood itself”: Morrill and Stancill, “Amway the Yager Way.”
114. “We’re a longer course”: Dale, interview, July 16, 2015.
115. My parents more or less broke even in Amway: E. Gerard, interview, May 12, 2016.
116. She believed it was a cult: P. Gerard, interview, May 8, 2016.
117. “She wasn’t going to leave me”: E. Gerard, interview, May 12, 2016.
118. part of my parents’ strategy for “showing The Plan” was that they didn’t even tell people it was Amway: Ibid.
119. There’s an equestrian center, tennis courts, a concierge, and a gun club: “Windsor Fact Sheet,” Windsor.
120. the DeVoses, who own three houses here and spend eight weeks a year or more on the waterfront: Abkowitz, “A Resort With Less Glitz and No Kitsch.”
121. “Windsor is so different from the rest of Florida”: Ibid.
122. In 2010, Amway reached a settlement reportedly valued at $100 million in a California class action lawsuit: Grand Rapids Press Staff, “Lawyers Say Their $20 Million Payment Is Fair.”
123. more than doubling the number of professional trainers, such as the Yagers, across the country: Knape, “Amway Agrees to Pay $56 Million, Settle Case Alleging It Operates as a ‘Pyramid Scheme.’”
124. the CEO of Amway India was arrested for fraud: Stroud, “The Indian Express.”
125. the biggest Amway distributorship in the world: Berman, “Inside the Amway Sales Machine.”
126. Amway business owners make closer to $200 a month: Reynolds, “Amway’s Claims Are Malarkey, Distributors Say.”
The Mayor of Williams Park
1. “an imperfect church of imperfect people inviting other imperfect people to find the perfect love”: “What Is the Missio Dei?” Missio Dei.
2. “I identify as the hands and feet of Christ”: Rolle, interview, November 3, 2015.
3. In 2015, the state of Florida was home to an estimated 35,900 homeless people: US Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD 2015 Continuum of Care, 1.
4. It had the second-highest number of unsheltered homeless: US Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2015 AHAR: Part 1—PIT Estimates of Homelessness in the U.S.
5. It had the highest number of homeless veterans: Ibid.
6. 6,853 homeless people; 40 percent of them are children: Santa Lucia, Pinellas County Point in Time Homeless Report: 2015, 4.
7. Homeless Leadership Board: “Mission Statement,” Pinellas County Homeless Leadership Board.
8. “I wrote about it in my book”: Rolle, interview, November 3, 2015.
9. “Most of the people on the bottom aren’t intellectuals”: Rolle, interview, January 24, 2016.
10. St. Petersburg passed an ordinance banning the roadside sale of newspapers: Van Sickler, “St. Petersburg City Council Passes Street Solicitation Ban.”
11. Instead, G.W. spent a night in Los Angeles County jail: Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept., Inmate Information Center, booking no. 4479724.
12. Convention Against Torture: National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading, 5.
13. lack of shelter space: Ibid., 11.
14. available services for families in crisis: Ibid., 12–14.
15. lack of affordable housing: Ibid., 7.
16. disproportionate representation of nonwhite and disabled people within the U.S. housing-unstable population: Ibid., 15–16.
17. local ordinances, such as those against panhandling and sleeping outside, which target unhoused people: Ibid., 6.
18. sharply on the rise since 2009: National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, No Safe Place.
19. this topic has been circulating throug
h the national conversation since 1999: Foscarinis, Cunningham-Bowers, and Brown, “Out of Sight—Out of Mind?”