Is this a pyramid?

Sometimes you are going to get this question from someone. I have many things I say to this question...but I have to admit that my initial response is to think the person asking me must be a moron! I know this is not very christian of me to say, but it is christian of me to be honest! This is my initial response in my head...then I have to temper it.

This is a question of ignorance. The person asking this question doesn't even know what they are asking. Sometimes, it's an innocent question, in that this person doesn't know what else to call a home business and he heard this somewhere before. Sometimes it's a condescending question in that the person thinks they are putting you down. Regardless of the intention, this is a question that unveils a lack of knowledge on their part.

The best thing you can do is ask "what do you mean by a pyramid?" This will at least give you an idea of where the intention of the question is...you already know it is an ignornace based question....you now need to know intention and degree of ignorance. There are illegal pyramids, which are money games and there are legal pyramids which are the government, military, education system, and corporations.

Ironically, while a legal pyramid structure is one of the strongest types of organization models, it contains an authority and financial advantage based on position within the pyramid. Because of the nature of people and relationships, this leads to inefficiencies because often people are moved up over time into a position they are not competent in (peter principle), and also tenure often has someone stay in a position above more talented and motivated people.

The beauty of a true network style pay structure is that regardless of where you come into the organization you are at no disadvantage financially or authoritatively. You can out-earn your sponsor if you work harder (I am an example and I have many examples in my organization).

When you get asked the pyramid question, and you ask what they mean, they will usually say something like "where the guy at the top makes all the money" to which you can say "you mean like a corporation or where you work?