Parents can only raise their children and hope that they instill the values and good judgement that they hope their adult children will espouse, but if they fail in this respect, they have to give up the battle unless asked for help. Most people don’t appreciate unsolicited advice, and most people don’t like to hear that advice over and over again.

I think there was some misreading going on but perhaps not by me?

I’m glad you’re on better terms with your father now. That’s always a good thing.

I have not been called a failure, and my dad has backed off in recent years, but people communicate in ways that are not necessarily verbal, and it was some time before my dad “got it” that 1. a graduate degree isn’t the be-all, end-all of life, and 2. if I was ever going to get one (and I may yet), it would be on my terms, not his.

Parents often have firm ideas about what they want for their kids, but sometimes kids over-react to the “extreme encouragement”. Has your father actually called you a failure, or is it just that you don’t like that he’s encouraging you to do something different than what you’re doing?

This is very much like my dad who seemed for a long time to see me as a “failure” because I didn’t get a masters degree like my brothers did. “When are you going back to school?” he asked for many years, not realizing that I was doing just fine without those extra letters after my name…

Also, as to the whole “the people at the top get to make the money and the people at the bottom end up paying the money,” well, this is basically how our whole capitalist system works, so, we can’t really hold that against the MLMs. They’re just mirrors of the capitalist hierarchies that are everywhere else around us.

That said, I can vouch from my own experience with some of these companies that the comments about cults are true from an experiential perspective. You do feel isolated, because no one else understands… etc etc. It’s hard. There is no easy answer. Each person has to learn for themself what the experience will mean to them. For some people, these are great business opportunities.

I just wish that such business-workers/salespeople would work at developing sincere relationships outside of their business. There’s nothing smarmier than being approached in a “Friendly” way by someone trying to befriend you but it drips with “hey someday maybe you’ll be in my downline.”