Scrapping the Buy From Yourself and Teach Others to Do the Same Model

When I was in INA, IBOs were taught that the business was simple: Buy From Yourself And Teach Others to Do the Same (BFYATODS). They would proclaim from stage, “This is not like your parent’s Amway! You don’t have to go door-to-door selling soap! With thousands of products from thousands of manufacturers, IBOs just have to redivert their spending habits from Safeway, CostCo or Walmart to a place that pays them back! Just buy from yourself and teach other to do the same to earn a 6-figure income in 2-5 years!”

There’s just one problem. Without a significant amount of retailing¹, the BFYATODS model constrains the size of one’s business to the number of IBOs in the organization. If IBOs aren’t being encouraged or taught to retail products, the only way for products and money to flow is from personal purchases. With product prices generally being higher than the competition, doing this month after month can put a strain on an IBO’s finances. When they quit, IBOs stop buying products, and as a consequence, volume in an organization shrinks. I firmly believe the BFYATODS is the reason why Amway’s worldwide sales has hovered around the $7 billion dollar mark for the past decade. People are leaving as fast as they come in².

Now Chuck Knows

Chuck Lia, the blog administrator on the Speaking of Amway web site published a well-written article on his past concerns about the Amway opportunity and where he sees it and his business going in the future. As an IBO who is building the “business outside of a system context,” Chuck is representative of a newbreed of IBO, one who sees the Amway Global corporation as his primary upline instead of his Amway Motivational Organization (AMO) System.

Chuck points out three areas of concerns that he had about the business at the end of 2007. IBOs please take note this is all coming from a current IBO, and that critics have been raising these problems for years. Don’t blame the messenger when you should be listening to the message!

Lack of balance in the business in relation to the tool systems. … Many tool systems had evolved far beyond their original purpose and now ruled the roost, particularly in terms of income, and often treated the company like a second class citizen. Rest assured, not all tool systems were equally culpable, but all were culpable on some level.

Being a supporter of the business doesn’t mean that you have to agree with everything about the business. So, it’s great to see a current IBO like Chuck come flat out and say that there are serious problems with the tools business.

Chuck rationally outlines his issues with Systems in a way that doesn’t make him seem like a frothing at the mouth, crazed man like Tex. More IBOs should listen to IBOs like Chuck and rdknyvr than other Amway supporters.

Joecool: Show Me The Money

Joecool has a post worth reading on his web site today. Titled, Quixtar and Amway - Show Me The Money!, he comments how IBOs frequently talk about the business improving themselves as people or brightening their outlook on life.

I say if the side benefit of being in the business makes you a nicer person, helps you treat your wife better, or whatever, that’s a good thing. Don’t get me wrong. But when you registered to the business opportunity, was that what you signed up for, or did you sign up for residual income, a shortcut to retirement, or to avoid being dead or broke by age 65?

I’ll second Joecool’s comment. Did IBOs sign up for a self-improvement class or get into Amway/Quixtar to make some extra money on the side or to replace an existing income stream?

While an IBO, I used to tell people that I haven’t made much money, but that I’ve learned some useful inter-personal communication skills. Looking back, I said that to convince myself that there was something in the business worth staying in for. I know now that I could have gotten those same important skills doing something else and made a ton more money by focusing on my career.

Quixtar National Spotlight

I just read that the Quixtar National Spotlight tour was held into my part of the country the past two days. Of course, I only learned about this one day too late. This shines a different light on what I wrote on Friday.

First, from the web site description of the National Spotlight Tour:

IBOAI joins the National Spotlight Tour crossing the U.S. and Pathways to Success crossing Canada. A member of the IBOAI Board will speak and staff will be on hand to answer your questions. It’s especially valuable for new IBOs and prospects!

This free event is a great opportunity for you to introduce your prospects, friends, and family to Quixtar / Amway Global – and IBOAI, your advocacy organization. Stop by and say hello!

Happy Friday

Friday was the day when my upline group had its weekly core group meetings. I’ve seen recent schedules for other organizations, and it looks like Friday is still the day for many Amway Motivational Organizations. Right now, IBOs are no doubt dusting off their suits and ties and getting ready to drive down to the local hotel for a one-hour business presentation, followed by an hour of nuts-and-bolts training.

My Friday meetings were over 45-minutes away, and I shudder to think how much gas I would be wasting and spending today if I were still in the business. Travel time is an often overlooked expense for beginning IBOs, who are told that it only takes an extra 8-12 hours a week to earn thousands per month. Does that time-commitment also include driving from place to place? I don’t think so.

Now that I’m out of the Amway business, I’m really happy to have my nights and weekends back for myself. I’m going to kick back, have some home-cooked dinner, and watch the Olympic Opening ceremonies from the comfort of my own home.

Current IBOs, how long has it been since you missed a meeting? How long has it been since you deliberately skipped a meeting for an important date, social function, or just to rest? Your business isn’t going to collapse overnight, so give yourself a Happy Friday and take a break from the typical IBO routine!

Humor: Who Moved My MonaVie… or the next Amway Diamond to pull a Woodward

Disclaimer: This is a work of pure fiction.

While reading about Amway Diamonds who have moved over to MonaVie, I got to wondering who might be going next. For a hint at my guess, can you spot the Amway Diamond among the five MonaVie Diamonds shown in the photo on the right?

Lately, I’ve been watching several testimonial and lifestyle videos of MonaVie Diamonds. Check out these four on Black Diamond Kelly Bangert’s web site:

• Calvin Becerra, Youngest Black Diamond in MonaVie history. Reached it in 8 months.
• Rudy De Leon, Reached Hawaiian Blue Diamond Executive in less than 7 months.
• Jeff Creamer, Reached Hawaiian Blue Diamond Executive in less than 7 months.
• Bryan Mataya, Reached Blue Diamond in less than 6 months.

Somewhere, Orrin Woodward is laughing at these guys, “Who’s your Daddy! I made friggin Black Diamond in what, three months?!?”

Kidding aside, Calvin, Rudy, Jeff, Bryan, and Kelly are young males living in the Southern California and have all quickly reached high levels in MonaVie. Like Diamonds in Amway and Quixtar, they have their own motivational and training system — the Kelly Bangert System — to help their downline succeed. The Forbe’s article on Woodward claims he has 60,000 “mostly middle-class members” in his team. While MonaVie certainly has its slice of this demographic, I’m guessing those in Kelly, Calvin, Rudy, Jeff, and Bryan’s teams cater to younger men and women in the 20-35 age range.

Because of that, my bet is the next Diamond to jump ship to MonaVie will also come from that group. I began sifting through the hundreds of people that are (1) in that age range, (2) crossed stage at least once as Amway Diamonds and (3) are not in jail. While there are certainly a number of well-qualified people to choose from, one name stood out:

Humor: Orrin Woodward on Randy and Val Haugen

Orrin posted a new entry about new Black Diamonds Randy and Val Haugen on his personal blog today, and I thought I would run it through the Orrin Woodward Translation program:

Disclaimer: This translation from Orrin’s own words is a work of pure fiction.

Randy and Val Haugen are building one of the most profitable MonaVie Black Diamond businesses in the country.

Randy and Val were successful in moving much of their Amway/Quixtar downline over to MonaVie so that they could go Black Diamond in just a few months. I still got them beat as the quickest to go Black Diamond though! And no, I did not entice any of my former Amway downline to join me in this great new purple venture. I built my Black Diamondship from scratch, I tell you! I’ll sign every one of Dallin Larsen’s Usana stock certificates as proof of my sincerity!

Laurie and I are so proud of them for stepping up to the plate and swinging for the fences. It is magical to dream big and it is courageous to dream big long.

Laurie and I are so happy that they opted out of their contract with Amway and joined us at MonaVie and TEAM. After all, as the Supreme TEAM Leader, I get a cut of every tape their downline listens to, every book they read, and every function they attend.

The Haugen’s are building depth, building relationships and building volume. The sky is the limit for these true living legends in the community building industry. Randy and Val are living proof that dreams do come true for those who persist in a worthy endeavor.

Did you know that the Haugen’s were once Diamonds in Amway? Ask anyone who’s still left from their group about them. They are like Dexter and Birdie reincarnated — not that old Dex has kicked the bucket! Did I mention that I was in Amway once before? Dude, they have a name for me there in Grand Rapids. I. Am. Legend.

All said, in the immortal words of Mark McGwire, “I’m not here to talk about the past.”

I personally believe that Randy is one of the best all-time at helping people catch the dream of a new lifestyle.

Randy is one of the all-time best dreamweavers, but he’s gotta be one of the all-time worst at helping people actually achieve their dreams. I mean, do you how many of his downline have achieved their dreams? Good ole Randall has got a big long way to go before he even reaches the Mendoza Line in that department.

But hey, let’s focus on the positive now, okay? At least his downline have a dream!

No one can cast a dream of a better tomorrow any better than Randy Haugen.

Except me.

Val is one of the strongest emotionally intelligent leaders on the entire Team. I have seen her handle major issues with uncommon grace and class.

Examples of major issues include what dress to wear to the next function and deciding from where they will buy shampoo, makeup, vitamins, toilet paper, energy drinks, and other consumables now that they are no longer in Amquix IBOs.

Randy and Val have earned their success by staying focused on their dreams and having an incredible attitude in serving others.

He’s great at serving other things too, like lawsuits. Just ask Amway about Proctor and Gamble and the Satanism rumor that Randy started forwarded on Amvox! Randy swears to this day — on no less than Hal Gooch’s baboon video — that he really didn’t mean it, and you know what? I believe him… so as long as his downline keep buying my tapes, books, and attend my functions!

[In the comments below, Scott Larsen from Amquix.info points out that Randy only forwarded the Amvox message and did not originally start it. You see, he was telling the truth!]

I am convinced that we will see many more Black Diamonds coming out of their incredible team. I encourage everyone to set their goals and be part of the first 25 Black Diamonds on the MonaVie Team.

I got goals too! If 25 of you become Black Diamonds, I get to be a Uranium Diamond in MonaVie! Dallin’s going to buy me my own country for that!

What if I’m wrong? Man, I am never, ever, ever wrong. Oh, that part about Amway/Quixtar being the best business opportunity ever? Do you have me on record as having ever said that? See, I told you so. Onward to one million members? Good luck finding me saying that on Google.

God Bless, Orrin Woodward

If you don’t love Jesus and vote Republican, I will personally make sure you never succeed in this business.

$700 on Products, $200 of which are shown here

This BusinessWeek article on Amway flew under my radar last week. Amway: Shining Up a Tarnished Name doesn’t share any new information about Amway Global, but what I found interesting was the IBO they interviewed. Cathy Cross is described as a part-time seller who:

has spent $700 on products and marketing materials this year, just less than what she’s earned in sales and bonuses (She doesn’t expect to take home profits until 2011).

I hope that Amway provided the products she proudly displays in the photo accompanying the article (shown here on the right), because — by my reckoning — there’s at least $200 of products there, and it’s already August, 2008! Those bottles of Perfect Water and XS do add up in dollars, and I don’t even want to think about the price of that Artistry skin care kit in the background! Good thing I don’t see a few containers of Double X, or I’ll be asking to see her receipts!

All kidding aside, say she’s earned $800 in sales and bonuses this year. I’d expect that’s because she’s been retailing products to friends, family, and strangers. This is a good thing, and something that IBOs should do more of if they want to take home profits at the end of the month instead of incurring mounting losses due to System expenses.

Readers of this blog will know that I’m critical of the Alticor Corporation (parent of Amway and Quixtar), which has done very little over the past several decades to curb the excesses and greed of a few individuals at the top of certain Lines of Sponsorship (LOS). Though they appear to be taking steps to clean up their tarnished name, I feel Alticor needs to take more dramatic steps before they actually start seeing results:

1. Get rid of the Alticor name: I know Quixtar is by the way of the dodo next year, but what about the Alticor name?
2. Lower product prices: Products need to be more affordable for retail customers.
3. Focus on retail: If you have more affordable products, the emphasis has to switch from self-consumption to retail. That’s how the rest of the world works, folks. Buy from cheap, sell for a little higher. Repeat.
4. Stronger accreditation program: Many LOS seem to be doing the same thing they’ve always done in the past. Unless Amway Global takes aim at the kingpins, the things many System critics point at will continue to happen.
5. More direct communication with IBOs: Amway has outsourced teaching and training to the Amway Motivational Organizations (AMO) and it needs to take some of it back.

I’ve been reading some old articles on Amway and Quixtar recently. It would be very illuminating to interview those people quoted in articles five, ten, or fifteen years ago to see if they are still in the business and continue to maintain the same stance.

I know I’m singing a few different tune than I was ten years ago!

Orrin Woodward is Jim Floor Version 2.0

Orrin Woodward must be a popular guy on the Internet; so far today, I’ve received 15 referral clicks to my article on the Supreme TEAM Leader. Over on his blog, Orrin receives much comment-love from his TEAM followers. The steady stream of comments, however, is very one-sided, however; there’s little in the way of dissenting opinions (though you can find the occasional critical comment if you look hard enough).

Back when I was in the business, INA leaders discouraged IBOs from going to websites critical of Amway/Quixtar, calling them “the bathroom stalls of the Internet.” They would say things like, “Some people have no better thing to do with their lives than to sit in front of the computer and type out lies about the business.” What we’ve learned over the years, however, is that many of these so-called lies are actually truths about the business.

Very few INA leaders then and today have blogs of their own, but if they did, I would expect to see the same type of blind loyalty that I see with Woodward today. Jim Floor certainly had a way with words, and IBOs would soak up everything he said and ask for more, more, more. Do Floor’s current followers know that back in 1997-1999 there were thousands more people attending his Major Functions than do today? What happened to them and why would they leave INA and the Amway opportunity? Knowing now that he sat atop the INA tools pyramid and was on the other side of the Genie deal, I see him primarily in the business of dealing hope.

From posts that I have read in the now-defunct original forum on The Truth About Amway, INA was about to join TEAM last year before the whole Woodward-termination scandal broke out. I recall many speeches that Floor and his Diamonds said about Amway/Quixtar being the best business opportunity there is. Times do change, and perhaps there are other opportunities better than Amquix today (I certainly believe that 100%). If they had joined TEAM only to quit a few months later to join MonaVie, there is no doubt in my mind that they would proclaim from stage that MonaVie is the best business opportunity out there.

What’s virtually identical is the tools and training system. The selling of hope is for all intents and purposes the same across these multi-level marketing organizations. A few words changed here and there, and a tape extolling the virtues of the Amway business opportunity turns into a CD praising MonaVie for providing the wonderful (Black) Diamond lifestyle.

There’s nothing wrong with having hope in one’s life. I would caution, however, the type of hope being taught and sold by organizations like TEAM and INA. It’s okay to have dreams and goals; ask yourself the question, “Who’s dream and goals am I fulfilling?” Yours or those of your upline leaders?

Amway was stupid to place the onus on teaching and training onto the System leaders instead of doing it themselves. What happened was IBOs became loyal not to the company but to their upline leaders. The corporation is trying to change all of this with marketing blitzes, more corporate-sponsored functions, and increased communication with IBOs, but I wonder if the damage has already been done. When push comes to shove, who are you going to believe? Your “kind and caring upline” who has your best interests at heart or the big, bad Alticor corporation who doesn’t really know what it’s like to build a business today?

Stability in the Business

Today, I read a fascinating post by xbeliever, a former IBO in Australia who spent 13 years at founders platinum or above. Compared to me, xbeliever has had much more experience building an Amquix business. In the excerpt below, he talks about what it means to have a stable business:

As for the stability of the business - when we first qualified platinum, we were told (by our upline and “the system” in general) - “welcome to the bottom, you are now just getting started”. As we went on to higher pins and began breaking legs we were then told - “a leg isn’t secure until you have an emerald backed up by an another emerald in it”. The strange thing is that in our experience our upline had such a leg in our case .. an emerald backed up by an emerald with approximately 50 silvers or above, including about 30 platinums, in the leg. Today, that leg is almost completely gone. Both emeralds are gone and all but one of the platinums. In fact - I would not be surprised if the leg is struggling to qualify platinum at all.

This is scary stuff… not for the critics but for anyone building the business today. I remember hearing a similar quote years ago that a Diamond business is not really solid unless there’s another Diamond backed by another Diamond.

If what xbeliever is saying is true, that being a Silver means that you’re just getting started — and if only 1% of IBOs reach Silver — I’m not liking anyone’s chances at building a stable business! A few years after I left, my upline Silvers quit as well. While I don’t know the exact reason for their departure, I do know that they spent many years on the cusp of going Direct without ever breaking through. I also know that there were very dedicated and hard-working in building their business, so System-believers can’t pin lack of effort on them.

Every month in Amway’s own Achieve magazine, new pin level winners are announced. How many of these IBOs have built stable businesses that will last the test of time? I remember flipping through the pages of the Amagram (what Achieve used to be called) and looking at all of the new Direct Distributors (i.e. Platinums), Emeralds, and Diamonds. Today, I wonder how many of those smiling and happy pin winners are still in the business? If I had to bet, I would wager that very few of them have (1) moved up to higher pins and (2) the vast majority are no longer involved with Amquix.

I often read comments on other blogs from overeager IBOs who emphatically state that they’ll soon be going diamond or crown and relaxing on the beaches of the world. My heart goes out to them, as they clearly do not know what’s in store for them. They’ll learn eventually, but I’d hope that they learn sooner rather than later.

To current IBOs, I asked the following questions:

1. How stable is your business today? Do you have facts to back up your claims?
2. How stable are the businesses of your downline? Can they say the same in question #2 as you?
3. What are you ultimate goals in this business? Extra income on the side? Replace your job’s income with the business? Relax (forever) on the beaches of the world? Do you know exactly what kind of business you’ll need to have in order to achieve these goals?

Sadly, I don’t know many IBOs today who can answer these questions truthfully and with detailed facts. Please don’t say that “the facts don’t count when the dream is big enough.” Try saying that after you’ve spent years of your life and thousands of dollars only to be no closer to your goals.

Visiting a Diamond Mansion

I remember qualifying on an incentive to visit Diamond Clark and Diana Broome’s house in Loomis, California. Here’s what I wrote at the time in my journal:

It took almost 2.5 hours to get there but I made it finally. His house, to make an understatement, was huge. It was a 13,000 square foot mansion in every sense of the word. So, I guess Amway can buy these things for people if they are willing to do the work. And, after seeing what is possible, I want to make this work.

Boy, was I deep in the System’s clutches at the time! Little did I know where and how the real money was made in the business.

I wonder if they are still living in the same house. Out of curiosity, I looked up Floor’s humble 5,532 square foot mansion in Granite Bay on Zillow after seeing the address listed in the Genie SEC Filings. I see that they sold the house in 2001 for $1.7 million. I wonder if all of the Diamonds in my LOS are still living the life of luxury or if they have downscaled their lifestyles into smaller homes.

A birds-eye view of an Executive Diamond's Former Home

Did any readers ever visit their upline Diamond’s home? How was it, and do you know if they are still living there today?

All-In Gold Rush to XS

I recently learned of a new drink called All In Energy. The owner of the company is none other than WWDB Triple Diamond Greg Duncan. But wait, there’s more! Duncan is also part-owner of XS, which just happens to be the exclusive energy drink of Quixtar.

I’m not here to debate whether or not Duncan is violating any form of non-compete clause he made have signed as part of being an IBO with Amway Global. I’ll leave that debate to the lawyers. Rather, I’d like to point out a connection the Amway business opportunity has with the California Gold Rush in the mid 1800s.

While there were a number of people who struck it rich discovering gold, the vast majority of people who came to California during the time left or died without nary finding a single nugget.

All In Energy Drink, owned by Triple Diamond Greg Duncan of WWDB and XS

You see, there was more money to be made during the Gold Rush, yet it wasn’t in gold. Some savvy business people struck it rich by providing goods and services to the gold propsectors! Most everyone knows the story of Levi Strauss, who outfitted miners with durable denim pants, but there are countless other opportunistic people who found fame and fortune selling proverbial “stuff” to the anxious forty-niners.

Is there still gold to be found building an Amway Global business? I’m sure, like in California today, there’s some amount of gold (or diamonds) yet to be discovered. Realistically, however, you may have a better chance of creating and selling a product that IBOs will buy than of building a Diamondship where you live.

To current IBOs, look around you and ask who’s making more money off of you and your fellow IBO prospectors? More often than not, it’s the people selling you stuff you need to build (Amway) and fuel (System) your business.

Whether you like it or not, people like Greg Duncan are triple-dipping! He’s selling you tapes, books, and functions (WWDB System), selling you products that offer PV and BV (XS Energy Drinks), and selling products to your friends who aren’t interested in the business (All In Energy Drinks). I’m not ready to call him the Levi Strauss of the Amway Global world, but he does seem to be making the most of this opportunity.

What side of the Amway Global Gold Rush are you on?

Believe The Movie

Believe the Movie

Believe is a mockumentary on multi-level marketing. From the movie’s web site, Believe is “set in the anywhere-USA town of Springfield” and tells the story of “Adam Pendon (Larry Bagby) a struggling steel mill truck driver trying to support his family. When the mill unexpectedly closes, Adam’s world is thrown upside down by his new unemployment. While worrying about the loss of his job, Adam is approached by a slick, well dressed and confident salesman, Mark Fuller (Lincoln Hoppe), who, it would seem, has a business opportunity and quick fix to Adam’s financial problems.”

I originally heard about the movie a year ago; the trailers of Lincoln Hoppe as the upline were hilarious when I first saw them. Not able to see the movie when it was shown theatrically, I was excited when I saw that it was now available on DVD.

I definitely could relate to a number of the scenes in the film. The movie was written and directed by Loki Mulholland, who parlayed four years of being a hardcore Amway distributor into making the film. He spares no one in Believe, poking fun at the kingpins, the distributors who’ve been in the business for years with nothing to show, the crazy uplines, and yes, even the critics.

The movie is shot reality-tv style, and while it rightly focuses on the characters, I wish the actors and actresses didn’t address the camera so much. That’s probably my only nitpick in what was otherwise an enjoyable film. Regardless of which side you are on in the debate, you’ll find many things to laugh at in Believe!

Remembering the Shaq Bar

Back when Shaquille O’Neal was a member of the Orlando Magic, the professional NBA team owned by the DeVos family, Amway sold a product called a Shaq Bar. I bought case of these energy bars, and let me tell you, they were digustingly bad. Think dry cardboard, and you’d have a good sense of what they tasted like. Deb, a frequent posted on the QBlog Forums, agrees:

I guess that ANYTHING, when compared to the “Shaq Bar” - tastes OK. The Shaq Bar, besides being a marketing nightmare, was without a doubt the nastiest tasting, tooth-yanking thing on earth.

In fact, the Shaq Bar was sooo bad, there’s barely any mention of it on the Internet anymore, and I could find no photos of it. I can understand the desire to buy from your own business, but there are limits, even to the most hardcore and devoted IBO! I was beyond saving at the time, however, and I probably bought a few extra cases just in case I learned to love them.

Fortunately, Shaq left town for the Lakers, and Amway quietly — and to the cheers of IBOs stomachs everywhere — thankfully discontinued the Shaq Bar a year or two later.

What other Amway products were memorable to you — perhaps for the wrong reasons?

Orrin Woodward, Climbing to the Top

Orrin Woodward (source: his website)

… or bottom, depending on the way you look at it in this Forbes article on the Supreme TEAM Leader himself. I found this link at the end of the comment stream on this QBlog post. It’s also being discussed on ibofightback’s Amway Talk forum.

What do you see when you read the article? If you are a critic, you might see a well-written article that accurately summarizes the Woodward’s rise in Amway/Quixtar, his downfall at the hands of the corporation, and ultimately his lateral move (along with his real business, the tools) over to Mona Vie. If you are a supporter of the business, but an opponent of TEAM, you might point out inaccuracies as it relates to Amway/Quixtar but agree on the lying, cowardly actions of Woodward. Finally, if you are a TEAM supporter and Mova Vie distributor, you may think this article is a complete hack job on the the wonderful leader that is YOUR Orrin Woodward.

Team hauled in $42 million last year and boasts 60,000 mostly middle-class members.

Woodward stated on his own site that he made 4-5 times more income from the tools business than from Amway bonuses. Granted, some of the money above went to other Diamonds and Emeralds on TEAM, but whoa nelly, that’s still a lot of tools money!

His Amway divorce left Woodward with motivational tools but no product to motivate people to sell. Members defected. Sales plummeted. Woodward tried selling his tools to customers like Kettering University, a Michigan pizza franchise and a Phoenix car dealership.

It would have been nice for the article to explain in more detail how effective (or ineffective) he was at selling his tools to outside businesses and organizations.

Woodward is a polarizing character in this debate. He’s currently the poster-boy for a fallen Diamond in the Amway/Quixtar universe, a lying, cowardly, tool-scam kingpin for critics, and a wonderful human being for his TEAM followers. It’s even better that he posts frequently on his own blog, which allows critics and supporters alike to further confirm their suspicions and opinions about him.