Complaint Review: Ds-Max

I started to work for Ds-max in Barbados at their head office in 1994 as their bilingual administrative assistant. When I first started with the company I learnt how it came into existence and I thought that it was a really great success story. I can tell you now that the founder went through the same things that every single owner present and past and every single distributor has had to go through.

First of all, there were two of them that started as I understood and one of their parents did not approve of their son selling crap on the street. One year later and a bank account filled with cash made the parents change their mind and 20 years later his mother is still the one at the helm of the finances. Like everything in life the company has a good and a bad side. I choose to learn to the good side. Dsmax was actually my training ground in terms of motivation in life and hard work. If any one applys their system in their everyday life they will realize that it is true. One should not hang out with negative people, no matter what you do in life.

I am a christian and I can tell you that a lot of the principals I learnt there I have to apply in my christian walk. If I am to be a good christian, I cannot hang out with people that talk negative about the things that I have to do.

After working in Barbados for Ds-max for four and a half years I ended up in what you would consider as the General managers's right hand man. Mind you I started out as bilingual office boy. I took coffee for the boss, fax, filed and all the smaller office duties. Because I was a hard worker I excelled and was promoted in the office and given a raise within three months.

Six months later I was given a second raise and promotion and my colleagues were kind of bewildered. You could say that I was your typical career type, but it was'nt that, I was a very hard worker that found a system that rewards hard work. If I were at any other company I don't think that I would of been given the same opportunity, nor would I have been so well trained.

After working there I had learnt everything about business, includung: shipping, banking, office procedures, accounting(I was doing the accounts receivables), in essence I did a lot of things that people go to school to learn and what is funny is that those that had the education did not fit into the system because it was just to fast paste and completely different to what they teach in school. The system was very very practical, very everyday, anyone could do it with a little hard work and dedication.

After leaving Ds-Max(for personal reasons) I remained in close contact with my boss and some of the owners. I started my own business with what I had learnt at Ds-Max and was quite happy to see that I was very efficient and comfortable at it. I lost a lot of money at it though. I had'nt learnt the system at that point because I was a simple employee. A lot of the things that are reported here on this site are very true, especially about them lying about what it is the person being hired will be doing.

After failing at business I got the odd jobs here and there and where ever I went people loved me for my efficiency. They could not believe the number of things I could do and speed at which they were done. Employers would always say to me " Most people just pretend they are busy, but what ever you put your hand to gets done" that was my personality, is was'nt learnt in Ds-max, but Ds-max gave me the chance to realize my fullest potential.

I knew that they were a lot of things that I was good at but no one would give me the chance....you would always have to have some kind of qualification. In one of the reports that I read on this site the person mentioned that they don't screen the employees...thank God for that because that's exactly how I got hired, above all the others who I was told(by the manger hiring me)had degrees and spoke spanish as their mother tongue(I was applying for a bilingual job). The manager said to me in that interview " You sem like the man for the job....but it is not a glamarous position". I was just happy to have a job and give it a shot, but he was right.

I later ended up in Venezuela where I got involved with Ds-max again but this time I was running the country as Country Administrator. I quite enjoyed it because now I was working for an owner in the business and I saw the business from the other side. I did'nt like a lot of things that I saw and the type of sacrifice that people had to make, especially when it came to family(but as the saying goes.." those that excell are those who did what no one else wanted to do). I am a family man and I don't think I could make that kind of sacrifice(so I would never be an owner. What I did see, were all types of people from all walks of life managing and owning offices and that for me was one of the most beautiful things about their system.

There were Homosexuals as owners, peasants, women, men, young men and women(17yrs old) old men and old women, and the list goes on. It is not the kind of thing that you see in your typical company. Nothing about this company is typical, that's probably why it stands out. People say cult, but life is a cult(if you can say that) we are all in our little groups and we shut out the other groups. Some do it for money, some for love, some for religion, some for class, some for education, and some just for the heck of it. No single person is really an individual, no man is an island.

I worked for a year and some in Venezuela and had a bit of an experience there. The owner lived in Canada and another owner was sent to manage. I did not see eye to eye with the one that was sent and one would think that a simple employee would have no clout, but not so. I representd the head office and there were things that I had to do and I did them, to make a long very long story short, I received a lot of support from some of the elite as they call them and this was very rear. No I am not a favourite in the company, they never gave me anything except my salary(no bonus, or benefits), that's just how they do business. I learnt a lot more in Venezuela and after that year with them I went to Canada. You would think that I would be done with Ds-max by now(no I am not brainwashed!!), but there I found myself in the field, going door to door. I did pretty well, I became a leader after the first week, built a crew of about three or four people within my first two months and had a chance to see everything about this company. By the time I was in Canada I had already seen a lot of the meetings and heard about a lot of the strategy from the owner in Venezuela because I had to translate everything into spanish for him and often times I interpreted. I guess I excelled fast because of that.

What I did learn from the field was persistence and that what ever you do in your daily routine will determine your future success. I also learnt that the strategy Ds-max uses to motivate people is needed because beleive me, people need a lot of motivation in life. At church even though people believe in God and know that he is very powerful they still loose their faith(me counted as well). Do you know how many times I lost my motivation with God...too many to mention and on too many occasions, and I will say this, if you are not motivated with God, there is nothing that he can do for you. Don't get me wrong, I am not comparing Ds-max to christianity, rather I am comparing it to life.

I agree that not everyone will make it in Ds-max(it is a massive challenge) and it is true,as a matter of fact only a small percentage do, but how different is that from life itself and everything we do. What percentage of our world is rich? and how many poor?(get the picture) how many hunger and how many enjoy a good meal? How many get "good jobs?" how many have good marraiges?, how many kids have both parents in a happy family setting? I can tell you, VERY FEW!!!!!

Ds-max thought me just as God first thought me, you have got to make a choice, stick with it and do what no one else wants to do because you must carry your own cross(sacrifice).

I thank Ds-max for the opportunity they gave me as an individual, cult or not, right or not, good or not.

Stephen
Toronto, Ontario
Canada

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