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There are three questions that Singaporeans get most miffed by:

“Have you heard of the Lord and saviour Jesus Christ?”

“Haven’t seen you since primary school, let’s meet for lunch … By the way check out this insurance package?”

“I just joined a company and made my first 10k within a month. Got flexible working hours and high commission, interested to join or invest?”

The last is the most vile of all, since nothing good ever seems to come out of multi-level marketing (MLM) business schemes. To most of us, an MLM is as perilous as the other three-letter word, HIV. Such business “opportunities” are no more than elaborate pyramid schemes that prey on the old, weak and naïve, who are enthralled by the prospects of striking rich without having to slave through a 9 to 6 job their entire lives.

Just rope in as many friends and relatives as possible, get them to do the same, and you will be rewarded with huge bonuses that can pay for a nice car or even a house.

Yet the Singaporean dream can never be achieved with “easy money”. There’s a reason why MLM companies, no matter how successful they claim to be, are never in the Fortune 500 list.

It’s also the shady way in which MLM companies attempt to recruit the unsuspecting. Usually, this happens under the pretext of a dubious “marketing job” or “networking session”, only to then shower you with the glitz of a lifestyle that an MLM position could afford you.