I was looking around meetup.com one day and came across this page for the Singapore Entrepreneurs Network.

meetup-SEN-MLM

The group sounded interesting enough. But what really caught my eye was how one-third of the write-up was dedicated to shooing away multi-level marketers; aka pyramid schemers.

Having had my share of pressure-cooker “hi I have a wonderful business opportunity for you” moments with pyramiders I can only imagine what it must have been like for this group. Like wasps to cordial…

Selling per se is not necessarily a bad or unpleasant thing. But pyramiders somehow take it down a few levels. What is it about what they do that strike such loathing in so many people? Is it the fervent, fanatic zeal? The thinly-veiled attempts at psychological manipulation? The blatant, often clumsy, NLP techniques? The faint whiff of religious fundie fervour?