A while ago, probably mid 90s, the engineering manager of one of my principal clients called me and said he had a business idea he wanted to discuss with me outside of work. He was a smart young engineer and as a software consultant working on embedded systems, I was often approached about business ideas (usually meaning they wanted me to work for free on some pie in the sky idea). He wouldn't tell me what it was on the phone, even after my pressuring, he said he wanted to take me out to dinner to discuss it. I figured it was some new product he wanted to do and didn't want his employer to know. At dinner I of course asked what his idea was. But instead of telling me he started asking questions something like, "What is it that you want to achieve in life." I started thinking OMG, what am I going to do. Normally I would just tell someone like that exactly what I thought. But this was the engineering manager I had to work with at an important client. Of course eventually he got around to Amway. I really couldn't believe it at first. Here was an intelligent EE, what was he doing trying to get into some MLM scheme. I really didn't know what to do, how to say no politely. As I remember it, I just let him talk and told him that I was too busy now, but maybe later. We worked together for quite a while after that but I never heard about it from him again. I guess he figured it out on his own. Just wonder how much money he lost in getting his education.