The one where I found an income opportunity but I'm gonna keep looking

On Zanzibar, the spice island of Tanzania, I went on Mr. Mitu's Spice Tour. We tried lotsa kinds of Zanzibari fruits.

And while I was there the PABs were in Thailand, where they ate some of the same fruits. I was jealous when I saw Phil's picture of the mangosteen 'cause my shot hadn't come out.

Then, a couple of days later there was a note in the NYTimes saying that mangosteens, which "had been barred as imports from Thailand because they could harbor harmful insects...will be allowed in when irradiated at low doses to kill or sterilize the pests."

So when I saw the poster in the library advertising a meeting to learn more about mangosteens I thought I should go. Hey, I left my house!

The meeting...was not about the fruit.

Turns out, if you take the fruit and mash it up, then mix it with apple juice concentrate, pear juice concentrate, grape juice concentrate, pear puree, blueberry juice concentrate, raspberry juice concentrate, strawberry juice concentrate, cranberry juice concentrate, cherry juice concentrate, and some other ingredients to make juice, you can sell it for $25 per bottle, buy by the case! Mangosteens contain xanthones, so they call it XanGo.

The meeting was led by Brian and his ?assistant distributor? Keith, a pharmacist. We wore name tags and told our stories. The other people were old and talked about health problems, I talked about discovering the fruit on an island off the coast of Tanzania. I knew more about the fruit than Brian or Keith did.

Brian kept joking about his inability to spell when filling out people's name tags. One Asian woman walked in (with her Caucasian husband) and Brian said "Well, I just know I'm gonna have a problem with your name." Her name was Jenny. There were about 8 people total, and the meeting followed two paths.

First, if you drink a couple ounces of XanGo a day (or even rub it on) you can reduce inflammation, maintain intestinal health, support the immune system, neutralize free radicals, support cartilage and joint function, and promote a healthy seasonal respiratory system!

Second, if you sell it to others, and have them sell it to others, who sell it to others, you can make a lot of money!

Keith, told the story of his friend, who fell off a roof and broke both heels. Ibuprofen wasn't helping enough with the pain, but after drinking just an ounce of mangosteen juice three times a day for just a month the pain was virtually gone! He didn't even need the Tylenol anymore! (And yes, I know that Tylenol isn't ibu, but Keith seemed confused...)

The meeting leader, Brian, did some math on the whiteboard. See, if you tell someone about XanGo and they buy it you get 30% of their initial order. And 5-15% of other orders you or they are involved in. So you recruit just one person per month to buy just one case, and each of them recruits just one person each month to buy a case, and each of them recruits just one person each month to buy one case...

After 12 months of this, assuming everyone continues buying and recruiting, your network will be buying 2048 cases per month. That's 5% of $204,800, or $10,000 per month!

I didn't point out to him that under the same assumptions you'd make $20K in month 13, $650,000 in month 18, and $4,000,000 in month 24.

They probably didn't break the fraud laws against pyramid schemes since they're selling a real juice, even if it's at really inflated prices. They probably did break the laws against making health claims for a product that they say isn't subject to FDA approval, but who am I to say. (The FDA issued a warning letter last year, though the company would probably claim that the people at the meeting were independent distributors who weren't strictly following company policies.)

I didn't bring this up at the meeting because some of the people there were really sick (congestive heart failure, lung cancer) and I didn't want to take away their hope that this really is a miracle product. But maybe I should have.

In any case, we're gonna pass up this opportunity and keep looking.

Sorry about all the exclamation points,
sg