Author Description

"DIRECT SELLING, a Non-Fiction Fable" is about what actual direct selling is. It is told as a fable - but it's not fiction. The story dramatically illuminates - and illustrates - the real world of "direct selling", not the phony history or the entrapping myth spread by multi-level marketing schemes. In the real world, direct selling can be brutally hard on the soul, sometimes ruthless and deceptive in methods, and no one who did it ever believed it was a path to "unlimited" wealth. Few people could do it, and of those who did, few wanted to. It was never glamorous. True direct selling mostly went extinct by 1980 as big box stores and then online selling, among other social factors, made it unneeded, unwanted and unfeasible. "Direct Selling" contrasts the real world of direct selling with people's hopes for sustainable work, with integrity, meaning and purpose. If consumers don't know what direct selling is, they are likely to fall victim to a fraud in direct selling disguise. Robert FitzPatrick is an expert on direct selling, multi-level marketing (MLM), and pyramid schemes. He's the author of PONZINOMICS and False Profits. He consults in court cases and is regularly interviewed for news, podcasts and documentaries. He also knows about direct selling - real direct selling - from experience.