i know someone that lost money doing this

You may hear someone say “I have a friend that lost money doing network marketing”.
There is no need to contest whether it did or did not happen. Different companies within the network marketing industry have different compensation structures or products that can make it more or less difficult for a distributor to earn income. 

Their level of involvement and effort also play a huge role. Some enter a business with the attitude, by simply joining they have purchased some sort of lottery ticket and all their financial problems will be over.  This is not the case.  As with any business, you must put in the time and effort to succeed.

There are a lot of ways to persuade people to do this type of business.  Having someone purchase a large amount of product that is going to sit in their garage for months is not how wowgreen operates.   You can invest varying amounts of money to get a business started and it should be relative to what you can afford, and how actively you intend to build your business.

Any time you spend money, it should be for one of these reasons:

You are purchasing product for you and your family to use.

You have a proven strategy that will allow you to market the product.

Some companies encourage people to spend thousands of dollars on product and then go out and sell it without any real support.   This is NOT the wowgreen method of doing business.  There is a system in place that provides proven strategies to go out and sell the product.

Is this an MLM?
Is this a Pyramid?
I'm not a sales person.
I need to get another opinion.
I know someone who lost money doing this
I don't have the time for it right now