Herbalife founder article - makingmoneyforum.com

Members Login

Post Info

TOPIC: Herbalife founder article

NadaCash

Member

Status: Offline

Posts: 9

Date: Jun 15, 2007

Herbalife founder article	Permalink

Herbalife founder Mark Hughes : A showy swindler or a dot-com deity? - - - - - - - - - - - - By Alec Foege In his 1980s heyday, Hughes -- who died last month of a just-confirmed overdose at his $27 million oceanfront mansion in Malibu -- was known to sport a diamond-encrusted gold ring and Cartier watch and dress in $1,500 suits; he could often be found motoring around Los Angeles in his Mercedes or in one of his Rolls Royces. By May 21, the day Hughes, 44, was found dead, he had become both wildly rich and internationally famous for building a garden-variety pyramid operation into a public corporation with $1.79 billion in sales. Print storyE-mail story Backflip this article to find it againCreating a high-profile brand seems to have been the key. For the few remaining humans who don't know, Herbalife sells health and dietary supplements primarily through distributors who pitch their friends and neighbors, much in the same way Mary Kay sells cosmetics. But unlike Amway, the privately held titan in the field commonly known as multilevel marketing, Herbalife is accountable to shareholders and had a highly recognizable figure at its helm. "The growth of the sales force was cultic," says William Crookston, a professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business Administration. "It became very charismatic and grew very quickly." As in other pyramids, Herbalife customers have incentive to become distributors, which allows them to take advantage of additional discounts offered by the company. The story of its flamboyant leader was the flypaper that helped attract new business. Not surprisingly, Hughes cast the creation of Herbalife as nothing less than a spiritual awakening. A product of divorce who dropped out of school in ninth grade in Los Angeles, he turned to drugs in his early teens. By 16, he was sent to Cedu, a residential school for delinquent youth in Running Springs, Calif. Here, he apparently discovered his gift while selling hundreds of raffle tickets to raise money for the school. When Hughes was 19, his mother died. He claimed she ingested a toxic drug meant to reduce her weight. Sparked by a quest to discover safe, herbal dieting aids for others, he began selling various brands out of his car trunk. In 1980, at age 23, he devised his own line. By 1985, the company reportedly took in $500 million per year. Distributors wore buttons reading "Lose weight now, ask me how." Along with wildfire success, Herbalife courted its share of regulatory nightmares. Some health experts questioned the effectiveness of the company's nutritional supplements; Herbalife claimed to increase energy and cure a range of illnesses from venereal disease to bee stings. California's state health department determined that Herbalife's self-professed "natural lift" was deceiving. The reason: "Defendants misleadingly fail to disclose that one of the product's active ingredients is caffeine." Hughes also defended himself in front of a panel of U.S. senators. The fledgling mogul cited an unusual strategy. "If they're such experts," he said, "then why are they so fat? I've lost 16 pounds in the last few years." In 1986, Herbalife settled with the state of California, paying $850,000 in fines and agreeing to remove two products from the market: Tang Quei Plus for menstrual cramps, and K-8, which was said to relieve stress. That very same year -- in a feat that may have been far more miraculous than any of his products -- Hughes successfully took his company public more at salon.comhttp://archive.salon.com/business/feature/2000/06/19/herbalife/index.html?CP=SAL&DN=110 -- Edited by moneyshaker at 17:54, 2007-07-20 __________________ Heyy Yaaa

moneyshaker

Member

Status: Offline

Posts: 24

Date: Jul 20, 2007

	Permalink
Herbalife still sells. I think it may have been rebranded. __________________

adjcjqlep

Date: Feb 26, 2011

MCZzkNgvGDdiTobSfdd	Permalink

IUs2uQ vchrjywrhrzs, xzkzukxxpura, [link=http://fnlpksjvlfko.com/]fnlpksjvlfko[/link], http://lyxlicebvxxu.com/ __________________

Kasara

Date: Nov 16, 2011

afmkvYqOkKZclixS	Permalink

That saves me. Thanks for being so sesbnlie! __________________

shkgzgh

Date: Nov 18, 2011

ctEbNyfrfLEtrAG	Permalink

2V24Bz ddsjnxgkeasa __________________

mwqswdggdi

Date: Nov 18, 2011

HInOCwtGFuAr	Permalink

O0VVNA , tpefshzymdhk, [link=http://ourylihwatix.com/]ourylihwatix[/link], http://famrhtopycyv.com/ __________________

Page 1 of 1 sorted by

Tweet this page

Post to Digg

Post to Del.icio.us

Create your own FREE Forum
Report Abuse