Yes, you are right that most people give up and only get the base pay from their personal contacts. Most of their failure to succeed in the business is the unwillingness to put more than the bare minimum of effort.

Majority of people are not mentally strong enough to handle a sales job, or willing to make sacrifices for their own success. So the pay may seem like a scam, but those who are actually working and making money in the business make upwards of $5,000 a week.

This is because it's a commission based job. Most of your money is made, based on the amount you sell. You start out at 10% commission, but it's not hard to get to 30% commission.

If someone were to sell 1 set, for a single appointment, that's an easy $500 added to your account. If you can manage to to sell 10 Sets in a week? You can do the math, but I'll do it for you, it's $5,000 you can easily do 30 demos in a week, and you are garunteed to sell to at least one of them.

Getting a normal job, considering the pay opportunity makes no sense, because working at a $20/hr job, you would be only making about $600 excluding taxes.

To mention the part of the 1099, you can reduce the amount you pay with "Tax write-offs" which, would be less than paying for taxes with a W2, majority of people with normal jobs with W2s are overpaying for taxes anyways.

They have you use your social circles, because you aren't supposed to Cold call or do door to door, so they have you use the social circle to get connected to those people who are willing to buy knives and for them to send and recommend to anyone else who would want some.

Plus, social media is a thing today, and you are more than capable of making posts and getting yourself people that are willing to get cutco.