Eric Scheibeler, a former high level distributor for Amway, details his experience with the push to attend company events, in his book Merchants of Deception:

In mid December, Kerry and Chris came over and described to us what was essentially the opportunity of a lifetime. It was a weekend-long seminar almost five hours away. It was early in January and was called Dream Weekend.

There were several reasons we could not go. First, we were feeling overwhelmed! Although we were enthusiastic, our total involvement was all moving far too quickly. Second, we had an infant son, Josh, and we were unwilling to leave him for an entire weekend. Third, we did not have the several hundred dollars that it was going to cost for the seminar and lodging in the high-end hotel, in which it was scheduled. There was just no way it was going to happen. We would catch the next one when our situation was better. Kerry and Chris were very persistent. This was something that I would thank them for later.

They explained that Josh was the biggest reason that we needed to go. His future could hinge on this important seminar. There were many millionaires and multimillionaires that were flying in from all over the country to teach those who ‘really wanted to learn.’ Money was tight for us now, but after a function like this, it probably would never be a problem again.

Being strapped financially was actually another major reason to go and learn from people who were financially free. We could even bring Josh with us to the seminar and were encouraged to bring food in a big cooler to save money. After hearing all this, we felt like we had no more excuses. All the issues that caused us to not want to go were presented as the biggest reasons we needed to get there. We reluctantly agreed to put the trip on a credit card. This Dream Weekend could actually be what allowed us to become debt free.