For your thought...

	The Path of Multi-Level Marketing	The Path of Academia
At the bottom of pyramid	New clueless member	New clueless PhD student
Why people join?	Promising great future: financial freedom	Promising great future: good future salary, nobel prize maybe…
Price that you pay	High entry cost, with annual payment	Your youth
General morale	Low (that’s why they always have motivational speech)	Low (that’s why they make seminars compulsory)
At the top of pyramid	Asst. Manager, Manager, Senior Manager (or some fancy designation, depending on the company)	Asst. Prof., Assoc. Prof., Prof.
Product	Mostly junk, with few exception	Mostly junk, with few exception
If you want to quit	Your upline will talk to you and motivate you until you feel it’s not a good idea to quit	Your supervisor will talk to you and motivate you until you feel it’s not a good idea to quit
Group meetings	Regular, almost every other day, also depends on your upline	Regular, depends on your supervisor, but usually once a week
Working hours	“Flexible”	“Flexible”
Social impact	Likely to lose most of your friends along the way, coz you talk nonsense to most people.	Likely to lose most of your friends along the way, coz you talk nonsense to most people.
Compensation	Dismal for most of the people, except for small number of people who take most of the pile	Dismal for most of the people (i.e. PhD student, postdoc, etc), except for small number of academe
After thought	After awhile, you will think why you join in the first place.	After awhile, you will think why you join in the first place.
Market penetration	Usually about 1-4% of the market	Usually 1-4% of graduating batch