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| taken by משתמש:Hmbr (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
"I was a kid from Kiryat Ata (ed. note: a relatively poor town in Haifa, Israel). Today I’m Gaydamak’s neighbor (ed. note: Israeli rich family). Bibi’s neighbor (ed. note: probably Aryeh Bibi, Israeli politician). I live in Caesarea (ed.note: one of the most upscale neighborhoods in Israel). I drive a car that costs as much as a house. Anyone who listens to me will succeed the way I did. Put some money in. You don’t have any? Get a loan from the bank. Bring your discharge payment from the army. Don’t listen to your parents. They’re dream-stealers. They don’t want you to succeed because they didn’t succeed. All the people on the outside are miserable and unhappy. They make NIS 5,000. Only those who listen to me will achieve success. What’s up with your friends? Why aren’t they here? Friends that aren’t involved in this aren’t true friends. Erase them. If someone has the flu − don’t you stay away from them? It’s the same thing. This organization is your only family. You have no true friends. I care about you more than your parents do.”− Tzachi Gozali, in the mantra he delivers to members of his organization.
This is the sort of speech that Tzachi Gozali delivers to his GTEAM, his Herbalife downline, every time they meet and used for recruitment meetings, then they have a huge party, and if you're really serious, you can pay NIS 17000 or 18000 and join as "supervisor". Don't have the money? They'll send a guy to shadow you to a bank make sure you get one (more than one bank if you have to). They take over full control of your life. You're supposed to cut ties with ANYONE who does not join the GTEAM / Herbalife. Outsiders are the "losers" in life, according to the GTEAM mantra, the dreamstealers.
It's a cult.
But there's more...
The members are only permitted to talk to their upline, called "tutor" in the GTEAM, and only approved other people. They are NOT allowed to talk with unapproved members.
The weekly sales meetings are not tutorial sessions, but confessions and humiliation rituals for members who failed to meet their sales quota. This is cult indoctrination 102.
This Herbalife-based cult even went as far as enforcing dress code and weight limits. Women are to be size 34 (or less). Else they will be humiliated weekly. Girls "voluntarily" go on starvation diets to please their leader.
The cult controls every aspect of the life of its members. EVERYTHING Tzachi Gozali said is "key to success". If you don't do what he says you won't succeed. If you don't drink 5 cups of Herbalife shake a day you won't succeed. If you don't dress like he orders you won't succeed. Soon, you have NO opinion at all.
And members are forbidden to have sex. According to Gozali, sex takes energy away from business, and therefore, is in impediment to success.
That is, until he decides that the female member is pretty enough for him, according to one ex-member. He simply manipulated them until they gave up fighting. He is their prophet. They cannot refuse his advances. They no longer have their own will. He comes and goes as he pleased, and used the female members for his harem as he pleased. Nobody said anything. Nobody dared.
It reads more like Heaven's Gate than Herbalife.
Yes, I know Herbalife have very little to do with this. This guy could have picked ANY MLM.
And of course, Herbalife disclaimed all responsibility, stating that what happens between members is not related to Herbalife.
And the guy in question threatened to sue Haaretz for libel.
NOTE: Thanks to a link from Robert Fitzpatrick's Pyramid Scheme Alert.
Editor's note: Gozali was eventually terminated from herbalife after the story went viral.
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