The Amway Corporation has grown from a two-man company selling all-purpose cleaner to become the largest and best known multi-level or network marketer in the world. Its diverse product line, ranging from personal care items to major appliances, generated sales of over seven billion dollars in 1998 and was sold by nearly one million distributors in 80 countries and territories. In the process, founders Richard M. DeVos and Jay Van Andel have made millionaires of some of their adherents and Fortune 400 billionaires of themselves. With the growth of home businesses in late twentieth-century America, Amway has inspired a slew of imitating companies, selling everything from soap to long distance telephone service. Amway, or the American Way Association as it was first called, has also revived interest in the American success story; rags-to-riches financial success based on hard work, individualism, positive thinking, free enterprise, and faith in God and country.

The...