Over the last month or so I’ve largely stayed out of the developments surrounding Polaris Media Group. Thanks to the tireless dedication of various people however, readers of OzSoapbox have been kept up to date with information as the leadership of this company appears to bottom out.

As we head towards January 2010 and wrap up what has been an interesting year for Polaris I thought I’d take some time and reflect on some correspondence I’d received over the past month.

The following was received via email and I think importantly highlights the mindset a lot of people involved in the company might be in.

Hi,

I chatted to you regarding Liberty League.
Congratulations on destroying Liberty League. Well done.

You are obviously LifePath, and have an axe to grind, otherwise you’d be bagging Lifepath as well. Especially because including myself thousands of Polaris distributors are now with Lifepath.
We wont be seeing Ozsoapbox going after Lifepath, because you are LifePATH.
You are pathetic.

Ever since I started writing about Liberty League the Lifepath accusations almost simultaneously began and they’ve remained steady since.

At a guess, I’d say this is inpart to Lifepath distributors targeting the ‘polaris media group’ keywords in Google Adwords and the attempt to discredit what gets written on OzSoapbox by competitor association.

Whatever the reason, at the end of the day the fact still stands that I’ve never personally worked in the personal development industry. I’ve never attempted to sell anyone anything from the personal development industry and beyond the authoring of a few articles in response to a television commercial I saw earlier this year, OzSoapbox really doesn’t have anything to do with the personal development industry.

Besides, the few websites that do promote another business opportunity or product I’ve come across whilst researching Liberty League/Polaris are always blatantly transparent.

There’s a big difference between writing from an impartial perspective or having a financial interest in either the company being written about or the industry in general.

Not sure if you realise, but in a time of drought, and where Aussies can’t afford to buy franchises, Liberty League and Polaris were a hope for people, with no money, to achieve something.

Now this was just downright stupid. As Liberty League international the opening product Beyond Freedom retailed at US$1495. Even if you skipped the purchase you still had to cough up $49.95 or whatever it was to join the company.

Then of course you’d also have to come up with an answer as to how you can sell these great personal development products without having actually used them yourself.

‘Wow so you mean I too can have the fabulous wealthy lifestyle you lead?!’

‘Sure! You just have to buy Beyond Freedom and you’ll be on your way to success.’

‘Cool. So what’ Beyond Freedom like?’

‘Well I uh… haven’t actually used it myself.’

‘Um why not?’

‘I can’t afford it.’

As Polaris Media Group sure the entry level products have been reduced in price but let’s be clear. Nobody is selling $30 dvds and making six figure executive incomes.

Sure you can join Polaris Media Group with only a $49.95 joining fee but then what? Borrow lots of money to pay off someone elses debt? Then convince someone else to borrow money to pay off your own debt?

Even with a bad economy this isn’t really something people with no money should be hoping to achieve.

You are so selfish, everyone knows you are making money from your controversial website, you are the biggest bunch of cowards i’ve ever seen. You should be ashamed to be Australian.
Australians are decent people, fighters, visionaries, and the internet including your disgraceful blog, has destroyed peoples lives.
Congratulations on being a coward.

With the exception of the inference that I’m rolling in money I mostly agree with the above paragraph.

Australians on the whole are decent people, fighters and visionaries. That’s why after coming to Australia it wasn’t long before Liberty League International completely ceased to exist. Following that Polaris Media Group was launched and well, if you’ve been following OzSoapbox and the comments left by readers you’d know that hasn’t gone too well either.

This is the direct result of entering the Australian market with a scam and then trying to market said scam to Australians.

As for destroying people’s lives, well… I’m pretty sure the act of taking people’s money outweighs reading about it on the destructive scale.

I am making great sales with Life Path. So please don’t eat your babies, look after us.
Absolute disgrace, i’ve never seen such cowardess people hiding behind the internet for financial gain.
Rot in hell.

Aside from questioning the authors actual involvement in Lifepath (it almost seems like a weak attempt at coaxing me to ‘go after’ them), I’m not quite sure where the cowardess claims come from.

It’s one thing to use the anonymous power of the internet to sit somewhere and write up fictitious claims about people or a company they work for.

It’s another entirely to give an opinion on substantiated facts and events that occur completely beyond your control.

Whilst I’ve certainly had my opinions on people and their actions what needs to be separated and clarified is the fact that I don’t run Polaris Media Group. I don’t have any control over the direction the company takes, who is involved and who runs the show.

I never have.

Whether Polaris goes completely bust tomorrow or Shane Krider joins Rush, the Lavignia’s and Braxton in their new ‘we couldn’t make a sustained living selling MLM crap but we’ll happily charge you for our advice on being successful at it’ company is of no consequence to me.

Whoever runs Lifepath isn’t going to write me a big juicy bonus cheque, I don’t have a financial stake in the industry or Polaris itself and my own finances are in no way linked to Polaris or any of their competitors.

What began as an advertising annoyance for me will end as an advertising annoyance for me. I couldn’t have predicted the many twists and turns coverage of Polaris has brought us but then again who could have?

A company is only as good as its management and when the ship starts to sink you can either stand around and blame everybody else or accept responsibility and along with the prospect that maybe what you were doing was suspect to begin with. The fall of LLI/Polaris Media Group was a long time coming.

What did everyone think was going to happen when you took a bunch of people that had enjoyed the top level of a pyramid scheme for eight years and then totally shift their income plan to a less devastatingly lucrative model?

Mass resignations and the complete collapse of management? I could have told you that months ago.

As we hurtle towards 2010 the goal is still the same as it was when I penned my first article. Awareness.

Research, read and then make up your own mind. I mean what, does anybody actually believe some guy sitting behind a keyboard had more to do with the downfall of a company then the actions of the people running the company themselves?

Bad management with a shonky business model is a recipe for disaster no matter what industry your in. Fictitious claims are easily disproven and in a world where credibility is hard to establish why risk it at all?

Through all the bullshit, deception and smokescreening we’ve seen over the past 8-9 months it was nothing more then the eventual truth that brought Polaris Media Group down.

Hate me and hate this blog fine, but let’s not kid ourselves and pretend I was the one running around Australia taking people’s money in good conscience.