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Mastering Altitudes: Matt Rivera’s Journey from Amway to Aviation
What do a pilot and an entrepreneur have in common? You guessed it – Amway.
Meet Matt Rivera. At 20, Matt is a budding Amway independent business owner – and an aspiring pilot. He started his Amway business in Georgia two years ago and has since moved to Florida to pursue flight school at Berichi Aviation while continuing to run his business out-of-state.
Matt glides seamlessly between navigating customer conversations to the cockpit, fully attributing his ability to do so on the flexibility that the Amway opportunity provides him. As a leading American health and wellbeing company, Amway is part of the modern economy, providing flexible and accessible business opportunities for Americans looking to build their own businesses on their own terms.
Through Amway, Matt has built a business that works for him, without compromising his ability to explore his various interests. In addition to his professional pursuits, Matt also finds time to keep up with hobbies – playing the guitar and the ukelele and golfing.
Like many Gen-Zers, Matt values alternatives to traditional 9-5 jobs. “Every person has multiple passions. We are not one-dimensional beings,” says Matt. “Yet, traditional jobs set the expectation that you’ll pursue just one path, for years, if not decades. I don’t think that’s how the world works anymore.”
The traditional route has lost its allure for some younger American workers. These Millennials and Gen-Z-ers are increasingly trading the conventional office job culture for the thrill of non-traditional opportunities available in today’s modern economy.
And Amway’s entrepreneurship model is growing in resonance among many young professionals like Matt. Research* shows that approximately 42 percent of Americans have considered working in the direct selling industry with Gen Z (18-26) and younger Millennials (27-35) displaying a greater inclination towards it.This research is mirrored in Amway’s reality. In the last 3 months alone, Amway received 50,000 new applications for independent business owners — and a majority of them were under 35.
So why this burgeoning interest? Because Amway offers a low-risk opportunity for Americans to explore business ownership without requiring the traditional, sometimes hefty startup costs to do so. In 2024, the latter is still cited as the largest roadblock to individuals pursuing business ownership. Amway provides a time-tested, reliable infrastructure for entrepreneurship including products, supply chains, e-commerce storefronts, education and a community of mentors – thereby lowering barriers to entry.
Matt also believes that Amway provides one of the most inclusive paths to entrepreneurship because you don’t need thousands of dollars or world-changing ideas to participate. The accessibility of the opportunity was a huge part of why it resonated so strongly with him. Matt’s parents immigrated to the U.S. from El Salvador when they were in their 20s, looking for better opportunities for themselves and their three children. He saw his parents build their own Amway business from very humble beginnings and it’s had lasting impact on him. As a second-generation immigrant, Matt always saw the United States as a place of equal opportunity where one is able to advance themselves through hard work and effort – a belief his parents instilled in him. Matt truly considers Amway a representation of that belief.
When asked when he knew he wanted to become an Amway business owner he says, “I always had the ‘entrepreneurial itch’ and Amway has been a household name for years. Seeing my parents build their businesses and how much they enjoyed themselves in the process is what initially encouraged me to pursue this path. And I couldn’t be more excited to see what new opportunity has in store for me.”
*Research by Bridgehead Collective