As we near the beginning of a new year, I, for one, believe that the optimism we create is going to become the future we live in. In a world too often dominated by headlines of challenge and disruption, optimism — and a positive mental attitude — has the potential to transform us, and surprisingly enough even help increase our healthspan.
A Foundation of Personal Wellbeing
Have you ever thought about where wellbeing really comes from? Why we might be motivated to stay healthy? We can probably list many reasons. And some of those reasons might really impact us!
But here’s something important I’ve come to understand: Personal wellbeing isn’t just about you (or me). It’s about the people around us, our family, friends and the greater community.
It’s always wonderful to be with family during the holidays.
Once you realize that you can best help others when you are healthy and by being your best self, you see how interconnected we are and how your own health contributes to everyone and everything around you. That is the biggest motivator!
So, think of it this way, before we can nourish others, we must first nourish ourselves. This isn’t selfish—it’s essential.
Our physical well-being forms a foundation from which our mental optimism is built. Not only do our actions increase the quality of our lives and our own healthspans, but they can also contribute to increasing the quality of life for those around us.
Finding Sanctuary in Nature
I often talk about the walks I like to take, and the simple way each step can connect us to our purpose. And there’s also profound wisdom in simply staying connected to the earth – not only with both feet, but also with our intentions. Stepping away from technology and the constant interruptions it creates in our lives has never been as important and beneficial to our wellbeing.
Whether you have a small garden on your balcony or you are just walking through a field, nature offers us a break from the chaos of the modern world. It’s another reason why Amway is so interested in organic and regenerative farming; because in providing the plants used to make botanical ingredients for Nutrilite products, they’re also staying connected to the earth and cultivating it in such a way that the soil remains fertile and ready for future generations to benefit from.
Surveying the vineyards on the family farm in Oregon.
Not to mention that finding sanctuary in nature allows us to reconnect with something much larger than ourselves—the cycle of life, seasonal renewal, and the natural abundance that has sustained us for generations.
The Ripple Effect of Kindness
True optimism manifests in us in how we might respond to our own struggles. In a world where negativity prevails, suffering can lead to bitterness and a mistaken desire for others to share in our pain. Optimism offers a different path. It can transform our challenges into opportunities for positive change.
Look at it this way. When we face difficulties, we can use the wisdom and empathy we gain from the experience to help others navigate similar struggles. This is authentic kindness in action—it’s not superficial. It can lead to a deeper commitment that sees others positively and finds ways to help them avoid the challenges you went through.
The ripple effect it creates leads to stronger social connections that lift everyone and makes the world a better place.
Looking Forward with Optimism
So, as we move into the future, we get to choose how we show up in the lives of other people. By choosing optimism, we end up creating a better world in every moment for the people we interact with.
Taking care of yourself, nurturing your connection with nature, and all the effort you make to transform personal challenges into opportunities to help others, leads to a future where we can happily coexist.
Optimism isn’t just about hoping for a better future—it’s about actively creating it, starting with us and rippling outward to others.
I was interviewed recently in acknowledgement of the Nutrilite™ brand’s 90th anniversary today. It’s a lifelong legacy for me, and I’m excited to share the resulting story with you!
For Dr. Sam Rehnborg, Nutrilite is more than a supplement brand – it’s his lifelong passion. As the son of Nutrilite founder Carl F. Rehnborg, Dr. Sam was quite literally born into the business. From his earliest memories, he was immersed in his father’s work developing nutritional supplements.
To help celebrate the Nutrilite brand’s 90th Anniversary, and to accompany the release of The Nutrilite Story Third Edition, we sat down with him to discuss his legacy and continual growth with Nutrilite and Amway.
Can you tell us about your earliest memories with Nutrilite?
Dr. Sam as a toddler on Balboa Island.
I was in Nutrilite before I was born, really. My earliest memories go back to when it was just my dad, my mom, and me. We lived on Balboa Island in a small one room apartment.
We’d visit my father in his small laboratory down the street where he worked on his products.
He loved to swim, and I’ll always remember how he would swim across the bay with me on his stomach.
I was his first test subject, in a way. It was a wonderful time in our lives.
Can you share more about what your father was doing to launch his business early on?
My parents separated when I was 3 or 4 years old. It was hard on my mom at the time because of how busy my dad was. She took me back east to Connecticut with her and tried to get things going in her life. My dad visited and brought me back to California after a while.
We moved to Los Angeles and lived in a small apartment where he could continue working on his products. The business started to grow during that period, and he found a 3-acre farm in the San Fernando Valley where he could harvest alfalfa to use in the products.
He would process the alfalfa in a small factory in Los Angeles. He rented another place nearby where he could package the product. This is where distributors would come to pick up their product supply. The business kept growing, so he found a 10-acre farm near Buena Park to continue supplying ingredients for his products.
Who were some of the people helping your father market the product during that time?
Nutrilite founder, Carl Rehnborg.
He found that the best way to sell Nutrilite was through women who were using the product themselves.
It really came down to a woman named Alma Stewart who was one of his first customers. She kept asking to sell the product, but he didn’t think she would be able to sell it. But she was persistent, and after another sales setback he decided to give her a try.
He gave her a 25 percent discount on the product and told her she could mark it up from there. She was immediately successful. And she became one of his first salespeople selling the product because she believed in it and lived it, because it changed her life. People were intrigued with my dad, but they could see themselves in Alma when she was talking about Nutrilite and being a product of the product.
At the same time, he needed to be closer to the farm, so soon after we moved to Buena Park where we lived and worked. That’s where everything really got started. The business took off.
What were some of your first jobs with Nutrilite?
Dr. Sam as a young boy in Southern California.
Early on, I would work in my father’s laboratory sweeping the floor. Also, when I was about five or six, we’d go to the farm in the San Fernando Valley where my father harvested alfalfa.
My job was to pick walnuts and strawberries and sell them to people who came by. It was a great adventure for the family, especially during the war when gasoline was scarce and when we needed the extra money to make ends meet.
As the business started to grow, I would often go with my dad to make presentations about his products to potential customers.
During this time, he became known as the Vita-man and as his test subject, people would ask me questions and I would include in my answers that I ate my Nutrilite.
“Does your son use the products,” they would ask? He would say sure, and he would call me over to interact with me.
That would usually clinch the deal!
What were your early teenage years like?
The business started to grow when I was at that age, and as my father got more successful, and even before my teenage years, he sent me off to a military prep school to get a better education. As I grew up, I went to many different schools into my teenage years.
Going to so many different schools helped me learn how to take care of myself and connect with people. After I finished high school in Newport Beach, I went to Stanford for six years and then five years at UC Berkley for my Ph.D. I was always interested in the sciences. I studied chemistry, biochemistry and physical science, and then biophysics at Berkeley for my Ph.D.
How did your involvement with the company evolve as you got older?
In summers during school, I’d work on the farms or in the laboratories in a variety of different locations doing different jobs.
When I went off to college, I’d come back during holidays and work at the plant for about three months. I’d earn money to take back to school with me.
While I was at school, my dad would call me at least once a week to tell me what he was doing and to find out what I was doing. He was always really interested in my studies, especially when I got to graduate school.
What was it like when you officially joined the company after you received your Ph.D.?
Dr. Sam as a graduate student.
After I graduated, the business was at a crossroads. It was a tough time, and my dad was getting up there in years.
He said, “We need you back here at the company.”
So after a trip around the world visiting 40 different countries, I came back and started as Assistant to the President.
I jumped right into the thick of things and brought a lot of young people into the business to help me with the marketing, guys like Danny Rogers and John Brockman. At that time, Barney Bailey was incredibly helpful also.
What were some of the key challenges you faced early on?
Nutrilite had reached $50 million in sales but eventually dropped to $10 million because of the regulatory scrutiny we faced. The government temporarily shut us down, but we fought it in court and won. Then the government established regulations that ultimately worked in our favor because we finally knew what was permissible.
At the time, Dr. Stephen Tinkoff was running the company, he was a good leader, but his strength was not in sales and marketing. So, my responsibility was to help get us back to basics. We had to figure out how to sell the product effectively. We started by going door-to-door, but quickly realized that wasn’t the best approach.
We started traveling around the country, putting on meetings, and gradually built up our distributor groups. That was really the beginning of our success during that period.
What stands out for you about working with Nutrilite employees?
From the beginning my dad was always telling me that the most important asset you have are the people that are going to help you make and sell these products. He loved talking to employees and helping them understand why he was making these products, and why they ought to use them.
That’s why we always provided supplements for the employees to use, that’s always been part of it. It had to do with how the product was sold, the biggest thing was to have people use the product to be able to sell it – that meant the employees, too.
He also instituted profit sharing, which he believed to be tremendously important. We were one of the first companies to do so. He believed that for a business to be great, people had to be a part of it.
What does the Nutrilite and Amway family mean to you?
I feel like even though we all come from different backgrounds we are all the same in many ways and we all have the same potential. It isn’t about one single individual who has all the answers, everybody’s got to be a part of it. Everyone in this family is in it together. It’s about the camaraderie and respect for each other.
ABOs all over the world should feel the same way.
Can you tell us about the first time you met Jay and Rich?
Jay Van Andel and Rich DeVos.
I was at a leadership meeting in Los Angeles with my father and he was most interested in having me meet Jay and Rich. He pointed them out to me and said they were really going to go places. He was excited because he knew they were the future of the business.
They wanted to know everything that I knew about Nutrilite. They both asked a lot of questions. Every time I ran into them after that, they wanted to talk to me to get my perspective on how Nutrilite was doing.
They had started their Ja-Ri business at that point, but they always maintained a line between Nutrilite distributors and Amway distributors before we merged. Joining with Amway was a big step and my trust in Jay and Rich helped make the process possible.
What do you consider to be the most rewarding aspect of your career?
The most rewarding aspect is really helping people understand what they are eating and why our products could be added to their diet to help them have better nutrition and a healthier life.
Can you tell us about the “product of the product” philosophy?
That came from my dad. He always said the best way to sell the product was to use the product.
It was about getting more people to embrace the product as part of their lifestyle, not just making a one-time sale.
Dr. Sam wearing his “I eat Nutrilite” pin.
How has Nutrilite evolved since your father’s time?
The big evolution was certainly expanding internationally. My father always wanted to get back to China and other parts of the world. That’s where I got involved too, figuring out how to start companies overseas. Joining with Amway allowed that global expansion to happen.
How have you achieved work life balance in your career?
I’ve always felt that work, love and play are all part of it. You’ve got to get them all in there, you don’t just focus on one or the other. It’s about finding something that you really love doing and getting after it. You want everybody to have the opportunity to have a full life, whatever role they’re playing. It’s especially true today. We need to keep connected.
Which Nutrilite product are you most proud of and why?
Obviously, it’s the Double X™ supplement. It’s Amway’s number one product and it’s the most complete product with all its components as close to nature as it can be while being effective. And it’s continually being improved. When my father came up with it, he was basically saying to people that embracing his products meant embracing a healthy lifestyle.
Looking to the future, what excites you about Amway and the Nutrilite™ brand’s potential?
I’m excited about what we can do at places like our farms to help people better understand this magnificent planet and the world we live in. How can we make it a better place, and what can we do to help people embrace that and understand it?
Dr. Sam on the Amway campus in 2023.
We can’t just wait for a problem to occur and then try to solve it. We need to plan and prevent problems from occurring in the first place. We’ve got to embrace this approach – our Health and Wellbeing – to protect our futures. We need to take care of everything – the people, the plants, the living creatures, the oceans, the land.
Ever since my father began growing his own crops for his food supplements in the 1930s, Nutrilite has been farming organically. He didn’t call it organic farming then because the term didn’t yet exist.
It was J.I. Rodale who coined the term in the 1940s and he was heavily influenced by the ideas of Sir Albert Howard, a British scientist who spent years observing traditional farming in India. Howard envisioned agricultural systems that were reliant upon returning crop residues, green manures and wastes to soil. He promoted the idea of working with nature by using deep-rooted crops to draw nutrients from the soil.
My father Carl F. Rehnborg in a field of alfalfa at the Lakeview Farm, California; circa 1958. The Lakeview farm is now retired, but historically it was considered the “workhorse” farm where we grew many of the long-term crops destined for Nutrilite products. The farm sat on a prehistoric lake bed, which accumulated nutrient-rich sediment that helped contribute to the fertile top soil.
My father was also a keen observer of the world around him. Early in his career when he was working as a milk salesman for Carnation Milk, he was able to study Carnation’s research showing that cows consuming nothing more than alfalfa and water produced the most milk and gained the most weight.
While visiting the company’s research facility and condensory near Madison, Wisconsin in the early 20th century, a chemist held up an alfalfa plant and said to him, “This is as complicated as the universe!” It was undoubtedly an “a-ha” moment that further seeded the idea for Nutrilite and inspired him to continue exploring the power of plants.
The farming he first undertook on the original Nutrilite farm in Reseda, California was done using a specially designed scythe with a basket attached so that he could keep all the alfalfa he was harvesting from ever touching the ground. Initially, it was the alfalfa that he processed in his own lab that provided the nutrients for his food supplements. The same plant he watched contented cows consume 20 years earlier.
Of course, he didn’t use synthetic chemicals or fertilizers to grow his crops back then. Today, our farming operations span nearly 6,000 acres across three countries where the same ethos is operating on a much larger scale.
But organic isn’t the only mindset that is driving the farming industry.
Field technician tests the soil. Trout Lake Farm East, Washington, USA; 2014.
It has truly become about the soil – protecting it long-term so that future generations can benefit from the healthy mix of nutrients and life-giving substances that exist right below our feet.
The biggest challenge for organic farms is weed control. How you keep weeds from proliferating is where the industry is ripe for innovation. And there are ways to do it without damaging the soil. Even by using lasers!
Regenerative agriculture is also gaining momentum as an effective way to preserve soil and the environment while also creating carbon sinks to recapture carbon dioxide that has been expelled into the atmosphere. It is one way to promote circular economies through farming.
On a farm that uses regenerative practices near the Trout Lake East farm in Ephrata, Washington, “happy” cows rotate in controlled grazes on the land. Cattle munching and trimming the grass helps stimulate the plants to double the root growth and keep the soil healthy. Ephrata, Washington, USA; 2021. Photo: Darwin Hintz
And about those cows. Happy cows that graze on healthy soil have a magical way of improving the soil biology through their saliva and organic waste. It’s how nature meant it to be. Circular, returning what we use in a virtuous cycle that helps balance our existence on this planet.
I, for one, am grateful to the farmers, innovators, and champions of sustainable farming that are following in the steps of the pioneers before them.
To me, one thing is certain: Save the soil, save the future. I hope you think so too.
Last month, I was able to experience Amway’s commitment to health and wellbeing firsthand. I spent time in Zurich, Switzerland with Founders Council members, and I also visited Napa Valley in California and spoke to a group of Japanese ABOs about how our future is taking shape.
Amway Founders Council members in Zurich, Switzerland. Can you find Francesca and me? Photo Credit – Dusty Brown, 2024
The event in Zurich reflected the strong partnership between Amway and Founders Council Members who shared examples and best practices of how they are transforming and building their businesses differently with health and wellbeing as the focus.
At the event in Napa, I spoke with Amway Japan ABO leaders who were equally excited about the direction we are headed for future growth as a health and wellbeing company. While this path forward seems like a new approach, this has always been the foundation of what my father believed in many years ago.
Francesca and me relaxing in Napa Valley, California. Photo courtesy of Amway Japan, 2024.
I came away from my travels and interactions struck by the overwhelming acceptance of this path forward for our business. I spoke with many different people who were so impressed because they can easily see a tangible, positive impact from our renewed focus on health and wellbeing. Not only for themselves, but for all the people connected to their communities throughout the world.
It was very validating for me because it recognizes the fundamentals of a wonderful concept that took root so long ago about the best way to live a healthy life.
Seeing it for ourselves
It has been 90 years since Nutrilite was founded, but more than 100 years since my father, Carl Rehnborg, first went to China and observed that plant-based diets and regular physical activity made people healthier. It created a seed of an idea for him that led to the founding of Nutrilite in 1934.
I can see for myself that Amway understands that Nutrilite is so much more than a plant-based supplement brand – it is a way of life that has stood the test of time.
Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel traveled with Nutrilite distributors to Buena Park, California, to see Carl and Edith Rehnborg. Photograph circa 1950s.
Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel saw it for themselves when they worked as Nutrilite distributors in the 1950s before founding Amway. Years ago, distributors would travel with Rich and Jay by bus to California to see Carl Rehnborg and the Nutrilite farms firsthand because they knew that the farms, the soil, and the meticulous devotion to quality was the true foundation of their business, something you will see in this incredible film from 1954 – From the Ground Up.
Building a foundation
Today, those trips to the farm so many years ago – and the belief in a better way – have taken root. As a result, Amway’s foundational products work to help promote healthy nutrition and good daily habits. That’s where it starts.
And we need this more than ever now, because we are still faced with many challenges.
In the United States, where the standard American diet is the norm, people are consuming higher amounts of ultra processed foods and animal products. According to a recent Health Matters presentation from Stanford University, Americans continue to have wide nutritional gaps in their diets.
Considering how fast paced and distracting our lives have become, it’s not surprising these numbers remain so low for many of us.
A way forward
It’s why the work we are doing is so important. We are creating vibrant communities that have the potential to empower millions of people to improve their health span – or the number of years they are healthy, happy, and feeling their best.
Don’t forget that it takes a village to do this – going it alone is not sustainable. We rely on our friends, family and counterparts to keep us motivated on our journeys to optimal health.
Together, we can empower people to live better, healthier lives, helping them achieve their wellbeing goals.
I’m so excited to see what the future will bring!
[1] Lee SH, Moore LV, Park S, Harris DM, Blanck HM. Adults Meeting Fruit and Vegetable Intake Recommendations — United States, 2019. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2022;71:1–9. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7101a1.
With springtime upon us it’s a good time to share a previous post about harnessing the undeniable power of nature. It’s becoming ever more important for us to listen to Mother Nature and to find innovative ways to help create a sustainable future. A future based on nature’s design.
The wisdom of nature fascinates me. You need only take a walk in the outdoors to see why. At first glance, you may marvel at its beauty, but when you look closer, you’re sure to spot the elegant efficiency that is uniquely Mother Nature. Nothing is wasted. All is needed. Everything counts. To me, nature is a perfect place to find inspiration for sustainable solutions not only for healthy living, but for a healthy planet. So perfect, in fact, it has inspired a movement.
A majestic tree at Fazenda Nutriorganica, Ceará, Brazil, 2014. Branches jut out without any right angles, allowing for more efficient distribution of water and nutrients, just like the blood vessels in our circulatory system.
Sustainability inspired by nature
For eons, man has found solutions to problems big and small by watching, learning, and modeling the wisdom of nature. Today, we’re watching even more closely to find sustainable solutions, thanks to the biomimicry movement. I like that.
Biomimicry, a term coined by naturalist Janine Benyus about 25 years ago, is now a mainstream movement. A growing number of researchers, architects, inventors, and other creative types look to nature to inspire their own well-designed solutions. Each one starting with a simple question: “I have a problem; how would nature solve it?”
Water beadlets on the surface of a leaf. Certain leaves, such as the lotus, are textured, which helps water and dirt to roll off easier. This feature has inspired fabric and paint finishes that repel stains without the need for excess chemicals.
What exactly is Biomimicry?
According to The Biomimicry Institute (yes, there is an institute), the goal of biomimicry is to find sustainable solutions to human challenges by emulating the patterns and strategies found in nature that have stood the test of time. The result is products, processes and policies that not only help us thrive, but protect the planet.[i]
The bur is a common example of biomimicry in action. These airborne specks of dry plants have hooks that can cling to clothes with impressive tenacity, much to the dismay of most hikers. But not to Swiss engineer George de Mestral, who took a closer look at the bur and was inspired to create the Velcro® hook-and-loop fastener, which he patented in the mid-1950s.
You may also recognize biomimicry in other products: bullet trains inspired by king fisher birds, houses modeled after baobab trees, air conditioning systems patterned after termite hills, or solar power systems inspired by leaves.
Nutrilite solutions powered by Biomimicry
My father understood the wisdom of nature long before the biomimicry movement. As a young man traveling in China, he was intrigued by the shiny coats of cows grazing only on alfalfa and drinking water. He also noticed people in rural areas, who ate a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, were healthier than their urban counterparts who consumed more refined foods. These types of observation eventually led to the creation of Nutrilite® brand supplements — a supplement inspired by nature.
Another Nutrilite example of biomimicry is the natural pesticide BIOTROL developed by scientists at Nutrilite Products, Inc., in the 1950s. They were looking for spotted aphids, dead ones in this case, that had been rampaging the alfalfa fields. They noticed some of the dead aphids were covered with a fuzz from mold. After testing, they found the mold spores could control the aphid problem and do so without the bugs developing a tolerance to the fungal material. This discovery didn’t result in a commercial product (spotted aphids are not a big pest), but it did inspire my father to find a way to naturally ward off certain destructive caterpillars. He hired entomologists, biologists and fermentation experts and eventually produced BIOTROL. It was derived from the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis and considered the first natural biological pest control in the marketplace.
An insect shows off its colorful exoskeleton while blending into the foliage. Some insects are predators of common pests, making them a natural solution to help protect crops.
Good bugs, bad bugs and more
Finding inspiration in nature is a huge part of what Nutrilite scientists do. They use beneficial bugs – lady bugs, green lace wings and others – to balance harmful bugs. They rely on sheep droppings to feed earthworms, microbes and other organisms needed for rich, fertile soil. They closely monitor harvesting time to ensure optimal nutrient content in plants.
It is also important to look to nature to see what is suited for the land. For this reason, we source plant ingredients for Nutrilite® brand products from farms that have the right climate, soil and weather conditions for a particular crop, and why we partner with like-minded farmers around the world in our NutriCert™ certification program.
Surround yourself with nature’s inspiration
We spend a lot of time at our home in Telluride, Colorado, but this year was the first time we were there to see the Aspen leaves changing color. It was an unbelievable sight, true living color in brilliant greens, translucent yellows and deep golds. These majestic trees paint a spectacular picture, but to me, they also offer inspiration for biomimicry of a cultural sort. You see, the Aspens are all connected by one massive root system that allows them to thrive, year after year, earning them the moniker of largest living organism on the planet. Imagine what we could accomplish for our planet if we could be as connected?
The sparkling leaves on Aspen trees near our home in Telluride begin to change color. Telluride, CO, September 2018. Photo: F. Rehnborg
I encourage you to get outdoors as much as you can. Go somewhere that soothes your soul –walk along a beach, hike a mountain trail, sit in a city park or enjoy your own garden more. While there, look closer at the flowers, trees, shrubs and nature’s other wonders. Look for symmetry, check out the patterns, and find something you haven’t noticed before.
I believe the more we connect with nature, the more we open our minds to nature-inspired solutions and, most importantly, the lighter we will tread on our planet. Who’s ready for a nature walk?
Till next time!
Welcome to my blog on healthy living with the Nutrilite™ brand.
