May 2003
An
interview with Mark Victor Hansen
(Recently, The
Chiropractic Journal had the pleasure of speaking with best- selling author
and motivational speaker Mark Victor Hansen, whose "Chicken Soup for the
Soul" books have sold more than 82 million copies. A special friend of
chiropractic, Hansen partnered with Parker Seminars to produce the
long-awaited "Chicken Soup for the Chiropractic Soul," filled with
inspirational and uplifting stories about the miracle of chiropractic.
Hansen is equally well known for his groundbreaking work on creating
success, with books such as "The One Minute Millionaire." The following are
excerpts from The Chiropractic Journal interview.)
You have a long history
with chiropractic. How did that all start?
I was 28 before I even
learned what a chiropractor was. How does that grab you? My wife and I
started going to a chiropractor early on in our marriage and I fell in love
with the profession because they were the only doctors who were examples of
wellness and health. Most medical doctors die at age 58 of the diseases
they've been studying... chiropractors were healthy, slim, athletic, tuned
in. The thing that got me was that they were experiencing the joy of life.
Everything I know from a spiritual point of view says you're supposed to
live in the joy of your experience and these men and women definitely were.
We started having them over to our house, they befriended us and started
asking us to talk at their conventions and meetings. I was having the time
of my life, they were such good students!
They were interested in
whatever book I had at the time, whether it was "Future Diary" or early
versions of "Chicken Soup." I said, this is a group I want to hang out with
and work with. They followed the "Star Trek" saying, "live long and
prosper." I just love 'em. In fact, one of my daughters has talked about
maybe being a chiropractor when she grows up.
Your loyalty is very
apparent. As your own success and fame have soared, you've never forgotten
chiropractic and still are an important part of the profession.
Jack and I took three
years to do the original "Chicken Soup for the Soul." In 1992, we were about
$140K upside down, turned down by 33 publishers, and our agent fired us. We
go to the book expo and a few more people say "no" to the book. Finally, a
little company called "Health Communications" says "yes," but Jack and I are
out of money. I've always taught that, to be successful, you should find a
niche that no one else is serving and take it over.
Well, I'd been working
with chiropractors for a long time, and I did a series of tapes on "How to
Build a Million Dollar Practice," and other specialty topics. I had learned
so much from the doctors around the country, and been able to find out first
hand how to be successful in that field.
It was natural, then,
for me to introduce "Chicken Soup" to them, and the response was incredible.
The success snowballed from there, thanks to the chiropractic profession.
Since you know
chiropractic so well, tell us what do you think is in store for the
profession in the future?
It's clear that the
health care system is failing. It's not the doctors who are failing... it's
the system. And as the system fails, we'll need a new system to take its
place. As far as I'm concerned, chiropractic is going to be the "browser"
system of the wellness revolution. People are going to want to have wellness
instead of sickness. The model we've been raised on is get sick, go to your
medical doctor, raise your hand and say "give me some drugs." Chiropractic
says get adjusted, keep your spine in alignment and focus on good nutrition.
You can see the
difference in the two systems just by looking at chiropractors. I'd say
80‑90% of all D.C.s are in really good shape, whereas 80‑90% of the medical
doctors smoke, are overweight, and aren't in good health.
What will D.C.s need to
do to succeed in that new wellness system?
One important factor
will be the creation of a "TEAM," which we say means "Together, Everyone
Accomplishes Miracles." The team has four quadrants: a creator, an advancer,
a refiner, and an executor. Most chiropractors are creators, which is what I
am and why we resonate so much, but you still need someone who advances your
practice, brings in new patients. And then you need to keep the new patients
for life. You don't want your patients to come in and then leave when their
symptoms disappear. Not only am I a lifelong patient, my kids are, and so is
my wife. They've become so sensitive they know when they need to go to the
chiropractor. And if someone comes over to our house when we're ready to go
to our chiropractor, we bring them with us.
That's what we need
everyone to do. To be convincing, we have to be convinced. I'm
convinced of the benefits of a chiropractor and convince the people I bring
in (and I've brought everyone to my chiropractor!).
Now, the question might
be how do I find a good advancer? I'll tell you. Take a photograph with
every one of your patients. With a digital camera, it's easy. Then you
e‑mail it to them. You blow it up and put it on your wall. You celebrate
them, you make the patients feel valuable and remembered and loved and
respected. If you do that, they will advance your practice. They will bring
in their family and friends.
By the way, if you go to
www.oneminutemillionaire.com, and take the HOTS survey, you can see what
type of team member you are, so you'll know what other types to surround
yourself with.
Another thing you have
in common with many chiropractors is your emphasis on spirituality. Is that
important?
Absolutely. I find
chiropractic to be a profession of the soul, the essence of who you are.
Chiropractors who do chiropractic first out of love and second as a
business, get a double payment. They're getting a reward for doing something
they love. The doctor who sees the most patients is probably going to become
the best healer because the more you use it, the more you're going to have
to use.
What other components
should D.C.s add to the success mix?
One thing is to keep up
the joy of living. Sometimes, we get into a routine and if we continue doing
the same thing over and over, it becomes mundane. But it's only mundane if
it's mundane to you. In our house, we have literally gone in and cut the
word "boring" out of the dictionary, because you can only be bored if you're
boring.
You're here to use your
mind, your soul and your experience. The patient load you attract is a
reflection of how much you're using your mind. If you're learning, growing,
trying different things, you're never going to be boring to yourself or your
patients. That's why it's important to take seminars, both in and out of
chiropractic. If you keep growing, your patient volume will keep growing.
They'll keep changing and keep you interested and interesting.
Another thing a
chiropractor can do is to introduce patients to each other. The more your
patients bond to each other, the more everyone feels like family.
How important is goal
setting to a chiropractor?
On my website,
www.markvictorhansen.com, we teach you to take the "Great Goals Challenge,"
to write 100 goals. We give you a form to fill out that says: "This is the
house I want; how many square feet, how many bedrooms, on the beach, etc."
It helps you think it through. We want a million people to set their goals.
And it's not good enough
to just say "I want a big practice." It's not detailed. What if you say, "I
want more money"? Okay, I give you a quarter and now you have more money,
but that's not really what you wanted. What you want is $100,000
more, or a $1 million extra. You have to be specific. And you have to
put it in writing. You have to figure out what you want and document it. And
you need a minimum of 100 goals -- health goals, spiritual goals, financial
goals, mental goals, fun time goals ‑‑ because you need goals.
I personally have 6,000
goals and I've now hit 1,610 of them!
What are your some of
your goals?
I'll just give you the
top ones. I want six-and-a half billion people -- which is the number of
people we have on the earth now -- to get a chiropractic adjustment.
And I want to help
eliminate fundamental illiteracy on the planet. There is no reason why
anyone is uneducated nowadays. In the old days, we couldn't go to certain
places to teach people. Today, given the computer and technology, we can go
anywhere and teach any kid.
Once we have them
literate, they can learn to fish for themselves. Then we feed everyone. Some
people say that can't be done, but the reason they're hungry is that they
are poor in spirit. There's no lack of food on the planet. Can we take the
desert in Arizona
and irrigate it and make things grow there? Of course we can. Can we feed
the world with what we grow there? I rest my case. So, the problem isn't
whether we can manufacture the food, the question is whether we have the
consciousness to do it.
Once you have a goal,
you can figure out how to reach that goal. For instance, one of my goals was
to feed America
first. A few years ago, I set up a deal with
Campbells
to collect cans of non‑perishables. The post office got in on it, and picked
up the cans. We collected enough food for 15 million hungry people.
We can teach everyone,
we can feed everyone, we can build housing for everyone. People who heard me
at the Parker Seminar this year heard me talk about my work with Habitat for
Humanity, and they know that there is no reason we can't build houses for
everyone.
These are goals that we
can't leave to the government or the U.N. We have to do these things
ourselves. That's why another of my top goals is to help make a million
millionaires, so each has enough to give away a million dollars to
their favorite charities.
You seem to have an
endless list of goals ... and an inexhaustible reserve of enthusiasm. How do
you keep yourself positive and motivated?
What you have to decide
is that you're doing the right thing. The deal is, when the game's over, the
only thing is have are snapshots and memories. You live the life, but you
can only remember snapshots of it. You have to think about what snapshots
you want to have at the end of your life. You're always going to have
critics, but they don't build statues to critics, only to people who did
things. And don't worry about the "failures" in your life. Look at Babe
Ruth. No one remembers how many times he struck out, only how many times he
hit a home run.
Your most recent book is
of particular interest to chiropractors, isn't it?
Yes, and our goal for
"Chicken Soup for the Chiropractic Soul" is to sell 25 million copies. We
want doctors to get patients reading the book so they'll see there's another
way to approach health. We want them to see there's another way to think
about health, and realize they need to go to a chiropractor.
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NOTE:
"Chicken Soup for the Chiropractic Soul" can be ordered from Parker Seminars
by calling 866‑333‑SOUP, or online at www.parkerseminars.com.
