July 2006

You've got to want it bad enough

by Dr. Peter Fernandez

My experience over the past 25 years as a practice consultant is that some doctors greatly exceed their goals, others achieve slightly over their goals, some never grow beyond their goals, and a few never reach their goals. How can thousands of DCs receive the same expert training and practice building guidance from the very same consultant and end up with such a wide disparity in their levels of achievement?

What makes the difference?

The difference between getting what you want and not ‑‑ the difference between success and failure ‑‑ is how bad do you want it? If you want it bad enough, you will do something about achieving it.

Every doctor would love to see 200‑500 patient visits a week without working hard. Obviously, that's a fairytale and it's not going to happen. Yet, the doctors who want that level of practice bad enough will succeed in achieving it. These doctors are willing to pay the price to get what they want. They don't avoid working long office hours, or learning what they need to know to reach and maintain the practice level they want. If you want something bad enough, you must pay the price. Your success depends on it.

A particularly difficult time of year for every practice is December and January. People are busy shopping for the holidays, visiting relatives, and taking vacations, and new insurance deductibles due at the first of the year are just a few of the reasons why practices can easily take a seasonal dip at this time.

I'll venture a guess that most of you are not in the situation I was with seven children to support, but everyone has certain financial obligations to meet, and office expenses certainly don't take a seasonal dip. Just like you, I had to pay my practice overhead, staff holiday bonuses, my typical monthly living expenses, and buy Christmas presents for my family. My kids were something else. At a very young age, K‑Mart sneakers were no longer good enough. They wanted Nikes and the latest fad in clothes. I couldn't afford to have a bad month.

Therefore, every year December and January were my biggest months ‑‑ on purpose. I made up my mind they would be my biggest months. They had to be. I wanted it bad enough to do something about it, and I did. My "Fall‑Winter program" never failed me as it's never failed my clients. I worked my "Fall‑Winter" program with dogged determination. I wanted it to work bad enough and it did.

Why does one program work like gangbusters for one doctor and not for another? The bottom line is it works equally well for every doctor, but the difference is in how bad the doctor wants it to work and how much of the program he or she actually uses. Success is relative. You'll achieve as much as you put into it ... no more and no less.

Ask yourself, "How badly do I want it?"

There's a story about a man who was looking for a way to "get rich quick." One day he read a newspaper story about the most successful man in the United States and immediately got on a plane, flew across the country, walked into the successful man's office and said, "I want to talk to Mr. Jones. He's the most successful man in the county. He's the only one who can help me." Mr. Jones was too busy to talk to the man. But when Mr. Jones went home, the man was waiting for him and made another unsuccessful attempt to speak with him.

When Mr. Jones went to the airport, the man was waiting for him and asked him, "Tell me how to succeed ... tell me how to succeed. I need to know the major element ... the one big thing that makes a person successful." Mr. Jones hurried past the man and onto his plane.

Weeks later, Mr. Jones was taking a hunting vacation and was having a great time, stomping through the woods when all of sudden here came the same man, "Mr. Want‑To‑Be," who said, "You've got to give me the answer...that's why I tracked you down while you were hunting...I need the answer ... What is the one key ingredient to success."

At that point, they were walking across a creek and Mr. Jones grabbed hold of the man, dunked him under the water and held him there. Mr. Want‑To‑Be struggled and struggled and was on the verge of death when Mr. Jones pulled him out of the water. Mr. Want‑To‑Be took a gasping big breath of air, and Mr. Jones shoved him under the water and held him there again. Mr. Want‑To‑Be struggled and struggled and felt he was surely going to die, when Mr. Jones pulled him out again.

After Mr. Want‑To‑Be got his breath back, Mr. Jones said, "Now you understand what it takes to be successful. You've got to want it as bad as a drowning man wants air. If you want it that bad, you'll do something about getting it." And with that, Mr. Jones went on to finish his hunting trip.

The same is true for everyone ... "You've got to want it bad enough." That's the secret to success.

(Dr. Peter Fernandez, a 1961 Logan College graduate, is past president of the Florida Chiropractic Association, and past chairman of the Chiropractic Knights of the Roundtable, an organization of the world's most successful chiropractors. He has

been a practice consultant for the last 25 years and in this capacity has consulted with approximately 5,000 DCs and in the opening of more than 3,000 new practices. Dr. Fernandez can be reached at Fernandez Consulting, 1‑800‑882‑4476 or by e‑mail: DrPete@DrFernandez.com. Or, visit www.DrFernandez.com or www.MBAchiropractic.com)