July 2008

Not one more brother or sister lost…

by Dr. Jeff King

I have practiced successfully for the last four years. I've had a lot of help from many wonderful mentors and consultants, and I've come to realize three things:

1. In their hearts, chiropractors wish to serve a suffering humanity.

2. Entrepreneurship is required.

3. The learning curve is quite steep indeed.

If healing occurs (philosophically speaking) it occurs from G-d/innate/universe down into a human being/condition/culture and then moves outward to others. In a similar manner, entrophy/destruction/disease occurs, just in the opposite direction.

This is the chiropractic philosophy.

My mission is simple. What if we, as chiropractors, decided to help other chiropractors without wanting something in return, like the "pay it forward" concept? One is helped and then that one helps another and on, and on…

What if we could get our brother/sister chiropractors who are struggling straightened out enough mentally and financially, help them to achieve a solvency in business and once they were solvent, refer them on to the many chiropractic masters available to us for higher learning, namely our many wonderful consultants?

I have found that the chiropractors who need consulting and coaching the most do NOT have the ability to pay a top consultant. In one of my own (many) forays into the world of consultants, coaches and management firms, I found myself in a contract that required I pay a percentage over a certain base amount (established by the firm) and ended up owing more than $7,000 a month on a $20,000 a month practice. That definitely did not fall under the law of mutual exchange.

The law of mutual exchange says that if I get something I must expect to give something of fair value in return. Or if I give something I must expect to receive something of fair value back. How could someone get into exchange with me? PAY IT FORWARD!

The healing of our beloved profession must come from within. There is no such thing as competition. There are approximately 65,000 chiropractors in the world compared to almost six billion people. We could never meet the need even if our practices were bursting at the seams.

I'm not interested in illusions of differences between us. This is a device of division that's very obvious if we would just be a little discriminating and less emotionally reactive. We are all chiropractors in the same classroom called life. How about sharing?!

Do you want to help? You can give anything you want (time, talent, resources). You don't have to look far. How about the struggling DC -- "your competitor" -- down the street? He or she is you! Miss a couple of pay checks and find out.

Why don't we as a profession nurture our own? I can remember being broke and scared in the past. I had kids, a mortgage and rent was due. Can you relate? Statistics say that too many of us are in that situation.

The condition of my beloved chiropractic profession is less than what it could be. I see our profession as the greatest health care delivery system on planet earth taking humanity in its disordered state and bringing each person closer to order. Sub (less than) lux (light) ation (condition of), AD (bring to) JUST (order, right, center).

Imagine every chiropractor serving her or his part of six billion members of humanity. What would happen to health care, to the profession of chiropractic, to our pocketbooks if we would only lay ourselves down for our brothers and sisters? How is it possible to lose anything when you come from a loving and giving place? Examine that carefully. Let's put down our selfish, egocentric tendencies and get back to the heart of chiropractic -- service, with love.

I will help struggling chiropractors for the cost of you paying it forward when you are stable. My vision is that every leader in our profession, from doctors and CAs to vendors, gets involved in giving back something to the profession that sustains them. I pray this concept spreads like wildfire throughout chiropractic and the calling to share and bring humanity to a much higher state is realized.

"Unless life is lived for others, it is not worthwhile." -- Mother Teresa