art: david-glen smith

In a speech, I referred to those great pioneers of aviation, the Wright Brothers. I have read that, although both Wilbur and Orville were very bright, they nevertheless were very shy. They were brave enough to do what no human had ever done before, but getting up before an audience scared them to death.

Anyhow, one evening at a banquet in their honor, the toastmaster called upon Wilbur to make a speech. He rose to his feet and, after a long period of stammering and looking around nervously, he finally said, "There must be a mistake. I think you want my brother." Wilbur quickly sat down, and the toastmaster then obediently called on Orville, who replied, "Wilbur just made the speech."

After the great introduction from Dr. Gerry Clum, I think I could also say, "Gerry just made the speech." But, with your kind indulgence, I will add a few words.

I want to thank all of you here who are not part of our chiropractic family, but who, nevertheless, appreciate this institution and the great job that Dr. Clum has done for the past 20 years, not only as president of Life Chiropractic College West, but also as a contributing member of this community.

Gerry is man who gets things done. He lives to serve humanity. He lives to serve chiropractic. He lives to serve the faculty, staff and students of Life West. We can all say to him, with gratitude, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

As I learned a long time ago, a good speech is supposed to inform, entertain and inspire the audience. Since we’ve been informed and entertained all day, I think I’ll just spend these final few minutes of the evening trying to inspire you. We can get overloaded on information and entertainment, but we can never have enough inspiration.

When you’re inspired, you’re enthusiastic about what you’re doing. You go at your work with a purpose and a belief that you will succeed.

FUELING YOUR ACTIONS WITH ENTHUSIASM

One of the most important words in any successful person’s vocabulary, in fact, is enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is the fuel that drives your engine when you focus on a particular mission that you want to accomplish.

Enthusiasm turns a simple idea into a magnificent reality.

Enthusiasm turns an empty warehouse into a thriving university.

Enthusiasm turns a struggling little California college into a big, bustling California college that is the pride of the West Coast.

Enthusiasm can turn you into one of the world’s greatest and most successful chiropractors. For those of you who are not chiropractors, enthusiasm can do the same for you in any other profession, vocation or hobby. And lack of it can lead you into abysmal failure and disappointment with what life has to offer you.

The road to success is rarely easy and free of potholes. Quite often, you falter and fall. You fail. But, with enthusiasm, you get up and try again.

Winston Churchill, who led his country to victory in World War II against impossible odds, astutely observed, "Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm."

What Mr. Churchill is saying is that success demands that you be persistently enthusiastic. Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead! Don’t worry about your competitors. Don’t give a second thought to what the doomsayers are discussing.

Forget HMOs. Forget the ups and downs of the stock market. Forget all the hurricanes, tornadoes and blizzards we have had and will have. Put all your energy into being enthusiastic about your profession and taking care of the task at hand, and you’ll come through every storm stronger than ever. That was the simple truth 5,000 years ago. It will be the simple truth 5,000 years from now.

Conrad Hilton once said, "Enthusiasm is a vital element toward the success of every man or woman." You can find evidence all over the world that this builder of a hotel dynasty knew what he was talking about.

Many of you have great ambitions to leave your children a huge fortune so they will be financially secure. Bruce Barton knew that money is not the greatest legacy you can leave to your heirs. "If you can give your son or daughter only one gift," he said, "let it be enthusiasm."

Many people with tons of money are miserable. The end product of enthusiasm is joy. You have a passion for life. You pursue your missions with the zeal of a young lover wooing the object of his affections. Enthusiasm is power. It keeps your battery charged. It gives you direction. It give you hope. It gives you bliss.

In any field of endeavor, enthusiasm separates the champions from the also-rans.

As Norman Vincent Peale so wisely observed, "There is real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment."

People fell in love with the arrogant young boxer Muhammad Ali back in the 1960s and 1970s because of his enthusiasm. He told the world he was the best, and then he proved it time and again. Describing his style, he said he wanted to "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee!"

It is never too late to apply the magic of enthusiasm to your life. It is a wonderful elixir – a fountain of youth. As Samuel Ullman observed, "Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul."

The greatest soccer player ever to play the game was on television just a couple of years ago talking about the possibility of playing a demonstration game again – even though he is close to my age. Pele, as he came to be called when he broke one record after another – many of which still have not been matched – once said, "Enthusiasm is everything. It must be taut and vibrating like a guitar string."

What a picture that makes! Can you imagine yourself so enthusiastic about chiropractic or any other profession that you are vibrating like a guitar string? When that happens, pretty soon everybody else around you is vibrating with enthusiasm, too.

As John Wesley put it, "Catch on fire with enthusiasm, and people will come for miles to watch you burn."

Every great preacher knows that’s true. You could take a great sermon written by John Wesley, Billy Sunday or even today’s Billy Graham and have it delivered word-for-word without the conviction and authority and enthusiasm of the respective author and you’d put people to sleep! It’s not just the words you say that people hear; it’s the way you say those words. People can feel how you feel about the subject you’re discussing.

The same is true with any kind of speech or presentation. There has never been a super salesman who was not enthusiastic about his product. The enthusiasm is obvious in his voice – in the tone, the rhythm and the words he uses.

No matter what you’re selling, to be successful, you have to be enthusiastic about it. You have to believe in it.

A Passion To Serve

That’s the way to sell chiropractic. You need to truly love it. You need to think of chiropractic the same way you thought about your sweetheart when you were a teenager madly in love. Describe it to everyone you encounter in glowing terms. Don’t be embarrassed by your passion. Love chiropractic in your heart, in your mind, in your words and in your actions. Be a chiropractic zealot. Let your total personality be in harmony as you share your love for this great profession.

And you know what will happen? Other people will begin to share your love and enthusiasm for chiropractic. They will look to you as an authority on the subject. They will come to you for chiropractic care and bring their friends and neighbors. And your practice will flourish!

I’ve heard people say, "Well, I’m enthusiastic. I want to make a million dollars a year, retire young and just play golf the rest of my life."

I’ve never seen anybody in the chiropractic profession who was focused on achieving great wealth who ever made any significant amount of money. You might be able to do it on Wall Street, but a lot of those guys who make the big bucks end up going to prison. As a health-care professional, your focus has to be on your patients and their welfare.

Put people first and the money will follow!

Put people first and your practice will build itself.

Put people first and you’ll not only love your patients, but you’ll love yourself.

"Me-first" people are not happy. They’re never satisfied with what they have. They’re always trying to get "a little bit more." And, when they get that, then they still need "a little bit more" to be satisfied.

When you’re enthusiastic about chiropractic and the great power it has to relieve suffering and restore good health, you can work 12, 14, even 16 hours a day and never get tired.

Og Mandino, who has sold millions of inspirational books, says, "Every memorable act in the history of the world is a triumph of enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever achieved without it because it gives any challenge or any occupation, no matter how frightening or difficult, a new meaning. Without enthusiasm, you are doomed to a life of mediocrity, but with it, you can accomplish miracles."

Chiropractic is a miracle! When you’re enthusiastic about serving humanity through this great health-care profession, you’re never bored. All day long, the opportunities to serve keep coming before you, and you see one miracle after another taking place before your very eyes as your patients respond to your skillful care and your enthusiasm – your passion for what you’re achieving.

You can give a patient a quick adjustment that, technically, is perfect, but if it is delivered in an aloof, uninvolved, uncaring manner, that patient will not enjoy the fullest possible benefits of chiropractic care. Why? Because you have not really connected with that patient. To be effective, you have to transfer some of your energy to your patients in a way that they can feel it. Patients have to be really turned on by the doctor and then be given positive closure – a feeling that the job is done and their visit was worthwhile. Without that psychic connection and closure, they leave feeling empty and cheated, and there is very little possibility that they will ever come back to see you.

On the other hand, you can give what is technically the same adjustment, but with compassion and enthusiasm, and the results will be 100 percent better. You communicate to your patient your total belief in chiropractic. You let him know that you truly care about him. You leave him absolutely convinced that you are sympathetic concerning his condition. You make sure he has no doubt that you have done your job with compassion and technical perfection and that positive results are assured. You tell him, "You’re going to be better, now," and you can see the belief in his eyes and in his expression of confidence in you, the expert – an uncommonly gifted person who is helping to restore his health, happiness and productivity.

Patients like that leave happy – and they come back happy – time and again, because they do feel better. Their adjustment holds longer each time and eventually they don’t really need to come in at all, but they come back for regular checkups because they love and respect you, the doctor who cares about them. They refer everybody they know. They get enthusiastic about chiropractic because they are enthusiastic about you, the chiropractor.

Where Is Your Focus?

One of my heroes was Theodore Roosevelt. He was a man’s man. If he were alive today and on the ballot, I’d vote to elect him president again.

In a speech that he gave April 23, 1910, he pointed out, "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who knows at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

Dare to dream! Dare to try the untried, to take the road less traveled and to reach for the highest star in the sky. Compete with yourself. Be better today than you were yesterday.

Successful chiropractors love chiropractic, and it shows. It shows not only in their faces, in their words, in their voices and in their actions, but also in their patient loads and, ultimately, in their bank account balances.

The great football coach Vince Lombardi once said, "If you’re not fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm." You have to think about that one for a minute. You might think, well, I work for myself, so nobody can fire me. Not so! Your patients can fire you. If they quit coming, you stop getting a paycheck. Any way you look at it, that’s getting fired.

When you’re fired up with enthusiasm, however, you’ll never have to worry about not having enough work to do. And you will also always have plenty of people who are enthusiastically paying you for your services. You don’t have to beg or harass them to get your money. They will want to pay you to keep your goodwill because you have served them well and they feel much better.

You want your patients to love you, of course, but you also want them to respect and, in a sense, to revere you as the professional that you are. You can’t be an uncle or a father to them. You’re a doctor. You’re a professional. You are performing a valuable service for a reasonable fee.

If you step across that very fine line that separates the compassionate professional worthy of his hire from the "buddy" who doesn’t need to be paid, then your collections will suffer. You have to be loving, but aloof; generous, but fair to both yourself and your patient; and humanly enthusiastic, but professionally temperate.

The power of enthusiasm, skillfully used, defies all logic. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "Enthusiasm is the leaping lightning, not to be measured by the horse-power of the understanding."

Don’t try to understand the power of enthusiasm. Just believe in it in the same way that you believe in chiropractic. And, like chiropractic, it will serve you well.

A lot of young people get their Doctor of Chiropractic degree and then, like the Wright Brothers I mentioned earlier, the thought of starting up a practice scares them to death. They’re already in debt from their school loans, and then they have to put out more money for an office, equipment, insurance, advertising and so forth. I remember how it was. The challenge can be staggering, but only if you’re focused on money.

If you forget about the money and focus on serving your patients, the patients will come and so will the money. On the other hand, if you focus only on the money, the patients will not come, and neither will the money. It’s that simple.

If you love your patients, they will know.

If you love only their money, they will know.

If the first thing you ask a patient is how he plans to pay for your services and the last thing you tell him is to see the cashier on the way out, then that patient knows where your love is and what is the focus of your enthusiasm. And, if you just charged him $1,000 for a procedure that should have cost only $35, then he will have no doubt about what you’re about – and he won’t come back.

The first thing a patient wants to hear from you is: "How can I help you? What seems to be bothering you? How long have you had this problem?"

Next, your patient wants to hear: "Yes, I can help you with that. You’re going to feel much better in just a few minutes. I’m glad you came to see me."

Finally, as he’s going out the door, you put your hand lovingly on his shoulder and enthusiastically say, "You’re looking better already! You’re going to be fine, now!"

It’s true that you have to collect money and pay the bills and make a living, but you don’t let that part of your mind that is focused on chiropractic and getting the patient well be tainted with thoughts of money. You do that with your other hand – with another part of your mind. In most cases, your assistant is able to professionally and diplomatically take care of collecting the fee without you ever having to mention it. It’s just automatic. You take care of the patient, and the money takes care of itself.

Finally, let me say that if you do not truly love chiropractic in the same way that you love a sweetheart or a child from your own loins, then I urge you to do whatever it takes to reach that level of understanding, love and commitment. Give chiropractic your whole attention and your whole heart. Turn away from everything else until you have only chiropractic left in your consciousness. Forget about golf, fishing, partying and keeping up with the Joneses. Forget about pyramid schemes and multi-level marketing. Forget about selling anything but chiropractic and yourself as a proud, committed doctor of chiropractic.

When you are able to commit to a single idea and you are pursuing a single purpose, you’ll find your love for chiropractic growing and, at the same time, your practice will be growing! Concentrate on chiropractic day and night until you have a burning enthusiasm for your chosen profession. Make it your prime source of joy and your practice will build – automatically. All it takes is falling in love with chiropractic and enthusiastically sharing that love with the world.

When you truly do love chiropractic, then you will let your love and enthusiasm sing from your lips like the song of a mockingbird from sunup to sundown every day of the week, including Sundays. You will love, serve and give enthusiastically out of your own abundance. And you will be successful. You will make many, many friends. You will make as much money as you need – and more. And you will be happy.

The enemies of chiropractic are not asleep. They are just being quiet, hoping we’ll go to sleep. To honor the sacrifices that the pioneers of our profession have made and to preserve chiropractic for all generations to come, we must face the enemy with the same love and determination that enabled Winston Churchill to lead his country to victory in World War II.

In one of his most memorable speeches, he said, "We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and the oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."

And at another time, he said, simply, "Never give in. Never. Never. Never. Never."

I leave you with the same thought. No matter how great the temptation might be to do otherwise, be more than just a chiropractor. Be a promoter of chiropractic. Be a defender of chiropractic. Be an unabashed lover of chiropractic. And never give in. Never. Never. Never. Never!

About the author: Sid E. Williams, B.S., D.C., is founder and president of Life University. Comments may be addressed to him at 1269 Barclay Circle, Marietta, GA 30060; or E-mail drsid@life.edu.

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