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Fresh Fire, Fresh Wind The
High Price Of Success Many books, seminars, and articles have been written about how to achieve success. It’s not hard to find any number of formulas and prescriptions for being a better worker, a better boss, a better parent or a better … whatever. Relatively little, however, has been written about the cost of achieving success. And make no mistake about it, there is a price to be paid for everything. In this world, everything that you gain requires that you give up something in exchange. To achieve anything – good or bad – requires that you forego something else. In some cases, the price seems low. You may give up something that you didn’t really want in order to achieve something else. In those cases you’ll often find that, if the price is low, then the reward is equally low. The world in which we live has a marvelous system of cost and reward. To achieve things that we hold dear often carries a high price tag. As the famed economist Milton Friedman once noted, "There is no free lunch." As chiropractors, we begin our days in practice with our eye on achieving success. There is, of course, no one definition of what constitutes a successful practice. That can be as varied as the individual doctor. For some, it may be a high patient volume. For others it may mean spending time developing close relationships with patients. To define your success, you must begin with a clear view of what you must sacrifice in order to achieve it. You can achieve nearly any goal if you are willing to do whatever it takes to reach it. Your values dictate whether the price is worth it. It is better to make that decision before you set off on your path, rather than you’re halfway there. Otherwise, you’ll be surprised to discover halfway up the ladder that it was leaning against the wrong wall. Hard Work Required The first truth that you must accept before you set off on your journey is that success requires hard work. This is a simple notion, but many people don’t understand it. How else can you explain the mania for get-rich-quick schemes, Lotto tickets, and dot-com stocks? Achieving success, as I’ve pointed out in previous columns, is only easy if you do the work. You must know where you’re going, devise a plan for getting there and do what needs to be done – when it needs to be done – without taking shortcuts. As you navigate toward success, you should also make sure that you are always taking the high road. Compromising your principles for short-term gain almost always means paying for it later. It might seem easy to alter insurance claims to boost payments. You get the money, but then you’re looking over your shoulder wondering if someone is going to find out. What will your patients, family and colleagues think of you then? You must also be extremely vigilant about your self-talk. Words carry great power, and your thoughts are easily translated into reality. If you become convinced that the man in the mirror is the one who does it all and achieves it all, then you’re headed for trouble and ultimate loneliness as your world becomes too small for anyone other than yourself. Strangely enough, self-pity often comes coupled with arrogance. We begin to tell ourselves that we’re burdened and put upon, and we begin to resent those around us. We believe that our spouse, our children, and our C.A. are taking advantage of us. "Why does this always happen to me?" becomes a standard refrain whenever anything goes wrong. A common symptom of the arrogance that comes with success is a belief that "the rules just don’t apply to me." While sadly, it seems that some professional athletes think they can get away with barroom brawls and even murder, for many it can take more subtle forms. Because we think we’re so great, those around us become inferior. Have you yelled at or said demeaning words to your staff? Because you’re the boss, they had to take it in silence, but don’t think your outburst didn’t shape their perception of you and ultimately how well they work. In our success, it’s easy to becomes spheres of conflict. In the words of H.G. Wells, "He is not so much a living being as a civil war." When this happens, we have effectively become slaves to our emotions and short-term desires and feelings. The great author and psychologist Victor Frankl, who survived the horrors of Auschwitz and other concentration camps, struggled to find reasons to live. He decided that his brutal captors could not make him hate them. No matter what they did to his body – over which he had no control – he still possessed the ultimate freedom of his mind and spirit. In one sense, he was able to achieve far greater freedom in his captivity than his captors experienced. Christian writer Josh McDowell said that, ultimately, the only choice we have in life is which master we will serve. Will you be a slave to your surroundings and the ups and downs of life, or are you going to choose to let your ideals govern your actions? Are you dominated by the changing weather of life, or do you carry your weather within you? Setting Goals And Maintaining Standards Over the years, I’ve known many doctors who achieved great success – as measured by the yardstick of a volume practice, regular cash flow and all the trappings of affluence, such as a large house, a luxury automobile and other toys. I’ve also seen them falter just when things seemed to be going extremely well. For many of them, achieving success was not a problem, but maintaining it once they reached that level proved to be a monumental task. It seems almost as if they had lost the focus that allowed them to move from one step to another in building their practices and their lives. Some became overwhelmed by arrogance as they came to believe that their success was solely a result of their own actions. Others seemed to grow bored with everything. The challenges that had driven them to achievement in the past vanished, and burnout was the result. It was as if having reached the mountaintop, there were no other peaks to test their skills. When boredom sets in, many may find ways of creating negative challenge into their lives, whether it’s through an illness, an affair or an accident. This points out the necessity of setting goals and maintaining high standards in your life and work. A life lacking in these qualities will very quickly become barren and lacking in flavor. The most consistently successful people in life are those who have continuously reinvented themselves. They overcome the fear that keeps most people stuck in their present situation and take chances on doing something new and exciting. After decades of writing pop tunes, former Beatle Paul McCartney turned his talents to the demanding task of composing a full-length symphony. Countless people change directions and go into new and exciting careers in mid-life or even later. Look at almost any chiropractic college campus and you’re likely to find first-quarter students who have long since passed the usual college age. Bringing challenge into your life doesn’t always require going in a completely different direction, but it does mean finding a way to give new vitality to your career. How you manage it is up to you. Success is about achievement, but it is also about the road to achievement. How we travel that path is very much a measure of our success and the price we are willing to pay for it. About the author: William N. Willis, D.C., a 1977 Life College graduate, manages a private practice and is a professor at Life University, where he formerly served as division chair of chiropractic sciences. The Georgia Council of Chiropractic named him "Chiropractor of the Year" in 1994, and he was selected as Life’s Alumnus of the Year in 1988. He spent many years as a practice management consultant, in addition to teaching the principles of running a successful practice to thousands of students through his college courses. Inquiries may be addressed to him at Willis Chiropractic Clinic, 2829 Dallas St., Kennesaw, GA 30144; call (770) 429-0707; or fax (770) 425-9020.
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