Issue 13 - September 2004

How to rise above the feeling of failure
By Ivan Delman, DC

When your practice income does not meet your expectations or when insurance companies seem to bombard you with denials of reimbursements, do you feel as though you have failed — or even been defeated? These feelings are not comfortable. But they are not fatal — you can shake them.

The secret to getting above the negative feelings of failure and defeat lies in the definitions of failure and defeat: To fail is to fall short of success or achievement in some endeavor. And to be defeated is to be vanquished, subjugated or mastered in some endeavor.

Experiencing a failure is not in the failure itself but is in your status after that experience. In other words, if you stay down after a failure, you have been “mastered” by that failure. If you get up and use the failure as a learning tool, it then becomes just another learning experience.

Here are three steps to show you how to benefit from a failure (or defeat) by turning it to your advantage:

1. Find the cause. Try to figure out the exact spot, in your endeavor, that caused it to derail. If you discover that it was a doomed enterprise from the beginning, that's also useful information. At least you won't try that stunt again! If you found the cause and it's something you can work, this leads us to step two.

2. Learn from the cause. I learned this lesson in a previous “life” while road-racing cars. One of the turns at my home track was the beginning of the longest straight. If I came out of this turn with, in my case, the engine singing at 6,000 rpms, I would have an excellent chance of passing anyone in my class on that straight and enter the next turn in good position.

Before I could do that, however, I had to solve a small problem: My car kept sliding too far to the outside of the turn. That caused me to back off the throttle and come out of the turn at much less than 6,000 rpms. I even spun out several times while trying to exit that turn at the proper speed.

After determining that the car was set up correctly, my crew chief figured out that I was missing my apex (the best place to turn) by about two feet. He investigated to find out why.

The reason was the sun. At that time of the day, it caused that part of the road to become a big, shiny, reflective glare. I couldn't see where to place my right front tire during the turn.

Instead of giving up and telling me to do the best I could, my crew chief gave me a pair of Polaroid glasses that cut through the glare. With them, I could now see the apex.

The lesson learned: My crew chief just didn’t stay in defeat mode. He learned from the problem, looked for a solution and resolved the issue.

This leads us to the last point.

3. What can you do to prevent mistakes? When you're running a solo practice, you may make many mistakes. Some of them could be very costly.

Rather than wait to learn from all the mistakes you're going to make (and face possible defeat), find a successful chiropractor who is honest enough to share his/her mistakes. Sometimes these people are called mentors.

Two words of advice:

• Choose a mentor with a good ego. Look for someone who does not have so much ego that he or she will tell you anything (right or wrong) just to be able to pontificate.

• Set aside your pride and be honest with your mentor. Otherwise, the truth will never be satisfactorily resolved and you will probably repeat your mistakes.

I was fortunate to have three or four mentors while I was in practice. They were smart, successful and, above all, honest. I asked for help and they shared their knowledge and opinions. It made my personal and professional life much easier to manage.

Next time you think you've failed in some endeavor, try going through the above steps. You'll be pleasantly surprised at the positive results.

Ivan Delman, DC, has degrees in both business and chiropractic. He is the author of The Business of Chiropractic: How to Prosper AFTER Startup. He can be contacted through his Web site, www.BusinessofChiropractic.com.