As chiropractors, we’re taught that book smarts matter. From getting into chiropractic school, to getting through chiropractic school, to passing the national boards exams, everything in our little chiropractor world tells us it’s all about book smarts.
After all, the ones graduating at the top of their class are the chiropractors who are making top dollar…right? So book smarts must equal a better practice, right? Well, not exactly.
Book Smarts Don’t Exactly Correlate to Business Smarts
First, let’s define “book smarts.” Quite simply, book smarts is knowing the correct answer in an academic, theoretical or even clinical setting. Chiropractors with book smarts are the ones who can still recite each reaction in the Kreb’s cycle pathway; they probably still have saved their notes from their microbiology class (just in case they ever need to reference them); and they make an excellent partner at every trivia game known to man.
Book smart folks are fun to have around at parties and can have extremely interesting discussions on a wide range of topics. They also tend to be excellent clinicians as they are very thorough and dedicated to their craft.
Unfortunately, the reality isn’t that book smarts make for great chiropractic businessman or businesswoman. Actually, people with books smarts make good employees. And in some cases, those with booksmarts find themselves in the perennial pickle of saying that they love chiropractic, but they are just not good at the business side. In the worst cases, some book smart folks who are completely inept at business eventually go out of business, despite the massive wealth of knowledge and/or clinical skill set.
“Street smarts.”
At the other end of the spectrum is “street smarts.” I need to confess that I know more about street smarts because, quite frankly, I may not have a lot of book smarts.
Street smarts is art of applying what you know to getting the outcome you want. To use the resources available to you – whatever they are today – to get you where you want to go. In a simple way, I like to think of it as working smarter because essentially, if you can’t get where you want to go, you’re kind of stuck in the mode of working hard.
You can study chiropractic as much as you want, but is that really going to change your business? You always want to do a great job for your patients. But when it comes right down to it, most patients really don’t know how good of a chiropractor you are. They either have no frame of reference (having never been to a chiropractor before) or they are single-mindedly focused on one thing (get me out of pain) and as long as you can do that, well…you’re good in their eyes.
Yet some of us act as if the only difference between our present business problems and a much more freeing, lucrative, and fulfilling practice is sitting in another post-graduate class to amass yet more book smarts? Get real.
More Book Smarts Does Not Equal Better Business.
I certainly agree that is at least some indirect benefit gained for being a rockstar at the clinical skills of chiropractic. There are amazing adjusters out there who can simply find it and fix it better than the average DC. And there are some chiropractors whose unique combination of clinical skills sets them apart.
But if you are insisting that you must be the best adjustor in your state to keep the business afloat or if you are suggesting that you need an unmatchable set of initials after your name to succeed, that’s a very inefficient way to create a great business. After all, the minute someone else gets your same set of degrees or training, they would (theoretically) be your equal. And back to the classroom you will go.
Street smart chiropractors realize the diminishing return of trying to be more book smart. Yes, a minimum standard is necessary. And yes, we need to keep our clinical skills sharp. But street smart chiropractors are more intensely focused on achieving outcomes in their business, beyond just clinical outcomes. For most, that outcome is a business that supports their lifestyle. That lets them unplug. Enjoy the fruits of their labors.
And that’s why we see a lot of chiropractors who may not have graduated at the top of their class and who don’t have 6 sets of post-graduate initials after their name … still start up their practice, focus on the street smarts they need, and are cleaning up in term of their business. These are the chiropractors who take action. They are teachable. They have a curiousity to learn. They find out what works. And they want to do it faster than learning from the “school of hard knocks.”
To Build Your Business, Dismiss These Three Delusions
The real challenge with book smarts vs street smarts is that once you accept the line of thinking that book smarts are the way to go, it sets you up for some other failures as well. Chiropractors have made huge investments and spent thousands of hours learning the technical practice of chiropractic. As a result, they think:
1) “Being a better chiropractor is going to lead to a better business.”
Once they accept this myth, it almost immediately leads them to the next:
2) “I can create the business I want by reading articles from people who have never built an actual chiropractic practice or achieved what I want to achieve.”
And now that much of their time is spent trying to stay on top of all things clinical, another myth emerges.
3) There is a magic bullet, Aladdin's Lamp or some singular "secret" out there for business building (I just haven’t found it yet)
The Three Realities
Reality 1: There is no progressive correlation between the degree of your technical proficiency and the amount of your business success. There is a minimum standard of competency needed to be a chiropractor. Above average skills are certainly helpful. But the correlation stops there. If it were not so, every chiropractor who graduated at the top of his or her class would be thriving and the rest of the class would be doing proportionately worse. This is certainly not the truth in chiropractic, nor in any other profession.
Reality 2: Chiropractors are routinely exposed to teachers (in school and at the post-graduate level) who have amassed a wealth of clinical knowledge but either have LITTLE or NO track record of business success. I was amazed at how many of my chiropractic school professors had run multiple practices into the ground or who were struggling so badly in their practice that they looked to academia for a steady paycheck. Unfortunately, the seminar circuit is filled with chiropractors who can adjust the talus ten different ways but can’t even work up the nerve to ask the patient for ten dollars to do it. There’s no minimum standards of success to write in chiropractic journal or magazines either. I’ve had the misfortune of talking to nationally famous writers and lecturers who would be making better money as a manger at McDonalds than they do in their practice.
In a special subset of this category lives the MYTH of the 100% CASH PRACTICE and the REALITY that few pull it off. Sadly, most of the chiropractors who are promoting the cash practice didn't actually build their chiropractic empire from cash alone. Else why would they leave the simple life of ease and abundance? If they built a great practice at all, they did it with a mix of cash and insurance and they conveniently ignored half (or more) of their success. Instead, they market their cash-building services (or their cash-based franchise) to those who want to escape the reality of their lack of a viable business model and their inability to get paid for what they do.
Reality 3: Aladdin's Lamp is a lie. How could you possibly think learning how to run a real business would be any easier than the work you put into becoming a chiropractor? That somehow, because we’re chiropractor, the art of business creation is somehow different than other professions? Businesses of all kinds fail to thrive. And there is no single article or book that will magically transform your practice into a successful business. In fact, making HUGE changes to your business by going out and buying $100,000 of new equipment, investing $75,000 and 8% of your collections in some “guaranteed” to win franchise, or going out on a limb with a complete technique change probably will improve your chances at failure more than success. There’s no magic bullet. Chiropractors thrive doing all sorts of techniques, with or without the fancy equipment or franchise fees.
If it was that easy to build a real business, we would all have great businesses.
But we don’t.
My solo practice flailed until I realized that I needed to focus as much effort on creating a business as I did on becoming a chiropractor.
And when I did I began to find business models, mentors and other people I needed to emulate who HAVE succeeded in building chiropractic practices that don’t require them to work all the time and that don’t require them to accept their lackluster income as it currently stands.
What I noticed watching chiropractic (and other business) high achievers is that they do this in one of two ways:
Work Harder: They grow through constant trial and error, and a huge amount of effort. Taking years. That’s a long, dark road full of really hard work and harder work to make up for the mistakes you've made. And I don’t recommend it.
Work Smarter: The other path high achievers take is that they find a model that works, shortcutting the process. Then they find people who’ve already done what they want to do, and follow that model, learning from their mentorship.
What I realized was that’s the "Work Smarter" route is a heck of a lot easier than making things up as you go, day after day, and becoming frustrated when you don’t get the results you want. Because you don’t know what you don’t know. Which is exactly why being tied to the endless grind of always needing to know more is so frustrating. To get this and that certification and being compelled by the neverending feeling that you will stumble on success, just around the next corner.
What's Your Next Step?
So let me ask you. If you’re not where you want to be. What’s the first step you’re going to take to get yourself there?
Whatever it may be, the sooner you dismiss these three delusions, the sooner you will be on the path to taking the steps that will lead you in the direction of more business success.
Help Along the Way
And if you need some additional help along the way, you will want to check out the replay of our latest webinar, Add 6 Figures in Your Chiropractic Practice in 2016 Starting...Now. Due to high demand (along with some technical difficulties we had with the original recording) we are extending the time that you can view this webinar. View it now, before it's gone. It's free. And it will help you dismiss these myths and begin to think, plan and act towards the goal of increasing your bottom line in 2016!
