From: Dr. Margolies One thought I try to impress upon my students is always have a strong support team when they graduate. We travel a lonely path of misguided respect and suspicion. After all our years of training and clinical competence .. our insurance claims and professional opinions are reviewed through questionable and often disrespectful eyes. Neighbors and close friends, although polite, often value our profession little. If you disagree .. you are either in denial or your sphere of influence is within grand harmony and cosmic oneness .. many would envy you. We are in control of our professional destinies only if we have a strong Purpose and belief in ourselves. Our success is dependent on this mysterious thread of strength. If you have close chiropractic friends .. teachers and mentors and fellow students that continue to strengthen your resolve and beliefs .. with a positive outlook and a nurturing soul .. keep in touch always. This weekend at Life University was our schoolžs Homecoming. I graduated in the class of å78 .. the third graduating class .. thatžs some time ago .. but I still keep in touch with many from my class and others Ižve met along the way. Join your local state and district associations. Create a like philosophy and mentoring group and meet regularly. Start an e-mail program like mine concerning your chiropractic technic or assisted programs such as nutrition or rehabilitation, etc. If you need help starting this let me know .. Ižll send out a bulletin .. share the good news and dwell less with the negative. Be an active member of our national associations and realize that as a group we have more clout than as an individual. Return to your alma mater and participate in their many alumni events. Life University indirectly sponsors Dynamic Essential (1-800-233-5409) in Marietta, Georgia while Parker College offers the same with Parker Seminars (1-800-950-8044) in Dallas, Texas .. both these fine associations offer their outstanding programs throughout the country. As always keep in touch with me via e-mail .. place your office (for free) on my webpage: http:www.mindspring.com/~chirosmart so others can refer their patients to you. List your chiropractic oriented programs on my webpage or let me promote it through these e-mails. The purpose of these e-mails is to stay in touch .. it is meant for the established DC and those still in school. Share it with others. E-mail message this week is about soaring like a kite: I was driving this weekend with my son near the Chattahoochee River Nature Center. There is a small park adjacent to the river and being such a lovely day there were kids running and young mothers walking their new generation. My mind began to race as I watched two fathers attempting to help their sonžs get a kite off the ground. I asked my son what message concerning Life could be learned from those kites .. we discussed it for a few moments. Here are my thoughts. A kite is a tool to soar with. To survive in its purpose it needs help. First you need to construct the proper kite design .. add a tail .. have enough string to get it off the ground .. wind to carry it above .. and guidance from below to keep it soaring. Isnžt this what life is all about .. for my message today isnžt it similar to our professional chiropractic life? A kite is dependent on construction and follow through. How many of you reading this e-mail have been through a number of practice challenges before you constructed it right? Itžs all in the mix from head to tail. The tail on a kite is very important .. it trails the kite and keeps in level and balanced .. do you have an unstable practice? .. even if hugely successful .. does the head and tail ever communicate .. is anyone accountable for patient management .. patient finances .. patient services .. community relations. A practice where overhead is so out of control finds the word profitability a mystery .. or one that is so mismanaged that waste and redundancy is the rule rather than the exception. A kite is dependent on the person helping it off the ground. First you lay the kite on a level field and sensing the direction of the wind you begin to run. As your speed increases and the string is loosened the kite begins its skyward ascent. If you stop running .. it falls. So true with any professional business. We train for years to learn a skill .. manage to rent or purchase a facility .. gather the equipment necessary to ply our trade .. put up a shingle .. afterwhich many of us stop .. leaving our practices to chance. But many doctors didnžt stop .. they went door to door .. shook lots of hands .. spent some money for flyers and advertising .. made some marketing noise and low and behold patients came in. They didnžt leave their practice to chance for they are always pro- active. After hiring staff you may have given them a book to read .. a video to watch .. tapes to listen to .. and a seminar here and there .. but here again many of you stopped. As with the kite .. all began to fall or wallow in sameness. Staff as with any component of the office needs nurturing and training. A kite needs string and wind. The string is guidance and a lifeline. Pull it hard and the kite will follow .. let it out freely with no guidance and it will soar with the wind .. often in misdirection. If the string is too long and the kite soars too high it will follow a path of least resistance and tear to pieces. The string is the resistance .. a link to reality .. the wind helps it stay afloat but the string brings everything back to reality .. back home .. home for repair and improvment. I thought of this message when I looked in the faces of the kids and their dads. The kids were wide eyed in anticipation while the dads were determined to make it happen. By effort and hope your kite will also soar .. with skill and direction you will manage your practice well. Success is the mix between anticipation and determination .. continue to educate your staff and patientžs and youžll be pleased with the end results. Inspiration comes in many designs and packages. Being blessed to help many people within my community .. I like you .. have many opportunities to be inspired. Recently we have been honored to provide chiropractic care to a new patient, Ruth, who is all of 82 years young. In fact .. she is planning her next birthday party in a few months and her plans are grand. What makes this small but alert and very wise individual special and inspiring is her love with and for life. She always comes to our office handing a sparkling new penny to everyone she meets spreading simple cheer everywhere. She tells them about her near death experience with cancer and her wonderful surgeon that pointed to the heavens when expressing why she is still with us. To remember her good fortune and inspire others as well, shežll give everyone she meets this special penny and ask them to keep it and remember their blessing that life is precious. For years, she has been feeding a flock of birds. Every morning at a local McDonaldžs they wait sitting on telephone lines and hovering above. As she leaves .. her lust for life is renewed again. Remember we have the gift to awaken Life in those we meet. We must share this gift with others and realize that inspiration soars like that kite but only when we let ourselves sail with the wind. Dr. M