From: Dr. Margolies

First of all let me apologize for the long windedness of many of these e-mails. Those that know me .. who were studentžs 
of mine .. already know I never have a lack of words and can talk your head off forever. Well .. I write like that as well. 
Good thing I can type fast with my two index fingers .. thanks also to the spell checker. So .. if you find these a bore .. 
please ask me to delete you from my list .. my ego wonžt be offended. But .. within each e-mail there are usually some 
useful things for you or someone else. I recommend you make a folder to save them or put them to disk with a title .. they 
may come in handy at some point.

Todayžs message concerns burn out and hope. You present students and new DC's take note. I received an e-mail from a 
D.C. who asked that I contact a fellow D.C. out in practice a number of years going through chiropractic business hell. 
True Burn Out. I did write this chiropractor and the e-mails are below. If you feel you can add something to my replyžs .. 
Ižm sure you can .. please send it to me and Ižll forward it along. We need to stick together. 

Also,  below is a letter I recently wrote to a large corporation here in Atlanta. It could have been anywhere .. copy it and 
change it to fit your office and start sending these out to your local corporations, civic organizations, civil servants, etc.  
Be sure to contact the local churches and ask if there is a program or social director who has programs for those over 50 
years old (get your foot in the door) .. „Aging Gracefully .. Fitness Over Fifty.ū They are looking for you .. just let them 
know where you are.

Okay, below was the first e-mail sent to me and my replies:

„I have been communicating with a friend of mine, an old class mate. She has had a hell of a time in practice, She has 
been through bad associate jobs as well as bankruptcy. I have been trying to convince her to get started again on a shoe 
string as well as not to let the ship sink. Maybe you can e-mail her and give her some good old southern positive mental 
attitude. I hope you can help.ū 

My reply:

Your friend asked me to send you some encouraging words. Seems life's been rough lately .. as DC's we need to stick 
together and get on with our and other's lives. The journey can be rough .. but when there are roadblocks we need to be 
creative to get around them.

Just a short note to encourage you to continue with your initial wish to turn life back on people with chiropractic care. The 
disgusting fact of life is that life isn't easy ... each day is a struggle to get through without a lick .. the game is having fun 
while trying. 

Chiropractic has always been an uphill battle .. people generally have little respect for what we do .. unless you tell them. 
People usually care little about themselves .. unless you tell them. People generally are unforgiving .. unless you tell 
them. People (patients) today have more reasons not to pay and less time with you to do it .. unless you tell them. 

Yep .. unless you tell them .. and you can't when things are down and out and gloom superimposes the beauty of our 
message.

All sounds peachy and hype .. but that's the truth. If you were to take a two week vacation and David Singer or C.J. 
Mertz come to your office .. with whatever you have  .. budget and all .. they would turn things around .. why .. because 
they'd begin at the beginning and tell the story. Person by person .. patient by patient .. door to door .. and with each 
rejection there will be two wins .. when things begin to look up .. clouds will begin to pass .. as you know above every 
storm cloud is the sun.


So .. let's start at the beginning. In a calm and collected moment .. maybe after seeing a movie .. or listening to your 
favorite CD .. begin to visualize the first days at chiropractic college and even back to the first thought of going. These 
were days of excitement .. a new adventure. You need to get back in that zone .. get that spark back .. that eye of the tiger 
.. this is where you need to be.  Now .. start with a clean paper and map out a trip tic of where you plan to be a week and 
a month from now .. not an unrealistic goal .. a short rung on the ladder up towards success. Now what do you plan to 
do .. with whatever you have (no worse than day one out on your own) to create more. Do you have an internal 
marketing plan .. workshops either collectively with patients or individually? .. (this may mean you have to stay longer at 
work) .. Do you have some small ideas for external marketing .. not by spending money but by shaking a few hands .. 
making a few phone calls? .. you should. Hey .. no heavy pressure .. just expand your comfort zone a little. 

I am downloading some older e-mails with this. I would consider .. if I were you .. getting my CA Marketing Book and 
following the outline as I am going to send and also read the following Stress Workshop print and send to some local 
groups .. churches, civic centers, etc. where else .. it's in the book .. now set in motion day by day some activity .. it'll 
work as the sun arises each morning .. outflow will equal inflow (you send out stuff .. patient's come in) .. cosmic 
AT&T. Feel your comfort zone has been penetrated enough .. canžt get the energy to do any of this .. okay ..is there a 
local college? .. place an ad for a PR person .. pay them $8 an hour and bonus with production and get out my Smart 
Start Book and have them read it. It's all there .. just be their guidance and let them do the work. You just adjust.

Okay, I hope you'll reply to this e-mail and say .. who the hell are you to give me all this information without asking .. 
but your friend asked me to send you some info and include you on my e-mail list. You are on it and I've just sent you 
some stuff. 

Don't get down .. get dirty and clean house

Dr. M 

Now her reply to the above:

„Hi!  Thanks for all the kind and motivational words.  I'm not sure where I'm going with this right now. As you know, I 
am currently working two jobs with very little time or money to spare. I don't have an office and haven't even seen a 
patient in five months. I occasionally make a housecall to an old patient, but make no money from it, so I only do it when 
I have spare time. Also, I am hoping to get a house next year, so I would be moving approximately 50 miles from my 
current location. I don't think it's worth trying to get something going now since I will only have to start again next year.  
My plan is to get a house with a two car garage, and convert the garage into an office. This way, I can open my own place 
with minimal overhead and even write off some of my home expenses as business ones.  I really  think this makes the 
most sense. What do you think?ū


Now my reply: (What do you think?)

Thanks for your reply .. we all need to stick together. I'm not sure how you got into this mess .. but you are planning for 
further mess with the plans you described in your letter to me. 

If you care to fill me in .. when and where you graduated .. what you did after school .. why it didn't work out .. what 
you tried to do to salvage the situation .. marital status ..financial obligations (how can you buy a house if your finances 
are so poor) .. why move 50 miles up the road .. what's there .. would you work for others again .. would you teach???? 
.. etc.

Buying a house and making half a garage an office is predicting another failure or just shows your lack of confidence (not 
that I blame you) and little vision of making a go of it in this profession. There is no reason you or anyone couldn't make 
a decent living .. doesn't have to be like Bill Gates .. and feel that all the years of schooling and hope was wasted. It's 
just a matter of placing some ideas on the table .. see what worked and what didn't and make some changes .. radical 
ones will come later (don't want to kill an idea before it's started) .. then see how it runs. You're no worse than my 
students .. some $100,000 in debt with no office, no experience (good or bad) .. and only a hope and a prayer in their 
future. They have me to guide them as best I can .. a book they can fall back on .. and hands and a mouth .. really that's 
all it takes. (Business sense helps .. luck and the rest as well)


Again, you may feel as if you are wasted and can't get the energy to make a run of it again .. fearful of rejection .. it's a 
common thought .. but you have to overcome your fears and get a grip on the present and set aside the past and go 
forward with your chin up into the future. Go out and write the  ideas I asked you in the past letter and answer what I'm 
asking you above .. it'll take time but also itžll make you think .. if you conjure up images of darkness and the pit of your 
stomach hardens .. it's a sign that you are burnt out (wow .. what a diagnosis .. I bet you are royally) ..  but it also means 
that once you understand where you've been .. you can then set your sails to where you want to go.  Look.. the way I see 
it .. the answer to burn out is simple (hard to correct .. but the challenge is in the try) whether you like it or not .. your 
body will function .. you'll breath .. eat and wake up each morning with the creation of a new day.  Some old Indian said 
these famous words .. "you never walk in the same river twice" ... what did he mean .. the waters of the river have 
already passed and a new one is now rushing by your feet .. think this way .. renew each day with the possibility that you 
are in control .. you will create newness as you wish .. but you must have that Trip Tic .. that Plan .. these action steps 
towards a goal .. it has to be written and be visible and used with guidance .. I'm here to help .. but you have to make the 
attempt and commitment. Will you .. can you?

Keep in touch

Dr. M

Her most recent respone:  

„Hi!  I agree with some of what you've said, but not so sure about not walking in the same river twice -I've not only 
walked in itteie, I've drowned in it about 4 times and not looking to do it again. I graduated from Life in 3/87, came home 
and went to work as a CA until I got my license. One office was okay, butit was only part time so I left. The second one 
was a drunk who came back from lunch one day and fired the whole staff. Once I go my license, I worked for a 
chiropractor on the upper west side of Manhattan who felt that a Porche, a drink and Italian leather shoes were more 
important than paying the office bills. I was fired from there because I referred out two patients within a few weeks - one 
with bone cancer of the cervical spine and the other with an abdominal aortic anuerysm - I was told I could have found 
other areas to adjust (these were senior citizens and Medicare doesn't cover chiropractic.) I felt their time and money were 
better spent on the emergent care they needed. Yes, I do believe that in their cases chiropractic was a luxury they couldn't 
afford! Of course the icing on that cake was when I tried to be a friend and talked to his mother about the drinking. Big 
mistake.
Next thrilling chapter: Tried to make a go of it by sharing space with a doctor in my town - after a few months of his 
wife's moaning that my practice wasn't big enough and he wasn't making enough money off of me, so after he hid the 
fact that he had received over $2,000 of money he owed me (and I had to sue him for it), he fired me.
Chapter 3:  Through the noble efforts of Brian Koslow I was paired up with another chiropractor and I covered her 
practice while she was on maternity leave.  She tried to make me "sell" each new prospective patient 10 weeks of chiro 
care during the consultation (they weren't even examined yet, so there was no clinical finding or justification for the care) 
and then when she found out I had health insurance, she started billing my ins. co. for care I never received - this has 
ultimate affected an auto accident case I'm involved in.
And the plot thickens: tried to go it alone again - sharing space with another doctor -wanted half of my business, started 
stealing my patients and since he's in the office all day until around 9:30 pm. there is no time left for me to see patients. I 
am $150,000 in debt with loans - another 3,000 to a bankruptcy lawyer that has left me in the lurch. On is advise, I am 
not to do anything with the practice until the loan mess is resolved. That seems to look like the rest of my life. Have been 
through: Markson, Singer, L. Ron Hubbard, Koslow.
Tired and broke - Like teaching - would like to have s part time practice again when the time is right.
My boyfriend will help me get a hoise - he is willing ot put up the downpayment, I will pay the mortgage and live there. 
We will get a "fixer-upper" in Sussex Cty. (nice properties -low taxes) and work on it together.
That about covers it.ū

My reply again: (maybe you think Ižm too hard .. but this profession isnžt for everyone .. we have a mission whether you 
agree or not .. if you take care of it itžll take care of you)

Interesting tale of woes .. too bad you didn't take my class when you were in school .. good reason you didn't .. I was 
too busy trying to make a go of it myself and only have been teaching my one class at Life for the past two years.

The advice I give my students .. remember no shoe fits all feet .. is go out there and work for yourself .. not as an 
associate .. not as an independent contractor .. but by yourself. Three reason they probably won't ..1) teachers with no 
real life practice experience place fear in them for over two years 2) they still feel they know nothing and working for 
someone or close to someone will help 3) they have no start up money.

There is something else I tell them .. time and time again. You can't spend thousands of dollars a year for a consultant .. 
take my class and read my book .. and hope to place all that knowledge under your office telephone and expect it to ring .. 
it won't .. you have to do something with that new knowledge. If you and everyone else would .. you wouldn't be in 
your mess or generally anyone else with similar circumstances. 

I've been in practice for 20 years .. have three kids .. in a highly congested and competitive city for chiropractic and have 
made a run of it. Was it me .. was it the seminars I've been through .. was it the books I've read .. was it just luck .. you 
choose. 

I realize that life's been a bitch for you and there seems no hope in it anymore as a chiropractor unless you pay those debts 
and try again .. but you tell me other than holding up a bank .. how you'll do it. You'll go belly up on your debts and 
force others who expected payment to walk away .. 

You've had some bad experiences and those that you attracted to yourself were losers .. too bad they dragged you down 
with them. But .. the river does renew with each drop .. believe it ..if you don't you'll drown ..the choice is yours.

My advice still stands .. you can dwell in the past .. most everyone does .. or get up and seize the moment .. one word at 
a time until you get the message out!

Dr. M

What do yžall think?  Ižd like to know .. How many of your friends have the same problem?

Okay, now the good stuff .. Copy this and use it.

Safety and Human Resources

Re: Ergonomic and Stress Workshops

Dear Mr.,

Since 1985, wežve been providing ergonomic workshops to various corporations throughout the metro Atlanta area. Our 
programs work hand in glove with any pro-active programs you presently have in force.

Our workshops are oriented to all employees .. whether clerical or material handlers. We provide conservative stretch 
exercises that can be done both at the workstation or home. We also focus on biomechanical areas that may concern the 
specific work area and assist the manager or supervisor to increase their employee productivity and decrease their levels of 
downtime. 

The initial workshops are offered free within our community and have been well received and enjoyed by over 8000 
employees. Enclosed, please find copies of letters wežve received over the years.   

I recommend time be set aside at a number of your facilities within a 20 miles radius of my office. If the programs are 
useful, as I know they will, I can find other offices to assist your facilities throughout the metro area.

Our program Staying Fit While You Sit  is geared for the clerical staff
   Our program Safety At The Workstation is geared for material handlers

If you wish to discuss this in person, I will find the time to meet with you. Please feel free to call me at your convenience. 

Yours in Health,


Joel E. Margolies, DC

Dr. M