The enormous potential in every veterinary practice

I wasn't Marie Curie or anything when I was in school, but I was pretty good at chemistry and one cornerstone concept that has stayed with me is the idea of a catalyst or activation energy...it's the thing or the power that unlocks the potential in a reaction.  And here at the farm, I see so much potential, the acres and acres of warm hearth fires locked up in the hills of trees; the enormous slate cliffs, with their rocks teetering on the edge of a steep valley downfall; even all the water locked up the rain barrels, just waiting for someone to turn the spigot and release the spill.

If you were to ask me the one thing any practice owner can do to improve their practice, I would tell you without reservation: Today, begin.  Make the decision to change.  And if you are unable to make that change, get yourself a catalyst or find that activation energy...get that thing you need to start that reaction rolling down hill and moving to completion.

What I'm telling you to do, is hire me...or someone like me.  It's not as unabashed as it sounds.  As part of my 'deal' when I see veterinarians, I provide them a free visit to confirm I can make a difference.   It's probably not the thriftiest business move on my part...I probably spend 50 hours a year basically working for free, but it's an important exercise for me to go through to ease my fears that I might not be able to make a difference.  My point is, I see the inside guts of lots of practices whether they hire me or not and the common theme that runs through all is that there is plenty of potential, but no spark, no fire.  My urgency for you to hire me (or someone like me) has nothing to do so much with me needing work as it does my head-wagging consternation at seeing so much potential wasted.

Stop re-churning the concerns that you've had for your practice these many years.  Choose today, to step forward and fix them.  And for heaven's sakes, if you feel like you need help, hire someone to help you.  You'll find the breath of fresh air, just the decision alone to finally move forward, will lift the entire practice's atmosphere.  Not to mix metaphors, but if we could jump from chemistry to physics for a second, the difference between a light bulb and a laser is shifting those wavelengths over one wave so they all synch up.  That's what I'm talking about here and that's exactly what you'll experience, the moment you decide to change.

Do not wait around another day staring at that wood pile willing it to light or hoping the rain barrel walks over to the garden and waters it by itself. Call up your software company; call up vendor; call the person on the business card you picked up at your last veterinary conference; pull one of those veterinary management books off the shelf and call up the author. I want you to pick up the phone today and get busy living up to everything you, your team and your practice are supposed to be.