As I write this weeks’ blog article, I am looking out the window of my home in South Central Pennsylvania, and I don’t think I have ever seen this much snow on the ground as it continues to fall from the sky in blizzard-like conditions.

It seems as though it will never stop. Of course it always does. The first year I moved here was the winter of 1977. We were living in a small apartment with 3 small, but growing children. Using AMC practice management principles from Dr. Owen, I had gotten off to a great start, even though the practice had been set up just a few months ago.

We were seeing 70-80 patient visits a week by that time. Then the snows started in January. Have you ever noticed how snow storms, the really bad ones, seem to come in weekly “waves”? That is exactly how it happened that year. Just when the practice was up and running smoothly – WHAM!
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They say that, many times, you can pinpoint the exact time and location where your life took a “life changing turn.” My new friend simply asked me, “Have you ever considered going to chiropractic college?” That was easy to answer because I had never heard the word in my short 17 years of life when I thought I knew everything I needed to know already.

As a result of that one question, I went to Logan college in St. Louis in the fall of 1964. By going straight through winter and summer, I was able to graduate in 3 years. I had finished 3rd in my class. The 2 ahead of me had 4 year undergrad degrees. I had come straight out of high school, so I was just barely old enough to get a license at age 21. I had even gotten an A+ in the one management class that was given in my senior year.

My wife, who was 5 months pregnant when I graduated, and I immediately moved to Florida to open our first office. The old joke told is that, in that first office, my entire practice totaled just ½ of one new patient. That is a new patient who never comes back for their report.
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