Attitude is everything

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on the successor failure of veterinary practices.

The attitude of the practice owner has impressed me more than past experience,education, facts, wealth, past successes, past failures, and contributesso much more than any other factor.

Attitude is more important than appearance, business experience or artisticskills.

Attitude simply makes or breaks a veterinary practice as it does a church,a home, or any other human endeavor.

The remarkable thing is that when practice owners rise every day, theyhave a palette of attitudes to choose from for the day ahead.

They cannot change the past. They cannot change the facts. They cannotchange the inevitable.

As humans we can change but one thing and it's the most important thingwe can change-our attitude.

We are like a violin with just one string and we must play it. That stringis our attitude.

Practice success, as with all life, is 10 percent what happens to usand 90 percent how we react to it.

And so, reader, it is with you. You are in charge of your attitude.

Up north

Up in the not-so-frozen reaches (average winter temperature about, sometimesmore, sometimes less, almost, not quite but definitely freezing) of oursister country of Canada, there exists two provinces which we shall hypotheticallycall Manitoba and Ontario. Surprisingly enough, they have a slew, (that'smore than a thousand), of veterinarians there. Really surprising is thatgovernment is helpful to their citizens and permits them to discuss outrageouslyundemocratic things like the fees they charge their clients.

A study was done some years ago which focused on three issues.

* Veterinarians do not know their own worth.

* Longer than reasonable work hours

* Inadequate veterinary compensation

Would you believe it, they actually found that practices with the highestfees had the highest gross incomes, the highest net income and worked thefewest hours and practices with the lowest fees had the lowest gross incomes,the lowest net income and worked the most hours?

Yes, my colleagues, we and our attitudes create our own success or lackof success.

The study showed that those practitioners who felt that their clientswere not fee-sensitive charged the highest fees and had the highest take-homepay.

Veterinarians who felt that their clients were fee-sensitive chargedlower fees and worked longer hours for less income.

And .. (drum roll please)..

The high and low fee practices were immediate neighbors using the samedemographics, each oblivious to the success or lack of success of theirneighbor practice.

Attitude, attitude, attitude need I say it again?

Veterinarians who worry about competition keep their fees lower, andthereby self determine their own less successful fate.

Damaging, untrue

The most damaging, and absolutely untrue within realistic limits, beliefnow widely held within our profession is the notion that an increase infees will lead to a devastating loss of clients.

This is not true and only this false attitude stands in the way of financialand economic improvement of the profession.

Shall I prove it to you ?

Go to your computer and change the minimum fee for any injection to65 percent of your office visit fee plus $4.35. Yes, go ahead, don't beshy!

How many years have you practiced? I'd wager that you get less than onecomplaint a year about the cost of an injected medication.

What's the matter? Got an attitude problem? What are you sitting aroundfor? GO DO IT !!!

If I'm wrong, just write lots of nasty letters to the editors of thispublication. Now, realize that these letters must be on the success or failureof the recommendation, not on the morality or immorality of setting fees.All I'm doing is giving you a tool that determines the perception of valuefor a needed service.

If I'm right, treat your family to a two-week vacation they deserve withthe extra income. Don't invite me because I'll be too busy working on myattitude.