What is the cause of success?

That is the question I have been pursuing my entire life.

I started thinking about it as a teenager after reading Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. He wrote about the power of the mind, but I didn't fully understand the importance of what I was reading until decades later.

By then, I had earned a B.A. in Chemistry, an M.B.A., and a Doctor of Chiropractic degree. I had worked for three years at IBM, built a successful chiropractic practice, taught college business courses, and taught continuing education.

Then, late one night in my chiropractic office, I had a life-changing thought.

"What if everything I know is wrong?"

I stopped walking. I felt disoriented.

I had spent years getting an education. I had built a career. I had accumulated a tremendous amount of information. But if what I believed was wrong, where would I begin?

The answer came to me almost immediately:

Universal Intelligence.

That question began a decades-long exploration of the mind, science, philosophy, spirituality, and what chiropractic calls Universal Intelligence.

Along the way, I studied with teachers who challenged the way I thought about the mind. I explored meditation and Reiki, studied philosophy and science, worked with people who believed they could communicate telepathically, and had experiences that challenged many of my assumptions about what is possible.

I also learned through experience.

I have built successful businesses. I have watched a business fall apart and faced bankruptcy. I have rebuilt. I have returned to chiropractic practice, purchased a practice seeing about 25 patients a day, and helped grow it to approximately 50 patients a day within a few months.

But having more money didn't necessarily make me happier.

Eventually I realized that what I really wanted to do was teach.

That brings me to what I teach today.

I believe our brains are remarkably like biological computers. Throughout our lives, we acquire programs—beliefs, assumptions, habits, fears, and ways of thinking. Some programs help us. Others don't.

We can simply let those programs run our lives.

Or we can learn to examine them.

Question them. Change them. Delete the ones that don't serve us. And develop better ones.

That idea connects everything I teach.

In my business courses, I help chiropractors understand the financial and business principles they need to become better business owners.

In my future courses on philosophy and spirituality, I'll explore deeper questions about the mind, consciousness, free will, Universal Intelligence, and the assumptions that shape the way we understand ourselves and the world.

You don't have to agree with my conclusions to benefit from my courses.

In fact, I would prefer that you question them.

My goal isn't to tell you what to think.

It's to help you think.

Learn the facts. Question what you believe. Examine the programming that shapes your life. Then decide for yourself what you believe to be true.

What is the cause of success?

I'm still pursuing the answer.

And perhaps you are, too.

Robert Affolter, MBA, DC