Watch the video here, or just keep reading below for a slightly polished transcript:

I noticed an acquaintance, “Dr. X,” driving out of the upscale shopping center near my house. I waived hello, but wasn't sure if X had seen me.

Later, X apologized for not having recognized me that day. He said that he’s uncomfortable when he goes to that shopping area and is so highly focused on leaving, that he doesn't really notice what’s going on as he drives out.

I asked what made him uncomfortable about the shopping area. The response: “The ‘rich people,’ you know, like plastic surgeons.”

Confused and curious, I asked X what it was about the people at the shopping area that bothered him. The response: “They’re just so stuffy and pretentious.”

Although it is true that the shopping area parking lot sometimes looks like a Rolls-Royce and Aston Martin dealership, my experience with the people there is that they are as friendly or friendlier than the norm in the greater surrounding community: they generally appear happy, are smiling, and readily initiate or return a greeting.

So what is it about “rich people” that really bothered X?

X appears to have a moderately busy practice, but he is definitely not in the “rat race.” Previously, I thought that that was a choice, but perhaps the conversation revealed something else, that he does not want to become more successful because he will become like those “rich people” whom he clearly dislikes.

I've noticed a similar phenomenon many times in the course of dealing with clients in their business relationships. Oftentimes, individuals and groups seem to be putting on the brakes, not pushing on the accelerator, out of some mistaken belief that they occupy some fixed rung, as in a caste system, outside of which they are not permitted to tread.

The concept of accepted beliefs, in this case, of limiting beliefs, has been described as a mimeme, or “meme” for short. Just as X might be holding himself back because he doesn't want to become like those “rich people” whom he believes are stuffy and pretentious, many internists believe that they are somehow “less than” the hospital administrator who tells then that the hospital-employed hospitalist will be seeing all of the internists’ in-patients. And, on a greater level, many physicians today are willing to fall lockstep into line with hospital-centric notions of healthcare.

Have you bought into these, or other, limiting beliefs, and are they holding you or your group back in your career and business success?

Psychologists and direct marketing experts (who really are applied psychologists) tell us that the fear of loss is a greater motivator of human behavior than is the prospect of gain.

Are you applying fear as a tactic in connection with your relationship with hospitals and other entities with which you have a Relationship Contract in place?

As you’ll recall if you’re a regular reader, a Relationship Contract is an agreement that, as of the closing, creates an ongoing relationship between the parties. Its opposite is a Transactional Contract™, a deal that once it “closes,” the parties go their separate ways – think of the purchase of a home.

Note that when I talk of “fear,” I’m not addressing the use of threats. Instead, I’m speaking of fear of loss as an underlying current to a broader publicity push in favor of your group – a part of laying the groundwork for contract renewal.

In the context of your group’s relationship with, for example, a hospital pursuant to an exclusive contract, the fear that can be harnessed includes the fear that your group will no longer desire to provide services at that facility, and the fear that you will pull back the added value services which you delivered over and above any contractual obligation in the course of your creation of an Experience Monopoly.

When deploying fear based tactics, it’s important that you focus on an already existing fear, one that hospital administration is empowered to act upon, and one that is relatively soon to occur or to be avoided. But on the other hand, the fear can’t be one that causes the hospital administrator to freeze like a deer in headlights – he or she will be too paralyzed to take constructive action.

Last, fear alone isn’t enough to spur positive action in your group’s favor: You also have to drive home, hard, the fact that your group offers the complete solution to allaying those fears.