A lesson from Giovanni Maciocia

Well for those of you who do not recognize the name Giovanni Maciocia, he is a world renowned Traditional Chinese Medicine Doctor from England. He has written five or six text books that are utilized by almost every single practitioner in North America as well as other parts of the world.

So by chance I found myself in an herb shop that I had never been to before (the one I normally go to went out of business). I was chatting it up with the owner and he tells me he is hosting a Oriental Medicine Symposium the coming weekend and that Giovanni Maciocia is scheduled to lecture in Vancouver BC. He also tells me that I, being from WA state, could have brought him up as he was in Seattle and needed some way to get to Vancouver. They couldn't find him a ride so they were forced to fly him from Seattle to Vancouver. He was going to have to wait for five hours after his lecture in Seattle before the flight took off for Vancouver.

Seeing the potential for an incredible opportunity, I unselfishly offered to pick Dr. Maciocia up from Bastyr University and transport him to Vancouver for the lecture in the case that he didn't feel like flying such a short distance. Lucky for me, Giovanni had been touring around the USA lecturing for the past week and was completely sick of airplanes. He welcomed the opportunity to drive for a change. I welcomed the opportunity for a private audience with a world famous physician.

Anyway, I got to meet this guy and it was a once in a lifetime kind of thing. Overall I spent six private hours with Giovanni and was allowed to attend his day long lecture without charge. I did my best not to spaz out and tried to be respectful as possible. This guys knowledge is incredible and I didn't want to talk too much about medicine as I figured that he would most likely be tired of speaking about the subject. I instead tried to ask him questions that I know I would never be able to find out from anyone else. One of the things I asked him about was his success. All you folks that are trying to make it big should pay attention now.

I asked Dr. Maciocia if he ever dreamed that he would be as well recognized and highly regarded as he is today. I also inquired as to where he found his motivation and inspiration to make the kind of contributions he has made to this field. First off, Giovanni acted pretty modest about the whole thing and didn't really seem to think he was that well known. Giovanni told me that he never anticipated or planned on being such a famous physician. He simply is very passionate about Chinese Medicine, loves to research, and only desires to continue learning. His first two books (which brought him world wide recognition) were not even intended to be books. He was simply compiling information for himself and somehow they ended up as books.

Although his answers are fairly obvious, they are an excellent reminder to all of us that dream big. We all can be as successful as Giovanni if our motivation comes from our hearts (versus your desire to be rich and famous). If we work from such a place then our path will unfold naturally for us. My chance encounter with Dr. Maciocia is only living proof of this.