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The Industry Knocks on Our Door

Personalized Programming was truly an anomaly. We were located in the middle of the woods in a small building on Temple property. None of us were sophisticated businesspeople or experienced professional programmers. We were just people who had been brought together by the energy to do a task. Normally, successful businesses have to plan their growth by developing business plans and financial budgets. In our case, our only business plan was to try to keep up with life’s powerful wave that was carrying us forward. Our only budget was to hire whoever showed up who could help us. But no matter how hard we tried, it seemed that life just kept stepping things up to another level.

A perfect example of how our miraculous growth took place organically can be seen by some unexpected phone calls I received in the mid-1980s. The first was in the spring of 1985 from a woman who introduced herself as a vice president of Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield. Empire handled New York City and was one of the largest Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance providers in the country. Part of its efforts to convert medical practices in the area to electronic claims was to sell the doctors a practice management system. The company had been developing its own software but didn’t feel it was competitive with The Medical Manager. I was very honored when she told me that Empire wanted to drop its system and market The Medical Manager under a private label. You certainly couldn’t beat having Blue Cross Blue Shield marketing your product to its doctors. Before I could catch my breath, I was contacted by Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey with the same request. Then came South Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, Hawaii, Mississippi, Colorado, and a few others. All those Blue Cross Blue Shields ended up marketing The Medical Manager to the doctors in their states. I saw this as a living lesson in the power of surrender. For years I had been willing to let go of my personal preferences and focus on doing the absolute best I could with what life presented me. I hadn’t expected anything in return, and I was very humbled to see what was unfolding.

By the 1986–88 period, Personalized Programming had about a dozen employees, most of whom were programmers. We were a tiny company, yet we were earning millions of dollars a year in royalties alone. Systems Plus had very quickly realized the enormous potential of the medical marketplace and dropped all its other products to focus exclusively on The Medical Manager. As head of Personalized Programming, it was now my job to do business with all these large corporations. I had never worked at that level before. But just as life had given me on-the-job training to become a builder and a programmer, she was now training me to be a corporate executive. I had already seen too much, however, to be a conventional executive. Even in business, I intended to continue trusting the flow of life as my ultimate adviser.

One thing I saw again and again on this ride with life was that the right person would show up at just the right time. I literally banked on that perfection, and it is amazing how it kept happening. Even our corporate attorney, Rick Karl, was into yoga and meditation. It seemed that life was surrounding me with spiritually oriented people, not only at the Temple, but also in my business.

How life managed to do this is perhaps epitomized by the following perfectly orchestrated sequence of events. It began when Systems Plus asked us to host a representative from a laboratory equipment company who wanted to meet the Medical Manager development team. It was rare that Systems Plus sent prospects out to the woods in Alachua, but in this case there was no choice. Systems Plus staff practically begged me to wear a jacket, laced-up shoes, and have everyone on their best professional behavior. Paul Dobbins was our visitor’s name, and he had an extensive background as a senior technical analyst and product manager.

I sent Rick Karl, our very presentable attorney, to pick up the gentleman from the Gainesville airport. When he returned, Rick stuck his head in my office with a grin on his face the size of the Cheshire cat’s. Then, in walks our important guest. The first thing I noticed was that he had a particular piece of jewelry wrapped around his upper arm. It looked remarkably similar to the special bangle that Yogananda used to wear. As it turned out, it was. Paul Dobbins was a follower of Yogananda, had taken the lessons, and had been doing Kriya yoga for many years. You can be sure I was shocked, but imagine how he felt. He flies in from St. Louis on this important business trip to meet the president of the company that wrote the top-rated medical practice management system in the country. He walks into the president’s office and sees pictures of Yogananda all over the place.

At first, there were no words between us. Paul just sat down on the couch and took in the beauty of the moment. The energy in that room was befitting the presence of a master. I couldn’t keep my eyes open, and Paul was visibly overcome. After sitting in silence for a while, I asked him if he would like to see the Temple. We walked down the tree-lined road, onto the rustic dirt path, and into that holy place adorned with the pictures of great masters. Needless to say, this was not Paul’s usual business trip.

Paul extended his visit through the weekend and stayed in a small ten-by-ten-foot guest room on Temple property. Come Sunday, he didn’t want to leave. Paul had apparently gotten into meditation on his own, and he didn’t have many people around him who were into yoga. He was overwhelmed by what was going on at the Temple and the strength of the Gainesville spiritual community. He came to me after Sunday services with the inevitable question: “May I stay and work for you?” I felt deep in my heart that Paul belonged here and that he really wanted to be part of the Temple and the business. But I didn’t feel right about him just leaving the company that had sent him here, so I told him let’s wait and see how things unfold.

Some months later, I received a rather panicky call from Paul. He told me that his company had suddenly been sold, and his boss and many other employees were bailing out. Paul was turning in his resignation but wanted to continue working with The Medical Manager in some manner. Life’s message was perfectly clear—it was time to offer Paul a job.

Paul arrived in less than a week with some of his belongings. We allowed him to stay in that same ten-by-ten-foot guest room until he found a place of his own. Five years later, Paul was still living in that tiny room. I have no idea what he did with his belongings, but I do know that he came to morning and evening services at the Temple like clockwork.

Paul was a tremendous asset to the company, and he showed up exactly when he was needed the most. Shortly after he joined the team, we began getting contacted by the major national laboratories. They all wanted us to interface The Medical Manager to their labs. Paul was an expert in the field, and we were one of the first practice management systems to implement electronic connectivity with the major lab companies. We could never have succeeded as we did without Paul on our team. When I reflect back on how he came to us, it looks like a gift from the universe. Twenty years later, Paul still worked for the company and, to this day, lives in a home with his wife and family bordering Temple property. It appears that some things are just meant to be.