Dale Carnegie often reminded his students that every person carries “diamonds” within them—strengths, gifts, and potential that may simply be hidden under the dust of stress, illness, or life’s hardships. He taught that if you want to find gold, you don’t go searching for dirt. You expect the gold, you look for the gold, and you keep gently brushing away what’s on the surface until you see the shine.

This philosophy aligns beautifully with how we approach care in Functional Pharmacy.

Too often, the healthcare journey focuses on what’s “wrong”: the symptoms, the diagnoses, the lab abnormalities, the habits that are hard to break. Those things matter—but they are not the whole story. They are not the person. And they are certainly not the gold.

In functional care, we begin by seeing the strengths you already carry. Your resilience. Your values. Your desire to feel better. Your efforts (even the small ones) to move toward a healthier life. These are the diamonds that guide the work we do together.

Yes, sometimes we have to gently “shovel off the dirt”—the overwhelm, the confusion about medications, the patterns that aren’t serving your health. But we do this without judgment and without labeling you by the dirt. We clear it only so the gold can shine through.

My role is to help you discover and strengthen what is already good in you:
• your ability to learn
• your desire for clarity
• your willingness to take the next small step
• your belief that your health can improve

When we honor those strengths, change becomes gentler, more sustainable, and far more empowering.

Dale Carnegie believed people rise to the expectations placed upon them when those expectations are rooted in belief and compassion. In Functional Pharmacy, I choose to see the gold first—and help you see it in yourself. Because healing doesn’t begin with what’s broken. It begins with what’s beautiful, resilient, and still shining beneath the surface.

And together, we uncover it—one layer at a time.