| Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate.
He was always in a good mood and always had something
positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was
doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would
be twins!"
He was a unique manager because he had several waiters
who had followed Him around from restaurant to restaurant.
The reason the waiters followed Jerry Was because of
his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee
was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee
how to look on the positive side of the situation. Seeing
this style really made me curious, so one day I went
up to Jerry and asked him, "I don't get it! You
can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you
do it?" Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake
up and say to myself, Jerry, you have two choices today.
You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose
to be in a bad mood.' I choose to be in a good mood.
Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be
a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose
to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining,
I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point
out the positive side of life. I choose the positive
side of life." "Yeah, right, it's not that
easy," I protested. "Yes it is," Jerry
said.
Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the
junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you
react to situations. You choose how people will affect
your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood.
The bottom line: It's your choice how you live life."
I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left
the restaurant industry to start my own business. We
lost touch, but often thought about him when I made
a choice about life instead of reacting to it.
- - -
Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something
you are never supposed to do in a restaurant business:
he left the back door open one morning and was held
up at gunpoint by three armed robbers. While trying
to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness,
slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and
shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly
and rushed to the local trauma center. After 18 hours
of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released
from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still
in his body. I saw Jerry about six months after the
accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If
I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?"
I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what
had gone through his mind as the robbery took place.
"The first thing that went through my mind was
that I should have locked the back door," Jerry
replied. "Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered
that I had two choices: I could choose to live, or I
could choose to die. I chose to live. "Weren't
you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.
Jerry continued, "The paramedics were great. They
kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they
wheeled me into the emergency room and I saw the expressions
on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really
scared. In their eyes, I read, 'He's a dead man."
I knew I needed to take action." "What did
you do?" I asked. "Well, there was a big,
burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Jerry.
"She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes,'
I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as
they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled,
'Bullets!'
Over their laughter, I told them, 'I am choosing to
live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."
Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but
also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from
him that every day we have the choice to live fully.
Attitude, after all, is everything.
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