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Good Attitude
Jerry is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood
and always has 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 I 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 ER 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 to give 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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