Jerry 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
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 approached
Jerry and remarked, "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 his
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 gun point 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 said, "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.
- Anonymous
