Attitude is
Everything
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 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 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.