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
asked him how he was doing, he'd reply, "If I were any better,
I'd 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 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."

"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're 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 replied, "If I were any better, I'd be
twins.  Wanna see my scars?" I declined his offer 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'm choosing to live. Operate on
me as if I'm 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.