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 asks him how he is
doing, he always replies, "If I were
any better, I would be twins!"
Jerry is a natural motivator. If an employee
is having a bad day, Jerry is right
there telling the employee how to look
on the positive side of the situation.
Because of this attitude he has several
waiters who have followed him around
from restaurant to restaurant.
This really made me curious, so one day
I went up to Jerry and asked him,
"What's the deal with you? Nobody can
be that positive 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."
"Oh come on, it can't be 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. You choose how people
affect your day. You choose to be in
a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line
is that you choose how you live your
life."
I thought about what Jerry said for a long time.
Soon thereafter, I left the area to start
my own business. We lost touch, but
often thought about Jerry 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, 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, blonde 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 is alive today, thanks to the skill
of his doctors, but also because of his
amazing attitude. I learned from him
that day that we always have the choice
to live fully. Attitude, after all,
is everything.
Now you have a choice: you can forget
this story, or you can choose to let it
make a difference in your attitude and
your life.