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 mood or a
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 simply
reacting to it.
Several years later, I heard that Jerry did
something you are never supposed to do in the
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 of 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, obviously, was that I should have locked
the back door," Jerry replied. Then, as I lie on
the floor, I remembered that I had two choices:
I could choose to live, or I could choose to die.
"I choose 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. Please,
please, 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 a choice to live
fully.
Attitude is, after all, everything.
--Francine Baltazar-Schwartz |
