A BIT OF HUMOR

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 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 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.

today'sTHOT
You have a choice: You can throw in the towel, or you can use it to wipe the 
sweat off of your face.

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