A True Story

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 yook 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.

You have 2 choices now:

1. Save this, or

2. Forward it to people you care about.

Hope you will choose No. 2.

Author Unknown