ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING !!!
Jack 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 Jack was because
of his
attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jack
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 Jack and asked
him,
"I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. "How
do you do it?" Jack
replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, 'Jack, 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,"
Jack 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 Jack 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 Jack 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,
Jack was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center. After
18 hours
of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jack was released from the hospital with
fragments
of the bullets still in his body.
I saw Jack 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,"
Jack 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. Jack
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 Jack. "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." Jack 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!!
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