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 I 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.