> >ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING.........By Francie Baltazar-Schwartz
> >
> > 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.
> >
> > U have 2 choices now:
> >
> > 1. save or delete this mail from ur mail box.
> > 2. forward it to friends and choose to pass this on
> >
> > Hope, you will choose choice 2.