Allergic to Bullets
Read this, and let it really sink in...Then choose
how you start your day tomorrow...
Jerry is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is
always in a good mood and always has 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 ER 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 deadman'. 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.
You have two choices now:
1. Delete this.
2. Forward it to the people you care about.
Hope you will choose #2.
I did.