Jerry was the kind of guy you loved to hate. He was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. When someone asked him how he was doing, he would grin and reply, “If I were any better, I’d be twins!”
Jerry was a unique manager. Several waiters had followed him from restaurant to restaurant over the years. The reason was simple—his attitude. He was a natural motivator. When an employee was having a rough day, Jerry was right there, helping them see the positive side of the situation.
Watching him made me curious. One day I finally asked, “I don’t get it. You can’t be positive all the time. How do you do it?”
Jerry smiled and said, “Each morning I wake up and tell 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.”
He went on, “Every time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can accept their negativity or point them toward the positive side of life. I choose the positive side.”
“Yeah, right,” I said. “It’s not that easy.”
“Yes, it is,” Jerry replied. “Life is all about choices. When you strip away everything else, every situation comes down to a choice. You choose how you react. You choose how people affect your mood. You choose whether today will be good or bad. The bottom line is this—it’s your choice how you live your life.”
I reflected on his words often. Not long after, I left the restaurant business to start my own company. We lost touch, but whenever I faced a decision, I thought of Jerry and chose to respond rather than react.
Several years later, I heard Jerry had done what you’re never supposed to do in the restaurant business—he left the back door open early one morning. Three armed robbers came in and held him at gunpoint. As he tried to open the safe, his hand shook and slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him.
Jerry was found quickly and rushed to the trauma center. After eighteen hours of surgery and weeks in intensive care, he survived—though fragments of bullets remained in his body.
About six months later, I saw him again. When I asked how he was doing, he grinned and said, “If I were any better, I’d be twins. Want to see my scars?”
I declined, but asked what went through his mind during the robbery.
“The first thing I thought was that I should’ve locked the back door,” he said. “Then, lying on the floor, I remembered I had two choices: I could choose to live, or I could choose to die. I chose to live.”
“Weren’t you scared?” I asked.
“Oh, yes,” Jerry said. “The paramedics kept telling me I’d be fine. But when I got to the emergency room and saw the looks on the doctors’ faces, I got scared. I could tell they thought I was a dead man. I knew I had to act.”
“What did you do?” I asked.
“There was a big nurse shouting questions at me,” Jerry said. “She asked if I was allergic to anything. I said, ‘Yes.’ Everyone stopped and looked at me. I took a deep breath and yelled, ‘Bullets!’ Then I told them, ‘I’m choosing to live. Operate on me like I’m alive, not dead.’”
Jerry lived—because of skilled doctors, an unshakable attitude, and God’s will for his life.
I learned from him that every single day, we are given a choice: to live fully or merely exist. Attitude really is everything.
Psalm 23:6 (NIV) “Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life…”
And today—just like every day—we get to choose how we will live.
