Attitude Is Everything

Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was the type of person who was always in a good mood, always up, 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!"

I met Jerry when I was a young manager in the restaurant industry. 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, up person all 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. Life is all about choices."

I thought about what Jerry said. Soon, I left the restaurant business to pursue my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to life.

Several years later, I heard that Jerry had done something you are never supposed to do in the restaurant business: he had left the back door open one morning and three armed robbers walked in, and held him up at gunpoint. While trying to open the safe, he got nervous and his hand slipped off the combination. The robbers got nervous and blew a hole through his hand and then three right through the middle of his abdomen. He lay there on the floor dying as the paramedics were called. They rushed him to the local trauma center and he was in surgery for 18 hours and intensive cares for weeks, and finally emerged from the hospital a month later with fragments of the bullets still in his body.

I saw Jerry about six months later. 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 I did ask him what had gone through his mind when the robbery was happening.

"The first thing that went through my mind," Jerry replied, "was that I should have locked the back door. Then, as I was lying on the floor, I was thinking that I had two choices: I could choose to live, or I could choose to die. I was choosing to live."

"Weren' t you ever scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.

Jerry continued the story, "The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room, I got really scared when I saw the expressions on the doctors, and nurses' ?faces. They all looked like I was a dead man. I knew I needed to take action."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Well, there was a big, burly nurse shouting at me, 'Jerry, are you allergic to anything?' ?'Yes,' I shouted back. 'What?' ?she asked. The doctors and nurses stopped and waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Bullets!' They all started laughing, and I told them, 'Look, I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am a living man, not a dead man'."

Jerry lived in part because of his doctors, but in large part because of his indomitable attitude.


态度决定一切

杰里真是个讨厌的家伙，他是那种整天心情愉快、乐观向上、能说会道的人。如果有人问他最近怎么样，他一定会说：“好极了，再好不过了。”

刚认识杰里时，我还是一家餐饮公司的年轻管理员，而他已经是一位出色的经理了。因为他良好的态度，一些服务员甘愿跟随杰里辗转于各个公司。他天生善于激励人，如果哪个员工心情不好，杰里总能告诉他如何积极应对。

他的这种作风的确令人称奇。于是，有一天，我问杰里：“我不明白，你为什么总能积极乐观，你是如何做到的呢？”

杰里答道：“每天早晨醒来，我都对自己说：‘杰里，今天你有两种选择：心情愉快或是闷闷不乐。’我选择愉快。每当有不幸的事情发生时，是选择接受伤害，还是吸取教训？我选择后者。每次别人向我抱怨时，是接受牢骚，还是指出生活的积极面？当然，我选择后者，生活就是这些选择。”

我思考着杰里的话。不久，我离开餐饮业去寻找属于自己的位置。尽管我们失去了联系，但每当我选择生活而不是应付生活时，就会想起他。

几年后，我听说杰里遭遇了一件令人难以想象的事：一天早上，他没有关后门，三个劫匪冲了进去，用枪口对准他，让他打开保险箱。当时他因紧张，锁从手上滑了下来。情急之下，劫匪打穿了他的手，又向他的腹部开了三枪。救护车来时，他躺在地上，已经奄奄一息。人们迅速把他送往当地的外伤中心，经过18个小时的手术和几个星期的护理，杰里终于在一个月后出院了，可是体内还残留着子弹碎片。

大约六个月后，当我见到杰里，询问他的身体状况时，他说：“好极了，再好不过了。想不想看看我的伤疤？”我没看他的伤疤，只是问了抢劫发生时他的想法。

“我首先想到的是，”杰里答道，“应该把后门锁好。后来，我倒在地上想，我有两个选择：活下去还是死亡？我选择活下去。”

“难道你不害怕吗？当时，你失去知觉了吗？”我问。

杰里继续说道：“医生们很好，他们不断地告诉我，我会好起来。但当他们把我推进急诊室时，我看到医护人员的表情，不禁担心起来。在他们眼里，我完全是一个死人了。我知道，我必须有所行动。”

“你做了什么？”我问。

“一个高大的护士冲我大喊：‘杰里，你对什么药物过敏吗？’‘有，’我回答道。‘什么？’她问。医护人员都停下来等我回答。我深深地吸了一口气，喊道：‘子弹！’他们都笑了起来，我告诉他们：‘看，我选择活下去，把我当活人而不是死人来做手术吧’。”

杰里活了下来，部分归功于他的医生们，更主要的是因为他坚强的态度。