> 
> 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 and 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 form 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 the 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.  The kept telling me I was 
> going to be fine.  But when they wheelied 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."
> 
> "There was a nurse shouting questions at me and 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 deap 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.