Date:         Wed, 27 May 1998 10:18:01 -0400
Reply-To:     Belal Abdin <belalabd@BATELCO.COM.BH>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From:         Belal Abdin <belalabd@BATELCO.COM.BH>
Organization: Al-Falak
Subject:      FW: ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING

-----Original Message-----
>
>> 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.
>>
>> You have 2 choices now:
>>
>> 1. save or delete this mail from your mail box.
>> 2. forward it to your dear ones and choose to pass this on
>>
>> Hopefully, you will choose the latter.
>>
 
 
__________________________________________________
Mr. Belal Abdin (Ext. 140)
Decision Support Systems Consultant
SAS Division - Al-Falak Electronic Equipment & Supplies Co.
PO Box 1963                                      Tel: +966 (3) 898-3365
Al-Khobar 31952                               Fax: +966 (3) 894-6032
Saudi Arabia                     E-mail: BelalAbd@batelco.com.bh