Choose Door 2 LO19156

Sherri Malouf (sherri@maloufinc.com)
Fri, 4 Sep 1998 15:07:11 -0400 (EDT)

Orig Subject: Food for thought.....

Tony 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 restaurantto restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Tony
was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee
was having a bad day, Tony 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
Tony and asked him, I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of
the time. How do you do it?"

Tony replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, Tony, 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," Tony 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 Tony 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 Tony 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, Tony was found
relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center. After 18 hours
of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Tony was released from the
hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.
I saw Tony 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," Tony
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.

Tony 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 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 Tony. "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'."

Tony 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.

Sherri
sherri@maloufinc.com Tel:603-672-0355
LMA, Inc Fax:603-673-7120

[Host's Note: As a good internet host, I cannot condone chain letters,
even good ones. So, I encourage you to read this and don't sent it to too
many of your friends! ...Rick]

-- 

Sherri Malouf <sherri@maloufinc.com>

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