Imran was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. When asked 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, because he was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Imran was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.
One day I asked him, "You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?" Imran replied, "Each morning I say to myself, Imran, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or 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 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."
"It's not that easy," I protested. "Yes it is," Imran 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. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live life." I reflected on what Imran 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 Imran 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 gun point 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, Imran was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma centre. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Imran was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.
I saw Imran about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he said, "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," Imran 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. Imran 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, a nurse was shouting questions at me," said Imran. "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." Imran lived thanks to the blessings of Allah, 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.
**author unknown