Monday, April 21, 2008

Law of the Garbage Truck

This came in the morning mail and I just decided that I would share it....

How often do you let other people's nonsense change your mood?

Do you let a bad driver, rude waiter, curt boss, or an insensitive employee ruin your day? However, the mark of a successful person is how quickly one can get back their focus on what's important. David J. Pollay explains his story in this way....

Sixteen years ago I learned this lesson. I learned it in the back of a New York City
taxi cab. Here's what happened. I hopped in a taxi, and we took off for Grand Central Station. We were driving in the right lane when, all of a sudden, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his breaks, skidded, and missed the other car's back end by just inches!

The driver of the other car, the guy who almost caused a big accident, whipped his head around and he started yelling bad words at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean...he was friendly. So, I said, "Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!"

And this is when my taxi driver told me what I now call, "The Law of the Garbage Truck."

"Many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it. And if you let them, they'll dump it on you. When someone wants to dump on you, don't take it personally..You just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. You'll be happy you did."

I started thinking, how often do I let Garbage Trucks run right over me? And how often do I take their garbage and spread it to other people: at work, at home, on the streets? It was that day I said, "I'm not going to do it anymore."

Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets. Love the people who treat you right. Forget about the ones who don't. Believe that everything happens for a reason. Never let the garbage truck run over you....

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

ki holo dada ? theek acchi tomi ?

Anonymous said...

tomar Kolkata Knight Riders toofan macha rahe he!!

Sam said...

hehe....
mazak hai kya?? damdar team hai boss... aise thode hi na opponent ko jeetne denge!! :D

Realistic me... said...

:)
So beautifully put into words.

Anonymous said...

I like the moral...

Pri said...

nice...i'd read this before :)

but then whatever happened to 'if ppl give u one bucketful of shit, u give them 10' policy??

in todays world,most often the former is promoted but the latter is used...

reminded me of that dialogue from 'lage raho munnabhai' :D

Thas said...

vry true...nd thts a gud thought u got.. not to do it anymore..:)

WritingsForLife said...

oh wow... this is impressive... I am definitely keeping this in mind from now onwards.
thanks for the beautiful share!

Sam said...

@realistic: thnx!!

@inihos: am gald u liekd it!! :)

@pri: which dialogue??

@thas: not to do wot???

@raaji: u r welcome!! :)

Thas said...

That day I said, " I'm not going to do it anymore"...did u mean not to let grabage trucks run over you or u not being the garbage truck, hehehe

Occasional Brilliance said...

i wonder how it was that i missed this post... but no worries, better late than never. i love what you have written because i have been amongst the unfortunate who have let the garbage truck run over them. i wish i had been wiser and older in the way i behaved back then... and so true. you always regret not having had the last goodbye... great post. keep em coming...

IncorrigibleV said...

very intelligent thought... will always keep in mind :)

Anonymous said...

Hi Sam,

Thanks for posting this great story! My name is Chris, and I work with David J. Pollay, the author of The Law of the Garbage Truck™ - Beware of Garbage Trucks™! I just wanted to stop by and let you know that you can read the original story on David’s blog davidjpollay.typepad.com I know he’d love to have you stop by!

Also check out the video of people in New York City taking the No Garbage Trucks!™ Pledge: bewareofgarbagetrucks.com. It’s pretty cool.

Thanks again!

Chris

chris@bewareofgarbagetrucks.com