The Garbage Truck Golden Rule

This was just passed internally to our company from a person I think very highly of, and I thought it was worth anybody’s two minutes to read- though I don’t know where it originated (OKAY, SINCE POSTING THIS, I HAVE BEEN CONTACTED BY THE AUTHOR OF THIS, AND HAVE BEEN ASKED TO GIVE PROPER ATTRIBUTION, WHICH I’M HAPPY TO DO:

Law of the Garbage Truck

Based on the book by David Pollay: http://davidjpollay.typepad.com/

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a car jutted out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us.

The taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. So I asked, “Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!” This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, ‘The Law of the Garbage Truck.’  He explained that 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 sometimes they’ll dump it on you. Don’t take it personally.  Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don’t take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.
The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets.

Instead, love the people who treat you right, and pray for the ones who don’t.

Have a  garbage-free day!

Robert Ayers

Robert on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jobfind207

Robert on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/xbertt

This is actually the third time Robert’s found his way into one of my blog posts. Here are the others:

Posts Including “Robert Ayers”