Being Nice Works

There have always been two stories that have affected my life tremendously. Both talk about the power of being nice to others and about attitudes.

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Old Man Gatekeeper -

A man came walking in to a city and was stopped by an old gatekeeper. The man asked the Gatekeeper, "How is this city? How are the people?"

The Gatekeeper replied, "How was the place that you came from?"

The man spoke back, "Oh, they were horrible! Full of mischief, high crimes, murders, robberies every day!"

To that the Gatekeeper said with a frown, "Well, you'll find that here."

Within a few hours another man approached the Gatekeeper.

"How is this city? How are the people?" He asked.

"How was the place that you came from?" Replied the Gatekeeper.

"Oh they were wonderful, everyone always helped you out with anything that was going on. Didn't matter if you needed your roof patched, lawn mowed or needed a baby sitter, people were so willing to drop everything and help."

To that the Gatekeeper replied, "Well, you'll find that here."

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Shopkeeper

After moving in to a town for only a week, Abby started to complain to her new friend about a store.

"They were so rude! I can't believe how they treated me! You have been here longer than I have; you should go in there and have that employee fired!"

Within a week Abby went back to the store and was surprised when the employee was nice to her! "Is there anything else I can do for you? I sure hope you have a nice day!" The employee remarked to Abby.

Abby ran to her friend just waiting to hear the gossip of how her friend must have railed the manager and told them off. When she asked her question, she was surprised to hear what her friend did.

"I walked in to the store and told them about how you had just moved in to town. They were so happy to know that it just made your day when you went to their store and found them to be so nice and customer friendly. That their store was one of the best in town!"

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Biochem - As you know my class has been having problems with our biochem teacher. We weren't taught biochem last quarter and this quarter was even worse. We were getting ready to talk with the dean and file a formal complaint. At the end of the worse day, I explained to him where we were coming from (about last quarter). He was happy to know that we weren't just trying to complain.

The next class period I made sure to talk with him and be very nice (I even brought Monica and Kim for support. Who can sad no to Kim?). He then made it possible to recover some points and that his intention isn't to fail us. He was very willing to help us out and I made sure to let him know that we were very grateful.

Funny thing was that over half the class left within an hour (it's a two hour class) and those left were our main core class (the other half are from other quarters). He took down our names to know that we were the ones really interested in doing what it took to understand this.

I am so glad that I have learned the power of being nice to others. They are people too and want to be treated nice.