One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped 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.
My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly.
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.
I love forwarding insights like this.
Photo Courtesy of Susan Sermoneta (Susan NYC). Please visit her
photostream via simple click of her image.
3 Comments
Michael, I’m glad you like my image – will you give me credit? and/or link to my flickr account?
Hi Michael. I came across your article and thought it so good. Thank you for sharing it. I love this kind of philosophy. I decided to “forward” it to my friends and students. I hope thats OK with you. Credit and back linked to you. Kind Regards. James
Thank you for sharing, Micheal. I appreciate the positive approach the wise cab driver has towards others in his way. He is generating goodwill and so are you!
I am also sharing your URL on my face book page.