The Most Negative Man I Ever Met Changed My Life

It was a brutally cold, windy February day in New York — the kind that turns snow into filthy slush and makes every step feel heavier. I had a 4 o'clock appointment with the most negative man I had ever met. Honestly, I was dreading it, but I showed up anyway.

After Irving buzzed me in, I juggled a mess of slushy boots, a soaked umbrella, a purse, and a briefcase, struggling to peel off my hat, muffler, gloves, and coat. Mid-chaos, Irving stepped out of his office, looked straight at me, and without a hint of humor, asked:

"Are you always so happy?"

I wasn’t feeling remotely happy. I stood there, stunned for a moment. And then, without even thinking, the truth spilled out of me:

"Irving, I don't like being around people who are always on a downer."

(And silently, in the back of my mind, I added: like you.)

Then came the words that would change everything for me:

"And the only person whose company I can never escape... is my own."

The appointment couldn’t end fast enough. As I walked the 40 New York blocks back to my hotel, that moment replayed over and over in my mind. And then I thought of Ida.

Ida had worked for me years earlier — a woman who, in my young eyes, seemed much older, though she was only in her early 60s. The other women in that department were chronic complainers, but Ida was different. Despite facing decades of health battles — cancer, open-heart surgery, constant pain, and a steel back brace she wore every day of her life — Ida was unfailingly cheerful, upbeat, and determined to focus on what needed to be done, not on what had gone wrong.

She chose her attitude. Every single day.

That night, in the quiet of my hotel room, it hit me with crystal clarity:

If I didn’t want to hang out with someone who was miserable...
then, when I was the one being miserable, I had better choose to do something about it. And so I did.

That brutal winter day — thanks to the most negative man I ever met — became the day I decided to choose my own attitude.

Not because life is always easy.
Not because pain and hardship magically disappear.

But because I am the only person whose company I can never escape.

And that, more than anything, changed the course of my life.

The only company you can’t escape is your own.

If you are ready to change the conversation you are having with yourself, let’s talk:
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