Is Your Character Contagious?

"There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative." — W. Clement Stone

A true leader's attitude is, as they say, unshakeable. It's contagious. When true leaders hear the word "problem," they think "solution!" When they see or feel frustration, they immediately turn their thinking around to "opportunity!"

I have often been asked, "Does anything ever get you down?" My answer very quickly is "No, nothing."

When I started eighth grade, I entered Mary Hill Junior Secondary School in Port Coquitlam — a suburb of Vancouver. There I met an amazing person — one who has had a lasting and profound impact on my outlook on life and the curve balls that sometimes get thrown at me.

I was a hockey player. I took everything about the game seriously, particularly my preparation to be the best I could be. I had to. I am no giant by any stretch, so to survive at an elite level for my age, I had to be faster and better skilled than the goliaths I found myself around on the ice. Therefore, to keep myself in peak shape, I joined the high school cross-country running team.

Each morning, I would show up at the school for an extra run at 7:00 a.m. I would enter a dark and very quiet school and make my way to the gym to get changed for my morning run. As I walked the deserted hallways and got closer to the gym, I would start to hear the thump, thump, thump of a basketball against the floor. It would get louder and louder as I approached. I could now hear the squeak of running shoes on the hardwood, more dribbling, and a ball hitting the backboard. As I opened the door, the gym would be dark except for one end where a grade 9 student named Terry would already be shooting baskets. He would stop, look over, and with an ear-to-ear smile, yell out, "Good morning!" And go back to shooting baskets.

It was bad enough that I was there, out of a warm bed two hours early for a run in the cold, wet mornings we get on the West Coast, but Terry lived two miles from school, so he ran to school each day carrying his books and basketball. Near as I could figure, he was getting up every day at 5 a.m. or earlier. And, he was still happy!

In class, he was the guy who always received good marks, and although a bit introverted, he laughed and joked around constantly, and he would be there to help you with homework if you needed it.

After school when my cross-country teammates and I would be heading out for our afternoon workout, he would be in the gym shooting baskets. After an hour or so of our coach putting us through various forms of torture, we would be dragging our butts back to the school for a shower and home. When we came into the gym, Terry would stop to ask us how the workout went. We would grumble something incomprehensible about how Coach Tinck was killing us. Terry would smile and tell us it was good for us. At 6 p.m., he would still be there, shooting hoops after our shower; we would be heading home.

Terry would join the basketball team in late fall. The basketball coach had a policy that if you showed up for every practice, you would dress for every game. You might not play, but you got to dress. My friend was not overly tall and he was skinny — I think there was more meat on a pencil. He was not the best of players so he spent that entire first season on the bench, handing out towels and water to the guys coming off the court. That never, ever discouraged him. He always had something good to say to every player who came back to the bench.

The next year, the same routine before and after school made Terry marginally better, so the basketball coach would put him in the game if the team were ahead on the scoreboard.

The year after that, Terry made the starting line-up. He was still not tall, but the hours and hours of hard work and perseverance were starting to pay-off. As a starting guard for the team, he had the same infectious, positive attitude that was unshakeable.

In the final year of high school, Terry was recognized as the top athlete in our school along with his best friend Doug Alward — the most revered acknowledgment among a hundred or so athletes in our school. Still, he was forever grateful and would always try to deflect the attention to others. He finished academically near the top of the class. He was someone who shaped my adolescence by giving me a positive outlook — no matter what came along.

Along came college. Terry decided to go to Simon Fraser University near Vancouver. He was a "walk-on" to the university's basketball tryouts. Although he had finally put on some weight in muscle, he was not invited to the team because of his height. Surrounded by behemoths on full scholarships from across the country, Terry brought his daily work ethic and determination to every practice. At the end of the tryouts, he was designated as the Junior Varsity team's starting shooting guard. An amazing feat considering the talent that surrounded him! I was so very proud of how he once again showed everyone that through a positive mental image and a tenacious drive, anything is possible.

At the end of his first season, Terry finally went to see the doctor about a nagging knee injury that just would not heal. The doctor ran some tests, took some x-rays, and sent him to a specialist. More tests. The final diagnosis sounded like a shot heard around our little world: Bone cancer. Within days, Terry was hospitalized to have his right leg amputated above the knee.

My friend, my inspiration, if you have not already guessed, was Terry Fox — now arguably one of...