Rule #3 Always Go With Your Gut

On my birthday in 2003 I wanted to go bowling, but I didn't want to go by myself. So I asked my brother if he wanted to go with me. He said yeah, so I suggested that we take our three sisters with us. Two of them still were/are under the iron curtain of our step-father so, I wanted to ask my mom if the two youngest could go with us. I called my mother at her job, but she wasn't at her desk. So I decided to call her cell-phone and still no answer. My brother and my sister's tried to convince me that we could go, and there wouldn't be no problems, but I knew better. I know how my step-father's mind works and I know how my mom's works too. I didn't want to hear any arguments or yelling and what not, so I told them we have to wait. After an hour my mom calls and I ask her if we can take our sisters with us. She says yes, and I told her how I didn't want to take them without her permission, and how my siblings thought otherwise. My mom then tells me that I made the right choice. After I hung up the phone with her I spoke and saved a message onto my cell-phone. I said, "Next time go with your gut".

Nine times out of ten a person's gut feelings are right. When you go against that feeling you can get hit....Hard.

The reason I'm making this one of my rules isn't just because of the choice I made on my birthday five years ago. Its because of the new responsibility at work that we have. All tobacco products are at the service desk, and now all of the pressure is on myself and my co-workers to proof anyone that look under 30. Cause if we don't and we get "stung"(err...I mean if we fail) from a police sting, we would end up getting stung...err I mean fired from our jobs. Not only that but we could get arrested and fined. So I'm not to thrilled about wearing handcuffs, because they are NOT accessories. So I have to remember to ALWAYS go with my gut no matter what. Customers can say they are old enough, they can try and say there expired I.D. is still valid, they can even yell at me (let it out), but the one thing they aren't going to do is make me risk my job for some lame addiction that will eventually be the end of them. Friend, Foe, or co-worker, I'm not going to jail for you.

Always go with your gut!