Horst Schulze, born in 1939 Stuttgart amid WWII chaos, shaped his career by his mother’s positivity and mentor’s "excellence" philosophy, revolutionizing Ritz-Carlton with purpose-driven service—empowering staff to resolve guest issues up to $2,000 while maintaining 92% satisfaction. His 50-year management contracts, earning 3% of $2B peak revenue, prioritized human connection over automation, but post-departure decline (from #1 to #26) and a Fort Lauderdale room reassignment scandal left him disillusioned. Schulze insists true hospitality—rooted in Saint Benedict’s principles—requires uncompromising standards, fearing America’s erosion of Judeo-Christian values fragments societal purpose. [Automatically generated summary]
And they live in a situation where human beings shouldn't live.
My father joined the Nazi party because he had to always work.
And my grandfather was a unique character.
Said if our son died, he will die too.
So living in that environment impacts your life in a big way as a kid.
No doubt.
I will never go to that Ritz Carlton and Fort Lauderdale ever again.
You understand?
I cannot compromise that.
You understand?
I'm getting upset.
I said, there is no way this is horse's standard.
And Daniel said, and don't come to work tomorrow.
Come here to create excellence.
Now, I didn't get that.
You were number one when you guys left.
Oh, sure.
They dropped from one to 26, and Capella's number one.
Yeah.
No, I insisted.
Wherever we are, we're number one.
Period.
And the general manager said, will you accept that?
What's your superpower?
relentless here's a promise i'll make you By the time you're done watching this interview with the founder of Ritz Carlton, your life will change.
I'm telling you right now, it's a big promise.
And I don't normally open up an interview saying this.
This was one of my favorite interviews I've ever done in my life with an 87-year-old man that was born in Nazi Germany in 39.
His father was in the military.
His father was a Nazi.
His mother hated the Nazis.
And all he talked about was love and respect.
And how this boy from this city in Germany grows up, goes into the hospitality business, eventually starts Ritz Carlton later on, the only business ever to get two awards from the government for the best service in the world.
That what came with that honor was the fact that you had to let any company come to your company to learn customer service.
And guess one of the guys that showed up?
Steve Jabs showed up and said, how can we make Apple's customer service better in the early 90s?
The meetings he had, the people he served over the years, the philosophies.
I asked him a question.
I said, tell me about the managers you manage.
He said, I had 65 managers.
I said, of the 65 managers, how many were leaders?
How many were managers?
Five leaders, 60 were managers.
I said, give me the best one that you had.
What did they do?
He gave three principles of what this guy did, breaking it down.
Here's what made this guy a better executive.
Here's what made him a better leader.
How do you deal with confrontation?
How do you deal with issues?
The answer is going to shock you.
And for us, we've had Ritz come here and train us in this exact room with all of our executives.
And then I shared an experience we had with a local Ritz Carlton and Fort Lauderdale.
And I asked him, I said, so how has Ritz's customer service been since you left?
I think in early 2000, 2002.
And his answer, he did not want to give the answer, but he eventually gave the answer.
And it was a shocking answer of what happens after the founder of Ritz left and what happened to their customer service.
At the time, they were number one.
And then what he did later on with the company called Capella.
And then while we're sitting here, he's talking about an email he got from a previous friend employee that went to Ritz Carlton.
He was in pain.
He got emotional talking about the fact that those standards are no longer there at Ritz.
Again, I can go on and on.
Married to his wife for I think almost 50 years, 47 years, raised four kids, broke down principles, values on personal life, all of that.
I can go on with a ton of stories, but I'll wrap it up with this one quote that he said from early, one of his mentors, which you have to see when he tells this story to you.
Please promise me you won't be a chair.
Please promise me you won't be a chair.
The amount of money he's made.
He's met people from Onassis back in the days.
Remember, this man's been around for 87 years.
To many of the recent presidents, all the presidents that we've had.
And at 17 and a half years old, his first manager told him, Promise me you won't be a chair.
Meaning one day when you become successful, you won't be somebody that just sits out there telling people what to do.
And he kept that promise.
Your life is about to change by the time you're done watching this interview with the one and only founder of Ritz, Horst Schultz.
Enjoy this interview.
Did you ever think you were made your way?
Know this life meal for me.
Adam, what you hear?
The future looks bright.
Handshake is better than anything I ever saw.
It's right here.
You are a one-off.
I don't think I've ever said this before.
That's a simple decision to make, in my opinion.
I agree with you.
And by the way, Horst, you need to know this.
I've been following your work for many years.
We read the book.
We see the work that you've done over the years.
We brought in October of 2024 a Ritz trainer to teach on standards of excellence in this room.
We took all our executives, all our managers for a full day.
She did a great job on the training on what you guys stand for, questions to ask.
And, you know, I've been a customer of yours for decades, going to Ritz-Carlton all over the world.
And to sit with the guy that came up with the ideas to talk to you, it's a pleasure.
It's great having you on the podcast.
Thank you.
Great to be with you.
Yes.
And in turn, I admire what you're doing.
Well, thank you.
I truly do.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So let's get right into it.
War Stories from Stuttgart00:15:39
I'm looking at it.
As I'm going through the story, I'm like, wait a minute.
He was born in 1939 in Stuttgart, Germany.
Wasn't Stuttgart, but was Stuttgart.
I'm not a Stuttgart in the wine area, you know, where apparently it's right next to the Luxembourg in France on that area where it's a perfect market to create wine.
So to go from there to where you are today, I want to first go into the story, how everything got started.
When you were born, what was Germany going through?
Start of the war.
Beginning of the war, 39.
In fact, my father was drafted late 39 and came back in between, but left permanently, if you will, in 41.
I got to know him.
I got to meet him the next time when I was seven.
So you meet your father for first time at seven years old?
Consciously met him.
I mean, I get that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, in fact, I was playing with another kid in the mud heap somewhere when in the village.
I live in a village.
Somebody came running, go home, your dad came home.
Go home, your dad came home.
So I ran down the street, go home, was a couple hundred yards, run there, and there was bunches of people assembled already.
Every neighbor, everybody in town.
That was the news when the guy came back from prison camp.
And he just came back and I went through the muscle.
I knew it was him.
This is a guy with a tattered uniform and everybody else wasn't.
So I got in and I looked at him and I said that and then he knew who I was.
What was that reaction?
Oh, well, shock and moment and people crying and so on.
That is what you remember, the extremes you remember in the moment.
Do you remember that day till today?
Oh, yeah, sure.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
That's pretty wild.
No kidding.
Yeah.
I mean, I was born in Iran in 78.
So when the revolution happened and we left in 89.
So living in that environment impacts your life in a big way as a kid.
No doubt.
What did it do to you?
Well, I don't exactly understand because I was there and with 11 years old and somehow that must have all have an impact.
With 11 years, I went to my parents and said, I want to go to work.
I want to work in a hotel.
At 11 years old.
Yeah.
And there was no hotel in the village, never been in a hotel, had never been in a restaurant.
So how do you know this?
Are you watching a movie?
Are you reading books?
Everybody is wondering, I must have read something exactly.
My mother never forgave me because, never forgave herself, because she then inquired, how are we going to do that?
When I kept on begging and begging and crying.
And so somebody said, well, he should start in a very good hotel.
So they look, what's the best hotel?
Unfortunately, it was over 100 kilometers away.
So at 14, I actually left, lived in a dorm room in that hotel.
And all that was an impact of the environment, where that came from.
And then we sat down often with my parents and tried to analyze it.
There was no real answer.
No movie, no book, no person, no teacher.
No, we didn't at the time.
I know what I'm trying to find out, but how do you, because I read somewhere as well that you said as early as four years old, you knew you wanted to be in the hotel business?
No, no, it was 11.
11 years old?
Okay, yeah.
So when I read this, Rob, where was it we read that said as early as four years old?
I said, four years old, for him to know at four years old.
How does that happen?
No, no.
What was it like?
Maybe, you know, because today when we read about it, 39, Germany goes to war in September.
I think you're born April 25th.
So five months.
January 10th.
January 10th.
Okay, so you're born January 10th?
Yeah.
Okay, so January, online says April 25th, by the way.
And now you're pretty private with your, so January 10th you're born.
Few months later, the country goes to war.
What is the conditions like where you're living?
I know, of course, you don't remember that at that age.
Yes, you do, because there were such extremes.
Pretty soon we went to sleep in the cellar.
We broke the cellar wall in, so in case the house would collapse, we could go into the next neighbor and so on and so on.
They were all connected.
My father joined the Nazi party because he had to was work.
My mother was a major negative.
And let me give you a story that is hard to believe.
My father, we didn't hear from him.
My parents didn't hear from him.
But my grandfather, who hated Nazis, every morning came to my house.
He lived in a different house at 7 a.m. took the axe that was there from the wood shopping plat and stayed behind the door and looked through the slot in the door, all wooden door.
Because the chief Nazi went to work that morning.
When he went to work, he told, stopped in the families where the sun had fallen and informed them.
And my grandfather was a unique character, said, if our son died, he will die too.
When he comes in here to report, he's going to die.
So you think you don't know that as a kid?
Opa is coming to take the axe.
That was the normal daily routine.
So you can't help but remember those things, you know.
Or when there was the message that Hitler had been killed for a moment in the radio, my mother was in a grocery store buying grocery when it came.
The Führer has been killed.
For a moment, that was out, and of course that changed a few minutes later.
And my mother said, God said, thank God.
It's time.
She was arrested the next day.
Stop it.
Just for a day because her uncle was a Nazi.
So that's what life was.
There was nothing.
But what was there at the same time, everything was still continued, still had something to eat.
There still was kindergarten, even though when you had to write, walked into kindergarten, you had to greet the Hitler at the painting of Hitler.
But it was all functioning somewhat.
It's right after the war when nothing was functioning anymore.
There was a total breakdown because there was no control, there was nothing there.
The interesting thing at the time, the Allies decided nobody who was a Nazi could work in a leadership role.
Well, everybody who was in a leadership role, if you were running a water fund, you had to be a Nazi.
You had to be a Nazi.
Otherwise, so who do you put into these roles now?
It was Patton, in fact, who said, no, we are not going to do that.
We have to put the people back and understand the job.
I mean, that's how there was a total breakdown.
There was no school.
There was no transportation.
There was nothing after the war, right after the war.
So that was, and of course, those created such extreme moments that you do remember, no doubt.
Yeah, you see the inflation.
There were some reports I saw that the price of bread could double every two hours, every four hours.
Some weird stories that you would read about.
So do you remember the day it was announced that Hitler died?
No, I don't remember.
No, I only knew my mother was in trouble.
She got arrested.
And this was even the right one.
This is a day that she thought he died, that he didn't have it.
For the moment, for the moment, it was announced.
Staufer, who tried to kill him, thought he was dead.
He announced and was open.
That's how everybody was exposed because they got a message he died.
Consequently, everybody that was part of the plot, 20,000, exposed themselves, talked over in various towns, and were killed afterwards.
That's how they knew they were all involved.
That huge plot, yeah.
20,000.
Yeah.
How do you, because when I'm seeing you speak, or I watch your interviews, or I sit down with you right now, or you're coming up to me, read this book, I'm going to help you change your life.
You're a very positive figure, right?
Your intensity, your energy.
You've been married for many years.
You're a man of faith.
You know, you speak in a very eloquent way.
Even at that moment, were you staying positive?
Was it your mom that helped you be positive?
My mom, my mom.
How would your mom make you positive?
Very positive about life, about everything.
In Germany at the time.
And in Germany at the time.
For her.
For example, also, my dad, who we didn't hear from for over a year because his group was behind the lines in Russia.
So you didn't hear anything for about over a year.
And we didn't know if he was alive or dead.
He was alive in our house.
My mother said, oh, that's a good job.
I would tell dad.
Or don't do that.
Your dad won't like that.
So he was constantly alive there.
And she kept him in the house.
And it was nearly like he was there, you know.
Wow.
So that was, and it's interesting, that's how mothers are.
That's a mother.
I mean, I told you when I finally she took me to this job, which was far away from home.
She knew I was very homesick.
But I wanted to be there.
But she wrote me a letter every day.
If I didn't have one today, I had two tomorrow.
Help me through.
What an amazing mother.
What a great story.
It speaks about mothers, you know.
Unbelievable.
So she was the reason why you became positive.
So you leave at 14.
By the way, how many kids were you guys?
How big was the family?
I had a brother that was 80 years older.
He had left already.
So he was in the military?
No.
No, he was studying and working.
He started studying and working.
So you were by yourself living with mom before you left at 14 years old?
That's correct, yeah.
Okay.
But my father was there in the meantime.
When I was 14, he came back when I was seven.
So from seven to fourteen, your father was there.
What influence did your father have on you?
Well, very, very high-demand person.
Work hard, do everything right, everything with values.
I read the Bornhofer book where Metaxa says, tells about Bornhovers, which was a very rich family sitting around a table and the attitude was, don't talk unless you have something important to say.
This was true in a very rich family.
That was also true in a very poor family in our house.
Sit down, eat, do everything right.
Wow.
Don't do it unless it's unrighteous.
Is that a German thing?
I guess so, but it's a Schulze thing.
Believe me, it was in our house.
How German it is.
I don't know.
Got it.
Yeah, Bonhoeffer is an amazing story.
My pastor, Dudley Rutherford, bought me a book 20 years ago, 18 years ago, to read on Bonhoeffer, an incredible story on what he went through.
But going back to it, so dad was order, structure, system.
Mom was attitude, positivity.
Everything didn't work itself.
Love.
Love?
Love.
From mom.
Oh, totally.
How did she show it?
By telling, by hugging, by holding, by saying, I love you.
I don't think there was a day where I wasn't told 10 times that she loves me.
And that, of course, plays a role too.
I can see that that's how I am today with my wife or with my children.
Same way?
Oh, yeah, very much so.
Are you more like your dad or your mom?
My mom.
More like your mom?
My mom, yeah.
But in my intensity of doing things, I'm a dad.
You're your dad?
Yeah.
At 14, when you left to go to the apprenticeship, and how long are you away?
Are you coming back home?
Are you seeing the family?
What is that process?
Every three, four months.
Every three or four months, you're seeing them.
Yeah.
And this place you went to, where was it?
What did they teach you?
Oh, well, it was.
My mother took me there.
And the first thing I meet is the general manager of the hotel.
Now, in Germany, the general manager was a god, understand.
And he told me, he spoke to us for two minutes.
And the only message was, now, you are here to study and learn how to become a servant to very important ladies and gentlemen, our guest.
That's what I wanted.
That's why I went there.
That was my dream, to live in a beautiful surrounding and serve wonderful people, known people.
But the next person was the head waiter of the hotel, the major D, the head waiter, whom I actually would work for.
And he changed my life at two sentences.
Totally.
Now, mind you, I was 14.
I didn't know it in the moment.
But he lifts those two sentences.
And it was overwhelming.
When you're 14, you're being formed still.
Sure.
And he said at the time, the first thing he said, now, young man, tomorrow show up at 7 a.m.
If I meant one minute after 7, I would tell you so.
Now, it translated in, I left.
I could see when we say something, we do it correctly.
And we mean it.
And we do everything right here.
And then he said, and don't come to work tomorrow.
Come here to create excellence.
Now, I didn't get that.
That went right over my head.
I said, wait a minute.
Do you have to do something else than I thought?
I thought I would have to wash dishes, clean floors, and so on.
Yes, I did.
That comes with it.
Got it.
So what was the sentence?
Come here to work with excellence?
Here, don't come to work, come here to create excellence, to create excellence.
And how long did he stay as your mentor?
How many years?
Three and a half years, three and a half years.
He worked under it yeah, and he and he formed my life and everyone when he, when he said create excellence he, he meant, don't come here to fulfill a function, come here for a high intent.
Your function and and and i'm sellers about that today I wouldn't hire people to fulfill a function.
I hire them for purpose, for high intent.
He, for example, he made it very clear, our function may be to bring and serve food and beverage.
Our intent is to instill well-being in people, so that for my life, I don't do anything without purpose, and and I, I think you're not.
In fact I, I make it very, very clear, and I use the same phrase that he did, the chairs on which you sit are fulfilling a function.
You're a human being.
You don't fulfill a function without purpose and and I find it even immoral that we, as companies, hire people to fulfill a function rather than to join us in our vision and our purpose, on a vision, a mission, a purpose, something bigger than us purpose.
That's right.
So you?
You picked that up from him.
Adenauer's Discipline00:08:58
Did you spend a lot of time with that general manager or not that much?
You were more spending time.
The general manager was the guy.
Once in a while he passed by and said, good morning, how serious was he?
Was he a?
Was that a very common thing in Germany?
Super serious, super disciplined, were those the qualities?
Absolutely, I lived in Germany for a year and a half absolutely, in Erlangen.
I was in Erlangen, right outside of Nuremberg, yeah and uh, it was in 1989 to 1990 and I went to school for two years.
You know it was a very you know military, like Achtung.
You know it was a very you know be ready for it.
Sure it was a different intensity.
You got from them absolutely.
Yeah, even right now where our son plays soccer and we have an option to send him two different places, to Germany or to Spain, all the coaches are sending.
Germany is more disciplined, Spain he'll learn the game but have fun.
But Germany is very much.
You better get your act together yes, so what happens after that?
So what happens?
You're there for three and a half years.
What do you do next and next I?
It was pretty common and and also recommended again from that head waiter to work seasons in various great hotels in Europe.
So I went out and worked in in Bern, in the Bellwork Palace, Creator create one of the great hotels of the world.
In Lusan in the Borwash Palace.
I worked all in the America line for for eight months.
I worked in Paris I stayed there two and a half years in the Plaza Artenay, which was one of the great hotels in the world worked, worked in a Savoy in London and in the Savoy, as I worked as a waiter, a guest said, you're a great waiter, do you want to come to America?
And I said, sure.
Now, if he would have said Zimbabwe, I would have said, sure too, you just wanted to leave.
I want an opportunity.
Yeah, how old are you at that?
Capture The World?
At that time I was 23 23 okay, capture the world, sure be and see the world, capture the world learn, learn new things.
So he said, all right, give me your name, I will send you papers.
We are opening a new hotel in Houston and once you get the papers, go to the, to the embassy.
And that's what I did, and in the embassy.
So they at that time immigrant, at that time me, I went through a physical, careful physical.
I went to an oral test.
I went to a written test yes, and in the evening they gave me, And the evening they gave me some papers and asked me, when will you go to America?
And I said, when I get my papers.
And he said, you have them in your hand.
And then I took the ship on which I had worked as a passenger.
Stop it.
Yeah.
So you go with the ship to the States.
Yeah.
Oh, at the time, there were no planes at the time.
Right, makes sense.
Basically.
Makes sense.
I keep forgetting, you're born in 39.
Yeah.
Times are different when you're born in 39.
It's a very different world.
When was the first time?
I remember you said when you first started working at the hotel, you're like, I wanted to work in luxury.
I'm going to meet people.
I'm going to meet these interesting people, powerful people.
Who was the first person you met that was a celebrity that you recognized?
Oh, my God.
A very famous Seppan, who was a very famous soccer player before that.
Sepan.
Yeah, that was more important than, oh, I met all the politicians of the time.
If that was Adenauer or Hausen, so at the time, everybody was there.
That was the hotel where you were, was that one?
And the channel manager was right.
The guests sitting there, all of them were important.
That was the place to be.
And there was at the same time a spa hotel and so on.
So when I met Seppan, that was meeting a great famous soccer player was more important than meeting all the others.
Of course, politicians, the leaders.
Later, for example, I worked in the late 50s, 60s in Paris.
You name it, if it was Soria at the time, or Chris Kelly, or Gary Cooper.
I served them all.
Chris Kelly.
Chris Kelly, absolutely.
Did you ever serve Onasis?
Oh, yeah, sure.
I served them all.
The big gum and so on.
Those were the guests.
What did you notice?
Was there a pattern which you noticed with this life of the rich and famous?
What patterns did you notice?
Well, the pattern was that we who served them didn't really exist.
Got it.
Was that the mindset or was that the reality?
That was the reality because they were so used to it.
We were just there.
But that was okay with me.
I had no problem with that.
Interesting.
Got it.
Because at that time, you're not yet Horace Cholzi.
You're just a young man working there.
I just, and I wanted to, and I knew that when I was dreaming about it, and that I was taking care of very important people.
And one of the other recognizes you.
And I had an experience when I worked the first day I worked actually in the restaurant where I started.
There were a couple sitting there.
And they saw, of course, my beginning that my knees were shaking and so on.
And the gentleman told me, oh, come here, you're doing a great job, and gave me five mark, which was a huge amount of tip at the time.
This is what year?
That was 1954.
Okay.
That was a huge amount of money.
But the encouragement of that moment was traumatic.
Unbelievable.
Just to see that somebody is encouraging you, even though you think you're nervous.
Was he somebody or was he just a businessman?
I had no idea.
You had no idea who it was.
It wasn't a famous person.
No, no.
Was there any famous person that was super complimentary that left an impression on you when you were younger?
Who was the kindest to you?
Well, probably because we're told, so I'm not quite sure.
It was Conrad Adenauer, who was a guest several times there, always with others, and of course security around them.
But he looked at you and said, good morning.
He looked at you.
Got it.
And he didn't just pass you by.
You existed.
You actually felt that you existed.
Interesting.
And I found that very encouraging too.
And so we all liked him for this very nothing that he looked at and said, recognized us.
But a huge change in that moment, that particular job too, again with that major D. Typical charm, you learn this work.
Once a week you go to a school of your trade, in this case hotel school, where all the kids from the area came.
And after two years there, the teacher asked us to write an SA, what we now think about our business.
Going back to work that night, I was cleaning a table and I watched a major D, that major D, approaching a very important table.
But they were all important.
And in that moment, I realized, I had seen it before, but I never realized it.
The guests on the table were proud that he came to them.
He was a very tall man.
He worked in tails and he worked fantastic.
And I thought, wait a minute, this is a reversal.
Why are they, we are here, we are the servants.
And I thought about that.
I had to write an SA that night for that school.
And I thought about it.
I wrote the SA.
And for the first time in my life, I came to the realization, which kind of formed my life too.
The reason those guests were proud that he came to them, because he had defined himself as a first-class gentleman.
And I realized, wait a second, I can define myself, even if I was a dishwasher all my life.
I don't have to be a bum.
I still can define myself as a first-class gentleman.
How does one do that?
By respecting others, by being honorable, by not going against authority, if you will, by coming to work five minutes early and say maybe five minutes late, later, and say, I respect what I'm doing here, by saying good morning to your boss and not ignore, not hate him, but be thankful that he exists, because otherwise I wouldn't have a job.
So I still can define myself and do everything I do a little better than anybody else.
As simple as it is, I suppose.
It's that simple.
Don't complain about business.
Defining Yourself00:03:40
It's ludicrous.
When I started Ritz Carlton, I only took the job.
Remember, I had a great job.
I had golden handcuffs.
I had everything.
In fact, people may heard that work with me.
I was a young star in that company in Hired at the time, in charge of 65 hotels in the United States, food beverage operations and so on.
And I left for a dream, for a purpose, to create the finest hotel company in the world.
Because they told me you can do what you want, basically operationally.
And I went there for that purpose.
But I had to ask myself, is that purpose good for all concerned?
First of all, is it good for the owners?
Because believe it or not, friends, you won't have a job without some owner.
That was clear to me.
Number two, is it good for every employee?
It wouldn't be good for the employee.
It wouldn't be good for the owner because we wouldn't have a job.
Is it good for every customer?
Is it good for society as a whole?
And I question myself, would God approve?
Once I have this, can answer that clearly as yes, I cannot compromise it anymore.
And now I have to find myself as the person who can do it.
It is not a matter of just having a vision.
That vision has to be of value to all concerned.
That makes sense.
When you got that call at 23 to go to Houston, was that Hilton or was that Hyatt?
It was Hotel Corporation of America, which became Sonesta later.
Okay.
And so I went to Houston.
Frankly, I didn't stay long, very short, because I was totally new, and when you have cultural beliefs, they are sometimes very stupid.
And the first day there, first of all, I lived in Hawaii and no air condition and I got there late June.
I've never experienced heat like that.
And in Houston in Houston and next door I worked, and the first day I worked as a waiter.
Actually, I was there a few days and first I worked as a waiter.
I had an order of fish order and I looked, where are the fish knives and the fish forks?
I had worked in the finest hotels in the world my new and and they said, what is that?
And I came to the conclusion, I'm working for Barbarians.
No fish knives, no fish fork cannot be and I live, and they live in a situation where human beings shouldn't live with this heat.
I thought I didn't know that was air condition and Houston is pretty hot.
If you're coming from Europe, you better believe it.
Yes, my wife's from Houston, it's very hot.
So I called a friend of mine who worked in San Francisco in a as a waiter in a French restaurant and I said, I'm going back.
This, this is this is their barbarians deserve fish without.
How ridiculous can you be?
That shows you how silly we sometimes have beliefs, our beliefs that we set because the the culture is.
It is sometimes very silly.
We have to look into it.
So I left there, took the bus to to San Francisco, worked in San Francisco, started in a restaurant, but then I worked back in the hotel because I wanted hotels and worked for Hilton and afterwards joined Hyatt.
Chicago Chandelier Decision00:14:17
How long were you at Hilton with Hilton?
I was not long there, but then I went to the CLUB and back to Hilton.
I was with Hilton for nearly four years.
Four years, yeah.
What did you learn at Hilton that you took on with your courier?
Well, process of manage, of of what you do, or the organization organ, because I worked for a while in catering selling, how you, how you organize, sell and so on.
So I I learned, but not traditional service, because we have kind of all forgotten what is table etiquette and so on.
I learned it when I was a kid.
Believe me, that made a deal.
Everything had to be 100% correct, but in Hilton it was working and systems.
I realized that every, every effort has to have a process.
Started learning that.
And then I joined Hyatt.
Is Hyatt where you became, where you made a name for yourself?
Yeah.
Because Hyatt's, is Hyatt where you wrote your first book or was it at Hilton?
No, no, I read that after, basically after I retired, after the book was written, I became quite good friend with Stephen Covey.
And Stephen was urging me to write a book about what we had accomplished with Ritz Carlton.
So this is post-Hyatt?
Yes.
This is at Ritz when you met Stephen Covey and he said, write a book.
Yeah.
Got it.
Okay.
And he told me, and I didn't do it.
And he kept on telling me.
And then one day I was driving home and he called me and I answered Father is Stephen.
That's how he talked.
I'm disappointed, so disappointed in you.
He's telling you this.
Yeah.
I said, why, Stephen?
You have still not written your own people, your own people to write your book.
Promise me you will.
And I promise you.
A few months later, he died.
And that's when he died, I was so, and he always said, I want to be the one who writes you forward.
And he died.
And I said, Stephen, I write a book for you now.
Wow.
Well, I mean, he wrote a book that sold, I don't know how many copies.
Changed me.
Oh, yeah.
Impacted me.
Yeah.
Life-changing.
Oh, no question.
Seven habits, and then he wrote eight habits, right?
He wrote a book called Eight Habitability.
Yeah, Family Habit.
Yeah.
One of a kind.
He was very unique.
Unique.
Very unique.
So, okay, so walk me through when you're at Hyatt, you're making a name for yourself.
Ritz comes and recruits you, and you take your opportunities to risk.
What happened there?
First, I would like to say that because I would like to impact young people in the conversation.
When you come to my age, you want to impact you.
Sure, yeah.
When I worked for Hyatt, I was food and beverage director.
That means I was in charge of the food and beverage operation of the hotel in Chicago.
A year and a half later, I got a call from Mr. Front, who was the president of Hyatt at the time, and said, Host, sit down.
We have something wonderful for you.
You have done a great job with your European flair and all those things.
We have what is maybe the best hotel in the company, and you're going to be general manager.
This is a moment, a dream moment, the impossible moment, the moment that you will never accomplish but dream from.
And here he said, You're the general manager of the finest hotel we have.
And I said, I won't take it.
And he said, You're not leaving the company.
I said, No, I'm not leaving the company because I want to be rooms manager first.
I never was rooms manager.
Stop it.
Yeah.
And he said, We're giving you rooms manager.
And I said, Yes, but I cannot be the best general manager in the company unless I have been rooms manager.
Wow, what a message.
And he said, I'm coming.
He was in San Francisco.
I'm coming to Chicago and talk to you.
You're leaving the company.
I said, no.
He came and said, no, I want to be rooms manager.
He said, we have the finest hotel for you.
I said, make me rooms manager.
Give me the worst hotel.
A year later, he called me.
He made me rooms manager.
A year later, he called me and said, remember what you said?
Yeah, I want to be rooms manager.
He said, no, no.
You said you want to have the worst hotel.
We got it.
And I got Pittsburgh, which was a dump.
A real dump.
What year is this?
That is 1974.
So I moved to Pittsburgh.
And two and a half years later I was promoted to a larger hotel in Detroit.
And a year later I was promoted to regional vice president over 10 hotels.
And two years later I was promoted to corporate vice president and to Chicago.
And that wasn't good because when you're corporate vice president, you're one of a bunch of bumps.
They're all vice presidents.
If you're regional, you're the king in your region, you know, but still, still, it was a promotion.
And so I moved to Chicago at the time.
And then I got that call after I was there for nearly three years.
To be called that there is a job.
What they said, we are building two hotels, a holiday inn, but we cannot come to agreement.
We want somebody recommended that we create our own brand.
And you were recommended to run that brand.
Who recommended you?
Somebody I had that had worked in a vice president who used to be, had worked in Hyatt.
At Hyatt.
Yeah.
If you would have stayed with Hyatt, who would you have become?
Probably CEO.
You would have become the CEO of the company.
If you would have stayed with Hyatt.
That was the trajectory.
Everybody knows.
That was the trajectory.
Okay, it was obvious.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Okay.
So why take this position, this opportunity that comes along?
It's because at one word you said, when I asked them what would you do with your hotels, and they said, operation, that would be up to you.
And I started dreaming.
And I saw a purpose.
And it started to control me.
And I said to my wife, I will make this the best hotel company in the world.
If they let me really, operation do what I want to do.
I saw because the leaders, mind you, there were individual hotels that were different, but the leaders of company leaders in hotel business was hired.
Hilton International, Western, and so on, Intercontinental.
And they were basically all doing the same thing.
And I thought I wouldn't compete with them.
I just would go over them and pull the best out of them.
And mix a little bit more.
Do not get away from the relaxed service element of America, but put a little bit more elegance and customer attention into it.
And it seemed to me when I listened to other companies, not hotel companies, there seems to be a lack of understanding that it's all about human beings.
There are two groups of human beings when you're in business.
The one group is your customer.
The other group is your employees.
So how do you...
And both groups have emotions, thoughts, wishes, dreams.
Yet they're not taken into account by those that run companies.
I have to take account.
I have to know what is my customer's expectation from my product.
What would they expect from me?
And then I have to know, as a good manager, I have to create processes, system, and controls so I deliver the expectation of the customer, hopefully superior to my competition.
But it only can be superior if I'm also a leader, not just a manager, and lead my people to want to do that.
This can only be done if my people are working for the same purpose.
There's purpose.
And I still believe, I said that again.
It's not a job that's the biggest gift a company can give you.
The biggest thing a company can't give you is purpose.
Purpose and belonging.
You felt you didn't have that at Hyatt?
I felt that wasn't managed well.
We still just hired people and then sometimes decided that employee is not good.
Wait a minute.
If that employee is not good, why did I hire him?
It's leadership.
Either I selected the right employee or I oriented wrong or I trained wrong or I have the wrong work environment.
So it's not the employee, it's me.
And that acceptance wasn't maybe there in some people, but it wasn't organized.
And I knew if I organized my selection, my orientation, my training, and my sustaining the knowledge to create the right work environment, I could beat anybody.
I still believe that.
Sorry.
Sorry, anybody.
Everybody thinks I'm very arrogant now.
I think I could take any company in the world, make it the best company in the world.
And you still believe that today?
Yes, absolutely.
Based on what premise?
Based on the premise that I would offer purpose, that I would be very careful in selecting employees and not just hire people.
Come on.
People are not selected.
They're hired.
I would orient them to the job.
I opened every single Ritz Garden hotel and every Capella hotel myself.
I didn't go there to drink champagne.
Well, I did a little bit too.
But I went there to orient the employees as to who we are and welcome them and role play to them how we deal with customers and train them.
So I was connected to the, so I'm not sure.
But what did I train?
I trained what I knew the customer wanted, not what I want.
Not what I want.
Come on, I have been on a board with many boards and more CEOs, or nearly all, full of egos, full of emotion, full of insecurities, like we are as human beings, but has no respect that the employees and the customer has the same thing.
What does a customer really want from you?
What do they really want?
I spoke to classic hotels of America not long ago.
And before me was a speaker who said, everything is new.
Forget everything.
Everything is technology.
Technology, everything is new.
20 times, forget all you knew.
If you're not in technology today, you are lost.
I was the next speaker.
And I said, nothing is new.
Because you see, 5,000 years ago, human beings wanted to be respected.
And this was true this morning and windagor tomorrow and in 5,000 years from now.
And if my technology helps you, my customer, to tell you that I respect you and at the same time care for you and do my best for you, that's what it's all about.
It's caring.
And guess what?
There are studies, an American consumer study that's not very old, where 80% of consumers say, I deal with you if you care for me.
Even if I could buy the same product next door for less.
So on the end, an organization's the respect for an organization is how I care for people.
And that because that creates trust.
People talk about loyal customers.
Well, what is a loyal customer?
A loyal customer is somebody who trusts you.
They're not trusting you because of the product.
They're trusting you because how you treated them, that you respected them.
And that seems to be not understood.
People work on the product and they do their best and they work hard.
But I have to work on making sure that my customer knows I respect them.
So, you know, when you think about three things, product, service, price, in your eyes, in order, what would you put first?
Product, service, price.
Service.
Service first, what's second?
Product.
Product.
No, price is last.
Because if you can get the first two, they'll pay anything for you.
If I get the first, I get more.
Listen, Good Housekeeping was a magazine that developed value or product.
They voted us in Ritz Carlton in the early years as best value.
We were the most expensive, but we were the best value.
Wow.
That's the point.
That's what I have.
And the best value.
Look, in our first hotel, I never forget it because it even shocked me.
We put a chandelier up as we were finishing it up in the elevator for you.
This chandelier went up and I realized there's a $28,000 chandelier hanging there.
No guest ever commented on this darn chandelier.
Individualization Matters00:09:28
Nor did I do on the $200,000 Oriental rug, nor on all the marble.
We bought whole mountains in Italy.
Nobody commented, but they commented how we respected them, how we treated them, how we were friendly, how we responded, that we cared.
So could you have gotten away with a $800 rug and a $600 chandelier?
You think you could have gotten away with it?
Yeah, yeah.
Look at that.
That was last year.
Because I see your Capella Hotel, your Capella Hotels that you build.
It's not chandeliers.
Oh, yeah, it's still marble.
It's beautiful, yeah.
Oh, absolutely.
Oh, absolutely.
But the key thing that we did, Capella, only 100 rooms, so I can individualize service.
I couldn't individually service in a 600-room Ritz Carter because I had 450 check-ins today, 500 check-out.
But in a 100-room Capella with only individual and not conventions, I can call you before you come and say, we are coming to Singapore.
What can I do for you?
It's all about you.
As long as it's more legal and ethical, I'll do it.
There's no check-in time and check-out time.
We will have a room for you when you arrive.
You see, it works.
We figured out how that works.
I saw you explained somewhere where you said at Ritz, customer would be unhappy if check-in took more than four minutes, right?
At Capella, you brought it down to 20 seconds.
Yes, in fact, that's the change of the human being.
We knew after four minutes they will get angry.
Today it's 20 seconds.
The timeliness, we better know that as businesses, timeliness expectations have become dramatic.
True.
Including responses to emails or so on.
And we better know that there are two things that are greatly different.
And that is timeliness and individualization.
The millennials say do it my way.
Well, there you are again.
What business has ever met a study what the millennials really want?
Shouldn't we, if we have a business, shouldn't I know what my new customer's expectation is from me?
And one thing, expectation in millennial is do it my way.
Individualize to me.
The difference between look, if I would go to a McDonald, I would say, I take a number one.
The millennial says a number one, but not to make the two slice of pickles, individualization.
And if I run any business, I have to understand that there is individualization is expected.
Was that not the case before, or that was always so, much less?
Much less so four years ago.
Much less.
Really?
So you just expect that whatever you sold, I accept it as a customer.
That's it.
Yeah.
So how do you so?
So, so how do you differentiate between the speaker that came before you where he says, new new, new.
What is ever, what principles are evergreen and what principles are changing?
What's changing that you have to adapt to?
The way it is done changes the way it is done and, of course, customers expectations will change.
I tell you a funny story on customer expectation.
When I opened the first RITZ carton, at that time the first plastic card keys came out, which today is norm.
Well, this was nearly unheard of.
They call them wing cards at the time and I said, since this is new, we do that.
You were the first.
I was very early.
This win, and it was.
It's a good security piece.
But our guest checked in and said, you're a luxury hotel, give me a plastic piece, wow.
So six months later we changed the locks, because that was this silly thing, was overwhelming to customer, that I would give them a plastic, wow.
So they saw it as cheap, not as a, you know.
But but wait a minute, three months, three years later they said, you give me a hard key.
That is very dangerous.
What if I lose and they come into my room?
So we change locks again.
Yes, you have to go with a customer, but on the end is how I do it.
It's how they feel what I'm doing.
In the end, I have to tell them I care for you by that action.
They don't know that I care.
I just responded, but by me saying friendly, instead of saying hi hey, saying good morning sir, how are you today, and tell you with my eyes, I am here for you, I respect you, amazing so.
So the question.
Now here's a question I got for you.
You go from keys to card to what is this?
I want a key back to key back to card.
Three years ago.
Question for you is, who do you listen to?
How do you know the right move is to go back to keys and the right move is to go back to cards, that's.
Is it the complaining customer?
Is it majority?
Is it employees?
What patterns makes you help?
Help you make that decision?
You don't listen to your mother-in-law.
That's a.
That's a study of one.
A complaint is also a study of one.
You make customer service thoroughly ongoing.
You have to understand what the market wants.
It's not the individual, and that's a.
That's a bad thing companies do, particularly entrepreneur owners, the billionaire owners.
His friend tells them, and then he comes and changes it all, because my friend told me that's a study of one that you just don't respond to.
You have to understand what the market as a whole wants.
How do you do that?
By making customer studies.
We, of course, it was easy, you know, tell we had a I had a customer analysis done for I knew every month in every hotel in the world what the customer satisfaction was, what the employment satisfaction is, what my economics are, and what my future indicators are.
That's the only thing I need to know.
The rest are delegate.
The rest are delegate.
But if the customer satisfaction intent to return was not there, we then could dig in why into the various studies.
And we analyzed if there are in every hotel the same trend.
Got it.
So we know what is there, we then tweak constantly.
You tweak that you keep on serving the customer the way the customer wants to be served.
Like what is AI doing right now to the hotel and hospitality business that some people are using that you'll say I'll never do?
And what is AI doing to the hospitality business that you love?
Well, I'm not there.
I mean, I'm generationally cannot quite accept it AI yet.
Oh, but I'm saying I work with a technical group and we are leader in the technology that has created for hotels.
That's Capella.
No, that is the hotel company.
I'm working with a group, KYC, that puts technologies into hotel so we know everything and we partially AI.
For instance, in AI, I can do everything, but what is happening because of the AI is nearly every brand, larger brand, is becoming a commodity now.
Means you check in with your iPhone, pretty soon that's what you do.
You check in, you call the elevator, you go into your room, you will check out and so on.
That means it is a commodity that offers shelters, sleep.
Hospitality cannot be replaced by AI.
I still have to have a human being.
I would still have, if I was running hotel, I would do that.
But I would have somebody on the front door that says, welcome, and walk to you to the elevator and say, I'm here for you.
You're respected here.
And not just the AI.
But it's driven, of course.
The company has to make an three-month report to Wall Street.
So I have those people staying in the front door.
But that's the end of hospitality.
But that's why small hotels who do it will be the leader of excellence.
Small hotels?
That do it, yeah.
Because they're able to control more of it?
They will control more often.
And they will be successful because of their hospitality and not just because of shelter.
So then scale is harder today the bigger the company is because you can maintain customer service.
You could if you're willing to spend the money for it.
But large companies don't because they're pushed by shareholders to make a little more profit.
Who's the bigger company today?
Like, you know, that you still look at and say, wow, good for them.
Big companies still maintaining customer service.
Roberts is pretty big, becoming big, but there's still attention.
Rosewood are still paying attention to customers somewhat.
But you see most big names that you know, and I will not repeat the names, are becoming commodities very fast.
Influence Through Behavior00:15:47
Do you, When you sold, when you stepped away from RITS, what year was that when you stepped away from RITS?
Well, I have finished my work with RITS in 2002.
2002.
Yeah.
And you went to RITS what year?
1974.
From 74 to 1937.
2004.
The lady that was here, she said something.
She said Ritz went from in 1991 having employee turnover at around mid-50% and then by the time it was done it was around low 20%.
That's the stats that she's given.
18%.
18%.
Right.
And the industry was 120%.
Right.
I mean, it's a 365, 24-7.
You guys are always open.
You're never closed.
What did you do to lower retention, increase retention as much as you did?
We touched on it.
We offered purpose.
Outside of that, though, outside of that, what else did you do?
In the selection, we were very careful.
We were very careful.
We had a selection system.
We were very careful.
And we established standards already during the interview.
Because, you know, people don't seem to get that.
Most what you want, all of us, from an employee, is the right behavior.
But behavioral analysts working with the University of Colorado and the University of Frankfurt on that, behavioral analysts will tell you behavior cannot be taught after somebody is 16 years old.
Wow.
Yeah.
How?
Unless, unless there's a significant emotional event in your life.
Makes sense.
And interviewing for a job is a significant emotional event.
And what do we do?
We just ask questions rather than establishing standards right there, behavioral standards.
And so Patrick, you know, we have an attitude in our hotel, in our company.
We really are petted about it.
We are very friendly to every guest.
In fact, within 10 feet, we look him in the eye and say, friendly, good morning.
Can you do that?
What will you say?
You will say yes.
Sure, yes.
Well, wait a minute, Patrick, I'm very serious about that.
You will say yes again.
I just established a new behavior in you for your benefit to be successful.
Timeliness, very important.
So I will start trying to start.
But I do that and then orientation, first day of work, which every company does wrong.
Period.
We didn't do that.
I went to the orientation.
I role-played how to say hello in front of every new hood, in every new hotel and every takeover.
I was the one.
Teach me.
How do I say hello?
And said, okay, so you're a guest.
Here's a guest coming.
Within 10 feet, 10 feet is the essential moment, but within 10 feet, they make a decision about you, us you make about them.
Society lies about those things.
You should look baloney.
We're human beings.
We cannot help it.
We make a decision about the other person.
So what decision do I want you to make about us, about me?
I want you to make a positive one.
That's why we wear the right uniform.
That's why we croom right.
And that's why we look them in the eye, no matter what we're doing.
With hand feet.
It's a non-negotiable.
That's what we do.
We look them in the eye and said, good morning, sir, or good morning, ma'am.
How are you today?
Now, watch me.
Good morning, sir.
Or good morning, ma'am.
How are you today?
Welcome.
And you're role-playing this with me.
I role-play that.
And I role-played how to talk to each other with other employees.
How do you do that?
Well, if I walk by, if I, we're working together and I walk, I want, I said, first of all, do you want a good work environment?
Yes.
Oh, yes.
So, okay, now Patrick, the people in the environment are responsible for the work environment.
So, I walked, I want to go to the work environment.
I walk by you and I say, good morning, Patrick, how are you today?
And you may just say, but tomorrow morning, I do it again.
And pretty soon you will say, good morning, horse.
How are you?
I'm responsible.
I am responsible for my work environment.
Have you heard me all?
And everybody will say yes in the room.
Orient, the day of orientation is a very significant day.
You see, we interview, I interview you.
I really want you.
The job is open.
But our orientation day is not for 10 days.
So I'm going to say, Patrick, I'm going to put you in the payroll, but you cannot show up.
You cannot.
But if you show up, you're paid for the next 10 days, but that's the day you start working.
Because I want you to have a significant emotional event when we do orientation.
Stop it.
Yeah.
So you hire me.
Yes.
You pay me those 10 days.
Yes.
And even the orientation is not in 10 days.
That's right.
Why are you doing that?
Because if I led you before without having the proper orientation, I didn't use the significant emotional event to teach you the right behavior.
And what is the right behavior you're trying to teach me to pay me 10 days at a time?
Well, I'm repeating the things that I told you during the interviewing process.
The orientation is a day when we teach you again.
Here is how we behave.
Here's how the guest is important.
Here's how we treat each other.
You are part of something.
Let me put it this way.
How are people being oriented?
I can tell you.
If you worked somewhere, I can tell you how you were oriented.
Everybody orients like that.
You come to work and the boss tells you the rules of the company.
Here's what we do and here's what we don't do.
And then you get a handbook with more rules.
And then you get insurance papers and all kinds of paper.
And you go through all this work.
And that's the day of orientation.
First day of work.
And when you finish with that, the boss makes his pathetic team speech.
We're a team here, yeah.
Without giving purpose.
A team is a group of people who work toward a common objective.
Sure.
Not given, just we're a team here.
And what's next?
Oh, now Bill, the new waiter, work with Fred.
He's here nine months and he knows the ropes.
Somehow you're in rope business here now.
You turn them over to Fred and on the way to the kitchen.
Fred tells Bill the new waiter this company is no good.
That is day of orientation.
Instead of the day orientation saying, here's who we are.
You're now part of us.
And here's how we he's our customers.
And we are happy when they're here.
We respect them.
Here's how we show them respect by saying welcome, by responding to them, by looking them in the eye, by caring for them.
That's our power.
Patrick, we have to give human beings purpose, but we have to at the same time tell them the motive of our purpose.
What did Adam Smith say?
Wait a minute, 300 years ago.
Wealth of Nations?
Yeah, but he wrote another book about the behavior of the human being and he said impossible that people can buy into orders and direction.
They can only buy into objective and motive.
And what we do, we give orders and direction.
Instead of giving purpose and motive.
That is The.
The millennials say, what's in it for me?
Well, tell them.
If we accomplish that, here's what you will make, have more opportunities, you will make more money, you will be respected, will be honored.
That's what's in it for me, for you, and that's why we have this beautiful purpose and that's why we come to work.
We do not come to work for the function.
We're not chairs.
How do you teach, um?
How do you teach and she talked about it here as well that day how do you teach employees to confront each other?
What is the format of confronting management to employees, employees to employees?
How do you teach me to do it?
Yeah well, first of all, turn it around.
We had in our pockets first class cards and everybody was encouraged to use that card.
If they see anybody doing something good, a fellow worker, write down first class and give it to them.
Or, when I walked on town, people gave me first class cards.
So that's the opposite.
That is, right away, establishing the environment that you're here to deal with your, with your, with your fellow workers in a positive mode.
And then what?
What happens?
The more first class cards I get?
Well no, you just collected a first.
I have 20 first class cards.
Are you recognized?
How do you recognize the person that got the most first class cards in a month?
Monthly, every department recommends an employee of the month.
That employee, all employee of the month, have a dinner.
One of them gets employee of the of the month total there for each department, but one gets for the hotel, got it?
There are 12 in a year.
That's once a month.
One of those 12 becomes employee of the year.
It becomes a vacation, paid vacation with it with a spouse, and cash paid vacation for spouse with spouse.
You find them a spouse or there's not a one.
You don't find them a spouse.
I don't think you're in that business.
That's a different business.
You don't want to say that you'll attract a lot of different customers.
Tell me they make a lot of money.
Make a lot of money.
Yeah, you can do like only Writs.
If you did like something called only writs, not only fans, it would be a different business model you'd be in.
Success is built on how you think.
Influence is built on how you show up.
Every detail matters, because presence speaks before you do.
This is modern style.
The future looks bright.
So look, let's say in this, so you, so I get first class cards, but still, because when you're talking about this, the reality of running a company is you're not hiring everybody, right?
You have direct reports, who have direct reports, and you have a chief hr officer that the interviews come through.
How are you teaching me to hire Writs type of people to the company?
What am I looking for?
You're not doing 100 the Interviews, how do you teach me?
Oh, well, because when you came in, we were taught, and everybody understands the very minimum.
Everybody goes through orientation, and managers go through special orientation.
I gave every manager a leadership session.
The way our teaching worked beautifully, because we were, mind you, we started with no hotel.
So, every hotel we had was either new or take over.
Got it.
So, you had an advantage.
I had an advantage.
I opened every hotel.
I got it.
I also knew all employees knew me.
It wasn't them.
What a point.
It wasn't them in the corporate office.
You have to overcome the them.
Because if I don't know you up there in my insecurity, I will blame you what is wrong up there.
Because if I don't make it, if I can't live up by the rules, it's your fault you have.
But they didn't knew me.
That's why the big thing that happened in Ritz Carlin is the empowerment piece, which was a nuclear explosion in all businesses.
When I said I empower every employee, they make a decision up to $2,000 if a guest has it.
But I could do that.
First of all, we did that very carefully.
I didn't just say it.
We taught.
I thought about it for a very long time.
It was an economic decision.
I didn't want to lose a customer.
Because a customer that leaves unhappy becomes a terrorist against your company.
You cannot afford that, really.
I knew from the behavioral analyst that 96% of complaints is people that want to get rid of their frustration.
We learned, I thought they complain on the front desk or the concierge.
No, they don't.
They complain to anybody who listens.
Anybody listens.
And if you don't accept it, so I had to make sure that a bus boy will accept as his TV, the TV that didn't work.
Forgive me.
And so I didn't want customers to run out there and be unhappy.
My guest is well connected.
He calls his travel agency and said, was no good.
His travel agency is part of a consortium.
500 travel agencies who won't work.
So I want to be sure that everybody leaves as an ambassador.
So I had to teach our employees how to handle any complaint and say at the same time, I trust you.
In fact, you can make a decision up to $2,000 to keep that customer.
How much did that end up happening per month?
Like at its peak, how many people use the full $2,000 at its peak?
In the last three years, that was there once.
Oh, wow.
The rest was the bus boy saying, did you have a nice day with us?
No, my TV didn't work.
Please forgive me about my TV.
I will buy your breakfast.
And I guess the complainer now is embarrassed that he complained and leaves as an ambassador.
But we certified every employee how to do it.
So were you employee number one?
Pardon me?
Were you employee number one in RITS?
Yeah, sure.
So you're the founder, president, and COO of the company, right?
The co-founding member of the RITS.
So from one employee to 47,000 employees, you've been part of that entire process.
When I left, we had 25,000.
25,000 when you left.
I think today they're at, I don't know what the numbers, that's a higher number.
But from one to 25, that's 100% you.
Question for you.
Did you guys buy other hotels or no?
Yeah, we talk over.
Yeah, but wait a minute.
We didn't own hotels.
We managed hotels.
Right.
So, for instance...
Yeah, we took owner existence.
For example, we talk over a hotel in New York.
Consequently, I inherited a union.
Got it.
None of my hotels, I opened San Francisco, knew.
Union was picking us for three years, but it never became union.
So when you took, so you're taking opera, like for example, two properties are opening up here in Pampano.
One is Ritz, private residence, one is Waldorf Astoria.
I want to look at a couple of them and they'll say Waldorf's going to be managing this property for 30 years.
So you were managing those hotels, servicing those hotels.
Okay.
But we insisted we wouldn't have written a contract anymore unless you sign 50 years.
50 years to you guys.
Sales Incentives Impact00:14:55
And what is the business model?
How do you get paid?
I get a percentage of sales.
Whatever sale they make, you make.
Is it profit or is it rev?
I make off sales.
If you own the hotel and the sales 100 million, I get 3 million.
Got it.
And you may be losing money to operational.
So no matter what, you're making your 3 million.
So it's more like a consulting firm.
Yes, in a way, yes.
But I also have an incentive after you make that service.
I am sharing 10% or whatever in the profit after.
Got it.
So I have an incentive to make a profit.
So if I'm doing 100 million, no matter what I do, I got to pay 3 million on my revenue.
That goes to you.
What is your incentive to make my 100 million, 200 million?
Well, I get an incentive on anything over a certain profit.
Is it an accelerator?
Like, does it get really bigger or 20%?
Fairly at the 3% number.
But at the same time, I drive sales up, which I get my 3% on the sales.
I drive the rate up, I drive the income up, and of course I drive the profit up and the profit.
Now, there is an exit clause for you, the owner.
That means we established in the beginning who would buy competition?
Who are the three best hotels in town?
If I'm not within 5%, at least what they do, you can exit me.
You can throw me out.
That's in the contract.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
But they also want the name Ritz Carlton on the property, right?
Because it's not on your hotel Most likely Restaurant and all the other stuff That's benefiting as well At the peak, what was the revenue of all the hotels you guys were managing at the peak?
Under your watch?
Well, worldwide, we were close to $2 billion.
$2 billion.
Including clubs and stuff that we had, everything included, yeah.
Got it.
So $2 billion, $60 million goes to you guys.
Got it.
That's a pretty nice revenue going to you.
So you made some real good money.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's great.
But going back to it, so you would come in and your job was to inject the spirit and your philosophy to the way we managed our hotels.
Sure.
That's what you did.
Sure.
Okay.
And the processes.
Make sure the processes are short.
And I love that.
And by the way, the lady said the following.
She says, you guys have this thing.
And by the way, correct me if I'm wrong.
I'm just giving you what she said.
She said that you guys did an engagement study to identify which employees fell where.
You guys found that you call them superstars or invincibles were 32% of employees who were energized and committed to do their work.
Then 51% were neutral.
You guys call them just there.
They're just there.
And you can correct me here.
They showed up and do what is expected, but little more.
And the last one was CAVE, which was around 17%.
This is constantly against virtually everything.
This is what the lady did.
I never heard about that.
And this is not you.
That wasn't me.
What do you think about this analysis?
It's ridiculous.
Tell me why it's ridiculous.
This is why I came to the source.
I want to know what you think.
Okay.
Rob, are you tracking?
Rob, were you in that meeting?
Am I giving numbers that were numbers that were given to us?
So please continue.
It's nearly pathetic.
Please forgive me.
I mean, please forgive me.
Tell me why, though.
Tell me why you're not.
Because that means everything is wrong with the selection process already.
If you hire those poor percentages, then you better start selecting.
Stop.
Get somebody to help you selecting employees.
But you said your retention hit 19%.
Between 18 and 20% was 10%.
That means you fired or lost 18 or 19%.
You want to have 10% because you want to renew a little bit.
So why did you lose 18 or 19%?
Oh, but partially because people moved and or partially or we did make mistakes.
But when I make a mistake, I have to say now I have to, ah, this employee really didn't work out.
So let's look where we made our mistake and tweak our process.
Did we hire them wrong?
Did we orient them?
I agree with you.
Did something go wrong?
I have to go back and tweak my processes, not the employees.
And if I have those numbers, that means my processes, that says your processes are really screwed up.
Start over.
That's what that says to me.
Okay.
How many times in your career did you fire people?
How many people have you personally fired?
Well, I look at general managers.
Roughly five or six.
Five or six you fired in 30 years at Ritz.
From now on.
20 years.
20 years at Ritz.
That's between Ritz and Capella.
So in 30 years.
Okay, so in 30 years you fired five managers, five GMs?
Channel managers, general managers.
How often did you fire people at Hyatt?
How many people did you fire at Hyatt?
Oh, that was earlier and I was working different.
I didn't fire general managers, but managers a lot.
A lot.
What's a lot?
50, 100, 200?
Yeah, something.
Okay.
So tell me what got, what did a person do to get you to a point of wanting to fire them?
Okay.
For example, as a leader, we talk about delegating and so on.
We can kind of attest.
What do you delegate?
You delegate, except you don't delegate your vision and your purpose.
You don't delegate the standards.
You don't delegate the values.
You don't delegate those things.
But you let people do things.
And then you measure and make sure they happen.
You cannot hope then.
Hope is not a strategy whatsoever.
So you measure.
And you establish the expectation.
You expected the expectation.
So my expectation, for example, was, and there was a key element here, employee satisfaction, X, customer satisfaction, 92% top bucks, intend to return, intend to recommend.
92% minimum.
And that was made very clear.
Hire you as general manager.
Now I said, Patrick, now understand.
Understand.
I have no right to compromise.
I am here for all concerned.
Sure.
My right of compromising is over.
So my expectations, X, do you think you can handle it?
By the way, and by the way, my role is to help you.
I'm here available.
Call me anytime.
I'm here to help you.
I will come to your hotel and spend time with you, but I'm here to help you.
But here's the expectation.
Here are the expectations.
Customer satisfaction, employee speculation, and so on.
And I delegate you, and here's how our rules when you go to orientation, here's how we do it.
They learned that the employee is a part of the company, not just working for the company.
They learned that any manager, that every employee works in an environment of belonging and purpose.
Do you understand this, Patrick?
I would say, belonging and purpose.
So we go through all that.
And then you have the precise numbers.
And every year, the precise budgets numbers.
Everything's clear.
But now I see the customer satisfaction, which was my key.
On the end of the month, I see you are 86%.
But 92 is the minimum standard.
So I call you, Patrick.
He said, horse, no problem.
I'm working on it.
I got it.
You will have careful customer service.
You can dig into it.
I don't have it.
I don't look.
I have no time for that.
Was it front-desk?
Was it food?
What was it?
Correct it.
Next two, next month is 94%.
Patrick, now listen, buddy.
You understand?
I cannot compromise that.
You understand?
I'm getting upset.
Next month, 85%.
Patrick, find a chair, put it in a corner of your office, because your desk will be mine.
I'm moving.
I will move to the hotel.
You're going to tell me this.
Yes.
And then how much longer after that are you firing me?
Oh, I would keep it if you stay.
At 80.
If you stay in the hotel and work with me and correct it till this 92 and keep it there, I'm fine.
But if it slips again, I said, Patrick, do me a favor, leave.
You know, when you start hoping...
So your number was 92.
Yeah.
Month by month by month.
So at the beginning.
Oh, yeah, you can have a month slip.
That's no problem.
I totally get that.
But what I'm asking is, so every month, when you will look at reports and data, beginning of the month, when all the numbers are done, it's generally many things of data.
But what I'm saying is like at the end of the month, month is over, it's a new week.
What reports did you want to see at all the hotels?
What numbers did you want to see?
Customer satisfaction.
That's it?
Employee satisfaction, economics, comparison, and the future indicator of business.
It had to be above where a year ago.
The indicator a year ago was we have already, hypothetically now, a year ago today, we had for the year 1,000 reservations.
Today, I want to have more than 1,000 for the next year.
You understand?
I beat your prior bets.
I fully get it.
So that was one of them.
Then a measurement, of course, I looked at what was done, what the business for last month.
Did we live up to the budget?
How are we doing according to the budget?
Certainly, I looked at the economics, of course.
I looked at the employee satisfaction.
We did only one survey, but it changed slightly by telephone calls from employees coming in and the satisfaction survey for employees changed.
I looked for one question in the employee survey.
That I insisted to be there that said, would you hire your mother?
Would you hire, would you recommend your mother to work for our company?
If your mother looks for a job, would you recommend that she works for us?
Are you asking me?
That's what I did.
That's what it was.
I don't know if I'm recommending my mother to work at the company.
So what would you do?
And my comment.
Are you asking a question to say, do you love the company so much that you would recommend somebody else?
That's right.
My dad's 83.
I don't know if I'm recommending him, although he would be great customer service.
If it was possible, would they recommend it?
Everybody understood that.
If they say no, a question I asked.
That's your most important question.
Yeah, most important question.
So it could be warded for.
Would you recommend that?
36 questions.
36 when I looked at that one.
Right.
Right.
But then I looked at the overall satisfaction.
Give me some more questions on the surveys, employee survey.
What else did you have?
Do you feel part of the do you feel part of the company?
Do you know your career path and so on?
Do you know your career path?
What else?
Yeah.
Most of it centered around.
How many questions is it?
How many total?
36.
36 questions every month.
Yeah.
No, no, no, no.
That survey was only done once a year, thoroughly.
And what month did you typically do it?
Well, it depends on which hotel, when they open.
We usually did it three months after they opened, done that same month every year.
So interesting system.
It's based on when they open up.
It's not calendar.
No, no, no.
So it's not like December or January.
No, no, no.
So three months after they open up.
So it sort of makes sense to a different kind of a business.
So a different kind of a business.
You do it annually and it's anonymous.
You don't know who's answering it.
It's just giving you data so nobody feels uncomfortable not putting it.
That's right.
And then how are you doing customer satisfaction scores?
An outside company call in.
They get a number.
Outside company calls the customer.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And they give you the analysis once a month.
I get the analysis for each hotel in tender return.
So now I'm moving to the hotel and the channel manager is with me.
Now most of them don't quit.
I consider them to be fired.
They quit.
They have to sit in the office with me and I'm making all decisions and so they're embarrassed and they quit.
But what did I do?
I looked at the survey.
It's so simple, everything.
It's so simple, everything.
I looked at the customer service.
Where were we impacted negatively?
By the doorman.
They were not friendly.
So what did I do?
I go sit down with all the doormen and say, now, guys, please help me.
It seems that we didn't help you or didn't train you right.
And I'm here to help you to become a respected, because you're not.
But I'm here to help you.
And I'm accepting that we made a mistake here somewhere.
So help me.
Guess what?
Four weeks later, it was corrected.
It was so simple every time.
It is not rocket science.
You go and talk to the people connected to the process.
But if you're not, you're living in Taylorism.
Taylorism said, here's how Taylorism said in the Industrial Revolution said, hire people who fulfill a function.
We think and they do.
But this is ridiculous.
After they do it, they know better how to do it than I do in my office.
Instead of going to them and say, what can we do?
No, I love that.
I love that.
So, but how did you teach me?
I come to you and I say, hey, and again, I'm talking for specifically this part, because when you're talking about Stephen Covey and Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and then you said if a person after the age of 16, that's how they're going to be, unless if they have a life-changing event, which Stephen Covey would call paradigm shift, right?
To help somebody have a paradigm shift.
What would you do for your management team to have paradigm shifts?
So for example, beginning of the year, you're doing a kickoff meeting, you bring your leaders in, and if you did, what would you do to create paradigm shift in me, one of your leaders?
Well, with the leaders, it's easy.
I mean, I'm the expert.
Speaking into the microphone.
Yeah, with the leaders, it's actually pretty easy because I'm the standard setter.
I'm the objective setter.
I set objectives.
Offering Purpose and Belonging00:15:27
And I asked them, I asked my leaders, my hotel leaders.
When I was a manager, I asked my department leaders the same thing, by the way.
I said, okay, tell me what they did the last three months to make sure that you have a better hotel.
I asked them all, tell me what is the standard, how your hotel will be respected a year from now.
I want to see if they have a vision.
If they have a vision, look, I visited a hotel.
In fact, I visited Milwaukee.
The channel manager picks me up.
The channel manager picks me up in the airport, which you always do, and I get the same story, which is of course a lie.
We're so happy you're visiting because nobody wants corporate to visit.
Because we're so proud, and I'm in a limo.
And I ask him all kind of questions.
And then I ask him, what will be the position of your hotel?
How will it be respected in the city a year from now?
And he said, if I had a bigger ballroom, if my restaurant wasn't on the second floor, if this hotel would be closer to the city center.
But in other words, he made excuses for a vision he didn't have.
I visited a few days later Columbus, Ohio.
Similar city, similar hotel, built by the same architect.
And I was the channel manager.
And he said, you can check me.
In a year from now, we will be respected and be the pride of the city.
He says that to you.
Yeah.
And I realized he said, here's somebody has been.
And when you walk to the hotel, you can feel.
In his hotel, in Columbus, people feel part of it.
The other hotel, they work in there.
Do you remember this guy?
Oh, yeah.
Oh, sure, sure.
Sure.
Now, I said, wait a minute, I'm going to make a study of all channel managers, who has a vision, who doesn't.
And for the next three years, I asked everybody the same questions.
And after three years, mind you, it's a study that I met.
It wasn't scientific.
But I'm generous when I tell you there were five leaders, the rest were all managers.
Now, they managed good results some of them.
Out of how many people?
Out of 65.
Out of 65, five were leaders.
And the rest were managers.
Eight percent.
Yeah.
And now, wait a minute, some of those managers had good results.
And by the way, the worst ones, and this is pretty common, became the recognition as manager of the year.
They became a trip around the world and so on.
In RITS?
Not in RITS.
In Hyatt.
In other companies.
Okay, right.
Now, why?
Because they didn't paint anymore and they didn't take the flowers away.
And they were uploaded for making more profit and became manager of the year.
As they're destroying the brand.
Why?
Because that's the only thing corporate measures.
Because they don't measure.
That's why I measured number one, customer satisfaction.
Tell me your number one manager you had.
Give me the profile of this individual.
Three, four, five, six things you can think of.
What made him so special?
Number one, the best one.
Number one, absolute relentless communication with his employees.
They knew what was going on.
They felt part in a relationship in which the employees felt part.
Was number one.
Process management with employees involved in building the process.
Tell me what that means, unpacking.
That means in the book, complaint and room service, slow room service.
He goes to room service and says the order taker, bus boy, waiter, cook, find out the root cause, find the root cause of find the root cause why we have slow room service complaints.
And the people connected to the process with the employees worked on it.
I tell you his result.
I tell you a result he had.
That is unbelievable.
When you start, you learn the second day, the non-negotiables, which everybody gets in their pocket.
If I catch somebody not carrying that in their pocket, I have a problem.
Channel manager or dishwasher, I want you to carry it because that's who we are.
And these are the non-negotiables.
So.
May I?
Yeah, I give it you as a gift.
It's in my book, by the way.
I love it.
This is the Capella.
Has it changed anything with RITS?
Oh, sure.
So it's different than RITS.
Yeah, okay.
A little bit different.
A little bit.
A little bit.
And Ritz changed it after I left.
Well, I agree with you that it changed.
So this goes to every employee.
Every single employee?
At Capella.
At Capella.
When you start working, you get it in your hand.
You can learn it.
I want to go back to this number one manager of yours.
So number one.
That's what I wanted to say.
Okay, go for it.
So this, when we talk over that hotel, it was so strong a union and it was the worst employee survey and the worst guest customer survey ever had, New York.
This manager got into New York.
And the employee slowly adopted that.
I tell you how well he changed it.
Two years later, the union contract was due.
The employees insisted that the union adopt us.
That's a general manager who was leading his people who were part of the people.
For the union to adopt this.
That's right.
The employees insisted on it.
So what did he do?
What did he really do?
And that's what I'm appealing to.
Every boss, he offered them to be part of something.
Even Aristotle said, you cannot be fulfilled in life unless you have purpose and belonging.
Why wouldn't we offer that to our employees?
That is really my number one point.
Offer them purpose, offer them belonging.
Don't make them chairs.
My major D, the first one, remember the one?
When I left there after three and a half years, he said, come here, look me in the eyes.
Promise me you never go to work.
Promise me not to become a chair.
This is when you're leaving.
When I'm leaving three and a half years later, now I was seven years.
Just the guy that impacted you heavily.
Not the GM, but the other guests.
Yes.
Yes.
Promise me you become a chair.
Because if you just go to work for the functions that you fulfill, you're a chair.
You're fulfilling a function.
You have to have a high intent.
The high intent is excellence in what you're doing.
Promise me you don't become a chair.
Yeah.
Okay, so relentless communication with employees, process management, root cause.
What else made that need?
Environment of belonging and purpose and purpose.
Got it.
Got it.
So those three things.
Yes.
Promise me you won't be a chair.
Okay, so question for you.
And again, he was relentlessly working on all process and continuing.
He was constantly seeking if it's very important, very important here.
If a problem repeated itself, he was right away and said, okay, let's look at the process.
Let's find a root cause why this process gone.
A root cause analysis was his strength.
And you know, here's the thing.
If you find root cause of your mistakes, you become efficient because by eliminating the mistake, you improve the product and lower your cost instead of cost cutting, which means you take something away from the customer.
Question.
This guy, who did he end up becoming?
He ended up becoming a vice president in the Beverly Hills Hilton for those hotels.
And he run for many years.
It's just a year ago and so retired from there.
You still keep in contact?
Oh, yes, absolutely.
So there's a friendship.
Oh, sure.
Incredible.
Well, friendship.
Behind my back, some of those guys got together, created a reunion for me a few months ago, and people came from Europe and Asia and all over.
They're all running major companies.
I know what happened.
The truth is, I know what happened.
They got together and said, horse is getting old.
Let's get together before he dies.
You know, that is true.
Let me tell you, though.
Let me tell you one thing that this is very important for the audience to know this.
You're 19.
So you're how old?
You're January 10th.
So you just turned 87.
87.
Three weeks ago, right?
Okay.
So Matteo, Maie, he brings you in, and I said, how does he look and feel?
He says, oh, he's so strong.
I said, tell me why.
He says, I tried to take the back from him.
He said, no, no, no, you can't take this back.
There's a lot of money.
I can carry it myself.
Even at this age, with the level of intensity that you have, it's so impressive.
So I got a question for you.
There's a book that was written five years ago called After Steve.
And a book is about After Steve Jobs, what happened to Apple, okay?
Yeah.
When Tim Cook took over.
What happened to, you know, when you left Ritz in the early 2000s?
What happened to the standards after Horst?
Were they able to maintain it?
Well, let me tell you, one story.
I have to be careful here because I signed up.
I would not make disparaging remarks.
However.
20 years you got.
That's a long go.
However, our most complimented, non-negotiable in RitzCar was number 16.
It's number 12, number 12 on this one.
Yeah.
And Kabala, escort guests until they are comfortable with the direction and make visual contact with their destination.
Do not point.
Okay, this was number 16.
That was the most complimented from the guest non-negotiable.
People are always at the I asked the front desk.
I came from outside and they walked me all the way there.
I cannot believe it.
When I left, they eliminated that one because it costs money to take somebody away from this.
Stop it.
The most complimented point by customers was eliminated.
And I understand where I come from because nobody quite understood how deep those feelings were.
You know, it was just, wow, that's what we do.
Nobody looked up for the analysis that was the most complimented ones.
But altogether, who is really number one today in the world?
Capella.
There's a company created afterwards.
Where's Ritz in that analysis?
26.
And those are facts.
I can say facts here.
You were number one when you guys left.
Oh, sure.
They dropped from one to 26, and Capella's number one.
Yeah.
How important was it for you to prove that even afterwards, you're going to continue not stop?
I could do it anytime.
I could do it anyway.
Forgive me.
Because I would concentrate on the human being and on the processes that I do.
In the meantime, I have to learn to even better select employees.
Be more respectful for them.
And in particular, it's easier today because everybody complains about the millennials.
But come on, learn how to handle them and do it.
I agree.
I agree.
It's a lot of time.
Well, they've changed.
They're lazy.
They're this.
Come on.
You become a softer leader.
You're the leader.
You're the leader.
You have to figure it out.
Yeah, I agree.
You know, it's crazy.
When you read body language books, you know what they say about the lines in between the eyes?
Do you know what they say about it?
No.
Highly, highly intense, competitive individuals.
Okay, okay.
You have those two lines.
You have those two lines right here is what you have.
So you're a very rare combination of extremely charming, and you know it.
You're very charming, very.
And you have a fun side to you that it also feels like it's fun working with you.
But my God, I feel the intensity and the seriousness that you're not going to compromise the standards for nothing.
Is that a fair assessment of you?
But let's face it, I have no moral right to compromise.
I have no moral right to compromise.
Of course not.
Tell me why.
I know my objective is good for all concerned.
In that moment, I would be going against the owners, against the employees, against society, even against God, because I question myself, would God approve?
I question myself very careful.
Is my objective would God approve?
In that moment, I painted myself in the corner.
I can't just compromise anymore.
You know, that's one of the big problems with management.
They want to be known as a nice guy.
That's not my business.
When I make a speech, I don't go into the speech so that people think I'm a nice guy.
I go into that speech so that I give something.
What you think of me, particularly my age, what are you going to do?
Fire me?
But when did you believe in yourself to know your philosophies worked?
At what age were you bulletproof confidence that you know what you were doing?
When I went halfway through my time in Hyatt, I talked to Verse Hotel and made it a major success.
And I knew the philosophy works.
It wasn't so much I'm the right thing.
No, but the philosophy of respecting the employee and loving the employee and make sure they're aligned, but not compromising and understanding the market and pushing those things together.
That in a board meeting is fluffy conversations.
But the same people have egos and feelings and totally ignore the feeling of those two entities that make a company.
If you have a business, here you have a business here, Patrick.
Walk in here at three o'clock in the morning.
Is it a business?
No, it's not.
But now it is a business because you have people in here.
So it is the people who make it a business.
I have to accept that.
Great point.
Very good point.
But so you were in your 40s when you realized you were bulletproof.
You were confident in your philosophy.
I was totally confident that because it worked.
There were successes.
And I knew in that moment I'm giving.
I'm giving to people.
I'm giving successes to people.
You know, that is one of the honors.
And we have to be conscious of that too.
And I'm happy to be a believer.
So one of the key elements that I, and Jesus, forgive me that I touch on this for a moment, is love your neighbor as yourself.
Wait a minute.
Are your employees not your neighbors?
Are your guests not your neighbors?
They are my neighbors.
Do I love them as myself?
But I cannot single out one or the other.
I have to love them as a whole because otherwise I'm going against one and the other if I just single out.
Why Did You Change My Room?00:04:06
When did Psalm 94 get a hold of you that I'm going to take you under my wings?
How old were you?
You talked about Psalms 94 somewhere.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, well, growing up in the Lutheran church, which is very Bible-beating oriented, we had for three years before you get confirmed with 14, you go to Bible class.
The teacher, the pastor gets to know you well, and when you get confirmed, gives you word for your life.
And he gave me Psalms 91.4.
He will take you under his wing and say.
91.4, God.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it is hanging in my kitchen.
How old were you?
14.
At 14, he told you, he gave you that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it was with me ever since.
It is with me.
And it's hanging in my kitchen.
Interesting.
To know that he's with you.
He has your back.
Yeah.
And, you know, sometimes as a young man, I forgot it.
But when something went wrong, I went to look and say, wait a minute.
Where are your wings?
Where have you been?
I thought it was a promise.
Yeah.
That's funny.
So now building the business.
You know, and by the way, it's funny when you say Ritz Carlton, it's clear because I go to Ritz a lot, but I had a bad experience with Ritz two months ago.
And I said, I wonder if Horse would even allow something like this to happen.
This doesn't make any sense to me.
I went to an event, Ritz Carlton, every three to six months, we would do an event at the Fort Lauderdale Ritz.
No problem.
This last one we go there.
My EA says, you know, they put us in a different room.
I said, why is that?
We booked this 30 days ago, 60 days ago.
He said, I don't know.
They put us in a big room.
Well, I'm not looking for a big room.
I want a small room because I put sticky pads on the wall because we're doing a strategy session with our executives.
I want that room.
They changed it last night.
They can't do that.
Well, I talked to the director.
He said, yes.
I said, bring the director up.
We get on the phone with the director right before the meeting.
This is 7.57 and meeting starts at 8 o'clock.
And the director's not coming upstairs.
And finally, I'm like, it's been 13 minutes.
Where is the director?
I'm talking to you.
Whoa.
Horse, I said, I'm going to go see the director myself.
I go downstairs.
I'm at the front lobby at the Fort Lauderdale Ritz.
He's behind the desk and I see him.
Finally, I say his name.
And I said, I don't know what his name is.
I can get it right.
And I said, hey, Jose, are you going to make me stand here all the time?
Are you going to come and talk to me?
I've been asking you, why did you change my room?
30 seconds later, he comes out and he's looking at me.
I say, why did you change the room?
I always get that room.
Look, we just had to make the decision last night.
I said, I'm going to go to the room right now to see if somebody else is there.
You can't do that.
So me and my security Dan, who is somewhere around here.
I met him.
You met him.
He's got the tattoos on.
He sounds like a very friendly guy.
So we walk up to the room and they're running after us.
And I go in the room.
Nobody's there.
I said, why don't you give me the room?
So then afterwards, I'm trying to find out what's going on here.
One of the guys that works at Fort Lauderdale, Ritz, he comes up to me.
He says, Patrick, I told them, don't change the room on Patrick.
He's not going to like it because he follows the content.
I said, I still want to know what happened here.
Anyways, the room was given to a soccer team, whatever, because they were doing massages there and nobody was there.
Remember, I booked this room.
It's the room I like and I'm a B-back customer, right?
No explanation, nothing.
The next day, Rob, can you text Mateo?
I want to make sure I give the right first names.
I don't want to mess this up.
So then the next day, Matteo calls me.
He says, look at the email we just got.
I said, what's the email?
He says, they send us an email saying they apologize for what happened the day before and they want to give us 50% of the cost for the room back.
And I said, Matteo, I don't care about the money.
I will never get it.
And it's all or nothing.
I will never go to that Ritz Carlton and Fort Lauderdale ever again.
I said, there is no way this is horse's standards.
So I'm telling him this.
And they're going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.
Horse's Standards Disappointment00:15:34
And it was done.
I was so disappointed.
And you know what it made me think about?
Here's what it made me think about.
Here's a challenge, Horse, and you got to coach me through it.
And I need your help with this.
Hear me out.
And you don't know where I'm going with this, but I think you'll see it here in a minute.
I'm a founder of an insurance company.
We build it.
We grew it from zero to 60,000 agents.
We sold it.
We changed a lot of people's lives.
And we did something nobody thought was ever possible.
Our mission statement in July of 2009 when I came up with the two and a half months before I started a company was saving America by bringing back the free enterprise system and hope to American families.
And we took this concept.
I was dressed as George Washington.
My wife was dressed as Lady Liberty.
We had a 40-foot Mount Rushmore on the stage and we told everybody, We're going to save America and we're going to help people through free enterprise, getting people to become insurance agents, building their business.
We did something nobody thought was going to happen.
One office, Northridge, 50 states, we grew it.
I sold a company three years ago.
I haven't been the CEO for one year.
I'm gone.
Okay?
The standards are the standards that you create.
How do you deal with looking and seeing if those standards are being maintained or not by the leaders that come after you?
How do you manage that yourself?
Because I know just listening to you right now.
I got an email from a friend in Asia.
It's about an experience in Ritz Carlton.
And it gave me so much pain, still gives me pain.
You cannot help it.
Because if you have born an organization like you have, you give birth to that.
You put pride and fulfillment into it.
It's not a place, it's not a work, it's a fulfillment there.
And then if it is totally mishandled, and here, 20 some years later, I'm still hurt and in pain about it.
I have a hard time.
I try, and I don't, I try not to stay in Ritz Carlton because when you walk into it, I feel I'm a stranger.
Some of my walk into it, I feel I'm home still.
I'm home.
Very few.
Very few.
Forgive me when I say those things.
Ritz Carlton, don't sue me.
But it is if you have value in what you did, if it had a meaning, if it was a purpose, you cannot help but get hurt.
Because that which you created, it is not different than if Picasso would sit there and you would scratch on his painting.
He would be very hurt.
It's his painting, it's his creation.
Would be hurt.
You cannot get away from that.
And unless we just created a business, the heck with it.
But if that business was created with a heart and with a soul, which hopefully we do as human beings, particularly as a creator, you get hurt.
You cannot get away from that.
I was so hurt a few days ago.
A few days ago.
And I got that email.
I was so hurt.
I still have it on my phone.
I was really hurt.
20 years later, you're still hurt.
Yeah.
And I walk sometimes often in the one that you mentioned.
Could it be any other brand?
Yeah.
Yeah, it shouldn't be.
It should be in the answer.
I had a call one day from Shanghai, from a friend who walked into the Ritz Carlton.
Maybe when I was running Ritz Carlton, he said, I'm walk just in the Ritz Carlton.
And darn it, I could have complied, not seen a sign.
I would have known it's a Ritz Carlton.
I could feel it.
How people looked at me, how people say, sir, how people help me.
I would have known it's a Ritz Carlton unquestionably.
That's what you want to create.
That's it.
But you can create that with a hardware store.
You can create a benefit.
That's what I mean.
It's hospitality that makes a difference or that makes a decision.
It's not a product.
By the way, hospitality, let's see what it is really.
It's service.
Everybody talk about this hospitality here.
The first person who taught hospitality was Saint Benedict, the creator of the Benedict monasteries throughout Europe.
He sent a letter to the head of his monasteries in the year 500 and said, if a guest arrives, treat him as if it was Jesus himself.
But otherwise, treat everyone as if they were the most important people in the world.
And he recommended, in fact, even if you're on a fast, break your fast with the guest by himself and have dinner with them.
But after you wash their feet.
Now, how close do we come for that?
Why wouldn't we try and come close to that in businesses?
Isn't that much more fulfilling for us rather than just fulfilling a function?
Yeah.
No, listen, the guy that you went into your room who runs our cigar lounge now, his name is Michael.
I have to give him a shout out.
Mikel was the general manager of an Italian restaurant here that I would go to three times a week.
I know.
I told you the story?
Yeah.
No, no, no.
You used to treat it, but you ended up going five days.
Yes.
But let me tell you what happened with him.
Finally, one day he wants to start his own thing.
I said, why don't you come here and run this whole place?
The feeling he gives you, horse, he's able to make the customer feel like you're the only thing that exists in the world.
It is such a valuable skill for a human being to have.
It's such a valuable skill for a human being to have.
And I'm willing to pay premium for that.
It's a very, very valuable thing for somebody.
You work hard.
You want to go to a place to be left alone.
So where do you go to right now?
Restaurant.
Where do you go to right now where you feel like the service here is impeccable?
What are some places you go to that you like the service you give?
We have some small places not known in Atlanta.
You see, when I travel still 100 days a year, I used to drive over 200 days a year.
What happens when I arrive somewhere?
They pick you up at a limousine, they take you to a gourmet restaurant.
I don't want to go to a gourmet restaurant when I come home with my wife.
We stay home or we go to some similar, but people know us there.
And so you have the attention because they know you.
And people say, we are glad you're here.
And that's what you want.
If that gentleman in the writs here would have said to you, my gosh, please forgive me.
I messed up.
I would have moved on.
There you are.
By the way, I would have moved on the moment.
If you would have just came up and give me the attention and say, we messed up, he told me the truth.
And if there was a valid reason why they moved the room, I would have had no problem with that.
But that's what we certified earlier.
We talked about that.
Every employee on problem the solution.
We certified every employee, 24,000 employees around the world.
And they said the first thing is you listen to the complaint, you listen, then you show empathy, and then you apologize as if it was your own, but you own it, and then you make amends.
And 50% is not an amend.
A situation like that was, of course, we will not charge you.
Of course.
We will give you 50%.
No, of course, we will not charge you because we messed up.
Forgive me.
And that's what it was.
By the way, the guy that helped us out, his name was Juan, very nice guy.
He said, Patrick, I told him, don't do it.
The director of events was a guy named Chris.
I won't say his last name.
And then the other guy that called us the next day, the director of operations was a guy named Sam.
And Jose was the GM.
And I think Jose is the one that sent the email for 50%.
I was very turned off.
I was very turned off by that.
I mean, 50%.
I could care less about the money.
But it doesn't matter.
It's just less about the money.
So again, that's the challenge, right?
A brand, if the existing founder, driver, CEO doesn't run customer service properly, Starbucks hires a guy that comes to them.
It's a previous guy from Pepsi who used to be a consultant for some big consulting firm.
They bring him in.
18 months, revenue drops.
It's a messy of a culture.
Then they bring a guy named Brian Nicol.
Brian Nicol comes from Chipotle.
He gets in, he changes the culture.
Starbucks is back on a rising.
One great leader can change a company.
Oh, of course.
Of course.
Because you, as a leader, you establish the philosophy that comes from you because people immediately below you copy you and it goes all the way down.
And if you do something negative, they think you want that.
That's it.
All standards are gone.
That's why I say that you don't compromise standards.
You own the standards as a leader.
You own the standards.
But coming down all to a simple thing, I cannot expect my thousands of Starbuffs to all each one be singly trained by me.
But they all know, they all should know, here's the standard.
We are here to care for people.
They have to know that.
And they have to be a reminder of that.
We remind those 20 things.
You cannot go to work.
You will be a reminder of one of them today.
Today is number 12.
Tomorrow is 13.
And 20 days, number 12 again.
I love that, the pointing finger.
There's a bathroom horse.
And when you use a restroom, right there, walk down here versus.
And done it, done it.
Four cars and you get lost.
Yeah, versus somebody takes you there.
And then we taught them, of course, you take them there and you create a relationship.
You say, have you tried our restaurant?
Are you a hotel guest?
Yes.
Have you tried a restaurant?
I hope you had a chance.
If you're outsider, but you, oh, you didn't stand with that, but you should try the restaurant.
Everybody likes it.
So you have conversation.
Then you're selling something at the same time.
You're selling something, yeah.
What would you say is your biggest gift?
Like, what's your superpower?
Mine.
What's your superpower?
Oh, relentless.
Relentless.
Would your wife say the same thing about you?
Yeah, she's.
You're relentless.
Probably.
But in the positive way, think about wife, think about marriage.
It's the same thing.
What is your high intent?
When I got married, before I got married, I saw my wife and I was so much in love.
I mean, come on.
I mean, young man, you look, oh, wow, wow, this beautiful, wonderful human being, and we're going to get married.
And then I thought, wait a minute, I know friends are getting divorced because they don't feel like it anymore.
And then I establish my high intent.
I will be in love for the rest of my life.
In that moment, and that is the model of leadership.
Have intent, purpose.
But then you have to commit yourself to it, not to have a pipe dream.
And then you have to initiate the things that make it happen and keep focus on it.
And that's where people break down.
They focus all of a sudden on an excuse.
What was your philosophy in raising kids?
Raising Chris.
Two things we want to accomplish, my wife and I. Please forgive me, everybody.
We want them to be believers.
And we want them to understand the difference between wrong and right integrity.
People with integrity.
That's it.
Those are the key things that we worked on, prayed for, and were successful.
Are they in the business you're in or no?
No, not at all.
Not at all.
Is it two girls or four girls?
Four girls.
Okay, I'm going to make sure I get that fact right because two places said two different things.
Yeah.
That's great.
So even family, you have to have objectives.
My objective was to be in love.
And I am in love with my wife.
But I work on my mind even.
When I drive into the driveway and the gate opens, I say, thank you, God, for my wonderful wife.
I can't wait to take an arm now.
Affirmations.
You have to work on it.
I mean, if you let, and I'm multi-minded on that, first of all, I want that for me.
Secondly, I see the end of family happens and that it will be the end of our civilization unquestionably, unquestionably, if us family goes.
So I am selling what is marriage.
Work on it.
I ask in every speech, I ask them, oh, guys, in this room, when have you asked your wife last time how you can be a better husband?
She'll tell you.
I saw that in her life.
Oh, and after she cries, she will tell you.
She will tell you.
Did you guys ever have a moment where it didn't work out?
Oh, sure.
Many.
Really?
Well, no, but it didn't work out.
It was like close, fallen out of the way.
No, not quite there.
But there was sure.
Yeah.
How do you overcome that?
Sure.
By sitting down and talking and admitting that you were wrong.
My wife, who is 14 years younger, so I married her.
I'm 14.
She's 26.
And we have an argument.
And I start screaming.
And she said, why do you scream?
Why don't we talk about it?
Maybe you're right.
Oh, my, she said that to you.
And I said, here, this kid is teaching me how to communicate.
Good for her.
Wow.
And I realized I didn't want to talk about it.
What if I'm wrong?
Wow.
Let's talk about it.
Maybe you're right.
Maybe you're right.
And you guys have been married now, what, 47 years?
47 years, yeah.
Unbelievable.
Good for you.
Oh, it's great.
Good for your respect for doing that.
What a great thing.
Unbelievable.
I mean, look, what is this?
Marriage.
The only God-ordained union, the greatest union there is.
Why wouldn't you work like crazy on it?
And she was a partner with you while you're building, traveling, moving, all this stuff.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, wow.
Let me tell you, I admire her for she raised children and I was on the road.
And there, too, I come back and I said, here's what we're going to do.
And she said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, here's what we have planned.
And I had to learn in the beginning.
I said, wait, wait, here's this is how.
And he said, well, you weren't here.
We had to make decisions.
I had to learn to communicate that way and respect decisions that are being made with much more input and points that I wasn't even aware of.
You were not there.
You were not there in that sense.
So a couple other questions before we wrap up.
First Contact Matters00:08:18
You won the Malcolm Balridge Baldridge National Quality Award twice.
That's correct.
92 and 99.
No other company has ever done this before.
So what is the significance of that?
Because that's straight up from the White House, right?
That's straight from the DC.
What is the significance of that?
Well, it's a fantastic thing that the government did more intensely.
That happened during the 80s when the Japanese became major competitors to us.
They were taking over.
They're buying everything and controlling and product and cars and everything.
No, we didn't make normal TVs when the Commerce Department said we have to study how to be more competitive with the Japanese.
Studied the number one companies in the world, studied the companies that were sustained leaders in their product for many years, why and so on, found commonalities and created a criteria.
And afterwards said we have to find out who in America has comes close to that so we can make it an example for other companies.
So when you studied and done apply, if you win the Baldish, you are obligated to open your company up for other companies to come in and learn.
For a year free.
What a concept.
Yeah.
For a year for free?
Yeah.
We had every Monday 20, 30 companies there to learn.
We created a learning center.
No, I figured out how to make money on it.
So we started at 7 o'clock Monday mornings, so they had to check out on Sunday, check in on Sunday.
So they still got to book the room.
That's great.
So the companies would come and learn from us.
Come and learn from us.
Including Job, Steve Job, before they went into retail.
I was about to just say Apple.
So Steve Jobs came to you.
Yeah, yeah.
Including for retail.
Including Disney was there many times and so on.
People come in and learning.
How do we work the processes, the measurements, the process, the improvements, and so on.
And we were pretty good at, as I said, our channel manager was kind of best at the improvement, the elimination of process permanently.
I tell one story in the book, if you read it, Vincent, excellence, in room service, room service, where we had for six years a complaint.
I was the channel manager of the first one, obviously.
There was no other hotel.
During my time, the complaint room service, I managed it like a normal manager.
I said, read my lips, fix it.
Doesn't work that way.
You have to find out their process.
I learned very carefully from the Baltic office how to do that.
I had my first Baldish meeting.
Somebody said that we were the best hotel company in the world.
And I had a lot of complaints.
When somebody said, well, I understand.
They asked me, best hotel company.
I said, maybe we're the best of a lousy lot, but we're not very good.
And he said, you should look into the Baltic criteria.
Went to Washington, had a meeting with the head.
He explained me the criteria.
For half an hour, I didn't understand a word he said.
Literally.
And he said, you have time for lunch.
I had lunch with him.
Years later, he asked me when I became an expert in the issue.
Do you know why I invited you for lunch?
I said, why?
He said, you didn't understand the word I said.
He knew it.
Why didn't you understand what he said?
Whatever.
Fishbowl analysis paradox charts and things like that.
I said, what is that?
I see.
I got you.
So he knew.
You have to understand.
I left the school when I was 14 years old.
That's right.
I didn't go to business school.
No college, no business school.
But later when I was here, I took the courses in Cornell and so on.
Didn't you later on get a PhD or doctorate from some school?
What did an honorary doctorate?
What school was it I gave you?
I'm sorry, I said it was not.
When you ask me names, I'm always putting it in the word.
Johnson and Wells.
Okay, got it.
Very cool.
Very cool.
So Steve Jobs, what did he ask you when he was a student?
I wasn't involved in teaching him at the time.
I was out in Asia at the time.
But he came in to ask, how do we treat customers?
What do you think make us successful?
How do we make them successful?
By saying hello.
And he picked up, I know what he picked up.
First contact.
We teach, and that's what he got it.
Most people don't get it even, what we teach.
The behavioral analysts tell you, you make a decision about somebody when you come within 10 feet.
So how do I make sure you make a good decision?
But wait a minute, they make a decision about you.
So how make sure that decision is a good one?
That's why when you go into their country, they have somebody staying there right away, well dressed.
So say, welcome, can I help?
What is the problem?
And they take you.
And we had learned that from the behavioral analysts.
I worked with the behavioral analysts, University of Colorado and Frankfurt.
They said, the decision is made about you the moment when we make contact.
That's why we taught you have, when somebody comes within 10 feet, no matter what you do, you look them in the eye and say, welcome.
Don't say hi.
When you say hi, we are equal.
But even say, welcome.
And so, sir, and look you in the eye.
I'm saying I respect you.
But at the same time, Sam, you can trust me.
I'm professional.
So we make sure that I hired kids from Center City who've never seen anything elegant in their life.
So now we put them in a great outfit.
We teach them not to use certain words.
Don't say ever high.
Don't say okay.
Say my pleasure and so on.
And three weeks later, this kid meets potentially the chairman of the board of Bank of England and it works.
And it works.
That's what he saw.
And that's how he created it in retail.
And be impressed by the look of it.
Have this positive in mind.
We looked, by the way, it's very important for people to know, business to know.
We looked at 400,000 common cards.
Beginning, we had common cards.
Chetty Power, analyze them for us.
Whenever the first...
400,000 common cards?
Yeah.
What does that mean?
Guests that commented in the room.
400 comment cards.
Got it.
400,000 comment cards.
Got it.
They're not scientifically that important.
The call-in are much more scientific, by the way.
But anyway, when I had them, I worked with Cheddar Power.
Dave Power was a friend.
They talked and analyzed them.
And they came back and said, 100%, without exception, 100%, when the first contact was excellent, never did a complaint follow.
Positive subconscious.
Whenever there was one negative in either reservation dormant or front desk, always did complaints follow.
Wow.
I mean, wow.
So I have to make sure that my first contact.
That's why when you walked in Ritz County, first contact, that's why you saw huge flowers.
First thing you saw, everything positive in your subconscious, so you feel positive about the rest.
What presidents did you serve, or which world leaders came to you guys at Ritz that you had a relationship with?
Was it an ongoing, hey, we're going to come in, we'd like to be taken care of?
Yeah, well, I knew I knew Bush, the second one, very well.
I knew him very well.
And I knew Carter very well.
Carter, in fact, after he was president, he had, later he had an apartment when the library was built.
But before they were staying in the Ritz, and every morning we went chalking every morning.
Summer Motel Madness00:04:28
Oh, at Buckhead in Atlanta.
I got it.
It makes sense.
And we went sharking every morning.
We come around the corner.
People go to work and we say good morning.
Oh, good morning.
Of course, security was running with us.
Yeah, you felt safe.
I knew them very well.
Of course, Clinton gave me the award.
I spent time and Bush One gave me the award.
And Ford, Ford was an owner of one of our hotels.
Really?
So I knew several of them.
Got it.
Very interesting.
Because I can only imagine that.
Everybody comes in.
By the way, two questions before we wrap up.
Patel Motel Group.
What do you know about the Patel Motel cartel that you don't know anything about?
You know how they say they own 70, 80% of hotels and their business model and the way they do it from India when they come in.
You know nothing about that.
No, no, I don't know much about it.
It's a very interesting story.
I heard about it, but I don't know much.
Apparently, they bring their families.
Yeah.
And so the families would live in five rooms.
And the families living in five rooms would allow them to charge the rooms at the lowest 29, 39 bucks a night.
So others would stay over other hotels.
And the next thing, that's how they build their empire.
Apparently, now they own 70% of hotels in America.
Very interesting.
I don't think 70%, but they own qualified.
That's the numbers that you'll read about.
Yeah, right.
They're roughly 70% of all Indian motel owners.
Oh, Indian motels.
A third of all motels owners in America are named Patel.
Yeah, well, there are a lot of Indian motel owners.
A lot of them.
They come in and that was an easy business to go in.
Having some cash, they bought a motel and run it and then added, add it, add it.
So a lot of Indian hotel owners here, yeah.
And of course, a couple of very good Tash hotels is a very good hotel company.
Capella Group, your most recent one that you sold, I think you said 2017 and then finalized in 2019.
You built a lot of the hotels in Asia, and I think one or two is in Saudi that you built.
You can correct me if I'm wrong on these, but none in Europe.
Why not Europe?
We had one in Europe.
You did build one in Europe?
Well, one second.
We're not owning.
Yes, they own some.
Operating.
I totally get it.
Right.
One was in Europe in this room.
But when I left, they disassociated themselves.
They were able, there was a clause to get out when I left.
So they left.
They're independent now.
Great hotel, by the way.
Interesting.
Great hotel.
What markets do you look at to say these markets are good to build a hotel?
Is there anything you look at?
What demos do you look at?
Well, you know, what I wanted to be, I looked at this at the time, and it's still the same thing.
If you start a hotel company, or you work a hotel company, you want to be in New York, you want to be in London, you want to be in Tokyo, you want to be at the time, Hong Kong was a number one thing.
Today, Singapore is equally important.
Still, Hong Kong is okay, but it used to be the financial place where you had to be Singapore today, much so.
So, in the key places, no, but my first hotel was Atlanta, and then Deirborne, Michigan, and so on.
And I had to still make it number one in the world.
We became number one in the world, you know.
And I dealt later, my competition was for seasons.
They were in London, and in Tokyo, and in New York, and then everywhere.
And I was, no, we ended up to be in Tokyo and so on, also.
And when we opened Osaka, we were immediately voted best hotel in Japan.
I insisted wherever we are, we're number one.
Period.
And I dealt with the general manager.
Will you accept that?
Did you play sports as a kid?
Where does your competitive fire come from?
Why are you so competitive?
No, I don't.
No.
Very competitive.
Mom or dad?
Who's more competitive?
Because you're very competitive.
I think mom.
Mom?
Yeah.
Mom was competitive.
Did mom and dad ever come to the States or no?
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, you have to understand when I started off, particularly my grandfather, they all were embarrassed that I wanted to work in the hotel business.
That's not what they did in Germany.
You want to have a technical job.
If I would have said Rufa, that's honorable.
Over a hotel.
That's honorable, but in a hotel.
So my father thought I would work as a vader for the rest of my life and was disappointed.
But then of course I had my successes, they were very proud.
Do you ever take your girls back to the city where you grew up in?
Do you ever go and show the family there?
We spend every summer there.
Every summer there?
Why?
Show Me One Thought00:08:13
That's who I am.
And I'm lucky my wife loves it as much as I do.
Otherwise, I wouldn't have the house anymore.
What's great about the city there now?
It's a village.
It's a small village.
She just was there for a couple of days with my daughter.
And she called me and said, I feel this peace again.
I walked through the little village.
It's dark and quiet.
But I heard some people sing and the Klee Club is rehearsing.
And I heard some.
And I said, and the peace that when I come walk in the house is a peace that I cannot find anywhere else.
And we feel that.
We feel that it's a different life.
But it's also, I grew up there.
And I don't want to become somebody else.
I want to be the boy from the village.
You know, there's something about that.
In the meantime, I'm American.
And I love the country.
I have the same fears and hopes that most of us have.
The fears have developed dramatically over the last 20 years in America.
In what ways?
Well, the values.
We had a country.
Give you an opinion about it.
I hope that the world is not going to be.
We had a country that had clear values, but Judeo-Christian values.
We didn't have to be believers, but we had Judeo-Christian values.
Now we have 350 million different values.
Each one runs around because we didn't insist.
We gave up teaching those values.
We gave up showing consequent less if we don't, including eternity, teaching in school.
We have given up who we are, but we still want to be who we were.
That's kind of silly.
But that's what we have done.
And so we are on the edge of one way or another.
We talk about socialism.
And the people that talk about socialism don't even know what it is.
I haven't heard anybody explain socialism to me.
Or even those leaders that are foreign that are against it.
The key element that America should know about socialism and doesn't.
If you look at the countries that were socialists, including but but take Europe take all of the Eastern European countries for 70 years in socialism, communism.
Take Russia out of the equation for a moment.
They are like all the other countries.
In 70 years, we talk about freedom.
There's something much deeper.
Show me one thought that came out of those countries in the 70 years, but otherwise you eliminate thinking.
And that's what we want.
And that's what we look at.
Well, we learned before that and if we would still have Judeo-Christian values, we wouldn't accept it in the first place.
That's socialism.
But we talk about it.
Oh.
All I can say to you, America, where the hell are you going?
We still.
Oh, are we a critic?
God shed its grace on thee, yes.
But my goodness, we have to we should really worry right now.
We should really be concerned.
We should really do something.
What should we do?
We should go demand and insist on thinking.
Now, if I am going to say men can have children, or if I cannot answer that question, that means I am not thinking anymore, or I refuse to think.
If I am in a city like Detroit, which is a disaster to a great extent, please, Detroit, don't call me.
But it is.
I lived there for a while for 80 years, yet I vote every year for the same, every time for the same party.
I am not thinking.
We have to encourage that people think in our schools again, that at least they know a bit.
What do you think about you?
Again, high intent.
Why do they march against moving illegals?
Because they have no intents, they have no purpose themselves.
They have no purpose.
So you look for a momentary purpose, which is gone.
And then you're really helpless.
Purpose.
We have to teach people again to have purpose, high purpose, purpose of value, purpose for a great country where we respect each other.
Purpose of having a life that is fulfilled, where you can think, where you can express.
Go and look at them.
Could they express?
No, that's why no thought came from Eastern Europe.
Those of us who lifted actually, I lifted.
I went every year to visit my cousins in East Germany.
The stories I can tell you, it's unbelievable.
And that's what we want because we have no higher purpose.
Can you share one story?
One story when you go visit East Germany from your family, what they experience.
Okay, my cousin, chief anesthesiologist in the number one hospital.
I walk the sidewalks without light and with holes in East Berlin.
I walk to her apartment, this old stairway with one bulb hanging down, going into her apartment.
She is a chief anesthesiologist.
Her husband has this little technical magazine that he owns, that he does, that was lost ownership.
In their apartment, in the kitchen, they have a plastic square with plastic curtains, that's their shower.
Okay?
That's how you live.
But they have applied for another apartment.
The average wait for another apartment is 10 years.
Wow.
They also applied for a car six years ago, but it's not there yet.
Now you tell me this works and speaking up against it, they were not allowed.
After all, you're not allowed to think.
So how can you get creative?
Now, the wall comes down.
Four years later, I visit them.
They have a new house by the river with two Mazidas staying there.
They live in a free country where they can work, make a win.
What do you want?
But did it work for that now?
You cannot live in a free country and hope that somebody buys it for you.
That is that you sentence yourself into that position.
Oh, but you sentence yourself.
It's not others.
You define yourself.
Not the government.
Not the president.
Not the other race.
You define yourself.
That is the thing.
And they were defined by the government.
And suddenly come out and decide to define themselves as winners.
And they're winning.
Yeah, good for them.
I mean, I went there in 89.
I lived there in 89 and Germany was, you guys, in 1990, you won the World Cup.
Yeah.
Right?
That's when the famous singer was Matthias Gaim.
Fadam Ichliebdisch Ischlib dish Nicht was the son.
Fadam Ich Brauchtisch Ich Brauchtischnich.
Something like that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's when David Hasselhoff was God, when Sat Einz was the channel.
And you guys had a wheel of fortune called Rudy Tooty Frutti, something like that.
I don't know what it was called.
The show with the girl, you know, half-naked girl doing wheel.
Very weird.
From Iran, you go there, you're like, wait a minute, what's going on with Germany?
What's going on?
Yeah.
I had a great time in Germany, though.
Putting the Link Below00:01:00
I had a very good time.
Good memories in Germany.
Horse, I can talk to you for hours.
The amount of wisdom you have is unbelievable.
And in my mind, I was hoping for this conversation, and it was even a better conversation than what I thought it was going to be.
Thank you, Horace.
So I appreciate you for coming down and sitting down.
For the folks watching this, we're going to put the link below to the book, Excellence Wins.
We'll put the link below for folks to go support this.
The rest of the ideology will be in the book as well.
Horse, thank you so much for this.
It's been a pleasure having you on.
I have gone through many sessions.
It's how the discussion runs is always up to the interviewer.
Well, it was very easy talking to you, and I learned a lot.
Thank you, sir.
Appreciate it.
Thank you.
Delighted.
Success is built on how you think.
Influence is built on how you show up.
Every detail matters because presence speaks before you do.