October 26, 2023 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, a legend in the hotel world, Horst Schulze has reshaped how service and hospitality are defined in business—standards that have become world famous. Throughout the years he worked for both Hilton Hotels and Hyatt Hotels Corporation before becoming one of the founding members of the luxury hotel chain, The Ritz Carlton in 1983. Here's Horst with his story.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American People.
And to search for the Our American Stories podcast, go
to the iHeartRadio app, to Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
get your podcasts. A legend and leader in the hotel world,
(00:30):
Horse Schultze has reshaped how service and hospitality are defined
in business standards that have become world famous. Throughout the years,
he worked for both Hilton Hotels and Hyatt Hotels Corporation
before becoming one of the founding members of the luxury
hotel chain The Rich Carlton in nineteen eighty three. Here's
(00:51):
Horst with his story.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I was born thirty nine when the war started in Germany,
small village, and my father soon afterwards was drafted and
was in the war. I my my mother, in fact,
was an extreme opposition to what was going on from
the beginning, from before Hitler came in. In fact, when
(01:17):
they tried to hit assassinate Hitler, the message came in
the radio that Hitler was dead, that Hitler was assassinated,
which was a signal for others to take over. For
the that was involved in the plot to take over
my mother happened to be in a crocery store and
and the the owner Crossers Store screamed, ay, they just
killed Hitler, and and my mother said emotionally, thank god finally,
(01:45):
But the next DAYE was arrested before that reason, and
and and probably would have been a serious ending if
her uncle wasn't a committed Nazi who helped her to
get out of it. So that was the life even
in the village. The village is a small village. There
(02:05):
is no hotel. I want to emphasize that in the
village there was none. In fact, I never was in
a hotel. I never was in a restaurant before. But
when I was eleven years old, I told my parents
I would like to work in the hotel business. And
they said, well, okay, because it didn't take it serious.
But I was possessed with it for some reason. We
(02:28):
don't know why. Nobody knows why. I must have read something.
I mean, that's what we assume. That was not a
good thing to do at the time. In a small
village in term near you you went into technical chops.
If it would have been an engineer, now that was
the ultimate honor at the time, or a doctor or
something like that, of course, but nearly equally if you
(02:51):
were a carpenter or anything that handwork, hand craft work.
And I said hotel business. My grandfather asked me, don't
tell anybody. It was embarrassed. It became it became the
discussion in the class what you're going to do? So
and it's just when you when you come close to fourteen,
(03:13):
that's a discussion in Germany because you go done in
two directions. Either you learn a trade and go to
that trade school at the same time, or you go
into higher education. And so they asked around teachers, so
what a you're gonna do that? And they said, you know,
I'm going to go trade? What are you going to do?
Hotel business? What is that? While I can work as
a coconutvada? Now that was funny to everybody. The class
(03:37):
was screaming, laughing, And when they went home told their
parents obviously, why is it gone? That was funny? And
uh and I and that day gone, I happen to
play in the streets for him to play soccer. Was
a little bit late coming home, but by the time
came home, the neighbors already had a run to my mother.
(03:58):
But you know what he said in school some very terrible,
so that was something really terrible, you know. Slowly my
parents started to inquire and found there is a way
to go to a boarding school in about one hundred
kilometers away, a hotel boarding school, and then you get
(04:20):
placed into hotels from there, and that's what they did
and found done the best hotel in the region. After
that to work as an apprentice, which meant busboy, and
also it was one hundred kalambas in the other directions.
So I left when I home when I was fourteen.
(04:43):
The beginning, you wash dishes, you cleaned as ashtix was
the only thing you were allowed to clean or do
in the restaurant in the beginning, in the very beginning,
and done, and finally and wash dishes, wash glasses and
sort thing. I will come in the morning before the breakfast, cleaned,
the room, cleaned after breakfast, clean before lunch, et cetera,
et cetera. I mean, it's nearly all amount of cleaning
(05:07):
all day long. And in fact, it was kind of
funny when in the very beginning, the first few days
there the madri d who was an exception gentleman. His
never was kyl Seidler. Kyl was an exceptional gentleman, truly exceptional,
you being that you running run across once in a while.
(05:28):
And he told us there were others that started at
the same time. And we lived in a dorm in
a dorm room in the hotel. And he told us, now,
from now on, when you come to work, don't just
come to work. Come to work to be excellent in
what you're doing. Excellent. That went over my head, obviously
(05:49):
at with fourteen excellent and what I'm doing excellent and
cleaning ash trees and aceland, washing dishes and glasses and
cleaning floors and so on, while ya do it, that's
excellent that I can. I didn't get the gist of
what he's saying. In fact, the funny thing is he
used the word excellent, which is really not a Trump word.
He used that word all the time. He used Trump
(06:12):
word stool, but used that word excellence. In fact, sometimes
when he passed you, he looked in ISAs excellence. He
kept reminding you and selling us on doing better. And
that went over my head. But slowly I crasped his
thinking because not because of what he said, because how
(06:36):
he lived.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
And you've been listening to Horse Chelsea tell a heck
of his story. When he was eleven years old, he
told his parents he wanted to work in the hotel business,
and that wasn't exactly a respectable idea in Germany at
the time. An engineer, a doctor, a carpenter, those were
respectable professions. Where did he figure out that he wanted
(06:58):
to be in the hotel business? He didn't know why,
but at the age of fourteen, hotel boarding school. Then
within a one hundred mile radius found work at a
fine hotel where all he did was clean. And then
came that Matrede carl who taught him a word that
would define his life, the word excellence. When we come back,
(07:20):
more of Horse Schultz's story and the story of the
rich Carlton here on our American Stories. Here at our
American Stories, we bring you inspiring stories of history, sports, business,
faith and love. Stories from a great and beautiful country
that need to be told that we can't do it
(07:41):
without you. Our stories are free to listen to, but
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Stories dot com and click the donate button. Give a little,
give a lot, help us keep the great American stories coming.
That's our American Stories dot com. And we continue with
(08:10):
our American stories. We last left off with Horse Schultzi,
founder of the Rich Carlton Hotels, talking about a man
named Carl who changed his fourteen year old life forever.
Carl was the matre d at the luxury hotel. Young
Horst was serving out his apprenticeship with as a busboy.
(08:30):
Carl kept using that word excellence to define Horst's work ethic,
an English word that stood out considering they only spoke German.
Here again is Horst what it did?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
He was a human being of excellent everything he did,
and he would have never ended a restaurant without looking
absolutely perfect and working in tails at a time totally
perfect perfection and everything he did. So you got a
sense of what they meant with excellence. And I got
(09:06):
hit that night, very very It was like a revelation.
That night. I worked in the corner and I felt
the Medadi coming into the room. I mean that you
could feel it when he entered the room. She just
knew it. He had the presence penetrated. And I turned
around and he just approached the table and I saw
(09:29):
something that or recognized something that had seen before, but
it didn't really recognize, it didn't really feel it. The
guests on the table that they approached were proud that
he came to them and said wow. And now I
look at that moment, the medody, those final ationds gentlemen,
(09:50):
and they were we were the finest hotel close to Bond,
which was at the time the capital of West Germany,
and all the diploma. So I came in that hotel,
came to that hotel. This was an exceptional place. But
I saw that these people very proud that he came
to the table, and I suddenly realized everybody in the
(10:12):
room things that Carl Zeidler is the most important person
in the room. Everybody respects him. And for the first
time my life, I realized that I can define myself.
I'm not defined by but by job. But the name
of the job is by what is I define myself
(10:33):
how I execute my life or including my job and
my job to a great extent, because that's why I
spent my life, my time. I got the point of excellence.
I got it very strongly, even when I jump forward
for a moment, because I believe it or not, I
(10:54):
can see my methody in front of me right now,
and that's why I tell the next story. Years later,
I'm working in San Francisco in the Hilton as a
room service vader. I had come a few months before
to the US with the intent of going back to
Europe within the next eighteen months or so. But my
(11:15):
plan was seeing how room service worked in the Hilton
and San Francisco with several rooms of supervisors who got promoter,
and saw one promoter after only three months being there,
and as a wait a minute, if they get promoted,
I can get promoted to room service supervisor and then
(11:35):
got back to Europe and having learned the language better,
having worked in a different culture, learned the culture, and
and having been promoted, that will be my kickoff for
my career in Europe. When I got back, well, sure
enough a few months laters. And by the way, I
knew I was the best vada in the house. I
had worked in the finest hotels in Europe in the meantime,
(11:58):
truly in the finest I had knowledge about my profession.
I didn't just deliver food. I had knowledge, and I
had one more in my room service manager was German also,
so I got the inn I will be promoted, and
then I could see it. I knew it. I built
(12:20):
everything around it. And then a few months later, sure enough,
while the supervisors was promoted out and another way that not,
I was promoted into the supervisor's shop. That was devastating
to me. It was my whole thinking was around it.
It was devastating, and of course what do we think
(12:42):
then as a young man, I think that was stupidity
by management, outrageous and so on. It taught me several
months too slowly, and I suffered. I truly suffered through that.
I took a few months to admit the guy that
got the promotion deserved it more. I was very young,
(13:04):
partying in the evening, being laid in the morning. I
wasn't only tired. You could see from one hundred feet
that I was tired as I come to work and
sometimes five minutes late. When my manager asked me to
do something related to my work, I said, why me?
Why not the other guys? And there was an attitude
(13:27):
of looking down at the guests. They don't even know
how to handle silver. And I developed my think in
the elegance. Yes, there was a lot of elegance. It
was truly an elegant restaurant. This elegance without warmth and
caring is arrogance. Elegance without warmth is arrogance looking down
(13:51):
at the guests and of course the restaurant and survive.
The food was exceptional, the service deliver was I was
repelling rather than attracting. You don't go out to eat.
You have eaten a food near refrigerator. You go out
to feel good, to experience something excellent, and when you
(14:15):
take that away in your service delivery, you kill it all.
The gentleman who got promoted never did that. He was
in time, He was in a good moon. In the
morning he said, yes, I'm happy to When he was
out something I had done, went back to my little room.
I had a little furnished room and the worst district
(14:37):
in San Francisco. But I went to my little room
and talked to my madro D, who had passed away
in the meantime. But I had a serious conversation with
him and apologized. I went to work to work, not
to be excellent I had. I had drifted away in
the situation and the situation and young promise it would
(15:00):
never happen again. I absolutely made a commitment there from
now on, I will never go to work for anything
less but create excellence of what I'm doing. I met
that solemn commitment there and kept on working and I
got my promotion. I worked in a private club and
(15:23):
then joined Hilton again as a catering manager, became assistant
Food and Barris director, became Food and Barrised director of
the two hotels, always working having in mind excellence of
what I'm doing. Truly was committed whatever I'm doing and
(15:45):
do it, will try and do it better than anybody else,
for myself, for my major d and it was fulfilling.
It's much more fulfilling than just going to work. That
was always there doing right and Dana joined hired as
a Food and Bears tractor in Chicago in the Number
(16:08):
one hotel. Was promoted two years later to room's manager,
and a year later was promoted channel manager in Pittsburgh.
As soon as I took the job, people called me
and said, oh my goodness, Pittsburgh, you must be kidding me.
It's the worst place to work because as a union,
(16:29):
that is truly you cannot work with. So what I
can work I have a thick skin, I can work
with a union.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
And you've been listening to Horace Schultze tell a heck
of a story about his own life and particularly the
impact that this one man called this matre d had
on it. And that is the standard of excellence which
he was to try his best to carry through his life.
As he said, it's much more satisfying to go to
work when you're thinking about excellence. And there's also a
(17:01):
terrific story about being passed over, and he realized ultimately
that he was passed over for good reason. The person
chosen was more qualified than him, he was better than him.
Rather than lash out at management and quit, he looked
within and found out the source of the problem, which
was himself. And then back to that excellent standard which
(17:23):
again would drive his life. When we come back more
of Horse Schultz's life story, the co founder of the
Rich Carlton. Here on our American stories, and we continue
(18:09):
with our American stories and with Horst Chulsey's story, and
he's the co founder of the Rich Carlton. Let's pick
up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
There was the classical thing was the first day at work.
I was sitting in my office for the first time,
and general manager of a hotel, and I'm sitting on
my on my chair with the secretary. Comes wrong and
the union is coming, so let him come come in
(18:41):
and here to come with six people, five of them
sit in chairs facing me around one of them and
all that gentleman who incidentally had no hair, no hair, brows, nothing,
and talked like a character in the movie Ya. So
(19:02):
so he turned it, put his back to me, and
he said to ask him him was me? Ask him
if he ever saw car blown up? That was his introduction.
And I said car blow up? No, And he half
turned around to me and said, I meant with somebody
in it. There was a warning to me. That was
(19:25):
the first introduction by a union to me, absolutely unbelievable.
And I was stunned, of course, And he said what
does that all mean? And they left if they after
give me several warnings to treat our people properly, treat
(19:47):
our people properly. And I kept on, send them my
people to the hour, says said treat and angry. Look
at me angry. Obviously it was clear they want to
intimidate me from day one, and uh. And this went
on and and by the way that union bossed the baldy.
(20:07):
He c he called others that I had to have
baldy at none. So this kind of funny thing. He
showed up every day at one o'clock, every single day,
five days a week. He showed up in the office
in a pool of secretaries, and he screamed where is
the and there's some bad words, which was me looking
(20:28):
for me every day. He knew where my office is,
but he came in the script abee is the and
he'd like to use the bad words? And done. He
met with me and up separated me about anything that
happened potentially and that that lasted several months, when one
day and became I and we started. I started in June.
(20:52):
It w in November. They he didn't show up, and
so I I w what's happening? I did always at
one o'clock. I knew it will be there, and I
didn't want to have bigger scene than there was already.
Every day he didn't show up, so I ran to
the union hall, which was eight blocks away. I ran
there and balked then and frankly I said the same
(21:15):
thing that they said, where are they? And I used
the sand birds, and he said, you can't go in there.
I said, but where are they in an executive conference?
I said, like, heck, I can't go in there. And
I woke bore in the door and said, where there
are you? I was waiting for you. We have a
(21:37):
meeting and you don't show up. What's the matter with you?
You can't be in here? And said like heck, I
can't be. We have a meeting. You didn't show up.
You and I want to if we have our meeting.
This and this happened. They said we'll talk and finally
they said we'll talk about tomorrow. And I left and
(21:59):
a couple of years a little bit I left. By
that time I got a naught and well, one of
the people in there that was in the room said,
when you left, we said, the SOB likes it. Because
if they want me to be intimidated, now they realized
he is enjoying it. We may we have to have
a different approach, and and the relationship became very good.
(22:24):
Their starter respect. We had became in the meantime a
very busy hotel. It was a terrible hotel before. We
were very busy, highly highly rated, the highest rated in
Pittsburgh highly respected. The employees were happy, they made money.
Suddenly we hired more people. And it was leadership that
created this environment. If every employee understands the vision of
(22:48):
the company, and every understand employe understands the motive of
that vision, and every body, everybody understands how their individual
motives connects to the mode of the organization with other us,
the vision is truly good for all concerned. And if
you said the vision has an organization, you have to organize.
(23:11):
Is this good for all concerns? Is it good for
the investor? Of course, If it's good for the customer,
it has to be. Is it good for the employee
it must be? And is it good for society as
a whole? And if the answer is here, done, asks
yourself what God approve? And if everything is yes, then
you know you're doing the right thing. In fact, from
(23:34):
there on all your decisions are easy. Only done. Can
that vision be a real vision for the organization? But
then you have to let everybody know. And if everybody
knows and everybody knows the expectation of the customer, now
you have an aligned workforce. Otherwise it's on your rhetoric.
We're talking about empowerment, and nobody's empowered. If you tell
(23:59):
an employee here what is wrong, and I want to
have some response to that, they say, I call a manager.
You know that power to make a decision. We empowered
our employees to make a decision up to two thousand
dollars any time, and I would not question them. And
of course when I introduced that, it was like letting
(24:23):
go a nuclear bomb. You mean you want an passboy
to give away two thousand dollars. No, I want a
passboy to keep the customer. And it is of extreme
importance because to understand, there are three times of customers.
(24:46):
There is the loyal customer, there is the satisfied customer,
and there's the dissatisfied customer. The loyal customer is your ambassador.
The dissatisfied customer is a terrorist against the company. Now
what am I willing to do to change a terrorist
(25:08):
to an ambassador. I cannot do that. The employee who
faces the customer can do that. And if the customer
has a complaint, we should move heaven and earth to
keep that customer anyway. And in the case of a
bass as an example, if the guest comes in the morning,
(25:29):
for breakfast, and the buss boy said, good morning, sir.
I hope you have a night stay with us, and
the guest said, no, I didn't, my TV didn't work.
In that moment, the bossba owns the TV, and that
moment the bassa should look at im said I feel embarrassed.
I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. I feel so bad.
(25:50):
I will buy a breakfast this morning. Guess what you
just created a loyal guest in that guest is embarrassed,
and the even complaint the bass boy is by wow,
what kind of an organization is this? I trust this
organization and loyalty is nothing but trust.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
You.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
See, you want to cretiny run, but it guess trusts you.
That's why they deal with you. After they trust you,
why should they deal with somebody else. That's what it's
all about.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
And you've been listening to the co founder of the Fitz,
Carlton or Chelsea, tell a heck of a story about
vision and motive in an organization. Is the vision good
for the investor? Is it good for the customer, the employee,
and society? And would God approve? Horst asked if the
answer all of those questions is a yes, you're on
(26:41):
your way. And then it's all about execution on the
expectations of the customer. That idea of giving two thousand
dollars to employees is spend on behalf of the customer
to keep that customer and to keep that customer loyal.
So powerful, and by the way, I love what Horse
said about customers re kind. There is a loyal customer
(27:02):
who's an ambassador, the satisfied customer, and the dissatisfied customer
whom Horse called a terrorist against the company. The story
of Horse Chulzy, the story of the Rich Carlton, and
so much more here on our American stories. And we
(27:37):
continue with our American stories and the story of Horse
Schultzy and the story of the Rich Carlton. Let's pick
up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
I actually had met the stadium in a focus group
using a word on a list, and I want to
know what do they feel when they always say I
want to feel at home in the hotel. I don't
know what that means. And this analyst came back and said, Gee,
they don't want to feel at home. They want to
feel like in their subconscious memory they remember their mother's home.
(28:14):
I said, wow, when we said what is this. Well,
in the mother's home, everything was done for them. And
here's the key that happened when something went wrong and
they went to their mom and said, Mom, Mom, there's
something terrible, Mom, there's something. What did? Mom said? Come here, Mom?
Tell him in the arm and said I'm here for you,
(28:37):
and said that's what they want. So we had to
empower our employees to say I'm here for you. So
the situation, I have a guest left their computer and
called and was very distraught. But they said, but I
have to take my I have to take my plan
(28:57):
and I'm flying to Hawaii right away. I need you can.
You have to see that it gets as fast as
possible there. The main target went and flew that money
at that time, the security and all that wasn't there.
Went to there, but got the next flight and brought
on the computer, messaged them there as a computer, and
took the next flight back. By the way, didn't spend
the vaccasion there. Now I thought, gosh, what I'm going
(29:21):
to do now? This was too much? How do I
tell them? Now? I tell everybody whatever it takes, keep
the customer. I'm going to tell them now that was
going too far. Well in the meantime that was spread
and created so much PR. It was worth millions of
dollars of PR at the time. So I didn't say anything.
(29:42):
But frankly I really cringed when I heard that one,
you know, said, wow, maybe I went too far. You know,
But love your neighbor. Why don't you want to make
you is your customers not your neighbor. Why not serve
them in a way where you instill well being in them,
not just give them a product or whatever. You know.
(30:04):
I like to read Two People in Hospitality, the letter
that Saint Benedict wrote to his monasteries as to how
to treat a customer against that arrives. He wrote that
if a guest arrives, treat them as if it was
Jesus himself, and said, by bow and bow down, and
(30:25):
maybe prosted in front of him, and petl toll her attention,
and join him for dinner. If he's by himself it
was here at the time, mentor traveled by himself. Of
course it wasn't year five hundred, and even the abbe
should join for dinner. Even if the abbe is on
a fast, he should prag it and be with that guest,
(30:47):
because treat it as Jesus himself. Now, how close do
we come to that type of service? It doesn't matter.
It doesn't have to be a hotel. It can be
a shoe store. When they walk in there your customers
to your guess, now, how do you treat them? People?
When I walked out the day when I left Ritz Carlton,
(31:08):
my wife picked me up and children, we got the
glass files. We said good bye, and then the elevator,
I said, ah, I didn't cry. And as I walked down,
all the employees from downtown the hotel and here were
lining my way from the elevator and obviously all the
way to my car. And there I see people that
(31:31):
started as dishwashers who went out department heads. I see
people that were successful the who were crying, and I
was crying and and I was so For example, I
saw eb who came in as a refugee from their
(31:52):
rugby working as a dishwasher, and it was I saw
them in orientation. But soon later I walked by the
dish washing and I've forgotten who that wasn't There was
this one kid who said very friendly, hello, good morning, sir.
How are you today. And remember, notice that he's very clean.
(32:12):
It's a very dirty chop be leave me steam and dirty,
but he looked very very clean. He worked behind the dishwasher,
so I didn't give it much other thought. But a
couple of this later, I said, walk by again again, sir,
good morning, how are you today? And now look is
this refugee He was staying front dishwaker. Could see even
(32:33):
his shoes were shining at the Wait a minute, and
I said to the to the head of the department,
this kid, is he working at all? I mean, he's
always clean. He is not working right away my suspicion,
I guess that's my German cynicism that came through. He said,
he's so clean, he can't be working. He said, miss
(32:53):
should say you're wrong. He's the hardest work I have.
But he's so proud. He changes a couple of times
a day. He he's a proud young man. He works
unbelievably hard. Whoa yeah. Pretty soon I come go through
the air again and he's working room service as a veder.
The room miniager asked for him because he was exceptionally
became a veder. A few months later, he worked as
(33:15):
a captain in banquet and everybody wanted him. And he
is now by the way manager in the Marriott over
here in the neighborhood, was longtime hotel manager in the
Reds Colon downtown. See this man create excellence in what
he was doing and he gets to reward. Everybody gets
(33:36):
to reward. The reward is going to come sooner or later.
And here's this dishwasher who became a hotel manager, a
little refugee from the rugby, and he realized, I defined
myself as excellent and you get the rewards. The rewards
always come with that. Now, this is all decisions. I
(33:59):
always tell him a paches, I'm in love with my wife.
After forty one years. I don't only love her, I'm
in love with her. I finally made that decision about
twenty years ago to stay in love and be in love. No,
(34:20):
I have to work on that. Isn't it amazing? How
hard to be broke to make our our business is successful?
We do everything, everything we do, how hard to we
work and the most important thing in our life and
the only union and this earth that is God ordained,
(34:42):
And we should make the decision to work on that
very hard and make it exceptional too. It's a decision.
And then I have friends that say, we're getting divorce
because we don't feel like it anymore. You must be
kidding me to do Who is in charge here? You
and your decision or some feeling that comes somehow enters
(35:04):
the room out of nowhere. You control your feeling. It's
a decision. It's truly up to you. I I don't think,
In fact, I know I wouldn't have had that opportunity
if it would have been Germany. In Germany, they would
(35:24):
have asked what college did you go to? And who
is your family? If you will, Nobody asked that in America.
They asked in America said what are you producing? In America?
That that is the create difference is it's truly up
(35:45):
to you. That's why it gets so annoyed when people
blame other things. In this country, it's up to you
create excellence and you will get the rewards. And that
is not true in other countries. And that's why this
is the land of opportunity, and it is so angering
(36:06):
me when Americans say we don't have everybody. Everybody has everybody,
and we still sometimes plame others with middle maggot. There's
only one person to plan and that and I can
introduce you to him. Go in the wash from look
in the mirror and you will see him. Period. Of
(36:30):
course there's circumstances of illness and so on. Of course
were not at all. We know that, as are the
circumstances that happen. But as a generality we always blame society.
We blame the pressity, we blame the mayor, We plame this,
we plam. Stop plaiming. It's not necessary, it's wrong in
(36:51):
this country, because this country gives you the opportunity that
you want. Period.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
And a terrific job on the production and storytelling by
Greg Hengler, and a special thanks to Horace Chelsey for
sharing his story. He's the co founder of the Ritz
Carlton his book Excellence Wins, a no nonsense guide to
becoming the best in a world of compromise and in
the end, it all gets down to excellence and a
commitment to keep the customer and serve the customer. And
(37:22):
his Christian walk, no doubt, well no doubt helped him
in that endeavor. That great Saint Benedict Lyne, that horse
quotes if a guest arrives, treat him as if Jesus
himself arrived. And then there was that story of that
refugee from a Nairobi who started as a dishwasher and
(37:42):
ended up becoming a hotel manager at the Ritz Carlton
and then later a local Marriott. And only he said,
is that possible in the United States, That kind of
movement where family ties don't matter, where wealth and class
and education don't matter, where excellence matters and competency matters.
(38:02):
The story of Horse Schultzi, the story of the rich
Carlton in the end, the story of the American dream.
Here on our American stories.
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American People.
And to search for the Our American Stories podcast, go
to the iHeartRadio app, to Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
get your podcasts. A legend and leader in the hotel world,
(00:30):
Horse Schultze has reshaped how service and hospitality are defined
in business standards that have become world famous. Throughout the years,
he worked for both Hilton Hotels and Hyatt Hotels Corporation
before becoming one of the founding members of the luxury
hotel chain The Rich Carlton in nineteen eighty three. Here's
(00:51):
Horst with his story.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I was born thirty nine when the war started in Germany,
small village, and my father soon afterwards was drafted and
was in the war. I my my mother, in fact,
was an extreme opposition to what was going on from
the beginning, from before Hitler came in. In fact, when
(01:17):
they tried to hit assassinate Hitler, the message came in
the radio that Hitler was dead, that Hitler was assassinated,
which was a signal for others to take over. For
the that was involved in the plot to take over
my mother happened to be in a crocery store and
and the the owner Crossers Store screamed, ay, they just
killed Hitler, and and my mother said emotionally, thank god finally,
(01:45):
But the next DAYE was arrested before that reason, and
and and probably would have been a serious ending if
her uncle wasn't a committed Nazi who helped her to
get out of it. So that was the life even
in the village. The village is a small village. There
(02:05):
is no hotel. I want to emphasize that in the
village there was none. In fact, I never was in
a hotel. I never was in a restaurant before. But
when I was eleven years old, I told my parents
I would like to work in the hotel business. And
they said, well, okay, because it didn't take it serious.
But I was possessed with it for some reason. We
(02:28):
don't know why. Nobody knows why. I must have read something.
I mean, that's what we assume. That was not a
good thing to do at the time. In a small
village in term near you you went into technical chops.
If it would have been an engineer, now that was
the ultimate honor at the time, or a doctor or
something like that, of course, but nearly equally if you
(02:51):
were a carpenter or anything that handwork, hand craft work.
And I said hotel business. My grandfather asked me, don't
tell anybody. It was embarrassed. It became it became the
discussion in the class what you're going to do? So
and it's just when you when you come close to fourteen,
(03:13):
that's a discussion in Germany because you go done in
two directions. Either you learn a trade and go to
that trade school at the same time, or you go
into higher education. And so they asked around teachers, so
what a you're gonna do that? And they said, you know,
I'm going to go trade? What are you going to do?
Hotel business? What is that? While I can work as
a coconutvada? Now that was funny to everybody. The class
(03:37):
was screaming, laughing, And when they went home told their
parents obviously, why is it gone? That was funny? And
uh and I and that day gone, I happen to
play in the streets for him to play soccer. Was
a little bit late coming home, but by the time
came home, the neighbors already had a run to my mother.
(03:58):
But you know what he said in school some very terrible,
so that was something really terrible, you know. Slowly my
parents started to inquire and found there is a way
to go to a boarding school in about one hundred
kilometers away, a hotel boarding school, and then you get
(04:20):
placed into hotels from there, and that's what they did
and found done the best hotel in the region. After
that to work as an apprentice, which meant busboy, and
also it was one hundred kalambas in the other directions.
So I left when I home when I was fourteen.
(04:43):
The beginning, you wash dishes, you cleaned as ashtix was
the only thing you were allowed to clean or do
in the restaurant in the beginning, in the very beginning,
and done, and finally and wash dishes, wash glasses and
sort thing. I will come in the morning before the breakfast, cleaned,
the room, cleaned after breakfast, clean before lunch, et cetera,
et cetera. I mean, it's nearly all amount of cleaning
(05:07):
all day long. And in fact, it was kind of
funny when in the very beginning, the first few days
there the madri d who was an exception gentleman. His
never was kyl Seidler. Kyl was an exceptional gentleman, truly exceptional,
you being that you running run across once in a while.
(05:28):
And he told us there were others that started at
the same time. And we lived in a dorm in
a dorm room in the hotel. And he told us, now,
from now on, when you come to work, don't just
come to work. Come to work to be excellent in
what you're doing. Excellent. That went over my head, obviously
(05:49):
at with fourteen excellent and what I'm doing excellent and
cleaning ash trees and aceland, washing dishes and glasses and
cleaning floors and so on, while ya do it, that's
excellent that I can. I didn't get the gist of
what he's saying. In fact, the funny thing is he
used the word excellent, which is really not a Trump word.
He used that word all the time. He used Trump
(06:12):
word stool, but used that word excellence. In fact, sometimes
when he passed you, he looked in ISAs excellence. He
kept reminding you and selling us on doing better. And
that went over my head. But slowly I crasped his
thinking because not because of what he said, because how
(06:36):
he lived.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
And you've been listening to Horse Chelsea tell a heck
of his story. When he was eleven years old, he
told his parents he wanted to work in the hotel business,
and that wasn't exactly a respectable idea in Germany at
the time. An engineer, a doctor, a carpenter, those were
respectable professions. Where did he figure out that he wanted
(06:58):
to be in the hotel business? He didn't know why,
but at the age of fourteen, hotel boarding school. Then
within a one hundred mile radius found work at a
fine hotel where all he did was clean. And then
came that Matrede carl who taught him a word that
would define his life, the word excellence. When we come back,
(07:20):
more of Horse Schultz's story and the story of the
rich Carlton here on our American Stories. Here at our
American Stories, we bring you inspiring stories of history, sports, business,
faith and love. Stories from a great and beautiful country
that need to be told that we can't do it
(07:41):
without you. Our stories are free to listen to, but
they're not free to make. If you love our stories
in America like we do, please go to our American
Stories dot com and click the donate button. Give a little,
give a lot, help us keep the great American stories coming.
That's our American Stories dot com. And we continue with
(08:10):
our American stories. We last left off with Horse Schultzi,
founder of the Rich Carlton Hotels, talking about a man
named Carl who changed his fourteen year old life forever.
Carl was the matre d at the luxury hotel. Young
Horst was serving out his apprenticeship with as a busboy.
(08:30):
Carl kept using that word excellence to define Horst's work ethic,
an English word that stood out considering they only spoke German.
Here again is Horst what it did?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
He was a human being of excellent everything he did,
and he would have never ended a restaurant without looking
absolutely perfect and working in tails at a time totally
perfect perfection and everything he did. So you got a
sense of what they meant with excellence. And I got
(09:06):
hit that night, very very It was like a revelation.
That night. I worked in the corner and I felt
the Medadi coming into the room. I mean that you
could feel it when he entered the room. She just
knew it. He had the presence penetrated. And I turned
around and he just approached the table and I saw
(09:29):
something that or recognized something that had seen before, but
it didn't really recognize, it didn't really feel it. The
guests on the table that they approached were proud that
he came to them and said wow. And now I
look at that moment, the medody, those final ationds gentlemen,
(09:50):
and they were we were the finest hotel close to Bond,
which was at the time the capital of West Germany,
and all the diploma. So I came in that hotel,
came to that hotel. This was an exceptional place. But
I saw that these people very proud that he came
to the table, and I suddenly realized everybody in the
(10:12):
room things that Carl Zeidler is the most important person
in the room. Everybody respects him. And for the first
time my life, I realized that I can define myself.
I'm not defined by but by job. But the name
of the job is by what is I define myself
(10:33):
how I execute my life or including my job and
my job to a great extent, because that's why I
spent my life, my time. I got the point of excellence.
I got it very strongly, even when I jump forward
for a moment, because I believe it or not, I
(10:54):
can see my methody in front of me right now,
and that's why I tell the next story. Years later,
I'm working in San Francisco in the Hilton as a
room service vader. I had come a few months before
to the US with the intent of going back to
Europe within the next eighteen months or so. But my
(11:15):
plan was seeing how room service worked in the Hilton
and San Francisco with several rooms of supervisors who got promoter,
and saw one promoter after only three months being there,
and as a wait a minute, if they get promoted,
I can get promoted to room service supervisor and then
(11:35):
got back to Europe and having learned the language better,
having worked in a different culture, learned the culture, and
and having been promoted, that will be my kickoff for
my career in Europe. When I got back, well, sure
enough a few months laters. And by the way, I
knew I was the best vada in the house. I
had worked in the finest hotels in Europe in the meantime,
(11:58):
truly in the finest I had knowledge about my profession.
I didn't just deliver food. I had knowledge, and I
had one more in my room service manager was German also,
so I got the inn I will be promoted, and
then I could see it. I knew it. I built
(12:20):
everything around it. And then a few months later, sure enough,
while the supervisors was promoted out and another way that not,
I was promoted into the supervisor's shop. That was devastating
to me. It was my whole thinking was around it.
It was devastating, and of course what do we think
(12:42):
then as a young man, I think that was stupidity
by management, outrageous and so on. It taught me several
months too slowly, and I suffered. I truly suffered through that.
I took a few months to admit the guy that
got the promotion deserved it more. I was very young,
(13:04):
partying in the evening, being laid in the morning. I
wasn't only tired. You could see from one hundred feet
that I was tired as I come to work and
sometimes five minutes late. When my manager asked me to
do something related to my work, I said, why me?
Why not the other guys? And there was an attitude
(13:27):
of looking down at the guests. They don't even know
how to handle silver. And I developed my think in
the elegance. Yes, there was a lot of elegance. It
was truly an elegant restaurant. This elegance without warmth and
caring is arrogance. Elegance without warmth is arrogance looking down
(13:51):
at the guests and of course the restaurant and survive.
The food was exceptional, the service deliver was I was
repelling rather than attracting. You don't go out to eat.
You have eaten a food near refrigerator. You go out
to feel good, to experience something excellent, and when you
(14:15):
take that away in your service delivery, you kill it all.
The gentleman who got promoted never did that. He was
in time, He was in a good moon. In the
morning he said, yes, I'm happy to When he was
out something I had done, went back to my little room.
I had a little furnished room and the worst district
(14:37):
in San Francisco. But I went to my little room
and talked to my madro D, who had passed away
in the meantime. But I had a serious conversation with
him and apologized. I went to work to work, not
to be excellent I had. I had drifted away in
the situation and the situation and young promise it would
(15:00):
never happen again. I absolutely made a commitment there from
now on, I will never go to work for anything
less but create excellence of what I'm doing. I met
that solemn commitment there and kept on working and I
got my promotion. I worked in a private club and
(15:23):
then joined Hilton again as a catering manager, became assistant
Food and Barris director, became Food and Barrised director of
the two hotels, always working having in mind excellence of
what I'm doing. Truly was committed whatever I'm doing and
(15:45):
do it, will try and do it better than anybody else,
for myself, for my major d and it was fulfilling.
It's much more fulfilling than just going to work. That
was always there doing right and Dana joined hired as
a Food and Bears tractor in Chicago in the Number
(16:08):
one hotel. Was promoted two years later to room's manager,
and a year later was promoted channel manager in Pittsburgh.
As soon as I took the job, people called me
and said, oh my goodness, Pittsburgh, you must be kidding me.
It's the worst place to work because as a union,
(16:29):
that is truly you cannot work with. So what I
can work I have a thick skin, I can work
with a union.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
And you've been listening to Horace Schultze tell a heck
of a story about his own life and particularly the
impact that this one man called this matre d had
on it. And that is the standard of excellence which
he was to try his best to carry through his life.
As he said, it's much more satisfying to go to
work when you're thinking about excellence. And there's also a
(17:01):
terrific story about being passed over, and he realized ultimately
that he was passed over for good reason. The person
chosen was more qualified than him, he was better than him.
Rather than lash out at management and quit, he looked
within and found out the source of the problem, which
was himself. And then back to that excellent standard which
(17:23):
again would drive his life. When we come back more
of Horse Schultz's life story, the co founder of the
Rich Carlton. Here on our American stories, and we continue
(18:09):
with our American stories and with Horst Chulsey's story, and
he's the co founder of the Rich Carlton. Let's pick
up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
There was the classical thing was the first day at work.
I was sitting in my office for the first time,
and general manager of a hotel, and I'm sitting on
my on my chair with the secretary. Comes wrong and
the union is coming, so let him come come in
(18:41):
and here to come with six people, five of them
sit in chairs facing me around one of them and
all that gentleman who incidentally had no hair, no hair, brows, nothing,
and talked like a character in the movie Ya. So
(19:02):
so he turned it, put his back to me, and
he said to ask him him was me? Ask him
if he ever saw car blown up? That was his introduction.
And I said car blow up? No, And he half
turned around to me and said, I meant with somebody
in it. There was a warning to me. That was
(19:25):
the first introduction by a union to me, absolutely unbelievable.
And I was stunned, of course, And he said what
does that all mean? And they left if they after
give me several warnings to treat our people properly, treat
(19:47):
our people properly. And I kept on, send them my
people to the hour, says said treat and angry. Look
at me angry. Obviously it was clear they want to
intimidate me from day one, and uh. And this went
on and and by the way that union bossed the baldy.
(20:07):
He c he called others that I had to have
baldy at none. So this kind of funny thing. He
showed up every day at one o'clock, every single day,
five days a week. He showed up in the office
in a pool of secretaries, and he screamed where is
the and there's some bad words, which was me looking
(20:28):
for me every day. He knew where my office is,
but he came in the script abee is the and
he'd like to use the bad words? And done. He
met with me and up separated me about anything that
happened potentially and that that lasted several months, when one
day and became I and we started. I started in June.
(20:52):
It w in November. They he didn't show up, and
so I I w what's happening? I did always at
one o'clock. I knew it will be there, and I
didn't want to have bigger scene than there was already.
Every day he didn't show up, so I ran to
the union hall, which was eight blocks away. I ran
there and balked then and frankly I said the same
(21:15):
thing that they said, where are they? And I used
the sand birds, and he said, you can't go in there.
I said, but where are they in an executive conference?
I said, like, heck, I can't go in there. And
I woke bore in the door and said, where there
are you? I was waiting for you. We have a
(21:37):
meeting and you don't show up. What's the matter with you?
You can't be in here? And said like heck, I
can't be. We have a meeting. You didn't show up.
You and I want to if we have our meeting.
This and this happened. They said we'll talk and finally
they said we'll talk about tomorrow. And I left and
(21:59):
a couple of years a little bit I left. By
that time I got a naught and well, one of
the people in there that was in the room said,
when you left, we said, the SOB likes it. Because
if they want me to be intimidated, now they realized
he is enjoying it. We may we have to have
a different approach, and and the relationship became very good.
(22:24):
Their starter respect. We had became in the meantime a
very busy hotel. It was a terrible hotel before. We
were very busy, highly highly rated, the highest rated in
Pittsburgh highly respected. The employees were happy, they made money.
Suddenly we hired more people. And it was leadership that
created this environment. If every employee understands the vision of
(22:48):
the company, and every understand employe understands the motive of
that vision, and every body, everybody understands how their individual
motives connects to the mode of the organization with other us,
the vision is truly good for all concerned. And if
you said the vision has an organization, you have to organize.
(23:11):
Is this good for all concerns? Is it good for
the investor? Of course, If it's good for the customer,
it has to be. Is it good for the employee
it must be? And is it good for society as
a whole? And if the answer is here, done, asks
yourself what God approve? And if everything is yes, then
you know you're doing the right thing. In fact, from
(23:34):
there on all your decisions are easy. Only done. Can
that vision be a real vision for the organization? But
then you have to let everybody know. And if everybody
knows and everybody knows the expectation of the customer, now
you have an aligned workforce. Otherwise it's on your rhetoric.
We're talking about empowerment, and nobody's empowered. If you tell
(23:59):
an employee here what is wrong, and I want to
have some response to that, they say, I call a manager.
You know that power to make a decision. We empowered
our employees to make a decision up to two thousand
dollars any time, and I would not question them. And
of course when I introduced that, it was like letting
(24:23):
go a nuclear bomb. You mean you want an passboy
to give away two thousand dollars. No, I want a
passboy to keep the customer. And it is of extreme
importance because to understand, there are three times of customers.
(24:46):
There is the loyal customer, there is the satisfied customer,
and there's the dissatisfied customer. The loyal customer is your ambassador.
The dissatisfied customer is a terrorist against the company. Now
what am I willing to do to change a terrorist
(25:08):
to an ambassador. I cannot do that. The employee who
faces the customer can do that. And if the customer
has a complaint, we should move heaven and earth to
keep that customer anyway. And in the case of a
bass as an example, if the guest comes in the morning,
(25:29):
for breakfast, and the buss boy said, good morning, sir.
I hope you have a night stay with us, and
the guest said, no, I didn't, my TV didn't work.
In that moment, the bossba owns the TV, and that
moment the bassa should look at im said I feel embarrassed.
I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. I feel so bad.
(25:50):
I will buy a breakfast this morning. Guess what you
just created a loyal guest in that guest is embarrassed,
and the even complaint the bass boy is by wow,
what kind of an organization is this? I trust this
organization and loyalty is nothing but trust.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
You.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
See, you want to cretiny run, but it guess trusts you.
That's why they deal with you. After they trust you,
why should they deal with somebody else. That's what it's
all about.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
And you've been listening to the co founder of the Fitz,
Carlton or Chelsea, tell a heck of a story about
vision and motive in an organization. Is the vision good
for the investor? Is it good for the customer, the employee,
and society? And would God approve? Horst asked if the
answer all of those questions is a yes, you're on
(26:41):
your way. And then it's all about execution on the
expectations of the customer. That idea of giving two thousand
dollars to employees is spend on behalf of the customer
to keep that customer and to keep that customer loyal.
So powerful, and by the way, I love what Horse
said about customers re kind. There is a loyal customer
(27:02):
who's an ambassador, the satisfied customer, and the dissatisfied customer
whom Horse called a terrorist against the company. The story
of Horse Chulzy, the story of the Rich Carlton, and
so much more here on our American stories. And we
(27:37):
continue with our American stories and the story of Horse
Schultzy and the story of the Rich Carlton. Let's pick
up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
I actually had met the stadium in a focus group
using a word on a list, and I want to
know what do they feel when they always say I
want to feel at home in the hotel. I don't
know what that means. And this analyst came back and said, Gee,
they don't want to feel at home. They want to
feel like in their subconscious memory they remember their mother's home.
(28:14):
I said, wow, when we said what is this. Well,
in the mother's home, everything was done for them. And
here's the key that happened when something went wrong and
they went to their mom and said, Mom, Mom, there's
something terrible, Mom, there's something. What did? Mom said? Come here, Mom?
Tell him in the arm and said I'm here for you,
(28:37):
and said that's what they want. So we had to
empower our employees to say I'm here for you. So
the situation, I have a guest left their computer and
called and was very distraught. But they said, but I
have to take my I have to take my plan
(28:57):
and I'm flying to Hawaii right away. I need you can.
You have to see that it gets as fast as
possible there. The main target went and flew that money
at that time, the security and all that wasn't there.
Went to there, but got the next flight and brought
on the computer, messaged them there as a computer, and
took the next flight back. By the way, didn't spend
the vaccasion there. Now I thought, gosh, what I'm going
(29:21):
to do now? This was too much? How do I
tell them? Now? I tell everybody whatever it takes, keep
the customer. I'm going to tell them now that was
going too far. Well in the meantime that was spread
and created so much PR. It was worth millions of
dollars of PR at the time. So I didn't say anything.
(29:42):
But frankly I really cringed when I heard that one,
you know, said, wow, maybe I went too far. You know,
But love your neighbor. Why don't you want to make
you is your customers not your neighbor. Why not serve
them in a way where you instill well being in them,
not just give them a product or whatever. You know.
(30:04):
I like to read Two People in Hospitality, the letter
that Saint Benedict wrote to his monasteries as to how
to treat a customer against that arrives. He wrote that
if a guest arrives, treat them as if it was
Jesus himself, and said, by bow and bow down, and
(30:25):
maybe prosted in front of him, and petl toll her attention,
and join him for dinner. If he's by himself it
was here at the time, mentor traveled by himself. Of
course it wasn't year five hundred, and even the abbe
should join for dinner. Even if the abbe is on
a fast, he should prag it and be with that guest,
(30:47):
because treat it as Jesus himself. Now, how close do
we come to that type of service? It doesn't matter.
It doesn't have to be a hotel. It can be
a shoe store. When they walk in there your customers
to your guess, now, how do you treat them? People?
When I walked out the day when I left Ritz Carlton,
(31:08):
my wife picked me up and children, we got the
glass files. We said good bye, and then the elevator,
I said, ah, I didn't cry. And as I walked down,
all the employees from downtown the hotel and here were
lining my way from the elevator and obviously all the
way to my car. And there I see people that
(31:31):
started as dishwashers who went out department heads. I see
people that were successful the who were crying, and I
was crying and and I was so For example, I
saw eb who came in as a refugee from their
(31:52):
rugby working as a dishwasher, and it was I saw
them in orientation. But soon later I walked by the
dish washing and I've forgotten who that wasn't There was
this one kid who said very friendly, hello, good morning, sir.
How are you today. And remember, notice that he's very clean.
(32:12):
It's a very dirty chop be leave me steam and dirty,
but he looked very very clean. He worked behind the dishwasher,
so I didn't give it much other thought. But a
couple of this later, I said, walk by again again, sir,
good morning, how are you today? And now look is
this refugee He was staying front dishwaker. Could see even
(32:33):
his shoes were shining at the Wait a minute, and
I said to the to the head of the department,
this kid, is he working at all? I mean, he's
always clean. He is not working right away my suspicion,
I guess that's my German cynicism that came through. He said,
he's so clean, he can't be working. He said, miss
(32:53):
should say you're wrong. He's the hardest work I have.
But he's so proud. He changes a couple of times
a day. He he's a proud young man. He works
unbelievably hard. Whoa yeah. Pretty soon I come go through
the air again and he's working room service as a veder.
The room miniager asked for him because he was exceptionally
became a veder. A few months later, he worked as
(33:15):
a captain in banquet and everybody wanted him. And he
is now by the way manager in the Marriott over
here in the neighborhood, was longtime hotel manager in the
Reds Colon downtown. See this man create excellence in what
he was doing and he gets to reward. Everybody gets
(33:36):
to reward. The reward is going to come sooner or later.
And here's this dishwasher who became a hotel manager, a
little refugee from the rugby, and he realized, I defined
myself as excellent and you get the rewards. The rewards
always come with that. Now, this is all decisions. I
(33:59):
always tell him a paches, I'm in love with my wife.
After forty one years. I don't only love her, I'm
in love with her. I finally made that decision about
twenty years ago to stay in love and be in love. No,
(34:20):
I have to work on that. Isn't it amazing? How
hard to be broke to make our our business is successful?
We do everything, everything we do, how hard to we
work and the most important thing in our life and
the only union and this earth that is God ordained,
(34:42):
And we should make the decision to work on that
very hard and make it exceptional too. It's a decision.
And then I have friends that say, we're getting divorce
because we don't feel like it anymore. You must be
kidding me to do Who is in charge here? You
and your decision or some feeling that comes somehow enters
(35:04):
the room out of nowhere. You control your feeling. It's
a decision. It's truly up to you. I I don't think,
In fact, I know I wouldn't have had that opportunity
if it would have been Germany. In Germany, they would
(35:24):
have asked what college did you go to? And who
is your family? If you will, Nobody asked that in America.
They asked in America said what are you producing? In America?
That that is the create difference is it's truly up
(35:45):
to you. That's why it gets so annoyed when people
blame other things. In this country, it's up to you
create excellence and you will get the rewards. And that
is not true in other countries. And that's why this
is the land of opportunity, and it is so angering
(36:06):
me when Americans say we don't have everybody. Everybody has everybody,
and we still sometimes plame others with middle maggot. There's
only one person to plan and that and I can
introduce you to him. Go in the wash from look
in the mirror and you will see him. Period. Of
(36:30):
course there's circumstances of illness and so on. Of course
were not at all. We know that, as are the
circumstances that happen. But as a generality we always blame society.
We blame the pressity, we blame the mayor, We plame this,
we plam. Stop plaiming. It's not necessary, it's wrong in
(36:51):
this country, because this country gives you the opportunity that
you want. Period.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
And a terrific job on the production and storytelling by
Greg Hengler, and a special thanks to Horace Chelsey for
sharing his story. He's the co founder of the Ritz
Carlton his book Excellence Wins, a no nonsense guide to
becoming the best in a world of compromise and in
the end, it all gets down to excellence and a
commitment to keep the customer and serve the customer. And
(37:22):
his Christian walk, no doubt, well no doubt helped him
in that endeavor. That great Saint Benedict Lyne, that horse
quotes if a guest arrives, treat him as if Jesus
himself arrived. And then there was that story of that
refugee from a Nairobi who started as a dishwasher and
(37:42):
ended up becoming a hotel manager at the Ritz Carlton
and then later a local Marriott. And only he said,
is that possible in the United States, That kind of
movement where family ties don't matter, where wealth and class
and education don't matter, where excellence matters and competency matters.
(38:02):
The story of Horse Schultzi, the story of the rich
Carlton in the end, the story of the American dream.
Here on our American stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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