Don’t go to your job just for the money. You want to go to your job to strive for excellence. Employees go to work to accomplish their goals and fulfill their purpose. They want to feel that sense of purpose and belonging in what they do.
Join Horst Schulze, the co-founder and former president of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. Horst is known for developing the company’s signature “Gold Standards” employee training program. He also served as a consultant and advisor to other top hotel brands and is the co-founder and chairman of the Capella Hotel Group.
Schulze has received numerous awards and accolades for his contributions to the industry and is a sought-after speaker and author on customer service, leadership, and the future of hospitality.
In Excellence Wins, in his absolute no-nonsense approach, he shares the visionary and disruptive principles that have produced immense global successes over the course of his career. His principles are both versatile and practical to leaders of every age, career stage, and industry. You don’t need a powerful title or a line of direct reports—you have everything you need to use them right now.
Tune in today to join Dr. Patty Ann Tublin as she talks with Horst Schulze(@thehorstschulze/) about his career in the Ritz Carlton Hotel Company. Discover how he treats his employees, investors, and guests with respect and gratitude. Learn how you can accomplish your goals, vision, and purpose. And find out how you can strive for excellence.
Listen to the podcast here
Strive For Excellence With Horst Schulze
I am so excited to present to you a true gentleman. I wish more leaders exemplify the leadership excellence that this guest personifies. He is the Founder and Former President of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. I don’t know if you’ve ever had the pleasure of staying at a Ritz-Carlton, but I have and I will tell you, this man walks the talk in his own leadership style, and the leadership that he allows to emanate from every single person on his team, from the bellman that greets you, to the person that sees you up to your room. Without further ado, it is my pleasure to introduce you to Horst Schulze. Thank you so much for coming to this episode. I’m so excited to have you here.
I’m delighted to be with you.
I want to ask you a question about what separated you from every other leader on the planet. It’s because in your book, Excellence Wins, and if anybody has read anything about you, I know Horst is a leader that truly walks the talk. Other companies talk about vision. Other companies talk about excellence. Other companies talk about putting the customer first. What is it about you in your soul that differentiates you from the rest of the pack because the Ritz-Carlton is in a class of its own?
I want to make a slight correction. You said I’m the founder. I’m the cofounder. There were others involved. I was running the operation, but I was not an investor. There were investors and developers who started a new company and they found me to run that company because they were not hotel people. They were investors and developers.
I joined as a cofounder, and I was there. They had a hotel in construction. I accepted the job in late ’82. We opened our first hotel in January of ’84. I was there for a little bit over a year while the hotel was in construction. The 1st one, then the 2nd one, and so on. I ran the company which was Ritz. When I joined, it didn’t have a name. It ended up being Ritz-Carlton. I ran the company.
Horst, can you tell us how that name came to be?
I recommended to the developers that we should buy an existing hotel that already has a registered name. That would be easier. I recommended Mark Hopkins in San Francisco. Sure enough, they made an offer, but unfortunately, on the last day of the offer, Intercontinental exercised their right of first refusal, and they bought the hotel. We had already hired architects, interior designers, and everything when our owners came back but we can buy the Ritz-Carlton in Boston, which has a name.
We all said, including my market guy, “No. That is a dilapidated hotel. We don’t want that name.” I wasn’t that smart, but our owners said, “It doesn’t matter. We have a good deal buying that. It’s a good location. After we buy it, we will close it and renovate it to bring it up-to-date.” It was a terrible place at the time. They bought and closed it, and four months later, we adopted the name because it was registered. It’s difficult to register a name worldwide. That’s a big reason. Also, the location was great. Frankly, the hotel was not.
Was this in San Francisco?
No, this was now in Boston. We couldn’t get the one in San Francisco. We all wanted it, but we couldn’t get it. Instead, the owner came with this hotel, which none of us wanted in Boston, but he said, “It’s a good location. The name is registered.” He bought it. We closed it for four months and we adopted the name. We then opened our first operating hotel in Atlanta. That’s the Ritz’s history.
Within those four months of when it was closed, you began to put your imprint on the hotel and on the brand.
I had been there already for a year. The philosophy didn’t change. Only the name was adopted. We didn’t have a name.
I don’t know if it’s your family, your parents or your little town in Germany. What was it about you or where you are from that made you such an excellent leader?
All are the result of inputs that we had throughout our lives. I was quite fortunate to have exceptional people’s input to me. My parents were lower middle class, but very hardworking, honorable, and truthful people.
Everyone is the result of inputs that they had throughout their lives.
They had character.
I dropped out of elementary school when I was fourteen and went to work because I was training to work in a hotel. At that hotel, my parents founded a shop there. Unfortunately, it was 100 kilometers away from my village. I lived in a dorm room in that hotel working as a busboy, which meant at the time, we did everything like wash dishes. When I stayed there, I was very homesick, but my mother wrote me a letter every single day. If I didn’t have a letter now, I had two tomorrow. I guarantee it.
For the younger folks reading, this was pre-internet, pre-email, and pre-text. It was the old pen and paper. I do have to ask you a question. Why were you chomping at the bit to work in a hotel?
I must have read something. I don’t know. I begged and cried. In fact, my grandfather was embarrassed, “That’s not a profession,” and so on, but my parents finally gave in. They looked at what is the best hotel in the region, therefore, that particular hotel. When I got there, the maître d’, the head waiter of the hotel where I was working talked to me on the first day and impacted me dramatically by two sentences. Number one, he said, “Tomorrow, show up at 7:00 AM. If I meant one minute after 7:00, I would tell you.”
If I established clearly, we have discipline and rules here. We’re a disciplined organization. He established that one. Not that I got that at the time, but he established this in me nevertheless. He also said something which went totally over my head at the time. He said, “Don’t come to work. Come here to create excellence in what you’re doing.” I’m like, “Why is he talking about excellence? I have to wash dishes and clean floors. What is he talking about?”
Don’t just come to work. Come to work to create excellence in what you’re doing.
After a while, I learned what he was talking about. He was a gentleman. It simply and totally impacted me that you don’t do anything at all in life without high intent. We don’t only do things. The chair is just doing a thing. We are human beings. We have higher intent in all that we do. That was his teaching. Having the luck of having a human being like that, who was truly a gentleman of excellence and nothing of the like I ever met, I met some other exceptional people who did input into me. I was particularly perceptive because I was 14, 15, or 16 years old when I worked for him. That forms you somehow. Not that I always live by it as well as he did. Nevertheless, the input in me was such that I always have a higher intent.
For example, starting this company. I didn’t join that new hotel company to work. I joined that company with high intent to create the finest hotel company. I worked for Hyatt before. It’s a great company but here was an opportunity to start my own company. My intent was to create the best. If you do that, I want to warn everybody right here. I see people with vision and so on, but usually, the visions are not really visions.
What are they?
They’re missions.
I work with companies creating mission and vision statements, and they’re all confused.
When they have a vision, they don’t ask them. You have to always question yourself the vision of an organization, the vision of you as an individual. Is it good for all concerned because your vision impacts others? Is it good for others? For instance, the company, you have to ask yourself, and I agonized over that before I started Ritz-Carlton. When I decided I will create the finest hotel company in the world, I agonized and said, “Is this good for everybody?”
Who is everybody? 1) The investors. If it was not good for them, you won’t have a business. It had to be good for them. 2) The guests. It had to be good for them. I didn’t only say yes. I listed why it would be good for each part. 3) The employees. It had to be good to them. 4) Society as a whole. It had to be good for them. Now, it is a vision that counts. It cannot be a vision for you or for the organization only.
I have to ask because I’m sure you can tell me. What’s the vision of the Ritz-Carlton?
To become the finest hotel company in the world.
Mission accomplished.
To be known as the finest hotel company in the world. At that moment, I’ll say, “Would that be good for the investors? Would that be good for the guests? Would that be good for the employees? Would that be good for society as a whole?” For example, the more difficult answer was, “Will it be good for society?” Yes. We will help set new standards of excellence for society. It would be good for all concerned. Now, you have a chance to truly lead once you know that.
That is now the destination. Nothing else is the destination anymore. As the leader consequently, because it is good for all concerned, you have no more right to compromise it. That’s what you’re leading. You cannot compromise because you would be going against society, the employees, the guests, and investors, which you have no right to do even morally.
I was reading that’s one of the famous statements that when you become a leader, you give up your right to compromise. It sounds to me like it’s a consequence of taking pride in your work. I think that’s what you were describing. Show up on time and be the best. Good enough isn’t good enough, which drives me crazy.
You accepted the responsibility for the investors, for society, for the employees, and for the guests. You accepted that responsibility. How can you morally compromise this?
I have to ask you this. I’m sure you never thought you’d go here, but I hope you’ll answer this question. Why do you think so many leaders now and companies have lost that North Star of excellence and not showing pride? It starts at the top. They don’t have a vision. It’s all about greed. What do you think happened?
It’s the result of society’s rules. What do they learn in business school? They learn the manipulation of money and that’s basically what is learned. How is a leader measured? By Wall Street and how well they do. That’s all. They’re not measured by how they create their profit. They’re measured by the profit. Consequently, there will be compromises made in order to create a profit because that’s your measurement. That’s what people judge you by. They are slowly put in that corner to do anything for profit. It’s not important how well the employees do. It’s not important if the product is 100% as long as people buy it. If it’s not 100%, I make it up by advertising a little bit more.
You have inferior quality of the product.
The high intent is making money. My argument is if your high intent is excellence and the endgame will make more money by concentrating on that excellence.
The problem with Wall Street in the example that you used is that it’s quarterly-driven. It’s so upsetting to me that they might talk about caring about the people that work with them and for them, but they don’t.
We have to be honest. When you look in the mirror, you have to say it no matter how arrogant or rude it may be. For instance, I was on the board of one company and on several boards. After three years, we had a retreat. I was there three years when we had a retreat and we had a big pop with other various tabs. The CEO said, “Let’s look at the tabs. Is there anything else we should discuss?” I looked at a tab and I said, “We should be discussing something else. We should discuss our customers and we should talk about our employees, which we have never done in the three years that I’m here.”
In three years on the board, did we talk about employees and customers? You expect but there’s none. The CEO happened to write a book and said, “Our most important asset is our employees.” However, in three years, he never even mentioned them. It’s a very sad situation, but he’s in the corner. He didn’t learn in business school that the real thing is having employees that want to do the job.
Hiring employees that want to do the job can make the work so beautiful.
Work can be so beautiful and that’s what this method meant. It’s a place of creating excellence for all concerned. It’s a beautiful place. In any business, people say B2B and all the stupid statements. There’s no such something. There’s one business that deals with another business, yes, but there is a human being in one business who deals with a human being in the other business.
It’s all related.
This beautiful thing that I now can use to select people to join me, employees not to work for me but we don’t think about it. What do we do? We hire employees. Why do we hire employees? To fulfill a function just like the chair in which one is sitting is fulfilling a function. With dealing with human beings, how about inviting them to join us?
That’s why I like it when people call somebody a member of their team because they have a different emotional investment than being an employee. Yet clearly, the Ritz-Carlton and your imprint are the expressions, and maybe it’s yours. “If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your customer.”
You mentioned a word already, a team. I’ll talk about team. If you start working, on the first day we say, “We are a team here.” What the heck is a team? A team is a group of people who have a common objective. In your company, the worker that is on a loaded work on a loading dock, does he have the same objective that the company has because he doesn’t even know the vision of the company? Don’t tell me that you are a team if not everybody is working toward the same objective. A team works together for a common objective and helps each other too with that objective. The reason to come to work is not the function of the day but to accomplish that objective, which is good for all concerned.
That sounds like common sense. How did you operationalize that? Common sense is the least common of senses. If anybody walks into the Ritz-Carlton, you are in a different place.
I would like to say something about Ritz-Carlton. First of all, I left Ritz-Carlton many years ago. I was running the company for close to twenty years. I formed another company which I sold a couple of years ago, which is now voted number one in the world.
Is it the consulting group?
That’s Capella, which is now rated the number-one hotel company in the world. There is none in the US. It’s only in Asia and Europe. It didn’t only work in the Ritz-Carlton philosophy, it worked in other places too. It is just a philosophy and you said it. It’s not enough to have that thought in philosophy. You have to create processes to accomplish your philosophy. That is called management. I always make it very clear, the difference between management and leadership is management creates systems, processes, measurements, and controls to be sure what the customer wants is happening.
Leadership creates an environment where the employees want to do what the customer expects them to do, not have to do. Management makes sure the employees does it, but leadership makes sure the employee wants to do it. There’s a huge difference in making sure that everybody feels part of this. The way we processed this menu, our Ritz-Carltons and now Capella, anywhere and in the case of Ritz-Carlton, in five continents, each hotel was voted number one in its location. It didn’t matter if it was in China or Africa. It’s the processes we created to make sure it happened and the process started with selecting the right employees.
How did you do that because that’s huge?
We used an outside company to help us. First of all, we went and determined the talent needed in each job category.
Talent meaning?
The skillset for each job is the first thing. We then determined the behavioral attitude around each job and so on. We determined what questions it takes to determine if the employee has it. We had a very careful process of selecting and not hiring people. However, already in the selection we told the employees, “Don’t work for us. Join our team.”
Can you give an example of that? You need to hire for skill and you’re also hiring for character and integrity. Give an example of somebody that works the front desk. There’s a certain skillset that you need for that. What’s the magical piece or the piece that makes the difference? Plenty of people can check people in, but the other piece, what was that?
There were two things in there. We looked at the technical ability to work with computers and all that stuff and that can be taught. We look at a welcoming spirit and empathy. When guests had a need or an issue, they usually go to the front desk, not even the concierge. The concierge also had to have empathy but the front desk, for some reason, when people check in or check out, all of a sudden, once they know that person, they come back and go to that person. “I don’t like to be on a higher floor,” or whatever. There’s no empathy for their situation.
In addition to that, in case the guest had a problem, we certified each employee in the company for problem resolution. You asked me about selection. We may select that they have empathy and we teach them how to react with empathy. If they have an issue or a guest has an issue, listening is number one. Two is to show empathy. Three is to apologize if there’s something wrong, no matter if it’s yours or not. Four is to make amends.
We certified and taught around what we selected. We didn’t say, “They have it. Now, we’ll leave it there.” Can we teach them to use this properly? The selection was very precise. In my book, I give the example. What does it take to be a doorman? They had to be intense and they had to enjoy working outside, hot or cold, no matter what. I had a real laugh when I found out about this. We looked as we build this, now that we have gone through this, we all asked them, “What do you like to do in your life?”
The outdoor people like to do gardening, field, and forest. It turned out that after we had hired a number of them, we said, “Let’s look back at how successful that is.” We looked at the five doormen who are rated number one in the company. We interviewed them very carefully. What do they have in common? They all liked gardening.
They’re starting to cultivate an experience.
They like to deal outside. They were happy to be outside. They didn’t want to sit somewhere inside. Imagine if you wouldn’t know that. You potentially hired somebody as a doorman who doesn’t enjoy being outside and wants to be inside. We renewed the whole profile of a job and selected that profile.
You set people up to win as opposed to setting them up to fail. That’s great.
There were four processes. Number one is selection. With that, we were already ahead of the competition. The next thing was orientation. What happens usually on the first day of work? Knowing from a behavioral analyst that the first day of work is a significant emotional event, how I’m going to use this. What happens usually? The new guys come to work, Bill, and the manager talks about teamwork. “We are a team here,” but they don’t tell them the objective. They only say, “We are a team.”
We then let this employee read the rules of the company. Here are the rules and the objective. You have to fill out a paper. We turn Bill, the new waiter, over to Fred, the waiter who is already there for months. We say, “Bill, work with Fred. He knows the ropes.” Suddenly, you are in the rope business. On the way to the kitchen, Fred, the old waiter, tells the new waiter that this company sucks. That’s his orientation. I did the orientation in our new hotels no matter where in the world.
Do you mean you flew there and hire an X amount of people?
I help with training for the first 10 or 15 days in each hotel that we either took over or open new and I say, “Here’s who we are. Don’t work for us. Join us in our beautiful dream.” We let them know how that dream would be of value to them. If we will be known as the finest hotel in the world, you have the opportunity in any other company, second to none, because you will be respected. You will be honored for it. You will have an opportunity in our company because we will grow. You will make more money. We will have more guests. Everything beautiful lies in that vision. “Join us to accomplish that beauty. Don’t come to work.”
In all your hotels, is there a census of the number of years that people stayed with you?
I don’t know what it is now in America exactly, but I’m sure the employee turnover at the time is about the same. The employee turnover in hotel restaurants at the time was 122% annually. We didn’t pay more, mind you. In Ritz-Carlton, the employee turnover was around 20%.
What is that attributed to?
They felt part of the company.
You cared about them.
Even Aristotle 3,000 years ago and everybody’s since determined that the human being to be fulfilled needs purpose and belonging. We gave them a purpose. Their purpose is to come in here and make the best in the world. You belong by being part of that purpose. We gave them exactly what every human being needs and consequently, they gave it back. It’s not that it is that difficult. Human beings need belonging and purpose. Why wouldn’t we give it to them?
Every human being needs purpose and belonging.
We hire people to be part of something going toward a beautiful destination to be known as the best in the world for the benefit of all concerned, the investors, and everybody. This is beautiful. We have a high intent in our work, not only functioning, but we are functioning for a high intent. We make sure that all our actions have high intent. In other words, you’re not checking people in anymore in order to check them in. You’re checking them in was the high intent there.
It is so that when you are finished with the check-in, you have convinced them to want to come back and want to recommend us. We said every customer interaction, we must convince them that they want to come back and want to recommend us. That’s a high intent. It’s not only an interaction anymore. We then learned how we do that.
We work with behavioral analysts where we learned that a person makes a decision. You will make a decision about somebody when you meet him the first time when you come within 10 feet. I didn’t know that. I never heard about that. Subconsciously, you are making a decision about somebody when you come within 10 feet. You can’t help it. Society tells you all kinds of different lies. That’s what you do subconsciously. More importantly, they make a decision about you also.
What do you do with that information?
We taught all the employees that if a guest comes within 10 feet, no matter what you do, you look them in eye and smile. You say, “Welcome. Good morning. Good afternoon,” or whatever. You give them a beautiful and caring welcome no matter what.
It’s that belonging again.
It’s established and since they’re making a decision about you in that second, they’re making a positive decision about you. Behavioral analysts tell you that. They make a decision subconsciously about you. I have to make sure they make a positive decision about me.
I love the fact that you have a behavioral analyst on board to help you understand people, human behavior, and human performance. Specifically, what is the one best behavior action that an employee can take to make a favorable impression and the reverse? What is the worst mistake to make?
What is essential is the one that I expressed before. When the guest comes particularly the first time, within 10 feet of you, you look them in eye, and you did not ignore them. The worst thing for people is to be ignored and the most possible thing is to not be ignored. In a big hotel meeting, somebody spoke in front of me and said, “Everything is different. Forget everything we have learned in the business because everything’s different, technology, and all these things.” When I came up afterward and said, “I want you to know nothing is different.”
People are people.
It’s all about the people. Thousands of years ago, people want to feel good and respected. They still want to feel good and be respected. In 2,000 years, they still want to be respected. We are here in hospitality and it means you should show them respect and honor. You do that better than anything if you do it immediately. We started that by the way. We were excellent in the first impression. Never did a complaint follow, 100%.
When we were not excellent in the first impression, complaints always follow, 100%. For us, the most important is that first impression. The other one was simply that empathy thing. If something goes wrong that you’d never say it’s them but you always accept the frustration of the complainer because 96% of the people that complained started all those things. They want to get rid of the frustration that they had. They didn’t want anything. They only want to say, “Here’s what went wrong.” They wanted somebody to look around. “Please forgive me.”
We taught our people. As I said, we certified them. No matter what they complained about to you, you show empathy and apologize. Not saying that it’s not mine. For example, the busboy gets a complaint about TV. At that moment, busboy, you owned the TV. You look at him and say, “Your TV didn’t work, Sir. Forgive me. I’m so sorry.”
In that second, the complainer is embarrassed that he even complained. Knowing those things and capturing those emotional things in human beings in the subconscious, 400,000 common cuts. The first impression was excellent. Never ever 100% did a complaint follow. Whenever there was one concern in the first impression, that was either sales reservation or front or doorman or front desk. When there was one thing that didn’t go right, always did they complain about something else.
It became most important to put the guest in that frame of mind of positive, and that happens in the first impression. Those first impressions repeat in the hotel. These are fascinating things. Since we deal with human beings as everybody does in business, we have to understand some of the psychology around the human being. As I say, a human being wants to feel respected, not only now but always. If that is so important in the human being that their different styles show, it’s a different way of seeing that, but I have to deliver that.
Ideally, great service is not the expectation of the customer relative to my product. What’s the expectation? Now, I have to create processes. Fascinating enough, the key is a subconscious expectation in any customer interaction. The delivery of any service or any product is the same in all cultures. I am excited to talk about race in this country. It’s a great subject for us. I’ve worked on five continents. It had nothing to do with race. It had to do with our respect and empathy, teaching them, and hiring the right people.
The case is the same everywhere. They want to be respected. How do I bring this together? I have to know what they want from me. As I said, what do the customers want? They want a product that is defect-free. They have to make sure my product is defect-free. Number two, they want timeliness. They don’t want to wait for anything. It’s very important.
Number three is they want to be treated with respect. They want to be cared for. Every customer, for any product in the world. I know that. I also now know since is that customer loyalty comes more from caring, not from product or timeliness. In other words, I have to make sure that we show up and that we care so I have to hire the right people to do that.
That’s where empathy is a part of that. Were there five?
Three. This is general and then there are the individual idiosyncrasies that come in.
How do we deal with that because people can be interesting?
That becomes very difficult to respond to the individual. Some of them want to slip back and some of them want to have distance.
Some want more or someone wants less. Some don’t want to be bothered. Some want to be catered to. How do you address that?
All we could do is try to explain some of that and that is the individualization of service. That individualization becomes stronger and stronger. We have to understand that. Look at the Millennials. If I would buy a hamburger hypothetically at a McDonald’s, I would say, “I take a number one.” The Millennial says, “I take a number one, but I take two slices of tomato, no pickles.” It’s individualized.
They want to customize it because it’s all about them.
Individualization becomes more and more in style. The product of individualization becomes more and more in demand by the customer. We have to know that and respond to that. We thought that individualization that we have to respond individually to each customer. “Listen to what I want and respond.” To feel how they want it is individualization, particularly now because individualization will become more and more important. There is no question about it.
We know three key expectations, no defect, and so on. We know that but under individualization, we have to learn, teach or appeal more and more to respond to the individual. In a pretty bureaucratic teaching, which we have where some direction comes from the top office has no idea what’s going on with the customer. It comes to direction. Now, they get a direction. They follow that direction. That’s the way we do it. That’s our rule. The rule comes from the customer, not from you.
The customer is always right.
The customer sets the rules. That’s why when I started Capella, I made sure we built hotels that could respond to the individual much more so we only went up to 100 rooms.
The customer always sets the rules.
The size helped that.
If I have 100 rooms, I would have an average check-in of about 30 a day or checkout so I can do everything. We can call them beforehand and say, “What do you want when you come to Singapore? Do you have a diet? Do you have an allergy? Can we make any arrangements when you are in Singapore?” Check-in time doesn’t matter. It’s whenever you want to check-in. Check-out time doesn’t matter whenever you want to. We can individualize to an extent that had not been possible for larger hotels like a Ritz-Carlton.
Even as you were describing that I was sitting here feeling, “That would make me feel really special.” To your point, you care about what I like. I always want a couple of towels because I have to do my hair. Women need at least two towels. You guys need one towel. When I don’t have the towels, in my profile, wherever I am, if I’m a regular, they know that. Did you have a loyalty program, a VIP, or whatever?
No. I did not give points because I believe I wanted a guest to come back because of our service and product not because of some points that we have.
I thought you were going to tell me you treated everybody like a VIP.
That’s always somewhat exaggerated. Everybody is the same, but somebody is more the same than others. Let’s be very honest about that. If you are a guest that comes for the 10th time, we make sure that we recognize that and so on rather than when you did the first time. We make sure we take care of you but frankly, if you are the president of the United States, we treat you differently than if you are somebody else. That is exaggerated, “Everybody’s the same.” That’s not true. I don’t like to say that every guest is important. Every guest is important, but the guest as a generality establishes one. That’s why we make a customer survey. A good company knows what a customer expects from your product.
When I said that about the VIP, I wasn’t even thinking about the free stay. I was thinking about they have my profile, they know what I like, and they know what I want. What you said is 1,000% correct, even though it’s politically probably incorrect. Thank God we’re all different. Who wants to be the same? The world would be boring. I am a true capitalist at heart. I might get into trouble for saying that but just like you, we were lower middle class.
Where I am now is because of the values my parents taught me like hard work, education, and treating people with respect. Do to people the way you want to be treated. It’s not that complicated. If there’s a piece of ground, you bend and you pick it up. People are like, “You didn’t put that there.” I’m like, “So what? Somebody else’s mother’s going to pick it up.” When I stay at a hotel, I don’t make my bed, but I don’t make a mess. People have told me in the hotel industry, it’s amazing how people behave.
It is amazing but particularly, the people that talk so much now about respect and so on, they’re the ones that don’t give it.
It’s unbelievable. I agree with you.
I can witness that for you for hours.
The other piece about that is, as the leader that you are, I know you don’t need me to say this. If you go out to dinner with somebody and you watch the way they treat the waiter and the waitress and not how they treat you, because of course they’re going to kiss up to you. They want to leave a good impression but it is so obvious as someone that studies human behavior and works with humans differently than you.
In my whole career, I watch how people interact with others and they’ll treat me a certain way. People have asked me, “Are you the secretary?” I’m like, “No. I’m the expert.” Until they know that, as a petite blonde woman, if we’re talking honestly, although my better days are behind me, there was a time when I was young and I get treated differently. Did you watch the Top Gun movies?
Yeah.
Do you remember that the first Top Gun with Tom Cruise and the instructor for the pilots was a woman? Tom Cruise was at the bar with her and he was trying to impress her. He is coming across the big guy and she’s smirking because he’s treating her as someone he wants to pick up, which is exactly what he wanted to do. He goes to the class and she’s the instructor and he wanted to die. That was very funny, but that happens many times and it’s not funny. Many times what you’re saying about respect, people will treat people very disrespectfully if they don’t think you can give them something.
We’re all just human. We all want humanity. I don’t know why that has become such a complicated concept. Growing up, I wanted to know. I have all my degrees because I felt that people have nice things and there’s nothing wrong with not having nice things. I wouldn’t trade my childhood for the world. We had nothing but we had a family. We had love and values. I wanted to know what they did. When my mother said, “You get an education.”
What did I do? I got two Master’s degrees. I got a doctorate. Not because I do love learning, but to me, that was the ticket. I don’t begrudge somebody but now people are like,” What do you do with that?” People are begrudging other people’s success? I’m like, “Go for it.” People want what I have, but they don’t want to work for it. People want what you have, but they don’t want to work it.
What you just said is very clear. “What are you complaining of? Go get it.” I have an accent. I am an immigrant. By the way, I came legally here many years ago but the greatest thing about America if you say, “Why is America different?” is that it’s up to every individual. Where I came from, at the time much more so than today, but at the time, and now, it is still somewhat much more than here is, “Which school do you go to? What family did you come from? What’s your name, and so on? Show me.”
Here is just merit. All of a sudden, we don’t want merit anymore. The greatest gift that America gave me was merit. I didn’t have to prove that I am connected to somebody. All I had to prove is that I do a good job and that I care. That was my success. I got success against most people that graduated from the best universities because I worked a little harder. It’s merit, and now we want to eliminate the word merit in our country.
I don’t know him personally, but I like to read and follow Ken Langone. His parents came here from Italy. I don’t want to make the mistake, so I’ll say he’s one of the cofounders of Home Depot. He’s asked all the time something about, “What do you credit your success to?” He said, “My parents coming to America. Otherwise, I’d be stomping grapes.” You can hear, “I am not to the manner born.”
I used to be so embarrassed by my Brooklyn, New York accent. Now, I embrace it. Now I’m like, “I don’t care. I’ll outwork you. I’ll outbrain you.” However, when I was younger, I was very self-conscious about it. In any other country in the world, not that there’s anything wrong with this, but I would be in somebody’s basement folding laundry because I didn’t have a name.
I have a friend who does financial planning in Germany. I know many entrepreneurs that have left Germany to come to the States because they say the opportunity is here. Not that you can’t, but Americans think that England is very common to us. It’s similar to us because we both speak English. You better have the right private school accent. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great country, but it is not the opportunity.
England is nothing like the United States. Whoever says that, you are wrong. I lived there.
I could talk to you all day, but I want to go back to a couple of things. This goes to be successful. Opportunity, the right place to be the first one in and the last one out. I agree with that 1,000%, however, success is not a straight line. I have failed a gazillion times more than I’ve ever been successful. Can you speak to our readers now about how failure has elevated you?
I’m thinking of a very specific situation.
Please share.
I was relatively new in the US and I worked in San Francisco for a while. My boss took a new job in Phoenix. He asked me to join him as a head waiter at the time for the restaurant. I got into a situation where I had a fistfight at work. I got arrested and I do not often admit that. I came for a court hearing. I had at least ten witnesses who witnessed that I was attacked by that young man. That man happened to be a Green Beret.
I was scared to death of him. In my fear, when he came toward me to kick and I had played soccer. I had a pretty good kick. I kicked him in the ribs and he collapsed. After he collapsed, I kicked him again, which was the thing. When we were in front of the judge, he said, “Can it be possible?” He went on lecturing this guy. All my witnesses said he attacked me. He was lectured even though he had sued me because of the kick. He had inside bleeding. It was quite serious.
I felt big and felt, “I was right.” The judge looked at me and then laid into me and I said, “What could I have done?” He said, “Run away.” I thought, “Yeah, I could have run away. I could have made a better decision.” I agonized about that for a long time. You don’t make the decision that you want at the moment, particularly the second kick. I didn’t do that. I could have run away because he was lying on the ground. I could have made a better decision. That’s the thing and it hit me. I come to the realization there that your destiny is not luck. It is not anything. Your destiny is the decisions that you make in life even.
That incident changed my life. It’s a decision with high intent and not just a good decision but a decision that creates a destiny. It may be a bad destiny and you sit there and agonized and suffer over that. I could have run away. I couldn’t have been arrested. I’m claustrophobic. That night in jail, I thought I’m going to die and not be in court, and lost my job as a consequence. Not have that on my record if I would have made a different decision.
It came to the conclusion. It’s your decisions that create your destiny. Again, it’s the decision for excellence. That maître d’ had taught me twenty years earlier. Decisions for excellence are not a decision just to do something, but a decision for excellence and for what is right. That helped to form this terrible moment. There were many business moments and long decisions so you learn from them. You step back and say, “I better learn from this.”
Your decisions create your destiny.
The danger that you’ll come into when you make the wrong decision is to justify them and make more excuses rather than saying, “How could I have made a better decision here?” I’m always urging all the people that I worked with, “Let’s have a high intent for what we do and not just do it.” We are human beings. We don’t just function. We should have functioned with higher-thinking human beings. We don’t march the street and burn things. It’s that high thinking. We can do that.
This is a great example and I thank you so much for sharing that and making yourself vulnerable because everyone’s going to learn so much. I’m touched by this, but you were only human at that moment. When I say that, what I mean is that was the amygdala. You were not thinking. You were just feeling. You are human.
Aren’t we doing that too much, just reacting to it?
Of course, in everything and that speaks to which we didn’t address, but I know it’s off the charts for you. We’re talking about emotional intelligence. It’s about being able to manage. Everybody gets angry and upset. Sometimes a leader has to show anger. I get that but I believe a true leader is calm in the eye of the storm. They say time slows down. They can create a sense of urgency without creating panic and knows what to do. That’s the leader that can quiet the amygdala, the reptilian brain, and let our logic, our prefrontal cortex work.
The one thing I haven’t learned is not to be angry. I still get angry. I’ve learned that but at that moment when I learned my decision is my decision, I recognize that. I realized everything in life is a decision, not only at work. Is it the right decision? Why am I running this company? Where do I want to be? What’s the decision for the employee? It’s our decision.
Let’s move that into your private life. Because of that incident, I now have a marriage that is fantastic. It happens because of that incident. I was not married to that woman at the time. However, I made a decision there, with high intent. I want to make an example that everything is a decision. I made the decision that I will not just be getting married, but will be in love all my life.
I made a decision so slowly then I have to work on them. You don’t throw decisions out. You have to now take action to accomplish what you decided. I take action to honor my wife. After a while, I go to my wife. The men that read this, that’s the biggest gift I can give you. I’m going to give you a gift. Most of you won’t recognize it but the ones that will recognize will benefit dramatically. Sit down with your wife, and say, “How can I be a better husband to you?” Your wife will tell you, and then you have to trust yourself. You made a decision now for a great marriage.
That’s all it is. It’s a decision. I have a great marriage. There’s nothing more important at the end of our relationships. One relationship works well. You don’t have to have that. You can have a fulfilled life without it. I’m not saying that but once it’s there, you have to make something special out of it. That has to be a decision. What do you do about a decision? What are you going to do about a decision?
Some of you are smirking right now, some of you laugh, and some of you say it’s crazy but one of you will do it and your whole life will be benefiting. It is as simple as that. My whole point is, “Your destiny is your decision.” Think about the decisions that you make and that was a decision that we made. Make Capella the finest hotel company in the world.
I love that example. I appreciate you saying that. It’s not only for men. The women need to hear it, too, because the relationship is a two-way street. The problem now that maybe you can address is this. We have a choice. We can be a victim or a victor. What you were saying about merit and stuff, I’m the victim. You’re not responsible for your decisions because somebody else made them for you, which is never true.
You just destroyed it. I don’t know why many people are making very strange decisions now or no decision at all and then, they’re forced. They want to make some decision and they want to join something that is worthless. It’s pretty amazing to me and I feel bad for what people do with their lives and with society and everything.
You see this in companies that are big bureaucracies. There’s a big company that used to be high up there and then fell from grace. I consulted and coached them. I don’t want to share who they are. I used to sit at meetings. It was hysterical to me. Nobody would make a decision. “Let’s have another meeting,” because nobody wanted to take responsibility for the decision.
People do that at work and in cultures that are nothing like what you are describing in companies. That runs rampant. That happens in our personal life. If I don’t make the decision, then I’m not responsible for it. My response is, “Who is responsible for your life then?” You’re letting everybody else be the author of your life. “It’s my life. I’m going to live it but then I have to take responsibility for the mistakes.”
We talked about how a company is a place to create profit and a place where a lot of people work. It’s all people. The biggest problem that we have is that we have not come to the realization that it’s all people. In the end, we are all human beings. For some companies, it’s just a functional unit. It’s not a relationship. There has to be a relationship. Meaning there is respect for each human being even if it is a customer or an employee.
It can be beautiful if we have that respect. That’s why it’s something very special potentially or it’s only a functional unit where you go to make money. Many employees say, “I come here to make money,” but that’s not different from a wild animal looking for food without a higher intent. That animal doesn’t have a higher intent, just to feed, to be stronger, to raise young ones, to build a lair, and so on. We make money in order to feed our family or buy a house. That’s not enough. There has to be a higher intent.
I agree with you, however, not to play devil’s advocate, but to add to the conversation. Unfortunately, there are so many companies that don’t have that higher intent for their employees. I’d love to get your thought on this. You want people to be loyal and to be all of that good stuff. However, how do you feel about companies having a bad quarter or something?
I don’t want to use the airlines, but that drives me crazy. We gave them all this money. What did they do with it? As soon as there’s a downturn, the CEOs start cutting employees, and then, you wonder why they’re not in it with you or they’re not looking at it from the other than it’s just the job. It’s a pay cut or a paycheck. What are your thoughts on that?
I’m selfish too. I want to have people that feel good working for our company and selfishly, too, because if they feel good to do a better job but at the same time, we have to come to a realization. We are not buying a computer that fulfills a function. We are bringing human beings into the organization. I came to the conclusion that I am that wonderful human being that I so much care about everybody. I do care. To us in leadership as a manager or any leadership role, it is an honor to be able to positively impact the lives of many people. We have to get aware of it.
It’s a huge responsibility.
There is no question about it, but it’s higher. It’s an honor too. It’s a responsibility. Now, I’m also totally selfish about it because if I do that and they feel good, they feel right, they will do a better job and I will have a better company. Eventually, I will have more money. I can concentrate on the money. I will never create a human being in order to make the money but I only look at the money and it doesn’t care so you change it and you leave.
I’m going to a hotel and I know there was this great concierge and he’s not there anymore. I said to the general manager, “Where is Bill? He was so good.” “He was not good. He didn’t show up sometime.” “If he was not good, it has nothing to do with Bill. Maybe he was raised wrong by his mother but what about you? You are the one who hired him. If he was not good, you are somehow not hiring right, you didn’t orient right, you didn’t teach right, or you had the right work environment. That’s why he was not good. What did you do wrong?”
There is a typical thing of us as human beings. We always point to other people. “I don’t like it. You are bad.” I listen to this stuff. “Look at yourself. What have you done that people respect you? What have you done for the right work environment and so on?” It’s not Bill. Don’t ever tell me it was the employee if it was wrong.
It’s a failure of leadership.
If I lead right and have the right processes, I will end up having the right product consequent to the right money. It’s all an issue of human beings. It’s all the issue of people on the end and so on.
It’s all business because I work with all businesses because my forte and my strength are all about relationships and people. It doesn’t matter what your business is. I have to ask you a question. I am so curious. The maître d’ at that first hotel that left such an impact, I don’t know if his name was Bill. I’m curious. Were you or are you still in touch with Carl now? Did he see you? Does he know the impact he had on you?
No, because before I started to excel, he passed away. I left there when I was seventeen and a half. He said, “Look me in the eyes and promise me never to go to work. To always go for excellence. Promise me do not sentence yourself to only be a functioning something.”
Why was he so invested in you? That’s such an emotional investment.
I promised him. Let me tell you that little story that should be fitting. I went on to work truly in the finest hotels in the world in Europe. I worked in the Plaza Athénée in Paris, in The Savoy in London, and in the Bellevue Palace in Lucerne, truly, the elite hotels in the world at the time, and then I came to the United States. I worked in the Hilton in San Francisco as a room service waiter with the intent that within two years, I go back to Europe.
My plan was to have a promotion in a hotel. It means from room service waiter to room service supervisor, staying another eight months or so then going back to Europe and finishing my career. I knew I would get that job because I was by far the best waiter there. The rest of them didn’t know how to take an order. They didn’t know how to look at people. They didn’t know how to better stand to take an order. They didn’t know to explain the food.
I worked with the finest people in the world. I knew I would get the job and the next promotion, a supervisor because of that. The manager of the room service was German too. It was very clear I would get that job. Sure enough, a few months in, the job became available. In fact, it was a big deal. One supervisor got promoted to the restaurant manager. The manager of rooms called us all together and said, “Jose gets promoted to manager in the restaurant. He did a good job. He deserves it all. Let’s all applaud him.” We applaud him.
I knew now he would announce me. He said, “The next supervisor is going to go to Bill.” I knew it wasn’t Bill. That hurt and it was devastating for me. This was my ticket to my life and I didn’t get it. It took me a few months and thinking about my maître d’ to admit that the other guy deserved it more. I was very young at the time. I partied a lot and have a number of girlfriends.
You might have also thought your connection with your German manager and stuff has more weight.
In the morning when I came to work, you could see from 100 yards and I was tired and I didn’t say good morning. I came a few minutes late, “Only a few minutes. It’s no big deal.” When the manager asked me, “Let’s do some side work over here,” like folding napkins or whatever.” I said, “Why me? Why not them?” The other guy came in five minutes early and said, “Good morning, everybody.”
You weren’t keeping your promise to Carl. That was common.
When the manager asked the other guy to do some side work, he said, “I’m happy to.” When I came to that realization after a lot of ego pain, I went back to my little room in the Tenderloin district where I lived in San Francisco and I talked to the maître d’ who had passed away. He didn’t show up, but I talked with him. I apologized and I told him, “I went to work. I lost it.” It had no more meaning. I went to work for work and I promised them it would never happen again.
There’s a saying that something happens for you, not to you. Not getting that promotion happened for you.
Your earlier question when you said, what are the things that went wrong? Believe me, it was game-changing. It changed my life. I had to admit. I didn’t live up to the promises, to my own learning, to the promise that I made. I went to work just to fulfill of function and get a few dollars. It’s ridiculous.
That’s why youth is wasted on the young.
I’m like, “What kind of a human being am I becoming here?
You have been so generous with your time. I have a couple more questions before we wrap up. As I said, I could talk to you forever. One question is what is the last book you’ve reread and why?
It’s totally everything unrelated. I don’t know if you know Metaxas. He wrote a book about Bonhoeffer, a religious person in the world. The reason I read it again is I’m fascinated.
What was the title of the book?
Bonhoeffer. He is a pastor, spy, and so on. It has to do with a German theologian who was killed by the Nazis but not that I am fascinated by people who were thinking differently during the time than society. was thinking at that time. I look at all philosophers. They were thinking differently than anybody else at the time. If you look at religious figures, they were thinking differently. If you look at Wilberforce, he was the first one to vote in the parliament to stop the slave trade.
He was the only vote, the only one for several years. Every time he brought it up again, he was the only one. He was thinking differently than anybody. Bonhoeffer is very fascinating. He was willing to talk against Hitler until the time he was finally hung because of it. Why was he thinking so differently? That’s why I had to reread it. Metaxas did an exceptional job to analyze this man. He had a lot of letters from this man. I wanted to get into his mind and see where he was from. That was the last book.
Why was he thinking differently? What’s the answer to the question?
It is always a little bit different. In this particular thought, he truly believed in the teaching of Jesus. That you have to love your neighbor as yourself. That’s why he was sitting and he was unable to accept that the Jews should be mistreated and so on. He was unable to accept that. He was unable to let anybody change his mind. Those values that were taught in the Bible can be against because the value of loving your neighbor as yourself is such high a value and nobody can live up to that but they have to come close to it no matter what.
What is being done here has nothing to do with loving your neighbor. It has to do nothing but power, control, and might. He could not handle that. He spoke up. He tried to make the church speak up and the church didn’t but even though he was part of that church. He stuck to himself. It was so amazing. When he was in jail finally, he wrote to his friends, “Don’t worry about me. I still have a lot to do like praying for others.”
You respect the person so that there’s no discrepancy between what they believe, what they say, and what they do. If you ask me, that personifies Excellence Wins. Tell the audience how they can learn more about you. Direct them to where they can purchase your phenomenal book and where they can get more of your wisdom because this is wisdom.
Excellence Wins is available on Amazon and so on.
In all the places you can get books.
You can get ahold of me at HorstSchulze.com. It is very easy.
Thank you so much. I can’t wait to go back and read this again and again. I so appreciate having you here. That concludes this episode. As promised, Horst Schulze was phenomenal. Make sure you check out his book, Excellence Wins, and comment, share, and subscribe to this episode. Until next time, be well.
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If you would like to connect with Horst Schulze, you can go to his website, which is HorstSchulze.com. To purchase his book, Excellence Wins, it will be available to you anywhere where books are purchased. For additional leadership content, you can purchase and view his information at ArchAndTowerPlus.com, and it can be licensed for a larger audience. Thank you.
Important Links
- Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company
- Bonhoeffer
- Excellence Wins – Amazon
- https://HorstSchulze.com/
- https://www.Instagram.com/TheHorstSchulze/
- https://www.Facebook.com/TheHorstSchulze/
- https://Twitter.com/HorstSchulze
- https://ExcellenceWins.com/
- https://ArchAndTowerPlus.com/
About Horst Schulze
Mr. Schulze’s professional life began more than 65 years ago as a server’s assistant in a German resort town. Throughout the years he worked for both Hilton Hotels and Hyatt Hotels Corporation before becoming one of the founding members of The Ritz Carlton Hotel Company in 1983. There Mr. Schulze created the operating and service standards that have become world famous.
During his tenure at The Ritz Carlton, Mr. Schulze served as President and COO responsible for the $2 billion operations worldwide. It was under his leadership that The Ritz Carlton Hotel Company became the first service-based company to be awarded the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award — twice.
