Welcome to the Banner Women Leadership Podcast, where our team is to talk leaders about how to better start and lead your team. Our goal is for you to gain tangible steps on topics such as culture, leadership, succession, and navigating people's property. We hope you enjoyed today's chat.
SPEAKER_02Well, hey, everybody, welcome to the podcast. Today we have a real treat. A new friend of mine, Horst Schultze, or Schultz, or lots of things. It's kind of like Van der Blumen. You can say it in a lot of different ways, but is joining us. And Horst is super, super well known in the hospitality industry and for a lot of other reasons. But I want him to teach us today about how you can spot excellence, how you can train excellence, how you can serve with excellence. Because I think everybody listening is trying to find a way to stand out of the crowd and be a little bit more noticeable and memorable to the people that you're serving. So, Horst, thank you so much for joining us today. I appreciate you making time.
SPEAKER_01Great to be with you.
SPEAKER_02Yes. And I'm learning that we have all kinds of listeners, but most of them are leaders. A lot of them are church leaders. They may not know your story. So I wonder if you could just take a minute or two and tell us about your background and story.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. I come from a small village in Germany. I decided when I was 11 years old, I want to work in the hotel business. With 14, I started in a hotel in the best hotel of my region as a busboy. I lived up unfortunately, that was about 100 miles away from my hometown. And at that time, that was far. So I lived in a dorm room. Left when I was 14, lived in a dorm room, worked in a hotel. And let me just uh talking about excellence, let me just tell you my first day at the hotel. My mother took me there. The general manager welcomed us and talked to me a few minutes and said, Now you are here to learn how to serve very important guests, very important, ladies and gentlemen, and you are here to learn how to serve them. That was my introduction, and that's what I wanted. I want to work in a great hotel. And the next one I meet was the Metro D, the man that I reported to in the restaurant where I worked as a busboy. And he changed my life between two sentences. He said, number one, he said, tomorrow, show up at 7 a.m. If I meant one minute after seven, I would tell you so. So he established in one standards, rules, regulation, no, no, no compromise. This is it. When I say something, I mean it, and we we are excellent in what we're doing. In a way, he said that. But he then he said the next sentence and don't come to work tomorrow. Come here to create excellence in what you're doing. Now both things went over my head. I was 14 years old. But he used the word excellence in never the English word excellence, always. He spoke five five uh languages totally fluent, and he said excellence, and he constantly reminded us of being excellent in what we do, excellent as a human being, excellent in every intent. And I learned over the next three and a half years working for him, I learned what he meant during those two sentences, and he meant it. He was a man, and let me put throw that in right there. He was a man who never did anything without high intent. And I learned that excellence is not an accident, it's always the result of high intent and hard work.
SPEAKER_02So 14 years old, you're learning about excellence. Walk us through your journey from there.
SPEAKER_01Well, an interesting thing happened there. Of course, the typical German upbringer, I worked there once a week, went to the the uh school of my business, uh hotel school, uh, that in this case where all the kids from the region came. And uh after two years, I was asked that teacher asked, I was 16 at that time, asked us to write a story what we now think about our business. Going back to work that night, I saw the major D at approach a table. Now we were we knew and we were told constantly that our guests are very important, ladies and gentlemen. And they were and he I see him approach a table and I realized that the guests on that table were proud that he came to them. You could see it and realized that's true generally. When I was thinking about that night what to write for my essay, I thought about that incident where there was a reversal of what I was taught all the time, where the guests were actually proud that he came to them. And I realized that was true because this man defined himself as a gentleman of excellence, and he had defined himself as such. And my light went off, and I realized even if I was a dishwasher, my life, I still can define myself as an excellent person. And I realized I define myself not society, not anything else. And I wrote a story about that, and I named that story, we are ladies and gentlemen, serving ladies and gentlemen, but like them, we are ladies and gentlemen. If we if we define ourselves as such, it's just up to us, and nothing else. And I I realized that it was just critical when and I worked there for three and a half years. When I left, he told me one more time, look me in the eyes, never go to work to work, never. You're a human being, the chairs that we have, work, the tables, the forks, the classes, everything works. We are human beings, we are thinking higher, our intent is higher. You see, uh, like just to give an example, in his case, he he didn't want to serve food and beverage, he wanted to instill well-being. He always had a high intent and everything. He made a decision, he said our life is a decision for excellence or mediocrity, or we either make the decision for excellence or we leave it up to change what we are. Unusual human being who had great influence. I was so young, you know, so he had great influence on me.
SPEAKER_02That's amazing. And fast forward then, that led you because I don't know. You tell me if I uh if my idea is congruent with yours. I think that if you focus on being excellent, you don't have to worry about your career path. It will take care of itself.
SPEAKER_01No, you know, let me let me tell you that that that is a little story again. I'm sorry, uh I when you left, so I looked them in the eye, I left, I worked in the finest hotels in Europe, truly in the very finest hotel in Europe, the Plaza Arten in Paris, the Bourbash Palavas was someone in London at the time, and so on, and so on. And then I came to the US, worked in the in the Hilton in San Francisco as room service leader with the intent to go back within two years latest. One to learn the language better. Okay, I still work on that one, but uh, I want to learn culture, one to learn and and but before I got back, I wanted to be promoted so that I can go in these two years. I want to have one promotional supervisor, so I go back with a promotion with language and go on with my career in Europe. And I knew I would be promoted in that place because there were four supervisors in room service, which was a job where you got promoted out from easily. And so I knew the next supervisor job that it becomes available, I will be the supervisor because I'm by far the best leader here. And I knew and the manager of room service in the hotel was German too. So it was very easy for me to understand that I will be the next supervisor. And sure enough, about six months later, another supervisor job became available. Bill was promoted. The manager said, We meet tomorrow morning and we'll I will we will say thank you to Bill and wish him good luck, and uh, and I will announce the next supervisor. Sure enough, we were there, and of course, I knew that would match up, would be my job. And he we applauded Bill, who was leaving, and then he announced the next supervisor is Fred, and I knew my name was not Fred. And that was a major breakdown in my ego with everything I had, everything. And and and of course, what I thought is management is stupid, and so the typical thought of an employee went through. It took me months to admit the other guy deserved it more. You see, I had gone to work and not to create excellence. I came a few minutes spare, I was very young, I was partying and so on. Came a few minutes late, was very tired. Hardy said good morning, and the other guy came in and said, Good morning, everybody. And I didn't say anything because I was too tired. The manager asked to do a little side job, like folding napkins. I said, Why me? Why not the other guys? And he said, I'm happy to. And all the things that I've learned, I've forgotten. I was a good waiter still, but that's it. But I was not excellent, and so I went to my room and talked to the method. He had passed away, he didn't show up as a ghost, don't worry. But I talked with him and I apologized that I went to work and not for excellence. I promised him right there it would never ever happen again. And so I wrote on a mirror from there around, got to work for excellence. I remind me every day a few times I'm there for excellence. It became a habit, and my rear my career took off like a rocket ship.
SPEAKER_04Like a rocket ship.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I became I was promoted, I done I'm promoted out as a catering manager with higher with Hilton. Uh worked in another place. In between, became assistant food and bearish director with Hilton, food and bearish director, joined hired as food and bearish director. I gave him my career and hired 10-year career. Food and bearish director, year and a half later, rooms director, year and a half later, general manager in Pittsburgh, two years later, general manager, much larger hotel, a year later, regional vice president over 10 hotels, two years later, corporate vice president over 65 hotels. Wow. Simply, I there I made sure that each shop I create excellence on what I'm doing. Very simple.
SPEAKER_02Well, it it's to me the commitment to excellence is so rare that if someone actually does it, they will stand out of the crowd.
SPEAKER_01Sure.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01By the way, from there on, from a hired great time, I was offered to start a new company that didn't have a name, didn't have a hotel. They had just two hotels in construction, wanted to create their own brand, offered me a job, offered me I could do what I want operationally, which sounded very intriguing. I thought if I would do it, I would create the finest hotel company in the world. I was a dream I developed. Vision, very important for anybody. They have vision in life and purpose. And because they said I can, they were investors and developers, they said, Yeah, okay, come on, do it. I joined this group, which we put on another hotel and got a name, and we named it Ritz Carlton. And I left 19 years later. And for 14 years in a row, we were voted number one hotel company in the world.
SPEAKER_02I I didn't know that you know, when someone says, Oh, that that restaurant is ritzy, that the suit is very ritzy, and you know, it's a compliment for how that the the adjective didn't exist until you built that brand.
SPEAKER_01No, no, it actually did. There was a Ritzcoun Hotel Company in America in the 20s. Ritzcount came in the creator hotel company had 11 hotels, but they all bankrupt. And the Finnish one was left with a name in Boston. We bought that hotel. It was a dilapidated hotel, but we bought it and we adopted that name. We adapted that name. So the name was much older, but came back from it came from Ritz, who created the Ritz in Paris, created Ritz in London. His family came here and started the Ritz Hotel Company, which was successful, but then bankrupted all of them. And we re-awakened that name, frankly.
SPEAKER_02So the the folks that started it in London and in Paris, which are amazing properties, still, they went bankrupt, and you guys said there's something to salvage from this. Is that right?
SPEAKER_01Not exactly because the hotel in Boston Beach now owned the name, was a dilapidated hotel, it was a terrible hotel, but it had a crate location. And our owners, company that hired me to run the company, felt if we buy it, we would have a crate location. We we would re-redo the hotel. We closed it for two years and renovated it, but and felt that we can do that. But we didn't want the name, we want actually another name. But we found after we bought it that the name was registered around the world, which helped a lot. So we adopted the name anyway, against the wishes of my marketing vice president who said I'm going to quit using that that terrible hotel's name.
SPEAKER_02Well, that's that's really interesting.
SPEAKER_01It's a long story, it's a funny story, you know. Of course, today's possible.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, how do you rehabilitate a brand? I mean, that's an interesting question, right? How do you take a yeah?
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, you it's it's what is a brand. I mean, it it's funny enough, people there was a we had a focus group at that time and and wanted to talk about brands. They didn't know again we talked about hotels, but we talked about cars and so on. And then the the the the facilitator said, What about cars? And one of the focus group members, what about hotels? And one of the focus group members said there is no such thing than hotel brands. And everyone said, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, how about Hilton? Hired Sheridan, married. And he said, Those are names because you it's not a brand, because you can go from one of those hotels to the next, they're totally different. One is very good, one is very bad. A brand has a name and lives up to their promise everywhere. Wow, that was an interesting statement to me. And I said, okay, now that means if I grow scaling in a way where I'm reliable in what I'm offering, no matter where you go, then I have a great brand. And so we I was very conscious that I wasn't building a hotel company only, I was building a brand. I was very conscious of that.
SPEAKER_02Wow. And so, as you built out the brand, what was the promise, and how did you train people to fulfill it?
SPEAKER_01Well, our internal promise was I got again from that metri, that we are here to instill well-being in people. And so I questioned my dream. The reason why I joined is because I wanted to build a finance hotel company in the world. But as a leader, I have to ask myself first of all, and that's a key element. If we talk about that, I had to ask myself, is that good for everybody? If I build a finance hotel company in the world, is that good for the for the investors? It has to be good for the investors, otherwise, I'm not there. And the answer was yes. I didn't just answer yes. I wrote down why it would be good and why it would not be good. I mean, and I spent the whole day on it. And the next question that day was, is that good for every employee? The next, is it good for every customer? The next was, is it good for society as a whole? And I myself had to ask myself, now that's me. Now nobody has to listen to what I said now. I had to, I had to ask myself, would God approve? And the answer in all cases was yes. So in that moment, I had pinned my myself in the corner. I couldn't compromise anymore what I was doing. Because after all, it was important for the investor, for the employee, for society, and for the for the customer. So I had more right, no more right to compromise it.
SPEAKER_02So as you built the brand out, how did you you get a new employee? We talked before the recording. I have a daughter, uh, 23-year-old, who's one year out of college and she's actually working in the Ritz Carlton in a management training program and loving it. But when you're starting out and you're trying to teach new people, young people, how to carry the brand of excellence, what have you learned over the years is important.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but let me put it another way. I'm I'm hearing a lot of people saying we don't have we don't have an employee. So that or I heard people saying that there are some bad employees and so on. Uh wait a minute, if you had a bad employee, maybe that employee was raised wrong by his mother, but you were the dummy that hired him. So if he's a bad employee, why did you hire him? So wait a second. If that's a bad employee, it's your fault. Either you're hired wrong, selected wrong, or you're oriented wrong, or you're trained wrong, or you have the wrong work environment. One of the four things happen. It's you, leader. That's why you're a leader. It's you, it's not the employee. That's the issue. I mean, my my goodness. I mean, what what is your role as a leader? What's your role? Ah, if it doesn't work, blame them, blame them. No, no. My channel manager wouldn't have done that with me and blame the employees because uh I wouldn't have accepted it. Um so so that means let's let's look at it differently. What is a credit company? A credit company, let's look at that for a moment. What is a credit company? If you would look at your left and is and you see in your left and your mind a lot of people, this is your market and your potential market, and look off your right. There are a lot of people too, those are your employees. Now, as a credit company, I know what that market expects from my product. Not what I do, but what does that market expect ideally for my product? Now, as credit managers, as a credit manager, I create the environment. And I know I create I create the processes, the systems, the controls, the measurements to be sure I deliver what the market wants. I also make sure the employees do it or know it. As a credit leader, I create the environment in which the employees want to do what the customer wants. Now I have a credit company. So I know the market, the employees are aligned to the expectation of the market and want to deliver what the customer wants. I can only create that kind of employee if I select them right, orient them right, train them right, and have the right environment.
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SPEAKER_02Let's let's talk about selecting them right. You know, back to the you're the dummy who hired him. That's funny, because we we have a lot of smart clients who are not very good at hiring. So when you know, when we wrote this book that we just put out as a study of all of our very best candidates we've ever interviewed and what they have in common. And you know, it it's called Be the Unicorn, you know, how to the 12 habits that separate the best leaders from the rest. And in that study, a lot of time we spent was saying, What is it that marks an excellent person in the interview? So I would love to hear what you've learned as you interview people. How what kind of radar do you have going on to say this person matches the brand promise and we can train them? Or no, don't hire them. They were raised badly by their mother or whatever have you.
SPEAKER_01Well, we we generally hire back out feeling. I mean, we we even frankly, I can't, I don't, I won't give you a very good answer here because we went outside and hired an outside company, first of all, to identify the basic talent needed in every job category that we have. And then identify that if that talent existed in the person that we interview. And the the company with talent plus is the name of the company, identify the question to ask in order and the answers needed, and so on, so on, so on. But we also identify. identified other needs that we wanted to to see like like like like values in the employee and well learn through the through the outside company what to do but but the problem right lies yeah in in how to do that right of course and you can do a lot of it yourself but it it starts with something deeper that people you in every company please forgive me when I say that I just try to challenge you hire people in order to fulfill a certain function you know you you hire them to fulfill in my case we hire them some of them to clean toilets a function to cook others to cook food to check people in to make the rooms and blah blah blah blah blah blah well the chair in which you're sitting is fulfilling a function but you're hiring a human being so we didn't hire we didn't hire not during my time we offered people to join our vision to become the finest hotel company in the world that changes the whole picture bang all of a sudden I give I'm offering you purpose from day one rather than function. That's good the next thing we do so that it's that's a process hiring is a process and you have to say how can you maximize the result of that process you don't have to have an outside company but you can still be better and listen better and so on. I mean like a channel now now we didn't eliminate the gut feeling in it after we after they passed I I after a channel manager passed potential channel manager passed the hiring criteria that we had I interviewed them I want also still want to know do I want to sit beside them when I fly to to Hong Kong with them and and and I I want to feel do I want to work with that person do I feel do I feel right and so on that that it wasn't eliminated and and I wanted them to understand my expectation before they even start working. Yes I want them to be very clear to them that I don't compromise I don't compromise I want to be clear it's not just a great hotel it's a Ritz garden you have to understand us what is our way of doing business yes you may have worked in the financial world but you may have to change some things because we have our way of doing business based on our study of our market. So that has to be clear so that this in that was part of the interview the next thing is orientation which every company does wrong what did I say I said every company yeah I've uh you've got my attention can i can i repeat that every company all of you outside do it wrong i i don't know i have i listened to but so many here's what happened when you interview when you have people come to work the first day you let them fill out the papers some insurance papers and all kinds of papers and then you give them the rules of the company and the handbook and then you make a team speech we're a team here blah blah blah you know but but you don't give them any objective you don't give them the vision of the company what is a team a team is a group of people who have a common objective wow no you know so so my common my objective was I'm at the right way you're here to help us to begin the best in the world so so oh and then oh wow the let me finish the first day yeah yeah what what do you do and then there's Bill the new Vader and you would have given all your speeches of team and all the stuff he went through and then you say Bill now I want you to work with Joe Joe he's here nine months he knows the ropes suddenly you're in the rope business and then you turn Bill the new Vader over to Joe the old Vader and on the way to the kitchen Joe tells Bill this company sucks. That's his orientation don't kid me that's happening everywhere now what do you what do you expect no our orientation in in Ritzgartens the first 50 Ritzgardens we didn't have 50 when I left but we we left some we lost some and so on in between I opened I opened I gave the orientation the first day no matter if that was Shanghai or Osaka or Berlin or Philadelphia I gave the orientation I went there and I said and I told them how important they are and the first day we talked to them about the behaviors that they have to have who we are number one and then how we have to behave with guests. You see behavior cannot be taught after you're 16 years old it's said behavioral analysts will tell you that unless there is a significant emotional event taking place in a person's life then you can teach behavior and the first day of work is a significant emotional event. And you're teaching and you're turning them over to another employee and and teach rules of the company no no we taught teach them we're here to look people in the eye when they arrive within 10 feet and say good morning and we don't say hi we say sir ma'am gentlemen etc etc behavior elements how we talk to each other I role play it how we talk to each other how we it it how we define ourselves being excellent with each other and so on and so on. And that is the first day that's orientation that's good second day in the second day still part of behavioral teaching is we teach them the 20 things that our customer our market says are important to them ex they expect from us from our product 20 things very careful all day long. And those 20 things we repeat one of them every day you cannot go to work we repeat one of them and and we today we may may repeat point number 12 if a guest asks for direction don't point take them there you see there there you are forgive me very much here we we teach point number 12 today very careful we teach what to discuss while you take them there you say sir or ma'am what does it matter are you a guest in the hotel it doesn't matter if he says yes or no the next you say well I hope you had a chance to try our restaurant everybody raves about it and you take them and you create a relationship you're nice and say here sir this is your meeting room right here have a wonderful day and you know this this this basic non-negotiable for our company I tell you something now how companies work was the got the number one compliments in our company in every hotel when that happened people exuberant about it. What unbelievable just asked he stepped around the front desk and took me there because every day people arrive and ask where where is that where's the restaurant where is the where's the meeting rooms where is where's the toilet whatever and they talk so number compliment by the way when I left the company the time the company eliminated that as a as a non-negotiable took it off the list even though it was a one number number one comment that's how companies think well that takes too much time that costs money we cannot think like that we can I don't if it costs money that's okay as long as the guest is happy and wants to come back yes excellence money follows excellence right absolutely and I'm our number one objective every employees knew it was to convince the guest to want to come back because I knew the average age of our guests I knew lifetime they have a value of about $2000 without referrals to others so I'm saving a few cents by walking them to the meeting room you must be kidding me.
SPEAKER_02Well this this this brings me to an interesting thought that's going through my head you know the the customer is always right that's one thing I didn't delegate I can decide I was the only one I said I can decide if the customer's not right. Okay. So the customer is right unless you say they're not I'm sorry that's right.
SPEAKER_01And we had some customers that were not right.
SPEAKER_02Well there's a lot of customers that think they're right that's for sure yeah so so so most of our listeners are in some form of service industry and they're probably dealing with demanding people that think that they're right all the time what are some quick tips that you have for dealing with unreasonable expectations from your guests well you you you you go into the to the relation to the discussion with the mind that the guest is right that the guest is happy and the guest you you ask him you just keep on saying when the guest complains about something you say you first of all you don't you never never ever point to somebody else you have to take it on yourself.
SPEAKER_01When you if you get a complaint as an unreasonable guest will complain and you get the complaint if the guess is right or wrong you own the complaint you own the complaint if you're the bus point the complain about the TV you own the TV so you look them in the eye first of all you listen then you show empathy for the situation no matter what and then you apologize you apologize but here's your apologize particularly to the ones that were wrong that are wrong he says please forgive me then they start 60 94 94 to 96% of people that complain all they want to do is get rid of frustration even the ones that are wrong so you accept the frustration see forgive me when you do that they're embarrassed that they even complain the ones that are unreasonable they're the ones that want something they want to get something and and and you you you you you you don't offer that you you don't offer that you have nothing to offer but if they're if there's somewhat right like the guest comes in the in the to the coffee shop in the morning and the bus boy said good morning sir hope you have a nice day and the guest said I didn't my TV didn't work. In that moment you own the TV bus boy you said please forgive me you go through problem resolution number one listen number two show empathy oh no I'm so sorry please forgive me I I will make it up I don't charge you for breakfast see I empowered the employees to make a decision up to two thousand dollars to make sure you don't lose a customer let's let's stop right there I want to park on that for a minute so every employee has an allowance to solve problems you're right yeah and with it just just solve it just solve it okay and and that requires an enormous amount of training and then a release of some decision making correct oh yeah empowerment everybody talks about empowerment but nobody has powers yeah you know so do you realize when I when I started this and said you have the right to every employee has the right of two thousand dollars owners of hotels threatened to sue me and my vice presence came to me and all and said we cannot do that and I said we're gonna do it because very simple I want to tell the my employees that I trust them and I want to keep the customer and guess what it was a major success nobody ever gave two thousand dollars that's just a two thousand dollar for the lifetime of the employee or is that two thousand dollars every month anytime anytime anytime they have a situation he can make he can resolve it and and and spend up to two thousand dollars wow so all right now I want to put you on the spot what nobody ever did it nobody ever spent well what would be one of the uh more creative solutions you remember somebody offering that that worked all all kind of things happened okay i i tell you a thing that was worth millions of advertising for us was the honeymoon couple in cancun where they that lost the ring on the on the beach dark and dark and dark were crying and then the scene and people held digging the more you dig the more it's gone and when they when the evening was over the the the the attendants the speech attendants who know they were empowered went and bought four metal detectors they didn't have to ask and they came back in the founding wow and the groom called every newspaper and every tele every radio station one was on TV and everything and talk so that's creative wow wow but that begins with empowerment too too many of us well you you helped start a company too many of us who start a thing I think have a hard time releasing control.
SPEAKER_02Well any any other suggestions on how to your your book excellence wins which I can't recommend highly enough to everybody listening well I have a book called Culture Wins because we we won all these awards for best place to work and all this sort of thing. So somebody said you should write a book and I said why and they said well because sooner or later you won't be winning the awards so write so we wrote the book and we studied other companies that have won awards and of course Ritz Carlton was at the top and I read the new gold standard which is uh a book about the brand at some level when you write about excellence winning how do you how do you make sure that people don't forget the mission like what do you do with your what did you do with your teams to remind them if it's daily or weekly or monthly or what have you that that same lesson that you taught in the orientation look you took culture and let's let's put in the same thing in mind you I had hotel had hotels in five continents and while I was running the company everyone every one of those hotels when were number one in their location so how do we do that because because the culture to to scale that is is not easy because so as I said we this you cannot go to work we have a we have a roll call and a five minutes meeting before every shift you cannot go to work without going through it.
SPEAKER_01In that shift in that shift we repeat one of the non-negotiables today may be number 12 in 20 days it will be again at the same time one of the number one in these non-negotiables is our creed who we are hotel is a place where the channel can come for our guess is our highest mission and so on. You learn again our creed and every 20 days if you know it or not you you have we have it it is all written down in a small form which every employee has to carry. Oh wow every employee has to carry this there are the 20 non-negotiables there is the creed there is the vision of the company the mission of the company and and the objective of the company which is number number one objective keep the existing customers wow so and every day that so today's discussion may be number 12 in every hotel around the world and we share what is news in that five minute meeting what is new in the company we announced that we will just sign the contract in nanjing where we will have a hotel for example so that people feel part of the company so the same discussion is taking the same conversation is taking place in every hotel around the world today. What is a what's a culture the culture is a common belief of the organization how to make sure I have a common belief in in nanjing and in Shanghai and in Berlin and in Philadelphia by having the same conversation wow and that's every day it's all a process man it's all yeah every day tomorrow is it's basic number non negotiation number 13 next day 14 next day 15 and in 20 days is it's 12 again.
SPEAKER_02Wow wow well I think I feel like when I say our values I've communicated it so why do I need to say it again but it sounds like uh repetition is the only way to scale listen I somebody when they didn't do it some general managers I noticed they didn't do it anymore I said why why because they all know you said they know well then I told them they got them all together and said anybody in the room who doesn't know what Coca-Cola is nobody so you all know what Coca-Cola is then why do they spend billions of advertising to keep it front of mind why wouldn't we keep front of mind what is important for the company will make us number one in the world come on yeah yeah simple that's good and I never had a meeting never had any any meeting and have me a few meetings every day without without saying okay we shouldn't have this meeting unless it makes us number one in the world our vision is that we will be number known as number one in the world if you accomplish it doesn't serve us we shouldn't do anything unless it moves us closer to be number one in the world period well you accomplished it you are an adjective and with a let's let's face it after it's Carlton I retired on a Friday I start a new company on Monday Capella which is now rated number one in the world now I sold three years ago but you know but it's it works I work with other companies it works just concentrate on what makes you successful what a customer wants excellence wins yeah yeah well the yeah I've learned a ton and I'm sure that our uh listeners today have done the same I appreciate you continuing the mission of excellence is there is there anything that if you could go visit with a 14 year old horst and you could say well now I know a few things here's what I wish I would have known back then what's one one lesson you would love to pass on to a younger version of you again again this whole thing it's you your decisions determine uh your destiny question are your decisions of high intent or are your decisions are you just working even without decisions what decisions determine your destiny uh look with everything I mean we we have to understand is our decisions in life we we are we as a country and as a society the Western society has given up to understand that we run around and just do things and follow and we are followers we're not thinkers anymore when I see how we how we vote how we make decisions it's it's not thinking anymore I mean everything is a decision everything let me let you give two silly examples uh marriage when I got married I made a decision that I will be in love not just love my wife no no in love for the rest of my life that's a decision I'm 45 years married I'm madly in love with my wife now wait a second after I make decisions I have to apply which creates that I have to do things hey guys why don't you sit down with your wife and ask her how you can be a better husband start like that make a decision now and or another decision think about it with the an argument uh if I'm uh we we uh I talked with a with a good friend with me uh very good friend a great guy a wonderful guy great friend a proud atheist we discussed uh this issue and I said it's the it's a decision you made a decision not to believe I made a decision to believe with the difference that I made a decision for hope and he against nothing for nothing but it's a decision but but but since we are followers we don't make the decision we just follow what society says you would is should be looks good right now so maybe right now I shouldn't believe because after all society is uh poo's it yeah and I'm I'm I'm not trying to sell anybody I'm trying just I said that the the power of a decision it's immense yes but is it was it Aristotle maybe I forget my philosophers who said excellence is not an act it's a habit it's a habit it's decision after decision after decision after excellence not it's no accident it's a high intent decisions of high intent and hard work to get get there well well this has been an excellent decision for me uh to invest some time learning from you thank you and I'm sure that our other listeners feel the same way thank you so much for making time the book again is excellence wins and we're going to include in our show notes links to Horse's website and and let me just encourage you if you run a larger organization and you want horse to come speak to your group that is something he does and does very very well so please keep an eye out for ways you Can do that. As always, you can go to Vandercast.com and leave us your email address. We will not beat you up with offers and special things. We'll just send you the show notes so that you can link to Horst and meet my new friend. So, Horst, thank you so much for joining us.
SPEAKER_01God bless you. Goodbye.
SPEAKER_02And you as well.
SPEAKER_01See ya.
SPEAKER_00Thanks for listening to the Vanderblumen Leadership Podcast. At Vanderblumen, we help organizations build their best teams through hiring, succession, culture, compensation, and diversity solutions. Visit our website, Vanderblumen.com to learn more and subscribe to our Vanderblumen Leadership Podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts to keep up with our latest episodes. Thanks for listening.