The Story of Excellence: Horst Schulze and The Ritz-Carlton

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There's a better way to fly private. This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. And to search for the Our American Stories podcast, go to the iHeartRadio app, to Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A legend and leader in the hotel world, Horst Schulze has reshaped how service and hospitality are defined in business, standards that have become world famous.

Throughout the years, he worked for both Hilton Hotels and Hyatt Hotels Corporation before becoming one of the founding members of the luxury hotel chain, the Ritz-Carlton, in 1983. Here's Horst with his story. I was born in 1939 when the war started in Germany, a small village, and my father soon afterwards was drafted and was in the war. My mother, in fact, was in extreme opposition to what was going on from the beginning, from before Hitler came in. In fact, when they tried to assassinate Hitler, the message came in the radio that Hitler was dead, that Hitler was assassinated, which was a signal for others to take over, for those involved in the plot to take over.

My mother happened to be in a grocery store, and the owner of the grocery store screamed, oh, they just killed Hitler, and my mother said, emotionally, thank God, finally. Well, the next day she was arrested for that reason, and probably would have been a serious ending if her uncle wasn't a committed Nazi who helped her to get out of it, so that was the life even in a village. The village was a small village. There is no hotel.

I want to emphasize that in the village. There was none. In fact, I never was in a hotel.

I never was in a restaurant before, but when I was 11 years old, I told my parents I would like to work in the hotel business, and they said, well, okay, because they didn't take it serious, but I was possessed with it for some reason. We don't know why. Nobody knows why. I must have read something.

I mean, that's what we assume. That's not a good thing to do at the time in a small village in Germany. You went into technical jobs.

If you would have been an engineer, now that was the ultimate honor at the time, or a doctor or something like that, of course, but nearly equally, if you were a carpenter or anything like that, handwork, handcraft work, and I said hotel business. My grandfather asked me not to tell anybody. I was embarrassed. It became the discussion in the class. What are you going to do?

And this is when you come close to 14, that's the discussion in Germany, because you go down in two directions. Are you going to learn a trade and go to that trade school at the same time, or you go into higher education? And so they asked around, teacher, so what are you going to do? I plowed on, and they said, you know, I'm going to go trade. What are you going to do, hotel business?

What is that? Well, I'm going to work as a cook and a waiter. Now, that was funny to everybody. The class was screaming, laughing, and when they went home, told their parents, obviously.

Oh, horse is gone. That was funny. And that day, I happened to play in the streets with him to play soccer. I was a little bit late coming home, but by the time I came home, the neighbors already had run to my mother. Oh, but you know what he said in school? Something very terrible.

So that was something really terrible. Slowly, my parents started to inquire and found there is a way to go to a boarding school in about 100 kilometers away, a hotel boarding school, and then you get placed into hotels from there. And that's what they did, and found then the best hotel in the region after that to work as an apprentice, which meant busboy.

And also, it was 100 kilometers in the other direction, so I left home when I was 14. The beginning, you wash dishes, you clean the ashtrays. The ashtrays was the only thing you were allowed to clean or do in the restaurant in the beginning, in the very beginning, and done. And finally, I washed dishes, washed glasses, sorting out, come in the morning before breakfast, clean the room, clean it after breakfast, clean before lunch, et cetera, et cetera.

I mean, it's nearly all amount of cleaning all day long. And in fact, it was kind of funny when in the very beginning, the first few days there, the maitre d', who was an exception gentleman. His name was Karl Seidler. Karl was an exceptional gentleman, a truly exceptional human being that you run in, run across once in a while.

And he told us there were others that started at the same time, and we lived in a dorm, in a dorm room in the hotel. And he told us now, from now on, when you come to work, don't just come to work, come to work to be excellent in what you're doing. Excellent.

That went over my head, obviously, at 14. Excellent in what I'm doing. Excellent at cleaning ashtrays and washing dishes and glasses and cleaning floors and so on. Well, yeah, do it as excellent as I can. I didn't get the gist of what he's saying. In fact, the funny thing is he used the word excellent, which is really not a German word. He used that word all the time. He used German words too, but he used that word excellent. In fact, sometimes when he passed you, it looked at us as excellence. He kept reminding you and telling us and doing better. And that went over my head, but slowly I grasped his thinking. Because, not because of what he said, because how he lived.

And you've been listening to Horst Schulze tell a heck of a story. When he was 11 years old, he told his parents he wanted to work in the hotel business. And that wasn't exactly a respectable idea in Germany at the time. An engineer, a doctor, a carpenter, those were respectable professions. Where did he figure out that he wanted to be in the hotel business?

He didn't know why. But at the age of 14, hotel boarding school, then within a 100 mile radius, found work at a fine hotel where all he did was clean. And then came that maitre d', Carl, who taught him a word that would define his life. The word excellence. When we come back, more of Horst Schulze's story and the story of the Ritz-Carlton here on Our American Stories. Here at Our American Stories, we bring you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith and love. Stories from a great and beautiful country that need to be told.

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That's OurAmericanStories.com. When the world gets in the way of your music, try the new Bose QuietComfort earbuds too. Next-gen earbuds uniquely tuned to the shape of your ears. They use exclusive Bose technology that personalizes the audio performance to fit you. Delivering the world's best noise cancellation and powerfully immersive sound, so you can hear and feel every detail of the music you love. Bose QuietComfort earbuds too.

Soundshaped to you. To learn more, visit Bose.com. Imagine air travel that's simple, hassle-free and fast. That's Surf Air. Save hours on every trip. Avoid busy, crowded terminals and fly from airports closer to your home.

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There's a better way to fly private. 2022 was full of laughs, tears, screams and squeals. And it's thanks to the movies and shows that gave us all the feels. Check out our Best of 2022 collection on Xfinity Flex.

We've chosen winners from every genre, like House of the Dragon for Best Fantasy Series and Yellowstone for Best Guilty Pleasure. Plus, we have our top 100 best of everything. What to watch, listen to and know for 2022. We've got one more thing up our sleeve and it includes Bustin' a Move. It's iHeartRadio's top pop of 2022 playlist.

Say what to watch into your Xfinity voice remote. And we continue with our American stories. We last left off with Horst Schulze, founder of the Ritz-Carlton Hotels, talking about a man named Carl who changed his 14-year-old life forever. Carl was the maitre d' at the luxury hotel young Horst was serving out his apprenticeship with as a busboy. Carl kept using that word excellence to define Horst's work ethic, an English word that stood out considering they only spoke German.

Here again is Horst. What he did, he was a human being of excellence, everything he did. And he would have never ended a restaurant without looking absolutely perfect and working in tails at a time, totally perfect, perfection in everything he did.

So you get got a sense of what he meant with excellence. And I got hit that night very, very it was like a revelation that night. I walked in a corner and I felt the maitre d' coming into the room.

I mean it. You could feel it when he entered the room. He just knew it. He had the presence of it penetrated. And I turned around and he just approached the table.

And I saw something that I recognized something that is seen before, but it didn't really recognize it, didn't really feel it. The guests on the table that he approached were proud that he came to them. I said, wow. And now I look at that moment, the maitre d', those fine ladies and gentlemen, and they were. We were the finest hotel close to Bonn, which was at the time the capital of West Germany. And all the diplomats and so on came in that hotel, came to that hotel. And this was an exceptional place. But I saw that these people were proud that he came to the table and I suddenly realized everybody in the room thinks that Karl Seidler is the most important person in the room.

Everybody respects him. And for the first time in my life, I realized that I can define myself. I'm not defined by my job, but the name of the job is by what is I define myself, how I execute my life or including my job and my job to a great extent, because that's where I spent my life, my time. I got the point of excellence. I got it very strongly, even when I jump forward for a moment, because believe it or not, I can see my maitre d' in front of me right now. And that's why I tell the next story. Years later, I'm working in San Francisco in the Hilton as a room service leader. I had come a few months before to the U.S. with the intent of going back to Europe within the next 18 months or so. But my plan was seeing how room service worked in the Hilton in San Francisco with several room service supervisors who got promoted.

I saw one promoter after only three months being there. And I said, wait a minute, if they get promoted, I can get promoted to room service supervisor. And then go back to Europe and having learned the language better, having worked in different culture, learned the culture and having been promoted.

That will be my kickoff for my career in Europe when I go back. Well, sure enough, a few months later, and by the way, I knew I was the best waiter in the house. I had worked in the finest hotels in Europe in the meantime, truly in the finest. I had knowledge about my profession. I didn't just deliver food. I had knowledge. And I had one more in my room service manager was German also. So I got the in, I will be promoted and then I could see it. I knew it. I built everything around it. And then a few months later, sure enough, one of the supervisors was promoted out.

And another waiter, not I, was promoted into the supervisor's shop. That was devastating to me. It was my whole thinking was around that it was devastating.

And of course, what do we think then as a young man? I think that was stupidity by management, outrageous and so on. It took me several months to slowly and I suffered. I truly suffered through that.

It took a few months to admit the guy that got the promotion deserved it more. I was very young, partying in the evening, being late in the morning. I wasn't only tired. You could see from 100 feet that I was tired as I come to work and sometimes five minutes late. When my manager asked me to do something related to my work, I said, why me?

Why not the other guys? There was an attitude of looking down at the guests. They don't even know how to handle silver. And I developed my thinking there. Elegance. Yes, there was a lot of elegance. It was truly an elegant restaurant. This elegance without warmth and caring is arrogance.

Elegance without warmth is arrogance. Looking down at the guests and of course the restaurant didn't survive. The food was exceptional. The service delivery was repelling rather than attracting. You don't go out to eat. You have eaten food in your refrigerator. You go out to feel good, to experience something excellent.

And when you take that away in your service delivery, you kill it all. The gentleman who got promoted never did that. He was in time. He was in a good mood in the morning. He said, yes, I'm happy to when he was asked something. I then went back to my little room.

I had a little furnished room in the worst district in San Francisco. But I went to my little room and talked to my maitre d' who had passed away in the meantime. But I had a serious conversation with him and apologized. I went to work to work, not to be excellent.

I had drifted away in the situation, in the young. And I promised him it would never happen again. I absolutely made a commitment there. From now on, I will never go to work for anything less but create excellence in what I'm doing. I made that solemn commitment there and kept on working. And I got my promotion. I worked in a private club and then joined Hilton again as a catering manager. Became assistant food and beverage director.

Became food and beverage director over two hotels. Always working, having in mind excellence in what I'm doing. I truly was committed. Whatever I'm doing, I will try and do it better than anybody else. For myself.

For my maitre d'. And it was fulfilling. It's much more fulfilling than just going to work.

That was always there, doing it right. And then I joined Hyatt as a food and beverage director in Chicago in their number one hotel. I was promoted two years later to rooms manager. And then a year later, I was promoted general manager in Pittsburgh. As soon as I took the job, people called me and said, Oh my goodness, Pittsburgh, you must be kidding me. It's the worst place to work because there is a union that is truly you cannot work with. So what? I can work. I have thick skin.

I can work with the union. You've been listening to Horace Schulze tell a heck of a story about his own life. And particularly the impact that this one man, Carl, this maitre d', had on it. And that is the standard of excellence, which he was to try his best to carry through his life. As he said, it's much more satisfying to go to work when you're thinking about excellence.

And there's also a terrific story about being passed over. And he realized ultimately that he was passed over for good reason. The person chosen was more qualified than him. He was better than him. Rather than lash out at management and quit, he looked within and found out the source of the problem, which was himself. And then back to that excellent standard, which again would drive his life.

When we come back, more of Horace Schulze's life story, the co-founder of the Ritz-Carlton, here on Our American Stories. When the world gets in the way of your music, try the new Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2, next-gen earbuds uniquely tuned to the shape of your ears. They use exclusive Bose technology that personalizes the audio performance to fit you, delivering the world's best noise cancellation and powerfully immersive sound, so you can hear and feel every detail of the music you love. Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2, sound shape to you.

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There's a better way to fly private. In the playlist, say what to watch into your Xfinity voice remote. And we continue with our American stories and with Horst Schulze's story, and he's the co-founder of the Ritz-Carlton. Let's pick up where we last left off. The classical thing was the first day at work. I was sitting in my office for the first time and general manager of a hotel. I was sitting on my chair with the secretary comes around me and the union is coming. So, let him come in. And here they come with six people.

Five of them sit in chairs facing me around. One of them, an older gentleman who incidentally had no hair, no hair brows, nothing, and talked like a character in a movie. So, he turned, he put his back to me, and he said to us, ask him, him was me, ask him if he ever saw a car blown up. That was his introduction. And I said, car blown up?

No. And he half turned around to me and said, I meant with somebody in it. That was a warning to me. That was the first introduction by a union to me.

Absolutely unbelievable. I was stunned, of course, and I said, what does that all mean? And they left after giving me several warnings to treat our people properly. And I kept on saying, they're my people too.

They're ours. And angry, look at me angry. Obviously, it was clear they want to intimidate me from day one. And this went on. And by the way, that union boss, the Baldy, he called others that had no hair Baldy, had none.

So, this kind of funny thing. He showed up every day at one o'clock. Every single day, five days a week. He showed up in the office, in a pool of secretaries, and he screamed, where is the? And there are some bad words, which was me looking for me.

Every day. He knew where my office is, but he came and screamed, where is the? And he liked to use the bad words. And then he met with me and exasperated me about anything that happened potentially. And that lasted several months. And one day, I started in June, in November. He didn't show up.

So, what's happening? I waited always at one o'clock. I knew he would be there, and I didn't want to have him pick a scene than there was already every day. He didn't show up. So, I ran to the Union Hall, which was eight blocks away. I ran there and walked in, and frankly, I said the same thing that they said, where are the?

And I used the same words. And he said, you can't go in there. I said, but where are they?

They're in an executive conference. I said, like heck, I can't go in there. And I walked in the door and said, where are you? I was waiting for you. We have a meeting, and you don't show up. What's the matter with you? You can't be in here. I said, like heck, I can't be. We have a meeting.

You didn't show up. I want to have our meeting. This and this happened. They said, we'll talk. And finally, they said, we'll talk about tomorrow. And I left. And a couple of years later, when I left, by that time, I got to Northern Wall. One of the people that was in the room said, when you left, we said, the SOB likes it.

Because they want me to be intimidated. Now they realize he is enjoying it. We have to have a different approach. And the relationship became very good. They started to respect. We became, in the meantime, a very busy hotel.

It was a terrible hotel before. We were very busy. We were highly rated, the highest rated in Pittsburgh.

Highly respected. The employees were happy. They made money suddenly.

We hired more people. And it was leadership that created this environment. If every employee understands the vision of the company, and every employee understands the motive of that vision, and everybody understands how the individual motives connects to the motives of the organization. In other words, the vision is truly good for all concerned. And if you said the vision of an organization you have to agonize, is this good for all concerned? Is it good for the investor?

Of course. If it's good for the customer, it has to be. Is it good for the employee?

It must be. And is it good for society as a whole? And if the answer is yes, then ask yourself, would God approve? And if everything is yes, then you know you're doing the right thing.

In fact, from there on, all your decisions are easy. Only then can that vision be a real vision for the organization. But then you have to let everybody know. And if everybody knows, and everybody knows the expectation of the customer, now you have an aligned workforce. Otherwise, it's on your rhetoric. We're talking about empowerment. And nobody's empowered. If we tell an employee, here's what is wrong, and I want to have some response to that, they say, I call a manager. They're not empowered to make a decision. We empowered our employees to make a decision up to $2,000. Any time, and I would not question them.

And of course, when I introduced that, it was like letting go a nuclear bomb. You mean you want a busboy to give away $2,000? No, I want a busboy to keep the customer. And this is of extreme importance because to understand there are three types of customers. There is the loyal customer, there is the satisfied customer, and there is the dissatisfied customer. The loyal customer is your ambassador. The dissatisfied customer is a terrorist against your company. Now, what am I willing to do to change a terrorist to an ambassador?

I cannot do that. Any employee who faces the customer can do that. And if the customer has a complaint, we should move heaven and earth to keep that customer anyway. In the case of, as I give a busboy as an example, if the guest comes in the morning for breakfast, and the busboy said, good morning, sir.

I hope you have a nice stay with us. And the guest said, no, I didn't. My TV didn't work. In that moment, the busboy owns the TV.

In that moment, the busboy should look him in the eye and say, I feel embarrassed. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me.

I feel so bad. I will buy you breakfast this morning. Guess what? You just created a loyal guest.

In fact, that guest is embarrassed that he even complained. The busboy is buying, wow, what kind of an organization is this? I trust this organization. And loyalty is nothing but trust. You see, you want to create an environment where the guest trusts you. That's why they deal with you.

After they trust you, why should they deal with somebody else? That's what it's all about. And you've been listening to the co-founder of the Ritz-Carlton, Horst Schultze, tell a heck of a story about vision and motive in an organization. Is the vision good for the investor? Is it good for the customer, the employee, and society?

And would God approve, Horst asked, if the answer to all of those questions is a yes, you're on your way. And then it's all about execution on the expectations of the customer. That idea of giving $2,000 to employees to spend on behalf of the customer, to keep that customer, and to keep that customer loyal, so powerful. And by the way, I love what Horst said about customers. There are three kinds. There's the loyal customer, who's an ambassador, the satisfied customer, and the dissatisfied customer, whom Horst called a terrorist against the company.

The story of Horst Schultze, the story of the Ritz-Carlton, and so much more here on Our American Stories. When the world gets in the way of your music, try the new Bose QuietComfort earbuds, too. Next-gen earbuds uniquely tuned to the shape of your ears. They use exclusive Bose technology that personalizes the audio performance to fit you, delivering the world's best noise cancellation and powerfully immersive sound, so you can hear and feel every detail of the music you love. Bose QuietComfort earbuds, too, soundshaped to you.

To learn more, visit Bose.com. Imagine air travel that's simple, hassle-free, and fast. That's Surf Air. Save hours on every trip. Avoid busy, crowded terminals and fly from airports closer to your home.

No crowds, no long lines, no stress. With Surf Air's private flights, you're in control of your travel day, not the other way around. SurfAir.com, the most convenient way to fly. Get a free quote on your next flight at SurfAir.com.

There's a better way to fly private. 2022 was full of laughs, tears, screams, and squeals, and it's thanks to the movies and shows that gave us all the feels. Check out our Best of 2022 collection on Xfinity Flex. We've chosen winners from every genre, like House of the Dragon for Best Fantasy Series and Yellowstone for Best Guilty Pleasure. Plus, we have our top 100 best of everything, what to watch, listen to, and know for 2022. We've got one more thing up our sleeve, and it includes Bustin' a Move. It's iHeartRadio's top pop of 2022 playlist. Say what to watch into your Xfinity voice remote. And we continue with our American stories and the story of Horst Schultze and the story of the Ritz-Carlton.

Let's pick up where we last left off. I actually had made a study in a focus group using a word analyst, and I want to know what do they feel when they always say, I want to feel at home in a hotel. I don't know what that means. And this analyst came back and said, gee, they don't want to feel at home. They want to feel like in their subconscious memory, they remember their mother's home. I said, wow. And we said, what is this? Well, in their mother's home, everything was done for them.

And here's the key that happened. When something went wrong and they went to their mom and said, Mom, there's something terrible. Mom, there's something. What did mom say?

Come here. Mom, tell them in the arm and said, I'm here for you. And said, that's what they want. So we had to empower our employees to say, I am here for you. So in a situation where a guest left their computer and called and was very distraught, but he said, but I have to take my plane and I'm flying to Hawaii right away.

I need it. You have to see that it gets as fast as possible there. The main target went and flew. Mind you, at that time, the security and all that wasn't there. Went to the airport, got the next flight and brought them the computer, messaged them that there is a computer. And took the next flight back, by the way.

Didn't spend a vacation there. Now I thought, gosh, what am I going to do now? This was too much. How do I tell them now?

I tell everybody, whatever it takes, keep the customer. How am I going to tell them now that was going too far? Well, in the meantime, that was spread and created so much PR.

It was worth millions of dollars of PR at the time. So I didn't say anything. But frankly, I really cringed when I heard that one.

Said, wow, maybe I went too far. But love your neighbor. Is your customers not your neighbor? Why not serve them in a way where you instill well-being in them, not just give them a product or whatever? I like to read to people in hospitality the letter that St. Benedict wrote to his monasteries as to how to treat a customer, a guest that arrives. He wrote then, if a guest arrives, treat them as if it was Jesus himself. And bow down and maybe prostate in front of him. And pay total attention. And join him for dinner if he's by himself. It was here that a man traveled by himself, of course.

It was in the year 500. And even the abbey should join him for dinner. Even if the abbey is on a fast, he should break it and be with that guest because it is Jesus himself. Now, how close do we come to that type of service?

It doesn't matter. It doesn't have to be a hotel. It can be a shoe store. When they walk in, they're your customers. They're your guests.

How do you treat them? People, when I walked out the day when I left Ritz-Carlton, my wife picked me up. And children, we got the last files. We said goodbye. And in the elevator, I said, I didn't cry. And as I walked out, all the employees from downtown to hotel in here were lining my way from the elevator and the office building all the way to my car. And there I see people that started as dishwashers who went out, department heads.

I see people that were successful who were crying, and I was crying. And I saw, for example, I saw Eby who came in as a refugee from Nairobi working as a dishwasher. And I saw him in orientation. But too late, I walked by the dishwashing area, and I had forgotten who that was.

And there was this one kid who said very friendly hello, good morning, sir, how are you today? And remember, notice that he's very clean. He's a very dirty job, believe me, steam and dirty. But he looked very, very clean. He worked behind the dishwasher.

So I didn't give much of a thought. But a couple of days later, as I walked by again, again, sir, good morning, how are you today? And I look, it's this refugee. He was staying in front of the dishwasher. Even his shoes were shining.

I said, wait a minute. And I said to the head of the department, this kid, is he working at all? I mean, he's always clean. He is not working. Right away, my suspicion.

I guess that's my German cynicism that came through. I said, he's so clean, he can't be working. He said, Ms. Schulze, you're wrong. He's the hardest worker I have. But he's so proud. He changes a couple of times a day. He's a proud young man. He works unbelievably hard.

Whoa, yeah. Pretty soon I come, go through the area again, and he's working room service as a waiter. The room service manager asked for him because he was exception. He became a waiter. A few months later, he worked as a captain in banquet. And everybody wanted him. And he is now, by the way, manager in a Marriott over here in the neighborhood.

He was a long-time hotel manager in the Ritz-Carlton downtown. You see, this man created excellence in what he was doing. And he gets the reward. Everybody gets the reward. The reward is going to come sooner or later.

And here's this dishwasher who became a hotel manager, a little refugee from Nairobi. And he realized I defined myself as excellent and get the rewards. I always come with that.

It's all decisions. I always tell in my speeches, I'm in love with my wife after 41 years. I don't only love her. I'm in love with her.

I finally made that decision about 20 years ago to stay in love and be in love. No, you have to work on that. Isn't it amazing how hard we work to make our businesses successful? We do everything. Everything we do. How hard do we work? The most important thing in our life. And the only union on this earth that is God-ordained.

And we should make the decision to work on that very hard and make it exceptional too. It's a decision. And then I have friends that say, we're getting divorced because we don't feel like it anymore.

You must be kidding me. Who's in charge here? You and your decision or some feeling that comes somehow and enters the room out of nowhere. You control your feeling. It's a decision.

It's truly up to you. I don't think, in fact, I know. I wouldn't have had that opportunity if I would have been in Germany. In Germany, they would have asked, what college did you go to? And who is your family, if you will? Nobody asked that in America.

They asked in America, what are you producing? In America, that is to create difference. It's truly up to you.

That's why you get so annoyed when people play other things. In this country, it's up to you. Create excellence and you will get rewards. And that is not true in other countries. And that's why this is the land of opportunity. And it is so angering me when Americans say, we don't have everybody. Everybody has everybody. And we still sometimes blame others when we don't make it. There's only one person to blame. And I can introduce you to them.

Go in the washroom, look in the mirror, and you will see them. Period. Of course, there's circumstances of illness and so on. Of course, we know that all.

We know that those are the circumstances that happen. But as a generality, we always blame society, we blame the president, we blame the mayor, we blame this, we blame... Stop blaming this. It's not necessary. It's wrong in this country.

Because this country gives you the opportunity that you want. Period. And a terrific job on the production and storytelling by Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to Horst Schulze for sharing his story. He's the co-founder of the Ritz-Carlton. His book, Excellence Wins, a no-nonsense guide to becoming the best in a world of compromise. And in the end, it all gets down to excellence and a commitment to keep the customer and serve the customer. And his Christian walk no doubt, well, no doubt helped him in that endeavor. That great St. Benedict line that Horst quotes, if a guest arrives, treat him as if Jesus himself arrived. And then there was that story of that refugee from Nairobi who started as a dishwasher and ended up becoming a hotel manager at the Ritz-Carlton and then later a local Marriott.

And only, he said, is that possible in the United States, that kind of movement where family ties don't matter, where wealth and class and education don't matter, where excellence matters and competency matters. The story of Horst Schulze, the story of the Ritz-Carlton, in the end, the story of the American dream, here on Our American Stories. You can hear and feel every detail of the music you love. Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2, sound shape to you.

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