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

Our American Stories / Lee Habeeb
The Truth Network Radio
March 6, 2025 3:00 am

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

Our American Stories / Lee Habeeb

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March 6, 2025 3:00 am

Horst Schulze, co-founder of the Ritz-Carlton, shares his life story and the impact of one man, Carl, who taught him the importance of excellence in his work ethic. Schulze discusses how he applied this standard to his career, from being a busboy to becoming a successful hotel executive, and how it transformed his life and the lives of those around him.

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Visit att.com slash guarantee for details. 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 39 when the war started in Germany.

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. But the next day she was arrested before 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 the 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 was 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, hand work, hand craft work, and I said hotel business. My grandfather asked me, don't 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? And I said, you know, I'm going to go trade. What are you going to do, hotel business?

What is that? Well, I can work as a cook in a waiter. Now, that was funny to everybody. The class was screaming, laughing, and when they went home, told their parents, obviously, whoa, that was funny. And I, on 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, you know. 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. It 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, wash dishes, wash 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, in the very beginning, the first few days there, Demetre D, who was an exceptional gentleman. His name was Karl Seidler.

Karl was an exceptional gentleman, truly exceptional human being that you run across once in a while. And he told us there were others that start at the same time, and we lived 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 in 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 selling us on doing better. And that went over my head, but slowly I grasped his thinking, 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, 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. dot com and click the donate button. Give a little give a lot. Help us keep the great American stories coming.

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Sponsor a child at worldvision.org slash water for kids and help ensure access to life changing essentials like clean water. And we continue with our American stories. We last left off with Horst Schultze, founder of the Rich 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 bus boy. 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 the 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 worked in a corner and I felt the maitre d coming into the room. I mean that you could feel it when he entered the room.

He just knew it. He had the presence that it penetrated and I turned around and he just approached the table and I saw something that and 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 I came in that hotel, came to that hotel, and this was an exceptional place. But I saw that these people were very 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, by 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 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 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 was 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 it. 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. And there was an attitude of looking down at the guests they don't even know how to handle sober. And I developed my thinking their elegance. Yes there was a lot of elegance. It was truly an elegance the 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 it 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 too 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 I had drifted away in the situation the situation and 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. Truly was committed whatever I'm doing and do it well 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. Always that was always there doing it right and then I joined hired as a food and beverage director in Chicago in the number one hotel.

Was promoted two years later to rooms manager and then a year later 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's a union that is truly you cannot work with. It's the worst place to work because there's a union that is truly you cannot work with. So what? I can work.

I have a thick skin. I can work with the union. And you've been listening to Horst 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. 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 Horst Schulze's life story the co-founder of the Ritz-Carlton here on Our American Stories. Hey it's Amy Brown from The Bobby Bones Show. Join me in supporting St. Jude Children's Research Hospital for a chance to win a trip to meet Megan Maroney at the 2025 iHeart Country Festival in Austin, Texas on May 3rd hosted by Bobby Bones. We're going to hook you up with tickets, flights, hotel, food credits, and a meet and greet with Megan Maroney. Take action now to support St. Jude and help cure childhood cancer and you're going to be entered for a chance to win. Visit iHeartCountryTrip.com to learn more.

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I was sitting on on my on my chair with the the the secretary comes around and the union is coming so let him come 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 so he turned it put his back to me and he said to ask him him was me ask him if he ever saw a car blown up that was his introduction and I said car blow up no and he half turned around to me and said I meant with somebody in it there was a warning to me that was the first introduction by a union to me absolutely unbelievable and I was stunned of course and I said what does that all mean and they left if they after give me several several warnings to treat our people properly 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 and this went on and and by the way that union boss the baldy he called others that had to have baldy and none so this kind of funny thing he showed up every day at one o'clock every single day five days a week he showed up in the office in a pool of secretaries and he screamed where is the and there's some bad words which was me looking for me every day he knew where my office is but he came in the script where is the and he liked to use the bad words and then he met with me and up separated me about anything that happened potentially and that that lasted several months when one day in became we started I started in June it was in November he didn't show up and so what's happening I waited always at one o'clock I knew it 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 said but where are they they're in a an executive conference I said like heck I can't go in there and I walk and walk in the door and he said I can't go in there I can't go in there I can't go in there and I walk and walk 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 and said like heck I can't be we have a meeting you didn't show up you didn't I want to have our meeting this and this happened they said we'll talk and then finally they said we'll talk about tomorrow and I left and couple of years later when I left by that time I got to northern well one of the people in there 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 and the relationship became very good their starter respect we had we became in the meantime a very busy hotel it was a terrible hotel before we were very busy highly highly rated the highest rated in Pittsburgh highly respected the employees were happy they made money suddenly we hired more people and it was leadership that created this environment if every employee understands the vision of the company and every understand understands the motive of that vision and every about it everybody understands how the individual motives connects to the motives of the organization with other worst division is truly good for all concerned and if you said the vision as an organization you have to agonize is this good for all concerned is it good for the investor for the investor of course if it's good for the customer it has to be is it good for the employee it must be and is it good for society as a whole and if the answer is here 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 to customer now you have an aligned workforce otherwise it's on your rhetoric we are 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 and not empowered to make a decision we empowered our employees to make a decision up to two thousand dollars anytime 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 an busboy to give away two thousand dollars no I want a busboy to keep the busboy to keep the customer and it 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's 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 the employee who faces the customer can do that and if the customer has a complaint we should move heaven and earth to keep that customer anyway in in the case of as a gift passport as an example if the guest comes in the morning for breakfast and the busboy said good morning sir I hope you have a night stay with us and the guest said no I didn't my tv didn't work in that moment the busboy owns the tv in that moment the busboy should look him and I'm said 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 case that guest is embarrassed that he even complained the busboy is by 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 Shelton 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 two thousand dollars 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 kind there's a 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 hey it's Amy Brown from the Bobby Bone Show join me in supporting St. Jude Children's Research Hospital for a chance to win a trip to meet Megan Maroney at the 2025 I Heart Country Festival in Austin Texas on May 3rd hosted by Bobby Bones we're gonna hook you up with tickets flights hotel food credits and a meet-and-greet with Megan Maroney take action now to support St. Jude and help cure childhood cancer and you're gonna be entered for a chance to win visit I heart country trip dot-com to learn more clean water access helps kids soak up childhood girls can be in class instead of walking hours for water kids can be climbing trees and skinning knees instead of being sick with waterborne diseases sponsor a child at worldvision.org slash water for kids and help ensure access to life-changing essentials like clean water homeowners if you want to sell your house fast for all cash stop what you are doing and listen to this because Osborne Homes wants to buy your house right now I'm Alec from Osborne Homes and we want to buy your house nobody buys more homes in California than Osborne whether it's a total fixer-upper or in perfect condition Osborne Homes is the easiest way to sell your house fast all cash best of all when you sell your house to Osborne Homes there are zero commissions zero fees plus no banks no realtors no repairs and no waiting to close we buy your house as is we buy your house as is all cash just go to Osborne homes.com right now to get your free no obligation all cash offer we are here and ready to buy your house 24 hours a day seven days a week just go to Osborne homes.com go to Osborne homes.com right now don't wait sell your house to Osborne Homes and put the cash in your pocket right away just go to Osborne homes.com that's Osborne homes.com Osborne homes.com Osborne homes.com I was struggling for the past year and a half two years with trying to lose weight I just can't get rid of the stubborn weight in my legs and in my belly while everyone is unique and will have varied results here are extraordinary experiences from independent body affiliates and actual belvital users there's nothing more frustrating than knowing that you're eating well but it's not working hormone imbalances were preventing these women from losing weight now there's a comprehensive plan to help with belvital I just noticed changes immediately that stubborn scale finally moved in this first week I lost five pounds just after one week I'm down six pounds and all of my bloating is gone I just finished the belvital program I have lost 15 pounds and I have never felt better I've noticed inches just shed every week that I go through I feel like an entirely different person I don't know if I've ever felt this good get hormone health for women at belvital.com and while supplies last save 15% with promo code bv15 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 the 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 the subconscious memory they remember their mother's home I said wow and we said what is this well in the mother's home everything was done for them and here's the key that happened when something went wrong and they went to their mom and said mom mom there's something terrible mom there's something what did mom said come here mom tell him in the arm and said I'm here for you 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 I have a guest left a computer and called and was very distraught but he said but I have to take my I have to take my plane and I'm flying to Hawaii right away I need it you can you have to see that it gets as fast as possible there the main target went and flew the money at that time the security all that wasn't there went to the airport got 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 I'm going to do now this was too much how do I tell them now I tell everybody whatever it takes keep the customer how I'm going to tell them now that was going going too far well in the meantime that was spread and created so much pr that was worth millions of dollars of pr at the time so I didn't say anything but frankly I really cringed whenever that one you know said wow maybe I went too far you know but love your neighbor why don't you want to make you is your customers not your neighbor why not serve them in a way where you instill well-being in them not just give them a product or whatever you know I like to read to people in hospitality the the letter that Saint Benedict wrote to his monasteries as to how to treat a customer a guest that arrives he wrote done 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 if he's by himself it was here the time man traveled by himself of course it was in year 500 and and even the abbey should join for dinner even if the abbey is on a fast he should break it and be with that guest because three 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 there your customers tell your guest you know 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 we got the last files we said goodbye and in the elevator I said I didn't cry and as I walked out and all the employees from downtown the hotel in here were lining my way from the elevator and the office all the way to my car and there I see people that start as dishwashers who went now department heads I see people that were successful the whole were crying and I was crying and uh and I was so for example I saw Eby who came in as a refugee from Nairobi working as a dishwasher and it was I saw him in orientation but too late I walked by the dishwashing area and I forgotten who that was when 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 it'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 other thought but a couple days later as I walked by again again sir good morning how are you today and I look is this refugee he was staying in front dish wash could see even his shoes were shining I said wait a minute and I said to the to the head of the department this kid is he working at all I mean he's always clean he is not working right away my suspicion I guess that's my my my German cynicism that came through I said he's so clean and he can't be working he said Miss 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 services a waiter the room service manager asked for him because he was exceptionally became a waiter a few months later he worked as a captain in banquet and everybody wanted him and he's now by the way a manager in a Marriott over here in the neighborhood was 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 reward the reward is going to come sooner or later and and here's this dishwasher who became a hotel manager a little refugee from Nairobi and he realized I define myself as excellent and get the rewards rewards always come with that you know this is 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 I have to work on that isn't amazing how hard we work to make our our business is successful we do everything everything we do how hard do we work at 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 the worst because we don't feel like it anymore you must be kidding me it's not to do who's in charge here you and your decision or some feeling that comes somehow enters the room out of nowhere you control your feeling it's a decision it's truly up to you I I don't think I I'm in fact I know I 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 and what who is your family if you will nobody asked that in America they asked America said what are you producing in America that is that is to create difference is it's truly up to you that's why it gets so annoyed when people blame other things in this country it's up to you create excellence and you will get rewards and that is not true in other countries and that's why this is the land of opportunity and it did and it is so angering me when Americans say we don't have everybody everybody has every body and and and we still sometimes blame others when we don't make it there's only one person to blame and that and I can introduce you to him go in the washroom look in the mirror and you will see him period of course there's circumstances of illness and so on of course we know that all we know that also 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 not 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 Craig 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 Saint 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 a 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. small businesses and some of the uh-oh moments Jamie has overcome listen wherever you get your podcasts Chase mobile app is available for select mobile devices message and data rates may apply JP Morgan Chase Bank N.A. member FDIC copyright 2025 JP Morgan Chase & Company. 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