Start Here To Achieve Greatness - Horst Schulze

Horst: First is always the intent. What's your vision? People go to work without purpose. Even the Bible says you will perish without purpose. Your purpose has to be good. I didn't go to work at Ritz-Carlton or Capella to run a hotel company. I went there to create the finest in the world. That was the intent every day. So my actions followed the intent. Actions followed the intent. It's really that simple. If your intent is low or none at all, which most people just do without intent, well, how can you expect your action to be of high value? You cannot. But conversely, at the same time, if my intent even if I'm totally unknown, I've never been in this country, never heard about it, and suddenly I'm here, but my intent is about this one city I heard to go to New York from here. That's the intent. Now, once I have this intent, I can look and get road maps, I can rent a car, I can go do all kinds of things, and I will end up in New York if I insist on it, if I keep on doing it. Even though there may be, like today, an accident in front of me, I still will end up in New York. But if my intent was just to drive, who knows where I'd end up.

Josiah: You can't be purposeless.

Horst: You can't be purposeless. The sad thing is that we seem to be purposeless. We seem to be, as an industry, as a society, as individuals. We have to have a purpose that is of high intent. As leaders, this is an extremely important issue. Your intent as a leader has to be, you have to measure your intent as a leader. You have to question yourself as a leader. Otherwise, you're immoral. You have the questions of, is my intent of value for all concerned? If you're the leader of an organization, you have to say, is my intent of value for the investors?

Josiah: Can we talk a little bit more about that? Because I was talking to a lot of people in preparation for this. One of them was Pam Bauer, who I believe works in this office. And she was interested in this. I was interested in reading your book. My question for you is, what have you learned about what it takes to create something that is so compelling that people want to join? 

Horst: Yeah, well, you have your own dreams and your own thoughts. And once you see that thought, again, you have to go back and say, well, is that good for everybody? Is it good for the investor? Is it good for the employee? Is it good for the market? Is it good for society? I personally, that's a very personal thing, and I don't try to convince anybody, I have to ask myself afterwards, would God approve? And once the answer is yes in all areas, then you as the leader have no more choice, you have to do it. You cannot compromise anymore, because otherwise you go against all. But yes, you have to look, and if you lead a company, or lead a business, or your marriage, what is good here? What is beautiful? What is unique? What is a dream? Dream! Don't just do a dream. When I work with people, I work with many companies, and say, what's your vision? I worked with a wonderful university, a number of years ago now, a wonderful Christian university. And I say, what is your intent? What is your intent? Who do you want to be? Give me something. And there's all kinds of stuff there. What I can do. And it's not what can you do. What is the ultimate dream? When I started Ritz-Carlton, we had no hotels. We had a Holiday Inn, but my intent was to make it the best hotel company in the world. It's not what can you do, it's what you wish to do. That is your mission. And so dream, and you know, I talked at that university in Austin, and when I finally said, how about becoming known as the finest Christian university? They said, well, that's too arrogant. Wait a minute, how is it arrogant to want the best for your students and for all concerned? There's no arrogance. And that, in fact, is a leadership's obligation. But they didn't go away from it. As a consequence, I didn't work with them. I can't think that way. So what is this excellence that you have? It's your ultimate dream.

Josiah: Tell me more about dreaming. That feels very important for creating something compelling. I'm interested, it's one thing to say this does well by our company, our shareholders, our employees, our community. That may not necessarily be compelling. It seems the dream may be key to creating a vision that's compelling. What have you personally found useful when it comes to the dreaming process?

Horst: Well, some of it is ego. What would I like to tell my grandchildren of what I have accomplished? What would I like my friends to think of me? In other words, my decision also defines me. In fact, nearly everything I do defines you. And that is also disturbing to me that people don't know they go to work just to fulfill a function rather than saying, I'm going to define myself. I'm going to define myself in this place where I spent most of my conscious waking life.