#10 Worldwide Excellence: How Four Seasons Conquered the World (Part 5)

Excellence isn't an accident. It's a relentless pursuit. When Isadore Sharp set out to expand Four Seasons beyond Canada, he wasn't just building hotels. He was redefining luxury hospitality on a global scale. The vision was bold. No matter where in the world a Four Seasons Hotel stood, whether in Tokyo, Washington D.C. the Caribbean, or Hawaii, it would deliver an uncompromising level of service and quality. And today, we are going to be talking about worldwide excellence. The whole goal right now of this chapter that is Sharp is really drawing you into, or you're reading through is you're trying to focus on worldwide excellence. And so that's going to be the theme and the story throughout today's podcast episode, where what is the excellence in every single little thing that Isadore Sharp is doing with building the Four Seasons brand? And so let's get into today's episode. Excellence at this level wasn't easy. Each expansion came with challenges, cultural differences, economic obstacles, and skeptics who thought a global luxury brand couldn't be consistently great across continents. And Sharp really refused to settle. And instead of adapting Four Seasons to fit the local industry standards, he actually forced the end the industry to rise to his. And I was looking up quotes related to this, like, what is this worldwide excellence theme that we're going to be focusing on? Right? And Aristotle famously said that we are what we repeatedly, repeatedly do or repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. That's exactly how Sharp approach building Four Seasons not as a single moment of success, but as a relentless commitment to quality day after day, across every single location. They had, like, 48 locations by the time that this was happening. And so the biggest thing that Sharp could do was enforce the golden standard, which was this excellence that, you know, was what he wanted it to be. And so another person that really resemble, you know, signifies this is Bill Walsh. He wrote the score takes care of itself. He was the head coach of Joe Montana and the 49ers when they won all their Super Bowls. And he really put it in a great way. Champions behave like champions before they are champions, and they have a winning standard of performance before they are winners. And so this really, you know, connects with Four Seasons because long before Four Seasons became the gold standard in hospitality, Sharp and his team operated like excellence was the only option. If you want to have a successful business, you need to, you know, act and operate like excellence is your only option, and then you will rise to those standards. And this really is the story of worldwide excellence. This is how Israel Sharp built An empire by refusing to lower his standards, no matter the obstacles. And how we start seeing this is he starts expanding. Four Seasons. So in the worldwide excellence part, there's like five parts to this book. And this is like chapter 21, 22. He really goes into like tons of different places. So Europe, Hawaii, the Caribbean and Japan on these are the different places that he's going to be building. And so he really wanted to push his vision worldwide. But it wasn't just to build hotels. It was to actually set the global standard for luxury hospitality. And by making that vision a reality, it meant expanding into different new markets. And these each had its own unique challenges. And so Japan was a different market, the Caribbean was a different market, Europe was a different market, and Hawaii was completely different. And let's just go through these different markets of how they had to actually establish that excellence within each of those markets. So when Four Seasons entered Japan, they weren't just opening a hotel. They were actually stepping into a culture that already had its own deep rooted traditions of hospitality. The Japanese actually had this concept of, of omotenashi. And this was the art of selfless service. This really set the bar impossibly high because instead of Four Seasons, instead of forcing Four Seasons model onto Japan, Sharp and his team studied and they learned and adapted to the Japanese model. They had to figure out the culture in the market of the the Japanese in order to fit in. And they, they really combined the Japanese precision and attention to detail with Four Seasons signature warmth and personal service. And the result was a perfect balance of tradition and innovation. This really allowed Four Seasons to thrive in one of the most demanding hospitality markets in the world. And it's really interesting because the part that they were building at, they already had a ton of hotels. It was really hard to get a hotel in there. They finally got a hotel. All the hotels in there were owned by other people. Top of the top. And what they were focusing on was, hey, we need to focus on something a little bit different that can still provide value for the customer and makes it worth it while we're here. And so I thought that was really interesting. Another funny thing is Four Seasons is a, a franchise. They basically signed really, really long contracts to manage your hotel. And so the idea with the Japanese is The Japanese signed 6 to 10 year contracts and the Four Seasons, Israel Sharp co founder or founder, said, oh no, that's too short. And I thought this was really funny because he was like, no, I want it to be like 100 or like 60 to 100 year deal. And they were like, no, we don't, we can't do that. That's way too long. 40 years is even longer, but we can do 40 years at max. And so they actually signed a contract for 40 years. But they ended up being one of his best business partners in each, like in almost any location that they Four Seasons eventually partnered into, which I thought was really interesting. And the next place that you get into in the book is the Caribbean. And I love this luxury in the middle of nowhere. It is really interesting, actually. So you go into the Caribbean, he builds a luxury hotel. But it wasn't just about the five star service. It was actually about making the impossible possible. And what does that mean and what is the challenge? Well, it's the remote location and supply chain issues. Right? It was completely different for the guests and what they expected. But Sharp knew that people, people weren't just coming for a hotel stay. They were actually coming for experience of paradise. And so the Caribbean, they didn't have water or, I'm trying to remember, they didn't have like basic things like they were still, you know, going around in horses or whatever they had. I don't think they had cards, they didn't have running electricity, things like that. And with the building of the Four Seasons Hotel, it actually brought a lot of jobs for the Caribbean. And there was only like 8 or 9,000 people on the island that they were building. I can't remember if it's Maldives or just one of the Caribbean islands or somewhere in the Caribbean. But they were really. Sharp was talking about this how it was a like middle of nowhere island and they were still able to make it luxury and bring in a ton of traffic for this little island. Actually helped this island, you know, grow in terms of resources and, you know, all this different stuff. And so the Caribbean actually worked out really well. The only thing with that is like hurricanes and hurricanes, Tornadoes, not tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis coming in and potentially destroying your hotel because they're, you know, right on the ocean. Another different place was Hawaii. So opening in Hawaii is kind of the same as the Caribbean, but it kind of, it had to feel. The experience had to be blended between natural beauty and impeccable service. So you wanted the luxury in Hawaii to feel different because you wanted, you wanted it to be less rigid and more in sync with the islands. And so that was the challenge for Four Seasons in Israel. Sharp, they really wanted to preserve the relaxed, natural feel of Hawaiian hospitality, really bring out that aloha spirit. But they also wanted to ensure that the Four Season standard of service was never compromised. And that led to. It was actually a resort. That was the first time it wasn't hotel a hotel, but a resort. And it led it being just carefully designed to feel that way. The resort was amazing. They also expanded into Europe and this was a different challenge altogether because they were trying to get into Asia, but. But mostly Europe. So this included London, Paris and Milan. Actually they made a deal with the Regent Hotel which they had four loca, 14 locations or 15 locations. And they were able to actually get into really good places in like London, Paris and Milan. But it wasn't just to compete with other people. They wanted to set a new standard and they wanted to do that by consistency and personalization. So they already had the hotel in London, but they wanted to grow more so Paris, so France, Italy, they wanted to keep growing. And so Four Seasons wanted to deliver a level of personalized service that even the most prestigious establishments struggled to match. That the whole key in what I'm talking to you guys about this with Japan, the Caribbean, Europe and even, you know, Hawaii, even though the Caribbean and Hawaiian are, you know, pretty much similar, they are a little bit different. And what's really interesting about this is that there is a common theme of excellence throughout all of this. You know, they had to learn what does it look like to master perfection in Japan. What does it look like for me to have excellence in the Caribbean, where it's basically in the middle of nowhere. Europe, Europe. They were competing with centuries of hospitality. There was, there's been hotels there. The Regent Hotel was there since the 1600s or that building was there from the 1600s and they made it into a hotel Hawaii there. They didn't have resorts like that. And so there's excellence in each one of these things. It's excellent to know your field and to know how to market your, your product. And I think that's what we really see with Isadore Sharp. He really is a one of a kind guy that knows what he's talking about. Every time that he goes into a different, different part. Of course he didn't do this by himself there. He actually talks about later in the book and I'm going to be talking about later in my podcast episode where you need to delegate that to other people. Whether that's other people getting into like they had a ton of partners helping them with, you know, between like Prince, this one Prince guy who was helping, helping them get into like the Asian market, Egypt. They actually got into Egypt and had a pyramid or they had, they could like, view the pyramid from the hotel, but he got them location there. There's so many different partners that help them place certain things. So he didn't do this by himself per se, but. But just the idea that he's been able to build an empire like this and make his company this much better shows you how excellent his company is. It's also a pretty old company. We're in 2025 right now. He started his hotel in the 1970, 1960s or 1950s, I can't remember 40 years to 2008, which is when he ended writing this book or he finished writing this book. So you're looking at this is around 60 to 70 years of how old this business is, which is a long time. And that's actually what makes a company great for how long it's been around and how long it can actually compete with people, but also be adaptive. And so we really go into the next part of this episode, which is the global standard. So once they acquired, you know, Hawaii or Maui per se, and part of Japan and all these with hotels in each location, with each expansion, Four Seasons wasn't just entering the new markets. They were actually proving that true excellence had no borders. Different cultures and different expectations and different obstacles were all, you know, different. But, you know, they were all, you know, focused on the standard of service. You can still have a uniform standard of service across different cultures, different expectations, and different problems. And no matter. They really want to focus on no matter where a guest stayed, whether that's in Tokyo, the Caribbean, Paris, or even Maui, they would experience the same level of care, attention, and personal touch. You know, this is what we were going back to last, last week's episode, you know, with the guest history system. They wanted to know the preferences of the guest. They wanted to know so that the next time they come, they actually know what to look for. And, you know, whether the guy wants his soda in his can versus, you know, aluminum, aluminum can versus, like a bottle, they know that difference. And so they know to put it like that. If you want more pillows, they'll get you more pillows. If you want less pillows, they'll give you less pillows. If you like your room colder, they already have that preset. That's the guest history system. If you want your own shampoo or your own certain thing, they will have that provided for you, because they already have that. And this is what they mean by the standard of service. And another thing is that Israel Sharp. For Israel Sharp, luxury wasn't just about the location. Whether that was Tokyo, The Caribbean, Paris, or even Maui. It was an obsession with excellence. Every single place is. He wanted just. He wanted to be obsessed with excellence. I love this guy, man. This guy is incredible in what he does. He's really remarkable. And this leads to in the 1990s. So this is kind of leading up to this, what Isadore calls our bumps on the road. And so really what happened in the 1990s was there was a war and economic crisis. But by the 1990s, the Four Seasons had become this global luxury powerhouse with presence in just major cities. New York, San Francisco, Paris, you know, the Caribbean, Maui, just all over the world. And just when it seemed like they were, you know, smooth sailing, the world actually changed overnight. And this won't be the first time this happens, but the Gulf War and really erupted in 1990 and throughout, and it really threw the global economy into chaos because travel slowed down dramatically. When you have travel slowing down and you're a hotel business, that's not good. That's really not good. Particularly for business guys like business travelers, high end business travelers and just tourists who made up most of Four Seasons core clientele. And what's really interesting is I read this quote in the Four Seasons book where they're talking. This lady is talking to Isadore Sharp, and she says, you know what? This is actually a good thing for you because you know that even though this time is really hard right now with your guests, you don't want to lower your prices and give a discount because you'll actually, your reputation as a company will come down. But even though it's coming down, you. You're still. If you keep the prices the same, you know that the. When you rebound and the economy goes back up, those people will still come and they'll love what you do. I'm not doing the quote justice, and I know it's somewhere in this book. I wish I could find it, man, because it's. It is really incredible. And the next thing is that when the Gulf war erupted, it. It did throw the global economy into chaos. The. The travel slowed down and most of the tourists that made up all of this really, you know, slowed down. Oh, found it. The customers who would be drawn. The customers who would be drawn by lower rates, she wrote, likely aren't typical Four Seasons guests and wouldn't be a sustainable market in better times. It would, quote, risk dampening the impact of future upturn. You need to support your brand. Then when the world becomes a better place again, and it will, you've done nothing to compromise the integrity of your market position. That's truly incredible. It's actually under chapter 35 titled Our True Competitive Advantage. And it's really talking about how, you know, you know, Isador Sharp, they, they don't do discounts for Four Seasons. They actually don't lower their prices at all. And when it gets to a better time, it actually, the economy, when the economy comes back, they actually do better business. And so that's something to think about even during this economic downturn. And so at that point, you know, all this stuff is really happening. And it's, it is really interesting because at the same time, a global economic downturn, you know, this is really hitting hard. Real estate developers who tried to finance the construction of many Four Seasons hotels were actually struggling to secure funding or they just went bankrupt, bankrupt altogether. And so this led to hotel projects being stalled, expansion plans that were thrown into uncertainty. And really Sharp faced one of the biggest financial challenges in Four Seasons history. And this is how he responded. And this is really important because for many companies, a crisis like this would have meant cutbacks, which happened, lower service standards, which they had to cut back on people. So lower service and then desperate cost cutting measures, whether that was people or inventory. And that was not how Four Seasons operated. And what's really interesting about this is they prioritized. So the first point is that they prioritize long term excellence over short term gains. So instead of slashing those budgets to protect their profits, Sharp doubled down on what made Four Seasons. Four Seasons different. You know, what made them different was flawless service, attention to detail, and like I've been mentioning, an obsessive commitment to guest experience. He understood. He understood that the downturn wouldn't last forever. He was getting insights from people or analysts that would say that the economy would shoot up double of what it's worth right now, or the tr. The travel, the tourists would, you know, shoot up double, double, and there would be more. And the way that Four Seasons responded to these tough times would really define its reputation. When the economy rebounded, so went back up, but also when they went down. Right. And the next point is that it actually strengthened the relationships with their hotel partners. So many hotel owners and developers were struggling financially and even, you know, they wanted to abandon the projects or they wanted to cut costs. And Sharp and his leadership team worked closely with them to find solutions, whether that was delaying openings, renegotiating agreements, and ensuring no matter what that Four Seasons properties would still meet their high standards. People, their employees, love them so much. The employees for Four Seasons love them so much that they would either one, work unpaid and volunteer to work for Four Seasons. Two, they would either go on vacation and then come back. Three, they would, you know, just not get paid and just work or they would just take a couple days off. They actually proposed to work four days a week paid versus five days a week because they, they wanted to work with Four Seasons no matter what. Which I see as Four Seasons did something right with their employees. M. Really it shows that unlike competitors who compromised quality in response to this financial downturn or pressure or just economic disaster, Four Seasons actually remained unwavering in its brand promise. This is the idea and theme of excellence. Not only that, but another theme of excellence is when you focus on the employee. One of Sharp's core beliefs was that happy, happy employees create happy guests. And during the economic crisis, many hotels actually laid off the workers or cut wages just like we were talking about. But Four Seasons maintained its con culture of respect, care and development. And by supporting their employees through these tough times, Four Seasons actually ensured its service quality would never be dropped. And then this is what happens. The economy rebounds. Four Seasons comes out stronger. And by the mid-1990s, the global economy was recovering the trout. The travel demand went up. And many hotel brands that had cut their costs during the downturn were actually struggling to rebuild their reputations. This is what for Four Seasons was trying not to do. And Four Seasons had only strengthened its position. So instead of losing customer trust, Four Seasons had reinforced its reputation as best in the world. They were unwilling to to compromise their excellence. They were unwilling to compromise their quality service and employees. And instead of hurting its relationships with investors and developers, it had proven its resilience and long term thinking. And really, instead of weakening its brand, Four Seasons had emerged from the crisis more respected than ever. M. You know, this period became one of the most defining moments in the company's history. A real world test of Sharp's beliefs and long term excellence over the short term panic. And has he, as he put it, bumps on the road are inevitable. What matters is how you respond. And what this brought up to my mind was Brad Jacobs, Henry J. Kaiser and just quotes from them. Brad Jacobs said that in that moment I learned something invaluable. And this, this is from the how to make a few billion dollars book that we covered last. On our last book he said that in that moment I learned something invaluable problems are an asset. Not something to avoid, but something to run toward. Great quote by Brad Jacobs really knows what he's talking about he is a billionaire. So it makes sense. This quote by Henry J. Kaiser. Henry Kaiser was an industrialist who lived in the 1800s and he actually had a net worth of 2.5 billion. He did a lot of, I believe, railroad stuff. I'm, I might be getting that wrong, but I love what he said. Problems are only opportunities dressed in work clothes. Great quote. You know, and that's what's really interesting, right? You know, all these people think the same way and they all have the same mindset and even the same philosophy when it comes to how they solve problems. Really, this should be an encouraging thing for us on. We should look towards these people and learn from them in order to become more excellent, but also learn how to solve problems the right way. Right? And this is really important. Now in the next section of this book, Isadore Sharpe talks about this guy named Prince Al Walid. Al Walid. And he has a really long name. So I'm just going to call him Prince Al because I think that's a great name and I don't want to pronounce his really long name. And this Prince Al really, really helped Four Seasons in their hotel and kind of what they were doing at the time. And so Prince, Prince Al was a Saudi billionaire investor and businessman. And he was referred to kind of as the quote, Warren Buffett of the Middle East. And he really, he's a member of the Saudi royal family. And that's why he's called Prince Al or Prince, you know, the prince of the royal family. And he is actually the founder of Kingdom Holding Company, the khc. And he is a mate. He has a major investment firm with stakes in hospitality, banking and real estate. And by the 1990s, Prince Al, he was already, you know, well known for his investments into many brands that were significant. But, but his most significant would be his partnership with Four Seasons. And so this guy's really important because basically what he does is he creates opportunity for Four Seasons that they wouldn't have. So he buys a bunch of stock of Four Seasons or buy some of it. Basically, he's on the board and he's working, he's helping them. And the funny thing is is that, you know, this really helped give them, give Four Seasons a capital for expansion. And so Prince Al provided financial backing that allowed Four Seasons to expand into even more new markets without sacrificing its commitment to quality. He also had deep financial resources, which meant that Four Seasons could continue building those world class properties. He also, he really opened the Middle Eastern market and he Had a lot of strong local friendships and or he was that local friendship for Four Seasons. And so when they connected with him, he was able to get them properties in Dubai, Doha, all these different places. And it actually helped them a lot. And so he wanted to, he had a shared vision for this uncompromising excellence. And Al, he wasn't just an investor. He was really obsessed with high end luxury and quality. And Sharp saw this as a partnership with Al, but Al actually saw it as an alliance with Sharp. And Sharp loved that type of thing. He was like, wow, this guy is incredible. And it actually worked out. This partnership worked out. Eventually Al's company, Kingdom bought four seasons for 47.5% for like 3.83 billion with Bill Gates company, which was great. And so he, he's approach, his approach to investing was really aligned with Sharpe's philosophy, which was no cutting quarters. Yeah. No cutting corners, no diluting the brand, just the relentless pursuit of the best hotels in the world. And he actually helped them. He provided stability. When this hotel company would like kind of struggle with just financial, you know, aspects, whether that was an economic downturn, something Global happened like 9, 11, there's things like that where this really, you know, played a big part of that. He, his investment really allowed Four Seasons to maintain its brand integrity. And without him, you know, it, it wasn't, it, it wouldn't have been good. And so, you know, this really shaped Four Seasons future. And over the years he became one of the largest stakeholders in Four Seasons. His influence helped the company expand its global president presence. Like getting to Egypt, getting into, you know, Asia, like India. There's all these different places, right? And this really ensured that Four Seasons remain focused on quality over profit pressures from public shareholders. And actually when he invested with Bill Gates, Cascade Investment Company, they wanted to make Four Seasons private. And so what they did was they got 47.5%. Cascade Investment, which is Bill Gates company, got 47.5% and Israel Sharp retained 5 per 5% of that. And he was also, you know, everyone was paid 3.83 billion for that. It was $100 a share in US dollars, I believe. And it was a lot. And so this move really ensured that Four Seasons remained focused on quality. Right? And you know, thanks to his backing, it really cemented Four Seasons in its position as the gold standard, you know, in luxury hospitality, it they expand into new regions without ever lowering its standards. And now we get into this next chapter, which is called In a League of Our Own. What I love about this is this Isn't normal. This isn't normal. They wanted to be a blue chip company, which a blue chip company is a company like lvmh, which is Louis Vuitton, Walt Disney, Coca Cola. They wanted to be like those companies and they wanted to be the top of the world. They wanted to be the best of the best. And it really showed. And so most companies in the hospitality industry prioritized profits over people. But Sharp actually flipped that model. He believed that by treating employees exceptionally well, they would in turn treat guests exceptionally well. And this really paid off for them. One, employees were loyal and stayed for years. I'm not joking. I read the back. They have a back of, you know how long employees have stayed. Average was like 15 to 20 years. Longest employee, which was Isdor Sharp was 48. Many behind him were 33, 30 20s. And then the people that just started 1, 5, 6, 7 and average was definitely 15 to 20. They stayed for a long time and this led to more experienced staff. And then two guests received world class excellence and service. They, excuse me, they received world class service which built four seasons legendary reputation and three, the custom. The company consistently ranked among the best places to work, which is actually true. They were, you know, Forbes put them at the top. This attracted more top talent. But they, you know, allowed they, they were talking to people in almost one of their every hotels have been in the top of the world. And so by really creating an environment where employees, they felt the respect, they felt empowered to make their own decisions. And they also were rewarded. Rewarded for those decisions. Isor Sharp didn't just build the best hotel brand in the world, he built the best place to work in the industry. And again, Sharp wanted to have blue chip status. And what is this blue chip status? I actually had to look it up. So on Google it says that blue chip status in the stock market refers to a company that is 1 large, 2 wellestablished, 3 financially sound and also just known for its stability, strong brand recognition and consistent performance. Often seen as safe and a reliable investment. So these would be companies like lvmh, that's Louis Vuitton, a bunch of luxury brands. The Walt Disney company is another one and Coca Cola. Those are companies that Sharpe wanted to be like and achieve that blue chip status. By the, by the time he was writing this book in the 2000s, he had that. But you know, he didn't, he didn't just want that. He wanted to have the best hotel in the sector, as he called it. And what this meant was he wanted to be the largest and the best in this sector and the sector was, you know, hotels. And they actually could say they achieved that by the time he wrote this book or by the time he finished writing this book. And so Sharp believed that luxury isn't just about opulence. It's actually about how guests are treated while buildings age and trends change, fashion, all that stuff, it all changes so much. But the one thing that Sharp and the key takeaway that Sharp really had was that, you know, exceptional service creates lasting loyalty. And some things that he did was one, he had experience over amenities. You know, guests really remember how they felt, but they don't. Like, they don't just remember the decor of the room. They actually remember how they felt when they ate that little chocolate on the pillow, right? If you ever been to a nice hotel, they'll have the really nice pillows and then, like, have a little chocolate or a little note that they have for you. And so guests have that hit of dopamine where they remember how they feel with that moment, but they don't necessarily remember the feeling that. Or they don't remember the decor of the room. It might be really nice, but it's not, you know, to that certain extent where the, you know, the guest, you know, likes the experience over the amenities. And another thing is that anticipating needs. True luxury is personalized and effortless service. So this goes back to the guest history system. You know, personalized, effortless. And again, another point to this is adapting to guests. Employees had the autonomy to solve problems rather than follow the rigid policies. And that would be a managers just people bossing them around. Employees actually had the power in their own hands to do that, to do, you know, help the guests. And this really allowed them to adapt to the guests. They also, with this allowed. Allowed Four Seasons to. To raise industry standards. You know, Four Seasons didn't conform to local. Local norms. It's actually set the global benchmark. Glob Global, you know, global benchmark for service. Not just local global. It is really important because, I mean, you look at what they've done now, they have, I think, 150 locations. Crazy. You know, never would have got there with just being like, conforming to how we should do this in Toronto or how we should do this here. Like, they started in Toronto. If they did that, they probably wouldn't have Four Seasons. And so this really is backed by Sharp's philosophy, which he says in the book, a hotel's product may attract guests once, but only service will bring them back. And Sharp knew that the product, unlike the Services can be bought. So one, Sharp knew his true market. He knew he who he was targeting. This was business people, tourists, you know, a lot of those people. Two, it required a barrier to entry, you know, being an authentic hotel. And that was really an idea from Warren Buffett, you know, the barriere to entry. Three, they enforced their golden rule. And through this they became the blue chip company that he wanted them to become and a leader in the sector, in their sector. And this really helped them become, you know, they are now known as the best of the best. And part of this is the idea that your customer is your best advertisement. And so with that, I actually looked up quotes that was similar to who we're studying, but based off of your, your customer is your best advertisement. And so one of the greatest examples would be Estee Lauder. She actually had this quote which is really funny. Telephone telegraph. Tell a woman there's things as telephone, like telling people over the phone, telegraphing, which is pretty old. And then tell a woman hers. Her whole business was based off of perfume and beauty and all that. But her most effective, that was her product. But she would tell women about it. She was so relentless about that that she would, you know, do people's hair for them or do, you know, she would show them how to use it, all the beauty products. And that's why she has a luxury, you know, like, that's why you have the Estee Lauder company, like today. That's where you get it from. And so she believed of the word, like she believed word of mouth was the most powerful marketing tool, especially in luxury and beauty. Luxury, same thing with, you know, Israel Sharp. If the product was exceptional, then customers would do the advertising themselves. This is the same with Warren Buffett. And I'm just going to keep going through these people because they're so good. Warren Buffett, you know, the best way to get a good spouse is to. Is to deserve a good spouse. The best way to get a good customer is to deserve a good customer. And Buffett really ties business success to reputation, which is what Four Seasons had. Customers return and recommend companies that consistently deliver value. Jeff Bezos, same thing. If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful. Amazon success was built on customer obsession, delivering such an outstanding experience that customers naturally spread the word. Bill Gates, I'm just going to keep going through them because they're fun. Bill Gates, your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. I really like this one because, you know, while happy customers are Your best, like best advertising, learning from unhappy ones ensures continuous appro improvement and future just growth. And you know something that you should notice with all these people, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, Estee Lauder, I'm going to go through Sam Walton and David Ogilvy. That is six people that have this same mindset. It's a founder's mindset, an entrepreneurial mindset. These are mindsets that can be like cultivated and learned, but ultimately it stems from us learning from these people. We need to learn from these people in order to be, to be the best. Isadore Sharpe is one of the best in the world. Four Seasons is one of the best hotel companies in the world. He learns it from people like this. He brought up Warren Buffett and so it is really important to focus on people like this. And you know, Sam Walton, there's only one boss, the customer. And they can fire everyone, everybody in the company, from the chairman on down to simply on down, simply by spending their money somewhere else. This is a reminder that customer loyalty determines a company's success or failure. And Sam Walton was the Walmart founder. Bill Gates of course, did Microsoft. Jeff Bezos, Amazon, Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, Estee Lauder, the Estee Lauder Company. David Ogilvy was an advertising icon. He had this quote. The best ads come from personal experience. If you can make the customer the hero of your story, they will market for you. Great brands focused on customer experiences that are so compelling they naturally share them with others. And so the biggest takeaway is there's excellence in each one of these people's statements. They all know how to be excellent at a high capacity. You know, and the best marketing isn't always a campaign. It's actually a campaign. It's delivering such an exceptional product or service that customers actually feel compelled to share it. And is there Sharp said it best. I believe the failure of many entrepreneurs is due to their inability to delegate responsibility and authority. Sharp wanted people who were one or just, you know, in general, adaptive, assured, decisive, confident, self motivated and trustworthy. I know that was a little bit of a transition right there from going into, you know, your customers are your best marketing people too. These are the people you want to hire. And something that's really important about this is you need to make sure you pay your employees while to ensure that your customers actually feel compelled to share this. That's the whole goal, whether that's through incentives or promotions, getting your employees on the same track. It is worth it so that people can do your advertising and marketing for you. And like we mentioned previously, Four Seasons ends up getting bought by Bill Gates company Cascade and then Prince Al's company Kingdom for $3.83 billion. A lot of money. And that would be split 47.5% between both companies. And then Israel Sharp got to keep 5% and he actually got the benefit of being the CEO and chairman of the company. And we get to the end of the book that that is the whole book. It was 280 pages, really dense. I'm. I'm not joking. I think I have over a hundred sticky notes in my book. It was a really, really good book. Really good read. I recommend you guys buying the book in the link below in order or if you just want to change the the whole trajectory of your business or just the whole life lifeline of your business. Like it really, it is really good. Even if you're not in the hotel industry. It is amazing. It's a great business book and I really recommend it. I would probably have everyone read this if I could, but yeah, it is an incredible book. I can't wait to get to my next book, which I think I know what I'm gonna do. I think I've already mentioned it, but I'm going to make sure that is the book I want to do. I think I'm gonna do Ernest Shackleton next, which I will love. And I can't wait. It's gonna be an awesome book. I hope you guys enjoyed this podcast episode and I'll talk to you again soon.