#184 Isadore Sharp (Four Seasons)

**David Senra** (0:00)
I want to tell you about a one-time only limited event that I don't think you're going to want to miss. I am doing a live show with Patrick O'Shaughnessy from the Invest Like the Best podcast in New York City on October 19th. Patrick has interviewed over 300 of the world's best investors and founders for his podcast. I've read over 300 biographies of history's greatest entrepreneurs for my podcast. We'll be talking about what we learned from seven years of podcasting, sharing our favorite ideas and stories, and doing a live Q&A. There will also be special event-only swag. If you live in New York City, I think it's a no-brainer. But if not, I think it's a great excuse to fly in. I've already heard from a bunch of people that bought tickets, they're flying in from other cities. Some people are flying in from other countries. That's setting the bar really high, so I will have at least four shots of espresso or four energy drinks before or during the show so we can make it a night that you'll never forget. If you're interested in attending this unique live event, I will leave a link down below. I highly recommend you get your tickets today, and I hope I get to see you in New York on October 19th. So much of long-term success is based on intangibles, beliefs and ideas, invisible concepts.
People often ask me about my original vision for Four Seasons. Well, the truth is there was no vision or grand scheme. In 1961, when I built my first hotel, I knew nothing about the hotel business.
My only professional experience was in building apartments and houses.
I was just a builder, and the hotel was just another real estate deal.
I never thought that this was gonna be a career, nor did I ever imagine I would one day find myself building and managing the largest and most prestigious group of five-star hotels in the world.
I approached the business of in-keeping from a customer's perspective. I was the host and the customers were my house guests.
I decided what to build and how to operate by asking myself, what would the customers consider important? What would the customers recognize as value? Because if we give them good value, they will pay what they think it's worth.
That was the first strategy and it continues to this day.
The company evolved slowly at first, and I'll admit I made a few mistakes along the way, but I never made the mistake of putting profit ahead of people.
Looking back over the last 40 years, I've identified the four key strategic decisions that formed the rock-solid foundation of Four Seasons.
They are now known as the four pillars of our business model. They are quality, service, culture and brand.
Curiously, the last of these four key objectives was set way back in 1986
Sometimes people ask me, does that mean that you haven't thought of anything new since then? And I tell them that we make new initiatives every year, but nothing so far has been as fundamentally important. Our main focus is to continue refining and reinforcing those original four pillars.
It's not as though lightning struck and I said, I've got an idea and we put it all together in a day.
These decisions evolved over 25 years, each decision supporting the one before.
Over the years, we've initiated many new ideas that have been copied and are now the norm in the industry.
But the one idea that our customers value the most cannot be copied. The consistent quality of our exceptional service.
That service is based on a corporate culture and a culture cannot be mandated as a policy. It must grow from within, based on the actions of the company's people over a long period of time.
That was an excerpt from the introduction of the book that I'm gonna talk to you about today, which is Four Seasons. The Story of a Business Philosophy and it was written by the founder of Four Seasons, Isadore Sharp. And real quick, let me go back to this, those last few sentences in the introduction, where he says that the service is based on our culture and culture cannot be mandated as a policy. It grows from within, based on the actions of the company's people. The note I jotted down on that page too, was this is the same for individuals. We become the actions that we take over an extended period of time. Okay, so I wanna start, we're giving you some insights into the personality of Isadore Sharp. This is actually, his wife wrote the foreword of the book. So before I get into his early life, I wanna tell you a little bit about how she perceives her husband. And she says, Isadore has always been a dreamer. In the classroom, he spent more time gazing out the window than studying the blackboard. She talks about some of like, he had a dream of being like a champion, like an Olympic pole vaulter when he was younger. And there's one sentence I wanna pull off in that section. He saw no reason why this goal should not be within his reach. And remember that part for later because he has wildly audacious, audacious rather, and ambitious goals. And everybody around him is telling him, you're crazy. But it's funny that, you know, even eight years old, he's like, well, I don't understand. Why could this goal, if I really wanna do something, why can't it be within my reach? When people asked him who served as his mentors and role models, he answers, those men who volunteered for the army in wartime, they put their lives on the line for their principles.