Some people are born to expect gold standards, and others are actually born to create them. Knowing exactly what people want and need is a skill that can show itself incredibly early on. Such was the case with Horst Schulze, who began as a busboy in a German resort town and worked his way to the top.

In a seven-part Threads post, business consultant Alex Foulke summarized Schulze’s story well. He explains that at just 16, while working as a busboy, he observed a maître d’s classy treatment of guests. It moved him so much that he wrote an essay about it for a high school class.

‘We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen’

Foulke shared, “The essay was called ‘We Are Ladies and Gentlemen Serving Ladies and Gentlemen.’ Decades later, Schulze was the founding president of Ritz-Carlton, and that sentence went on a card. Every employee gets one on their first day. It’s laminated. They carry it. The point of it: the dishwasher is a gentleman. The housekeeper is a lady. Same........

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