Author Thought Leadership

As part of my last holiday, we went to Alexandria Bay in upstate NY, home of the Thousand Islands. The main attraction in Alexandria Bay is Boldt Castle [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boldt_Castle]. The castle is an oddity as George Boldt [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Boldt] purchased the land and built the castle for him and his wife. He had 300 people work on the castle for three years when, all of a sudden she died and he stopped all work. The Thousand Islands Bridged Authority picked up the work seventy-plus years later and has made it a worthwhile tourist attraction today.

What’s interesting about Boldt is his entrepreneurial flair. He came to the U.S. as an emigrant at age 13 with nothing and started working in the kitchens in NY city. He saved enough money to purchase a chicken farm in Texas which was going well until a freak storm caused the loss of all his livestock and wiped him out. He went back to the NY to work in a small hotel, then moved to Philadelphia to work in the Clover Club, working his way up to Steward.

In addition to popularizing “Thousand Island” dressing later on in his career, Boldt invented the theory that the customer was always right. Treating patrons right got him in good favor with those of means who helped him build his first hotel. There are a couple different tales on how he met the financiers that helped him finance the Waldolf Astoria, but the bottom line is that he was the key principle involved in making that hotel a success as well as others.

From nothing to something, then getting wiped out
before going from nothing to something again.

Boldt believed in hard work and treating his customers fairly and with respect. Every day he worked hard to make his customers seem important and feel successful. This underlying attitude resulted in his success. It worked for him, can’t it work for you?