Wealth Habits

CHAPTER 11Become the Ritz-Carlton of Your Industry and Create Cult-Like Customers

It was the fall of 1999. I was just starting my first business, and construction was underway on the commercial building. I got a call one day at my office. It was a travel agent that I met at a local business networking meeting. He had an incredible deal, with only a couple of spots left—a trip to Paris.

I instinctively knew that this was probably the only opportunity I was going to be able to travel—in a long time.

Up to this point in my life, I had never traveled out of the country. In fact, being 19 years old myself, growing up with teenage parents, and my dad having his own business, I didn't travel much at all.

But something about the thought of Paris, and this incredible deal, seemed just too good to pass up.

I took a quick flight to Newark, hopped on a connecting flight to London, and then onto Paris.

Of course, the culture was rich and the city was magnificent—from the Champs-Élysées and the Louvre, to Notre-Dame, the Eiffel Tower, and Arc de Triomphe—everything felt like it was sketched right out of a movie.

But what made the biggest impression on me was dining at the Ritz Paris, coffee at the Prince de Gallas, and stopping for crepes at the Four Seasons. I had never seen anything like it. People who made you feel like royalty, and like family, at the same time. It was a lot for my 19-year-old brain to fully comprehend, but what I did know was that I wanted to make people feel like that ...