Thank you Chip!

This past week I had the pleasure of hosting my friend Chip Conley and his partner Donald at The One Hotel. I have known Chip through our weekly basketball days in the Castro dating back more than a decade. In addition to being a good basketball player, Chip is my hotel idol in that he has built his company Joie de Vivre from one hotel into a 38 boutique hotel empire, the second largest boutique hotel company in the world. While I moved to SE Asia about seven years ago, I have tried to keep in contact with Chip and get together with him for a coffee when I am in San Francisco. Chip has always been so helpful and generous in that regard.

Now that I have my own two hotels, I was delighted but a bit nervous about Chip coming to visit. I should not have been as he, Donald and myself had a wonderful time together. I had only met Donald briefly about eight years ago so it was a pleasure to get to know him better. But, best of all, through re-connecting with Chip it has made me take a good hard look our business and how we can get better. For Christmas of 2007 my brother Alan gave me Chip's book:

Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo From Maslow.

As I told Chip, no offense, but I had not yet read the book. Why? Well, quite frankly I have read very little during this time, maybe less than ten books. How pathetic of me! Also I was a bit too wrapped up in our business and not taking the time to step back and do some assessments. I asked Chip to autograph the book and after he and Donald left I read the inscription and was really touched by what Chip wrote about how we had created a Peak experience in Siem Reap, Cambodia. But, while I am happy with what we have accomplished, I always knew we had to keep pushing ourselves to be better, to be innovative and to provide even more to our guests. Then I began to read Chip's book and I was amazed. Everything I could have hoped for to help us in this book. I feel re-energized, re-invigorated and ready to work with my team towards reaching more Peaks in our business. So, more on that to come but for now: Thank you Chip!