This is a book that I can’t wait to share with you even before I finish reading it.

From nothing to running the world's top industry benchmark hotel, from a bricklayer's son to a giant in the hotel industry, this autobiography by Sharp, the founder of Four Seasons Hotels, although the title of the book is business philosophy, is also suitable. Everyone who desires progress takes the time to read it.

Reading this type of autobiographical book is like having afternoon tea with a master. You can touch the author's heart face to face and draw nourishment from their most direct thinking and choices.

In this book, Sharp uses a self-review perspective to fully introduce the journey of Four Seasons from a motel in Canada to the world's largest luxury hotel brand. Among them, what I want to share most is: Sharp’s approach to every crisis in hotel operations.

In the past sixty years, Four Seasons Hotels has encountered many critical moments and survived them safely, such as the economic depression caused by the Gulf War and the "9·11" incident. The book mainly introduces Sharp's choices in the face of two major crises. When faced with a crisis, Sharp's approach was very special. It did not engage in price wars or layoffs. Others were cutting costs and lowering service standards. Instead, Sharp increased investment and improved service standards. When necessary, he even used his shares in the company as collateral to increase loans to accomplish this.

"Trouble is opportunity in disguise", this is what Sharp often says to the company's internal staff. This is similar to what Kazuo Inamori said: "Treat depression as an opportunity for growth." Kazuo Inamori said that if Kyocera were a bamboo, then when the economy was booming, the bamboo would just grow. When a crisis comes, the employees' united response will form a "knot" on this bamboo, and the company will grow rapidly. The more such "sections" there are, the better the company will be. In fact, this is true for companies, and it is also true for individuals.

However, in a sense, this is just an attitude in facing trouble, rather than a specific strategy. Specific strategies are easy to find, but a firm and consistent attitude is the hardest. While reading this book, I have been thinking about this question: When facing a crisis, such as the current epidemic, these big figures can always maintain a consistent attitude, respond calmly, and do what is best? But some people desperately look for the so-called turning point in the crisis and fall into endless anxiety? If the famous sayings of Sharp and Kazuo Inamori are chicken soup, then I want to think clearly about this issue before I can get the spoon to drink the soup.

The answer I tried to find out is: ambition and direction, success lies in daily life.

What is ambition?

Amazon founder Bezos once told the media that he is often asked a question: "What changes will there be in the next ten years?" But he is rarely asked: "What will happen in the next ten years?" What remains unchanged throughout the years? ”

If Sharp were to answer this question, the answer must be: creating memories for guests. The positioning of this Four Seasons Hotel will never change. Giving customers the most beautiful memories is Sharp's ambition for Four Seasons. From the initial decision to build a hotel, because the ambition is directional, we do not panic; and because the ambition is directional, when difficulties arise, it is like holding a compass in hand to avoid problems. Worry about gains and losses.

The core of Four Seasons Hotels' operations is to listen to the voices of customers. Customer attention and care are the driving force for all service improvements. Because it does not focus on draining customers, Four Seasons does not use gimmicks, gimmicks and flashy marketing methods; instead, it provides cost-effective and super services; thereby winning high-price feedback from the market, and over time, it distances itself from its competitors.

Of course, you may say: It’s not that we don’t stick to our ambitions, it’s just that the market is changing rapidly, and being able to survive in the present is the most important thing, isn’t it? Yes, so this involves the second thing mentioned above: success lies in daily life.

To move forward steadily in the current of society, it is not enough to just know the direction. There is no flat bridge on the way to the other side, just some stone piers that you can reach or cannot reach. Every time you take a step forward, you have to accumulate energy to ensure that you can jump and land smoothly on the next stone pier. In the commercial society, the so-called energy is food and grass.

In an interview with Hua Shan, the head of Huayuhua, on "How to survive the epidemic crisis", I was deeply impressed by a mention about China's historical savings tradition: "Three years of "One year's accumulation" means that after three years of farming, one year's worth of food will be saved. As the saying goes, there is food in the barn, so don’t panic. Just like Sharp, the founder of Four Seasons Hotels, the reason why he can remain calm in crisis after crisis is because he has the confidence of capital. This capital does not only refer to the amount on the account, but also refers to the daily improvement of one's ability and the polishing of the company's ability to resist risks. Kazuo Inamori also said that to regard depression as an opportunity, the important thing is to build a high-profit operating system for the company on weekdays.

I don’t know when it started. We can’t escape a monster called “speed”, and we even dance with it happily. Reading needs to be "quickly read", starting a business needs to be "quickly accomplished", crops need to be "ripened quickly", fertilizer needs to be "quickly effective", mailings need to be delivered "quickly", marriage and love need to be "quickly matched"...

So we are too late. Analyzing the situation, I didn’t have time to think about what I wanted. As everyone knows, behind the quick success we see is the hard work of others over many years. However, few people will tell you how they embark on their journey step by step in the daily life that we cannot see.

We often say that gold always shines. But in reality, what people think about most is how to shine, not how to become gold.

After the outbreak of the epidemic, many people called it a "black swan". In fact, every crisis outbreak is not accidental. Natural disasters, man-made disasters, wars... there will always be new accidents every once in a while. What determines whether we can ultimately survive is usually not what we are doing now, but what we were doing three years ago, five years ago, or even earlier. At the same time, we must also understand that what we do today and the layout we lay out today will determine where we will be five years from now.

Speaking of which, do you have a different understanding of what you are doing now?