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[Review] Be My Guest by Conrad Hilton
Oct. 6th, 2024 07:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
petrea_mitchellTitle: Be My Guest
Author: Conrad Hilton
Publisher: Prentice-Hall, 1957
Be My Guest opens with a note that it has been distributed to Hilton hotel rooms "to provide entertaining reading for our guests." That it does, unusually for a business book.
When seeing a book purporting to be about a guy rising to the top of the business from nothing just by hard luck, the cynical reader may suspect that it is actually about a guy who comes from privilege and family resources. And that reader would be right, but this one has two redeeming features that make it a worthwhile read.
The first is that, rather than the modern ideal of building a big pile of financial engineering and management metrics, Hilton pursued an older ideal of building a real business and having happy customers in an industry he genuinely loves.
The second is Hilton's own life story and the times it is woven through. He was born in the New Mexico Territory in a time the primary language was Spanish, the leading families of his town had all fled Mexico when Emperor Maximilian was defeated, and buying a new horse meant waiting for the next band of nomadic Native Americans to stop by. His adventures before discovering his true business love include being the youngest member of the first legislature of the state of New Mexico and volunteering for service in World War I at the ripe old age of 29. He experiences the Texas oil boom, which comes across as the last gasp of the Wild West; the crash of 1929; and the much worse-sounding panic of 1907, when, as he puts it, money simply did not exist for a few months.
For the first few decades, Hilton talks about the popular dances and songs, and the spirit of the times. Of World War I, he says that so much has been written about it that his experiences wouldn't add anything, but I don't think I have read a book before that has brought home so well the effect of millions of men being plucked out of their homes, seeing the great cities of Europe, and forging lasting bonds with others from all over the US. Paris is a revelation to him, and one of his new business partners afterward is a war buddy.
Once Hilton has made it through the hiccups of his first few hotel purchases, the narrative becomes duller. World War II passes in a blur of big business deals. His stint as Mr. Zsa Zsa Gabor is described as something that just sort of happened to him for a while. (Reading between the lines of that and the few details of his first marriage, Hilton must have been an absolute disaster as a family man.) The book wraps up with a couple of chapters on lessons for life and business, some of which are the old standards (find your specific talent, embrace the future, etc.) and some of which are very much part of the worldview of the times.
I am not much into business books. But the driest subject can come to life when you have the right person talking about it, and Hilton is an interesting guy to spend time with. At a mere 288 pages, you might wish for a little more of that time. Recommended, in the unlikely case that you ever cross paths with a copy.
Author: Conrad Hilton
Publisher: Prentice-Hall, 1957
Be My Guest opens with a note that it has been distributed to Hilton hotel rooms "to provide entertaining reading for our guests." That it does, unusually for a business book.
When seeing a book purporting to be about a guy rising to the top of the business from nothing just by hard luck, the cynical reader may suspect that it is actually about a guy who comes from privilege and family resources. And that reader would be right, but this one has two redeeming features that make it a worthwhile read.
The first is that, rather than the modern ideal of building a big pile of financial engineering and management metrics, Hilton pursued an older ideal of building a real business and having happy customers in an industry he genuinely loves.
The second is Hilton's own life story and the times it is woven through. He was born in the New Mexico Territory in a time the primary language was Spanish, the leading families of his town had all fled Mexico when Emperor Maximilian was defeated, and buying a new horse meant waiting for the next band of nomadic Native Americans to stop by. His adventures before discovering his true business love include being the youngest member of the first legislature of the state of New Mexico and volunteering for service in World War I at the ripe old age of 29. He experiences the Texas oil boom, which comes across as the last gasp of the Wild West; the crash of 1929; and the much worse-sounding panic of 1907, when, as he puts it, money simply did not exist for a few months.
For the first few decades, Hilton talks about the popular dances and songs, and the spirit of the times. Of World War I, he says that so much has been written about it that his experiences wouldn't add anything, but I don't think I have read a book before that has brought home so well the effect of millions of men being plucked out of their homes, seeing the great cities of Europe, and forging lasting bonds with others from all over the US. Paris is a revelation to him, and one of his new business partners afterward is a war buddy.
Once Hilton has made it through the hiccups of his first few hotel purchases, the narrative becomes duller. World War II passes in a blur of big business deals. His stint as Mr. Zsa Zsa Gabor is described as something that just sort of happened to him for a while. (Reading between the lines of that and the few details of his first marriage, Hilton must have been an absolute disaster as a family man.) The book wraps up with a couple of chapters on lessons for life and business, some of which are the old standards (find your specific talent, embrace the future, etc.) and some of which are very much part of the worldview of the times.
I am not much into business books. But the driest subject can come to life when you have the right person talking about it, and Hilton is an interesting guy to spend time with. At a mere 288 pages, you might wish for a little more of that time. Recommended, in the unlikely case that you ever cross paths with a copy.