Conrad Hilton

Gus and Mary Hilton decided to have a child, on Christmas day in 1887.
Conrad's father owned the town's general store.
Mary was as quiet as her husband was loud. She was the backbone of the family. They were Catholic and believed in the power of prayer.
This shaped Conrad, installing a winning attitude in him.
He excelled in arithmetic, and learnt how to speak Spanish.
He worked for his father's general store.
Working at the general store, also gave him a taste of the hotel business.
He wasn't interested in the hotel business, he had bigger dreams.
He was one of 18 children by the time he was 22.
By now Gus was now a wealthy man.
Conrad and his father often clashed. Conrad struggled to make it work, but in his heart he knew his father would never treat him as an equal partner.
In 1911, Conrad entered politics.
He served a two year term in the lowers house legislature.
When his term expired, he threw in the towel saying politics were to slow and frustrating.
His family's love of music gave him a chance to set up concerts for his sister's band.
Conrad decided to open a bank, even though his father didn't think he could do it.
He was the president, cashier and sometimes the janitor.
Finally, he realized that bank was a lousy idea.
He got a telegram saying:: "Father dead. Come quick. Mother"
And he was too late for the funeral.
Hilton went to Texas in the spring of 1919, he wanted to per sue his life as a banker.
Soon opportunity arose, and there was a bank for sale.
He decided that if he couldn't be a banker, then why not a hotel owner?
He purchased his first hotel for $40,000 and he brought in $2,000 a week, but he wasn't impressed.
He busted up the lobby to add rooms, and he built a restaurant so more people would come, and he made a profit.
He then started buying more hotels in small Texas towns.
"Dig for Gold" or "Squeeze dollars from every space available"
Profits began to soar.
Hilton needed a slogan, and for weeks he was unable to come up with one.
"Minimax" Minimum price, for maximum service.
By 1925, his small town chain had 8 hotels and he was earning $100,000/year.
He attended mas every Sunday , and that's where he met his wife.
On October 19th, 1925 he was married.
He seemed well on his way to making his first million, but then disaster struck.
At age 40, in October of 1929, the depression hit. Hilton was deeply in debt and Conrad lost everything but one hotel.
He believed that since he could keep one hotel, then maybe he could survive.
Finally one supplier spoke up, and said here's my $5,000.
He finally got the $40,000 and paid the lease payment.
If he hadn't made that payment, he would have lost his empire.
He didn't go through bankruptcy, but he wouldn't.
His wife filed for a divorce in 1931.
By the end of the 30's, he was ready to buy new property.
He purposed to another woman, and she said yes.
They were married in 1941.
The talk on wall street was that Hilton was a sucker.
He bought the largest hotel in the world in Chicago, and renamed it the Conrad Hilton.
He got deivorced to his second wife in 1945.
August 27th, 1947, his mother died.
In 1948 his company was incorperated.
His son got married to Elizabeth Taylor, the two divorced after 7 months.

Home Depot

Founded in 1978 by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank.
Bernie was a miracle child because once he was born, his mother was able to walk again.
Arthur's mom always believed you should strive for higher standards.
Bernie settled for a degree in Pharmacy, but he realized he loved being out on the floor rather than behind the counter.
In 1957, Arthur's father died of a heart attack at the age of 44, Arthur was 15.
Arthur's competitive strengths were reinforced by the loss of his father.
He was elected senior class president, and started his own business.
By 1974, Bernie and Marcus were working for the same company called Handy Dan, Home Improvement Centers.
Back in 1974, after getting to know Arthur, Bernie had an opening on his executive staff.
In 1978, Bernie and Marcus both got the 'axe'.
Bernie believed that his idea would make any other home improvement company obsolete.
The new company they were about to form would change the industry.
Low cost, high service, low volume.
They got a $2 million for 70% of the company.
Bernie and the others chose Atlanta, now if they could only settle on a name.
Bad Bernie's Home was the first name.
The Grand Opening as scheduled for Friday morning and they put a two page ad in the newspaper, but they didn't run it.
Their promotion was if you came to the store, they'd give you a dollar bill.
Things didn't pick up much over the next few months, people were confused.
There were no signs in the store, it was like a maze.
People started hearing about this 'amazing company'.
The early days were different, very alive, always moving.
It was very loud, and very fast paced.
Bernie was the money guy, Arthur was the cheerleader and inspiration.
In 1980, it was still anxiously hoping that the people of Atlanta would start coming.
By the end of year 2, there was almost $1 million profit.
The would send a small coffin to their rivals as a sign telling them that their days are numbered.
Home depot, in it's first 20 years, grew faster than any other industry.
The philosophy of doing well by doing good wasn't new to Home Depot.
In 1996, they had more than 500 stores to it's name.
It was named one of America's most admired retailers.

Arthur's strength:
Very competitive, service guy,
Bernie's strength:
Inspirational
Ken's strength:
Finance
Pat's strength:
Knew how to sell, marketing.

I learned that if you play well with others strengths and work as a team, you can do anything.

Home Depot

Started by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank.

Martha Stewert

Martha Stewart was born on August 3rd, 1941.
Martha's mother was an expert seamstress.
Martha was expected to learn all these skills herself, and do them right the first time.
She was always involved in things that helped develop the person she is today, always learning.
She loved to read and was a whiz kid at math and science, she was very exceptional at art.
Her father spoke fluent polish, and she would cook traditional polish food.
With six kids and a low paying job, she had to pay her own way for college.
In 1958 she learnt the girl across the street was making good money modelling clothes.
She was in a commercial.
She was responsible for creating the theme a details for prom.
She gained a partial college to one of the top woman college's in New York.
Everyday she commuted from her parent's house to attend classes in art and history, she would then slip off to do work in modelling.
When she returned home, she seemed to sleep less and less.
besides her studies, she believed her modelling career would help her achieve success.
Andy Stewart, a 23 year old law student from Yale University was Martha's first serious boyfriend.
Martha decided to drop out of school, worked full time as a model to help Andy through law school. Her friends were mystified.
Andy represented a world she had never been exposed to before.
In 1963, he took Martha to see Europe, stopping in France, Italy and Greece. They did all that on $5 a day.
Andy and Martha moved to the upper west side, and Martha went back to school to finish her degree.
Martha's modelling was put on hold when she had a baby daughter in the September of 1965.
She found it increasingly difficult to find a job because of her already having a child.
She set her sites on wall street.
From 1968-1971, Martha was commanding a six figure salary.
In 1972, they decided to move into a farm house in Connecticut.
Their house has been built in 1805, and it looked like nothing had been done to it since.
Martha and Andy were both holding full time jobs.
She was very capable of losing her temperature when things didn't do right.
She got a book deal and was an instant success.
Her father had a heart attack at 68, and passed away.
It wasn't enough to set the table with forks and knifes. Everything had to fit in a carefully orchestrated theme.
Her business consumed almost all of her energy.
Her public persona was making her an inviting target for criticism.
Critics came up with a host of unflattering comments.
She acted as a spokesperson for K-Mart.
In 1988 her marriage to Andy was falling apart.
Martha did her very best to keep her private life out of the public eye.
She wanted to launch her own magazine.
It was one of the most profitable starts in magaziene history.
In 1993, she created her own televsion show.
She was the subject of numeruous parady's.

What I learnt from Martha Stewart:
Trying different things in life can help you figure out who you really want to be, just try not to forget about the people who mean the most to you along the way.

The Apprentice

11 minute live charity auction to benefit a aids benefit
each team will be randomly given 5 big artists in the music business
the team that raises the most money wins,the bidding starts on the internet
Stephanie teams 5 are: barenaked laides, gene simmones, mew found glory, simple plan, and fat joe
The Magna's 5 are lil kim, lil jon, moby, eve, jadakiss
John is veru me, me, me. He always interupts girls when their trying to talk.
The first team changed one of their talk hosts to seem like a 'milf'. She talked comepletely different then she usually would.
The second team had Gene Simmons AND the lead singer from Bare Naked Ladies appear on their comercial.
Networth made $11,325.
Magna made $21,654.
John from Networth was fired

1.Negotiation - be smart, don't go for the lowest when you have the chance to go for the highest
2. Delegation - Don't give it to friends, it's the best person for the job.

Mike Kinds Last Day

7 Keys

1. Fear of failure
-failure is the key to success

2. Eyes Wide Open
-Don't rule out any industry
-Identify opportunities that exist

3. Copy Cat
-Examples: Google, iPod (improved mp3 player)
-there are things that you can do now, so why not improve it?

4. Circle of Influence

5. Rocky
-do not quit!

6. Never Stop Learning
-you're never to old to learn
-you're brain is a sponge

7. Try and have fun everyday


The one that applies to my life the most is Rocky. There have been many times when I have wanted to quit, yet I've pushed myself not to and the outcome was great. When you quit, you fail. Trying is failing. You need to suceed to get somewhere in life, and if you quit there is no hope.
I need to work on Never Stop Learning because I don't want to learn anymore...sorry.
Try and Have Fun Everyday is going to be one that is a little hard to do, since i'll be working all the time.

The Apprentice

Audrey first started off freaking out at the other people, saying how she has a brain, not just beauty and personality. Stephanie's group really figured out how to advertise their business, and there were no arguments. They had a jungle theme, and they had a lot more flyers and had coupons. Every time they sold something, they put a flyer in the bag. Audrey's group handed out flyers and and dressed up as clowns to attract children. Audrey's group made $304. Stephanie's group made $508. Audrey was blaming every one else but herself for the mistakes that her group did. In the end, Audrey got fired.