Be My Guest

Rating:
Summary: Here's to you Connie a true dear friend
Review: > I first met Mr. Hilton, when I was 7 years old at a party in northern New Mexico, given in my honor.

My aunt Essy (Esther oldest of 4 girls and 1 boy My mother June Lenore was the baby like me of 6 boys, who raised me after my mother went home when I was 2 1/2,brought this tall gentleman over to meet me. My aunt said "Reggy Clint (when she wanted to get my undivided attention),this is one of my dearest friends but I'll let him introduce himself."

Well, this gentleman got down on his knees so he could look me in the eyes and said

"I am so happy to finally meet you Reggy Clint Thompson. I have heard so much about you. My name is Conrad Nicholson Hilton. Do you have a name only your family and friends call you? I embarrassedly said yes. I told him the name and then I asked not to call me that. He started to laugh and promised he would only call me that when we were face to face among friends. Then he said "I have a name my family and friends who I consider as family call me. Connie instead of Conrad. Your aunt has always called me that because she knew my parents. Anytime you wish to speak to me about anything, call and ask for Connie. It would be an honor to help guide you.

Then Connie held up a book (binder towards me). I read Be My Guest Conrad N Hilton (it also a bookmark in it). Connie said "before I wrote this book,I already had two official books about my life. They call it an autobiography. One in 1950 and one in 1954. This one I wrote in 1957 because my mother and oldest sister told me "the world will not believe your life unless you put it in your own words. Then he opened the book and read to me what I meant to him. And he gave me the book but took the bookmark out.

Connie said "Reggy Clint I feel someday in the future you may be working for me or one of my companies. This is preferred stock. See your name is on the certificate. All the people here today are going to be doing the same thing I am doing. Making yourself an owner of Hilton." (my aunt essy had convinced Connie of building two hotels due to the oil boom and told Connie "Connie You build them and I will fill them" and she did until the oil dried up in 1970!) "After you are done with school and decide you want to go to work for one of these companies, Go to the person whose name is on the company. Schedule a meeting with whomever handles the money and keep the people who know about you to one hand! (Connie held up one hand with 5 fingers.)"

I am now 48 years of age (actually I have 2 birthdates conception and birth 11FEB51 AND 11FEB52). And I honestly do not know how many times I have done this. Nuff said. GO IN PEACE AND TAKE CARE OF YOUR NEIGHBOR!

Rating:
Summary: Here's to you Connie a true dear friend
Review: > I first met Mr. Hilton, when I was 7 years old at a party in northern New Mexico, given in my honor.

My aunt Essy (Esther oldest of 4 girls and 1 boy My mother June Lenore was the baby like me of 6 boys, who raised me after my mother went home when I was 2 1/2,brought this tall gentleman over to meet me. My aunt said "Reggy Clint (when she wanted to get my undivided attention),this is one of my dearest friends but I'll let him introduce himself."

Well, this gentleman got down on his knees so he could look me in the eyes and said

"I am so happy to finally meet you Reggy Clint Thompson. I have heard so much about you. My name is Conrad Nicholson Hilton. Do you have a name only your family and friends call you? I embarrassedly said yes. I told him the name and then I asked not to call me that. He started to laugh and promised he would only call me that when we were face to face among friends. Then he said "I have a name my family and friends who I consider as family call me. Connie instead of Conrad. Your aunt has always called me that because she knew my parents. Anytime you wish to speak to me about anything, call and ask for Connie. It would be an honor to help guide you.

Then Connie held up a book (binder towards me). I read Be My Guest Conrad N Hilton (it also a bookmark in it). Connie said "before I wrote this book,I already had two official books about my life. They call it an autobiography. One in 1950 and one in 1954. This one I wrote in 1957 because my mother and oldest sister told me "the world will not believe your life unless you put it in your own words. Then he opened the book and read to me what I meant to him. And he gave me the book but took the bookmark out.

Connie said "Reggy Clint I feel someday in the future you may be working for me or one of my companies. This is preferred stock. See your name is on the certificate. All the people here today are going to be doing the same thing I am doing. Making yourself an owner of Hilton." (my aunt essy had convinced Connie of building two hotels due to the oil boom and told Connie "Connie You build them and I will fill them" and she did until the oil dried up in 1970!) "After you are done with school and decide you want to go to work for one of these companies, Go to the person whose name is on the company. Schedule a meeting with whomever handles the money and keep the people who know about you to one hand! (Connie held up one hand with 5 fingers.)"

I am now 48 years of age (actually I have 2 birthdates conception and birth 11FEB51 AND 11FEB52). And I honestly do not know how many times I have done this. Nuff said. GO IN PEACE AND TAKE CARE OF YOUR NEIGHBOR!

Rating:
Summary: Better than many so-called "business books"
Review: I discovered "Be My Guest" at the Hilton San Francisco and couldn't put it down again until I had read the entire book. It's an absolutely riveting read, full of adventure and lessons learned over the course of many years. I was completely surprised that such a special book (really a testament to a hard working man with great ideas and an ability to execute them) isn't more widely distributed. It's choc full of humor and pathos, drama and innocence. More like a novel than an autobiography. From now on, I'm going to position Hilton Hotels as my first choice when traveling. Read this wonderful book if you want to be inspired!

Rating:
Summary: ambition, without greed, pays off
Review: I got my copy of BE MY GUEST at an old book sale at the public library. It's a wonderful book, and I'm glad to hear that even in the late 1990s it was still being distributed at Hilton hotels. This book chronicles the business endeavors of Conrad N. Hilton from his aspirations to own his own bank in the pre-WWI years through his first hotels in Texas and New Mexico in the early '20s to his crowning glory--the purchase of the opulent Waldorf-Astoria hotel in NYC around 1950. What makes this book interesting and useful is the quality of the man, not the strength of his business empire. "Connie" Hilton is a man of honor and principle, but he has much ambition, too. His fortunes have been made through hard work, calculated risks, and his "people skills." Comparing Conrad "Connie" Hilton to someone like Donald "The Donald" Trump shows how our culture has become more cheap and frivilous in the two generations that separate these hotel/real estate giants. For another book with similar factual content but less wit, humor, and commentary on human nature, see Thomas Ewing Dabney's book, THE MAN WHO BOUGHT THE WALDORF (New York: Duell, Sloan, and Pearce;1950.)

Rating:
Summary: A terrific education about the world of business.
Review: I read this book while staying at the Hilton in Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. It was in a night table.

It was very educaitonal for me in its description of life in New Mexico and west Texas -- where the author grew up -- at the turn of the century, and the erratic economic times caused not only by the Great Depression, but also the financial panics in prior years. It also teaches the very real importance of ethics and honor in business and family relationships. Finding the book in my hotel room was a real treat.

Rating:
Summary: From a time gone by.... A Man of Faith and Principles
Review: I recently finished "Be My Guest". As both a business person and a Christian, this book was a timely blessing to me. Despite all you made read in the gossip rags about his heirs (P. Hilton comes to mind), they are a world away from Conrad "Connie" Hilton. The book tells the story of a man from humble upbringings who makes something of himself. The story begins in New Mexico at the turn of the Century. From his father he learns about honor, honesty, integrity and the will to perservere. From his mother he learns about the Catholic faith "Always remember to pray and take your problems to the Lord," she tells him. While building the world famous Hilton Hotel Chain, Hilton almost always finds time to attend daily Mass and Communion. He manages to achieve what is sorely lacking these days in the modern business world, the balance of integrity with ambition, his principles girded by his faith in his God. As a business memoir it is excellent, as a testimony to one man's upbringing and faith, it is superlative.