On Saturday night I was invited to attend the CFHLA (Central Florida Hospitality and Lodging Association) year end Gala. The event was held at the JW Grande Lakes www.grandelakes.com and was well attended by the whose who in the hotel business of Central Florida. I was honored to be in the same room with some of the great hospitality leaders of our community. The evening was full of networking and fun and exposed us all to those in the market we compete with every day for fair share of leisure and convention customers that visit this city on an annual basis.
It was during the event that I saw from across the room a woman that was instrumental early in my hotel career. Pat Engfer, GM of the Hyatt Orlando International Airport, who in 1998 gave me some critical advice and encouragement that lead me to a career in hotels. It was 1998 when I was a very proud doorman for the Hyatt airport property that Pat made an impact on my life. I took pride in my job and ensured during my 8 hours that the front drive not only ran smooth but was free of cigarette butts, a huge pet peeve of Pat's. I remember the day that I learned that Hyatt was building and developing the first ever Hyatt property in Las Vegas. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to be there, opening this fabulous property. I went home, put together a resume and proudly returned to work to share with Pat for her feedback. I handed her the resume and asked for her thoughts and suggestions. I explained that it was my desire to transfer to this property with her blessing. She took the resume and told me she would review it. When she returned to the driveway the next day, she handed me the resume with her comments and corrections. The paper looked like it was a grade school gammer paper full of corrections and corrective comments. Remove this, add this, why is this here, replace this, etc. I took her feedback, tweaked the document and returned the following day with corrections. After her final blessing, she gave me her approval and recommendation and in 1999 I was in Las Vegas as the Door Captain of the 500 room Hyatt Regency Lake Las Vegas Resort www.lakelasvegas.com.
One Saturday night, after almost 10 years since her recommendations and resume corrections, I saw Pat (http://www.simontbailey.com/newsletters/brilliant_carat_59.htm) at the CFHLA Gala event. I knew I had to say hello, but more importantly thank her for being apart of a wonderful life changin time in my life. I made my way to her table and had the distinct privilege of thanking her for the impact she had on my career, my story, my life. I explained that it was in Las Vegas that I elevated myself from Door Captain, to Guest Service Manager to my first Sales position. I thanked her for the opportunity and trust in me to give me that opportunity. I told her that Las Vegas is where I met my wife and that I now live here in Orlando with my wife and young daugther and work as the Director of Sales and Marketing of the International Plaza Resort and Spa www.intlplazaresort.com. My time with Pat was a rare opportunity to thank someone who years prior was instrumental in putting me in position to be successful. I will always be thankful for the time and faith Pat had in me and my career.
Two nights later, on Monday night I was at dinner www.theoceanaire.com with a customer when I noticed sitting next to me a familiar face from my past. Low and behold, the group next to me was joined by John Hart, former Cleveland Indians GM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hart_(baseball), who in the late 80 early 90's ran a very popular and prestigious high school baseball camp at Osceola County Stadium. This camp ran by Hart, included many well known major and minor league players and coaches. The top 120 Central Florida high school players attended and I was fortunate to be one of them. The camp was a week long and included one on one instruction, fun team building activities and end of day 9 inning games, culminated by a camp ending awards ceremony. I will never forget the last day of the camp when the awards presentation began. John Hart and all of the camps goers and instructors huddled in center field to hear who had won awards like, Best Pitcher, Fastest runner, player most likely to play major league baseball, etc. As the awards were given, many of my high school teammates were recognized. Brian Barber, best pitcher and Johnny Damon, most likely to play major league baseball. As the last award was given and as everyone was saying goodbye, John Hart stood in front of all the camp goers and said, "This year we have one more award that we would like to give. This is the first time we are giving this award. The last award we would like to give goes to Bryan Bruce for the Hustle Award. I was blown away and as I walked my 5'7 140 lb frame up to receive the award I remember being so proud of being recognized with the very best. John Hart handed me the award and I had never been so proud. The award, when I looked at it, had white out over the award name and hand written comment, "Hustle Award" The award was not standard, but they made it specifically for me which was evident by the white out. I still have the award today- white out and all. So as I was having dinner and told the story to the people I was with, it became very obvious that I had to interrupt his dinner and say hello and thank him for that moment in time. A time in which his award gave me confidence and pride that I belonged with the very best. That hustle and effort was worth something. I told him my story and thanked him for the memories. I learned that evening that we had some things in common. That he once played for the University of Central Florida, that he played for my former college coach, Jay Bergman and the last thing we had in common- we both accepted challenges to take a last place team to first place. As I told him, as Director of Sales, my team is working to bring our hotel out from under the perception of being the worst hotel in Orlando to one day making it one of the most special and unique places in not only Orlando, but in America. I told him that the lessons I learned at his camps and that were reinforced by his acknowledgement of my effort in hustle are carried with me today. John Hart has been around many great athletes, I consider myself one of them. I am now a corporate athlete and I was honored to be able to thank him for his impact on my life.
Two special thank you's in one week. Two opportunities I had to share.
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