EDITOR’S NOTE

Perhaps, you attended our recent Zoom event—or have viewed the session post-event online at hotelbusiness.com. Either way, it was a not-to-miss hour hosted by me and Publisher Allen Rolleri, with guests Randy Levine, president, The New York Yankees, and Jim Allen, chairman, Hard Rock International and CEO, Seminole Gaming.

We were beyond thrilled to have these two leaders of two iconic brands clear their always-busy schedules to spend part of their afternoon with us to help us launch our virtual event platform: Hot Topics. Billed as “The Power Hour: Leadership Lessons,” we chatted about the importance of brands, managing during a crisis and the road to recovery. I invite you to watch the interview if you have not done so yet.

Our coverage on page 5 provides some highlights of the conversation but that being said, I do want to use my space here to share with you some optimistic insights from two gentlemen who have been through it all a number of times in their careers, and are still facing unprecedented challenges head on now. It’s important to us at Hotel Business that we keep spirits high and hope alive, so any chance we get to share some positive vibes, we do.

As we wrapped up the session, I ended the interview with the question: With all the talk of uncertainty and often doom and gloom, what positive message would you like to leave our audience with today? And though I was really referring to the economy, the shutdowns, the industry’s crippling numbers, what I got was a simple lesson about the Golden Rule.

“I think the most important thing is we have a lot more things in common with each other than we do differences,” said Allen. “And I certainly hope that whatever happens in this upcoming election, that we can maybe go back to basics and really start to look at everyone as individuals—and respect each individual for who they are and treat each other the way we want to be treated. I think that the world, the United States, Hard Rock will be just fine, but it really seems like lately, we’ve lost our way with basic respect. I’m not referring to Hard Rock because it’s something that I preach. Literally.”

“I just think that we’re all strong. We’ve weathered [and are still weathering] a really tough situation that just came from nowhere,” said Levine. “Things are going to get better, and everybody just needs to focus on the positive. …We need to just learn from where we are, and do everything we can to help people and to bring us back because this is the greatest country in the world. And, as Jim said, we have more in common than we have apart and we all just need to be decent and civil to each other and respect each other. It’s okay to agree to disagree. That’s what America is about: agreeing to disagree. And I think we’ve lost a bit of that. Hopefully, we’re all humbled by this pandemic, and we can all learn from it.”