2010 FTA Kuala Lumpur Dinner
including a donation to the
China Tibetan Children Health & Education Fund
Thursday, 13 May 2010
The following 'Welcoming
Remarks' were delivered by Fred Tibbitts at the 2010 Spring Dinner at Kuala
Lumpur
Welcoming Remarks at Kuala Lumpur Spring 2010
Welcome to the Third Annual FTA “A Spring Evening in Kuala
Lumpur with Very Special Friends”. We gather in New York City spring and
fall, at Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, Bangkok, Mumbai, Shanghai and Hong
Kong to recognize hospitality excellence; in the names of those whom we honor,
provide scholarships at schools of higher hospitality education; and to make
charitable contributions.
An industry is only as strong as the wisdom, vision, compassion and actions of
its leaders; leaders who define excellence for the benefit of all those who look
to them to know the way to realize their dreams and ambitions and not be left
behind. In the end we are judged not by whom we include, but by whom we
exclude. Great leaders inspire and teach all those who seek to be
included, because serving the least of us is truly the highest calling and the
only measure of service from the heart.
This evening we come together to recognize hospitality industry Excellence,
announce the 2010 scholarships and donate to charity. This is truly a very
special evening for us all and I thank you for joining us, because as I say at
every FTA dinner, YOU are the dinner.
But the deeper meaning of why we come together is really at the very heart of
why the hospitality industry is so special to those of us who have come to
consider it our calling.
Hospitality is about service and in particular service excellence. Service
is truly the highest calling. It is not what we do for ourselves, but what
we do for others that is the measure of our worth to humanity. And simply
because it is the right thing to do: Not for personal recognition.
The truth is that we are free to dwell at any given moment in as beautiful a
place as our hearts are open to loving others and our willingness to serve them
without regard to our advantage.
Life is a series of micro steps from the time we arrive to the time we depart
and the quality of our life is but a reflection of the quality of our
contribution to the peace and happiness of others: It is not about pleasing
ourselves or collecting “things”: It is about serving others and after one’s
basic, personal needs are met, allowing what remains of what comes our way to
pass through our fingers for the benefit of those less fortunate.
I ask everyone to please remember those less fortunate, especially the survivors
of the earthquakes in Haiti, Chile and China. Their suffering continues as
does their need for your compassion.
The Buddhists have a beautiful saying, “One never knows which comes first, the
next morning or the next life”. I pray that as a result of our coming
together this evening for higher purposes, namely recognizing human excellence,
providing much-needed scholarships for worthy students of limited means and
charity for those less fortunate, that we will all be reminded that people are
more important things and that we all wake-up in the morning in this life, but
rededicated to devoting our lives to serving others, simply because it is the
right thing to do; not for others to praise us or to cater to our ego. For
service with an Open Heart and Right Intention is the foundation of our
hospitality industry: Let it be your mantra from this moment forward, until it
is your time to wake-up in the next life. Thank you very much.
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