"You've got to dream a little bit if you're going to get somewhere." George Shultz
I woke up yesterday to the news that The Mirage is now officially the Hard Rock International Hotel and Casino. Thus ending an era that began 33 years ago.
· Great things
· Have a great impact.
· The Mirage changed everything:
· Las Vegas, the gaming industry and
· The men and women who worked there.
So, forgive me if I reminisce this week about some of the amazing innovations that were part of that project. Like the palm trees: because it was going to be a Polynesian themed property, we bought more than 3000 palm trees. We created a tree farm to store them at the corner of the property that would later become Treasure Island. And as more and more of them arrived, it became obvious we needed to hire a tree expert; enter Jim Gibbons, who up to that time had been the the horticulture director at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and Zoo: soft-spoken, mild-mannered, and unbelievably qualified. First thing he did was go out and meet the trees – I kid you not, that’s what he said he wanted to do. And from then on, they were more than trees to him and us. They inspired the company’s logo, and he went on to develop and lead an in-house horticulture department and team that exemplified a new standard of creativity and excellence for our company. Big challenges require big thinking and big out-of-the-box solutions: the lesson we learned from Jim and his trees was that you have to dream a little bit if you’re going to get somewhere today.
George Shultz (1920 – 2021): American economist, businessman, diplomat, and statesman, one of only two individuals to hold four different Cabinet positions under three different Presidents.
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