When I last visited South Africa, a country close to my heart, and while browsing in a large bookshop in Sandton, I asked the young lady behind the desk if the store stocked anything about the late Sol Kerzner, the world-famous South African hotel entrepreneur.
Sol who ? she asked, before proceeding to ask me to spell his name so she could search the database. What a shame, I thought, that nobody had recorded the achievements of a man who, through his career in hospitality, had brought into the country more foreign currency than most. As there seemed to be nothing in the pipeline, I decided to write my own memoir of my friend, and at times adversary, Sol Kerzner. I say memoir advisedly, because that is what it is not a biography, not the result of extensive research and interviews, but my own personal recollections from the many years I knew Sol, either while I was working for or in competition with him.
Sol was a visionary, but his greatest asset was his ability to turn vision into reality. There are many great men who have grand visions, but usually they remain dreamers. Sol could dream and then, through hard work and persistence, turn his inspired visions into reality.
Sol could be a difficult man. He could be hard on those who worked for him, and there were many casualties along the way, but those who stayed were almost always proud of the achievements. Sol practically invented the modern hospitality industry in South Africa, but he also transformed it in the Caribbean and Dubai, while building the largest casino resort in the US and one of the worlds leading luxury hotel chains, the One Only. In the words of his good friend Nelson Mandela, Where Sol walks, things happen.