When you think about staying with us in a cabin at the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge, it should be a decision of yes or no. It should not be a comparison to other lodging establishments.
We are not for everyone. We are unique enough — a rustic WPA-era resort in the wilderness — that one either wants to be here, closer to nature, or one does not.
We are not asking you to come. Staying here should be and is your decision.
If you decide the Lodge is not for you, that is fine. There are many other fine lodging establishments in the world and in the Keweenaw.
We ask this because of what we value. We start from valuing our team members, our guests, our community, and our environment. From there we build: respect others, leave ego at the door, be welcoming, appreciate life. Those are the behaviors that lead us to the top of our pyramid — fun, joyous, adventuresome — and they are not ours alone to practice. A guest who arrives having decided to be here brings the same things with them, and the stay works.
A guest who arrives with a comparison brings ego instead. That is where anger at the Lodge and its staff comes from: the Lodge is not the place someone wanted us to be — the party place it was from the 1970s into the early 2000s, rather than a quiet place to get people closer to nature. Valuing our team members is a table stake for us, so that is the one thing we will not accept.
— make a decision, not a comparison —
Concept from Mike Maples, Jr. and Peter Ziebelman, authors of Pattern Breakers: Why Some Start-Ups Change the Future