It’s been a good year for the Media Guy Struggles. As the leading lifestyle media brand for those curious about the life of a modern (M)ad Man, the website is growing faster in unexpected ways. August marked the best month of all time for readership, advertising, and elevated Q ratings. To celebrate, I took to the road looking for the best food, drink, travel, and places to stay in the world.  The result is the Month of Travel where I tell tales and wax poetic about only the very best in the world. I’ll take you to Russia, Mexico, Lebanon, and Canada. At the end, I hope it inspires you to weave your own story through the fabric of travel. Today, I take you to Paris of the Middle East, Lebanon and the Four Seasons Hotel Beirut with the best rooftop surprise in the region.

Okay, so where am I?

I’m in Beirut, a city of paradox. It has a opulent French-influenced history, a proud culture, with affable and hospitable. Yet, they city has been traumatized from extraordinary political turbulence over the preceding four or five decades and it shows. A robust military presence saturates Beirut and you cannot escape the sight of crumbled buildings when exploring the historic avenues interspersed between the beautiful mosques and churches, the myriad of outdoor cafés, and the burgeoning marina the city is known for.

But seriously, none of this should detract you from visiting Beirut and soaking in its history. With its mixture of religious culture and a rather liberal social scene, Lebanon is the distinctive country in the Middle East and remains extremely safe today. There’s no place on earth even vaguely like it. Everything that’s great is co-mingled with all the world’s troubles all in one magnificent, screwed up, enchanted, exasperating, splendid city. I love it there in spite of everything. After visiting 32 countries in my lifetime, it remains my favorite, even after a half a dozen longish visits.

Each time I have rolled into Beirut, I’ve found a fine hotel with an inspiring view of the Mediterranean. My stop this time was no different as I found myself at the lavish Four Seasons.

Up front I have to say that every five-star hotel is not the same nor do they provide the same level of service. Trust me when I say I don’t tolerate a bad room or a crummy hotel. I’ll leave just a soon as I arrive, but something about the Four Seasons Beirut that made it so I never wanted to leave, ever.

Maybe it was because all of the 230 guest rooms have balconies. Or that the beds were the perfect blend of soft and firm or that every painting (yes, real oil paintings), every chair, lamp, fixture, was so lovely and perfectly selected for each environment. Maybe it was the designer soap that looked like it would be more at home in a palace bathroom rather than one in a hotel. Everything was high quality from massive thread-count linens to the cushioned balcony chairs and plush bathrobes and slippers.

Little did I know the best was yet to come.

A special dinner was waiting for three colleagues (and me) on the 26th floor rooftop. Here is where I was caught off-guard and where the hotel immediately became my must-experience for any return trip to Beirut: the sweeping panoramic views of the city. On a bustling Tuesday afternoon, there was a total sense of peacefulness and harmony that overwhelms you and that’s before the delectable spread of food was served.

In the 1950s, Beirut was awarded the moniker the “Paris of the Middle East” for its cultural and intellectual life along with the culinary delights that took the best of Parisian dining, simplified it and dipped it in a vat of hospitality. The 26th Floor captures that nostalgic essence and takes it to dazzling new heights serving scrumptious Pan-Asian cuisine including black cod, miso chicken gyoza, and impeccably spiced bao buns.

I spent the next few hours lounging on the roof, and partaking in handcrafted  spirits and Partagas cigars selected from their vast humidor inside The Bar & Lounge. Somehow everyone on duty anticipated my every need. That special evening was the anecdote for the ball of stress I had become during the week-long trip filled with intense deadlines. A traveler could be used to this kind of thing.

The hotel features an intimate spa that incorporates local-sourced organics—sea salt, olive oil, cedarwood—into their treatments and a fitness center with stylish smartphone-compatible treadmills (just plug in and control it from their main screens), and the centerpiece amenity, the top-floor pool with 360-degree views of Beirut, the Mediterranean, and the snow-capped Lebanese mountains.

Four Seasons hotels are legendary for their five-star service and style but it’s the Four Seasons Beirut that elevates the brand. This is exactly what you get when you cross Four Seasons with renowned Lebanese hospitality. They handle the little extras everything from the doormen at the front to the location, décor, and incredible staff. This luxury property is worth the trip alone.

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I can’t believe it’s been over nine months since I was trying to finish my 2015 submission for the Clio Awards. The big agencies have entire staffs cutting up footage and storyboarding narratives into two minute vignettes designed to win at beautiful, sleek statuette termed, “The Oscars of the Advertising World.”

Me? I was doing it alone.

I am not unproud to say that I failed to win an award last year.

I didn’t even make the short list.

Yeah, poor me.

Failure is the catalyst to success. Didn’t Winston Churchill say, “Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.”? He must have. There are memes all over the Internet with this quote on it, so he must have said it. It must be true as well, because Churchill failed so many times, yet he has a cigar type named after him. And, we all know that lighting up a cigar is the ultimate symbol of success.

This year, there are five of us (plus the ad agency I worked with) putting our best feet forward to craft a story that drove our 2015-16 campaign. I’m excited and hopeful.

Judging for many of the categories is weighted 80% on creativity and 20% on results. Yes, there is something to be said for innovation. What’s the secret for cracking the code to innovation? Last year I spoke with Neal Thornberry, Ph.D., faculty director for innovation initiatives at the Naval Postgraduate School. He says there are seven steps that guarantee success. Further, he says that upper management is the culprit for shooting down great ideas.

“Senior leaders often miss the value-creating potential of a new concept because they either don’t take the time to really listen and delve  into it, or the innovating employee presents it in the wrong way,” says Thornberry, who recently published “Innovation Judo,” based on his years of experience teaching innovation at Babson College and advising an array of corporate clients, from the Ford Co. and IBM to Cisco Systems. “Innovation should be presented as opportunities, not ideas. Opportunities have gravitas while ideas do not!”

His innovation template outlines a recipe that seems to work:

•  Intention: Once the “why” is answered, leaders have the beginnings of a legitimate roadmap to
innovation’s fruition. This is no small task and requires some soul searching.

“I once worked with an executive committee, and I got six different ideas for what ‘innovation’ meant,” he says. “One wanted new products, another focused on creative cost-cutting, and the president wanted a more innovative culture. The group needed to agree on their intent before anything else.”

•  Infrastructure: This is where you designate who is responsible for what. It’s tough, because the average employee will not risk new responsibility and potential risk without incentive. Some companies create units specifically focused on innovation, while others try to change the company culture in order to foster innovation throughout.  “Creating a culture takes too long,” Thornberry says. “Don’t wait for that.”

•  Investigation: What do you know about the problem? IDEO may be the world’s premier organization for investigating innovative solutions. Suffice to say that the organization doesn’t skimp on collecting and analyzing data. At this point, data collection is crucial, whereas brainstorming often proves to be a waste of time if the participants come in with the same ideas, knowledge and opinions that they had last week with no new learning in their pockets.

•  Ideation: The fourth step is also the most fun and, unfortunately, is the part many companies leap to. This is dangerous because you may uncover many exciting and good ideas, but if the right context and focus aren’t provided up front, and team members cannot get on the same page, then a company is wasting its time. That is why intent must be the first step for any company seeking to increase innovation. Innovation should be viewed as a set of tools or processes, and not a destination.

•  Identification: Here’s where the rubber meets the road on innovation. Whereas the previous step was creative, now logic and subtraction must be applied to focus on a result. Again, ideas are great, but they must be grounded in reality. An entrepreneurial attitude is required here, one that enables the winnowing of ideas, leaving only those with real value-creating potential. “Innovation without the entrepreneurial mindset is fun but folly,” Thornberry notes.

•  Infection: Does anyone care about what you’ve come up with? Will excitement spread during this infection phase? Now is the time to find out. Pilot testing, experimentation and speaking directly with potential customers begin to give you an idea of how innovative and valuable an idea is. This phase is part selling, part research and part science. If people can’t feel, touch or experience your new idea in part or whole, they probably won’t get it. This is where the innovator has a chance to reshape their idea into an opportunity, mitigate risk, assess resistance and build allies for their endeavor.

•  Implementation/Integration: While many talk about this final phase, they often fail to address the integration part. Implementation refers to tactics that are employed in order to put an idea into practice. This is actually a perilous phase because, in order for implementation to be successful, the idea must first be successfully integrated with other activities in the business and aligned with strategy. An innovation, despite its support from the top, can still fail if a department cannot work with it.

My Clio Awards are aging. Both are 20+ years old. Happy birthday, buddies.

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CampbellGray Hotels is a mad scientist when it comes to hypothesizing potential hotel destinations and while their latest seems the craziest of them all, it isn’t.

The Le Gray Beirut was referred by a colleague on my trek through Lebanon in 2011 replete with all of the hyperbole you might expect from a seasoned travel writer that was amply “wowed.” My colleague (we’ll call him “Marcel” for lack of a better pseudonym) threw out an insane series of reasons why you tack on a week to your Istanbul trip and include the Le Gray on your itinerary. Regular readers of my work will know that Beirut doesn’t live up to the Hezbollah wrapped terrorist destination that the racist media keeps throwing in our faces. In fact, for one of the purest blends of archaeology and nightlife, I highly recommend a serious trip to the Paris of the Middle East.*

As Marcel ranted on about how the architecture of Australian Kevin Dash guarantees all of the rooms are drenched in the lush Mediterranean sun and Mary Fox Linton’s interior design wraps you in a soothing feel of Camelot – the Kennedy’s, not King Arthur’s (whew much nicer!) – I couldn’t help but imagine collapsing there after a day trip to the South to see how the UN Peace Keepers are bungling it all up at the Israeli border.

Yet I digress.

Much to my pleasure, his rant about the floor-to-ceiling, glass-topped atrium led me to the arms of this hotel and I must say that his hyperbole failed to fully capture the contemporary elegance of the hotel.

Arriving

This past trip was a VIP experience to say the least. Not only was part of the brain trust bringing writers from all over the United States to write about the country, but I was also part of a charitable delegation set to install hearing aids to over a thousand people. So, when I arrived to Beirut’s Hariri International Airport with six colleagues, and was whisked out a side door past customs and security to a special reception, I said “Nothing can top this!”

Funky and sexy – a treat for the senses

Well, I have to say that the arrival experience at the Le Gray came pretty close. Located in the heart of the Solidere, the trendiest section of upscale shopping and architecture in Beirut, the Le Gray greets you like few others. As you walk past the sidewalk Gordon’s Café and through tight security, the well-appointed front office staff welcomes you with a sit-down reception that includes a cool compress, fruit nectar beverage and a visual tour of the hotel as you select your room. Check-in is efficient and drama free, while the funky artistry delights the eyes on your quick ride up the silky glass elevators.

Rooms

My room was more like a suite that wrapped around a corner of the hotel with multiple balconies and an excellent view of the magnificent new Rafic Hariri Mosque near the Hariri Memorial (yes, more than a few things are named for the late Lebanese Prime Minister). Luxury abounds with rainfall showers and separate toilets (with granite tiles), daily fruit baskets, REN bathroom products, full Espresso machines and beds that invite dreams of loveliness. I could live here (and plan to ask the management to grant this humble wish).

Dining

Their brochures wax poetic about and the aforementioned Indigo on the Roof, Cherry on the Rooftop, Gordon’s Café:

The Cigar Lounge is open from 11a to 1a

“Food is fresh, in season and full of the passion that makes our cuisine more than just high quality gastronomy…”

I dined at the Indigo, partied at the Cherry and took pictures at Gordon’s and the pretty words from the collaterals don’t do them justice because they are actually better.

What caught my attention is the Cigar Lounge. There’s nothing better than being able to smoke a Cohiba or a Torpedo with a fine connoisseur Cognac at eleven a.m. I spent the better part of an afternoon overlooking the city while pumping out campaign copy for entertainment client (coming to your televisions shortly). The time was a gift to be treasured and it is difficult to imagine that I could find a more serene setting anywhere outside of a yacht in Bodrum.

Dessert at the Indigo

Summing It Up

Unquestionably one of the best hotels in the entire Middle East in the class of Giza’s Mena House, Syria’s Art House and the Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul at Bosphorus. Trust me, you want to stay in one of these four properties worthy of its impeccable pedigree that any celebrity, dignitary, super model or aristocrat would be proud to reside at for a few nights.

The amazing infinity pool overlooks the city.

The atrium as you exit the glass elevators.

The lobby is sleek and contemporary.

The rooms: picture perfect with luxury appointments.

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