- A professional butler
is somebody who is loyal, flexible, discreet, hard-working, honest, but most important, it is a person who has the ability to
put somebody else's wishes before your own. That is what makes this a profession so very, very difficult. At the age of 21, I became a butler. Nowadays, I am chairman of the
International Butler Academy. The International Butler
Academy is located in the beautiful village of Simpelveld in the Netherlands. You have about 135 rooms, 80,000 square feet completely dedicated to the training of butlers. Our students live here in our building. They come, literally, from
every country in the world. Age from 18 to 68. - Okay, five minutes, guys. - Students learn about housekeeping, house management, estate
management, regular things, like even suitcase
packing, silver shining, shining shoes, the list is enormous. There's an incredible amount of training to be done in 10 weeks. Discipline here at the
International Butler Academy is very, very important. In order to get a job
done, you need discipline. I think in order to be
successful, you need discipline and discipline here at school is something we embrace and not something
that we are afraid of. Here at school we always joke
about what employers want. They need a clean toilet. They want a warm bed
and they want a hot meal and those three things are
most important for everyone. - [Butler] You go right, you go left. - [Robert] My wife and I,
we have our own butler. I'm very fortunate; I've
had a private butler now for the past 17 years and this person is very, very important to me. Being a butler can certainly
be a wonderful career simply because if you are responsible for the well-being of the family, for their happiness, that is obviously very, very, very important. (uptempo regal music)
