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Lesson #3: “No person can get very far in life working 40 hours a week.”

Article Overview: Growing up in an impoverished childhood, Marriott knew all too well that success began with determination. From traveling across the U.S. to help support his father’s sheepherding business, to working every summer to pay for his university tuition, Marriott grew up with a determined attitude. Even his professors knew that Marriott was someone to watch for, after he turned his small, one-man operation selling woollen items to lumberjacks into an operation of 45 college students who sold products in seven different states.

Lesson #3: “No person can get very far in life working 40 hours a week.”

Growing up in an impoverished childhood, Marriott knew all too well that success began with determination. From traveling across the U.S. to help support his father’s sheepherding business, to working every summer to pay for his university tuition, Marriott grew up with a determined attitude. Even his professors knew that Marriott was someone to watch for, after he turned his small, one-man operation selling woollen items to lumberjacks into an operation of 45 college students who sold products in seven different states.

“A businessman once said, ‘A business succeeds not because it is long established or because it is big, but because there are men and women in it who live it, sleep it, dream it, and build great future plans for it,’” said Marriott.

Marriott was no slouch when it came to putting in the hours he needed to make his business grow. And, he knew that he had to set the example for the rest of his employees. If his workers saw the sacrifice he was making for his business, Marriott thought they would be more likely to follow suit.

“The price of success is a hard workout – not just 8 hours 5 days a week, but nearly all our waking hours. At least that has been my experience,” said Marriott. “When I started, it was about six and a half days and nights for many years.”

Still, said Marriott, the sacrifice was worth it. “It paid off. I set an example for others and gave many who were willing to pay the price an opportunity to grow and have the good things of life.”

Part of that ability to put his life into his business stemmed from the fact that Marriott could never settle. “Entrepreneurs are never satisfied,” he said. “They want to do things better. They strive for perfection and use all the ingenuity to their command to achieve it.”

Marriott worked hard to show his employees that there were significant benefits to be had from making work a top priority in life. He was constantly re-evaluating his success, his team, his operations, and looking for ways he could do better. Even where it meant working six and a half days a week, Marriott was determined to stay the course.

Marriott also looked for that quality in others, for people who were willing to sacrifice anything for their work. In speaking of his restaurant operations, Marriott once said “Most of the things we sell in a restaurant are prepared that day. This takes skills, imagination, and ingenuity. It requires a great development of talent and primarily an interest in one’s work.” Those were the cooks he was looking to hire.

So long as that interest in his work was still there, Marriott was going to keep working hard to get to where he wanted to go. He was working to meet his customers’ demands, but beyond that, Marriott was working to meet his own.

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Article Tags: attitude, businessman, college students, days and nights, future plans, half days, ingenuity, man operation, marriott, men and women, one man, professors, sacrifice, sleep, slouch, top priority, university tuition, waking hours, workout



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