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From Sheep to Sodas: The Early Years of J. Willard Marriott

"A man should keep on being constructive, and do constructive things,” J. Willard Marriott once said. “He should take part in the things that go on in this wonderful world. He should be someone to be reckoned with. He should live life and make every day count, to the very end. Sometimes it's tough. But that's what I'm going to do.”

Leaving the Sheep Behind: Marriott Hits It Big

In 1937, Marriott’s Hot Shoppe No. 8 became the home of his next innovation. Since it was located near an airport, Marriott noticed that airline passengers would often stop off to his store and buy lunch to eat on board. With that came Marriott’s idea to sell pre-boxed meals directly to airlines. It was the launch of an entire new industry, and Marriott was soon selling lunches to more than 20 flights a day from that one airport.

Lesson #1: “Take care of your people and they will take care of your customers.”

Marriott got to where he did in the business world by relying on a strong team of colleagues and employees around him. He rose through the ranks by focusing on honing his managerial skills, by ensuring that he was building the best possible team around him.

Lesson #2: “Great companies are built by people who never stop thinking about ways to improve the business.”

Marriott was born into a household poor enough to know that success is never final. No matter how hard he worked, or how much he wanted something to work, the only thing Marriott could be assured of was that change was going to come. To that end, Marriott learned early on how to use that change to his advantage. He did it by focusing on innovation.

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.

Lesson #4: “Only close attention to the fine details of any operation makes the operation first class.”

Marriott was a firm believer in the principle of management by walking around. He was as hands on as he could get, inspecting everything from the number of times a hamburger was flipped, to the haircut of his waiters. Even as the company grew, Marriott maintained his belief that if he was going to run his company, he had to know about what was going on in the restaurants, in the hotels, and on the ground. Marriott knew that the financial books in his office were in fact going to tell him less about his business than the cooks and waiters in his restaurant were, or the guests in his motels.

Lesson #5: “Success seems to be connected to action.”

Marriott never stood still or took the time to reflect on his successes. After all, there was no time to indulge in such things. “Successful people keep moving,” he would say. “They make mistakes, but they never quit.”

From Sheep and Sodas to Success: How Marriott Became a Name We Know

With a guiding philosophy of hard work and clean living, Marriott rose from the sheep fields of his father’s farm to become one of the most successful entrepreneurs in America’s history. He built one of the fastest-growing and most profitable companies in the difficult food and lodging business. How did he do it?

J. Willard Marriott Quotes

J. Willard Marriott Quotes

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