“A man should keep on being constructive, and do constructive things. 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.”
–J. Willard Marriot
Mr. Marriot attributes much of his success to his childhood in rural Utah, when his father often placed significant amounts on responsibility on him at a young age. “He would tell me what he wanted done, but never said much about how to do it,” Marriot would later recount. “It was up to me to find out for myself.” By the age of 13, Marriot was running his own lettuce business and in one year earned $2,000 for his family.
After finishing up his college education, Marriot moved to Washington, D.C. to open an A&W Root Beer stand. He and a partnered raised $6,000 to buy the equipment and rent space on 14th street, where they hoped to have access to throngs of thirsty tourists. Business was brisk and they soon expanded the operation to include a menu of Mexican food. After opening two more locations, the Great Depression hit Marriot hard and he had to sell all three restaurants. When his bank closed, Marriot also lost $8,000 in savings. Refusing to quit, he reconfigured his business model and opened new restaurants in multiple locations.
As his restaurant business grew, Marriot was diagnosed with having malignant cancer of the lymph nodes and was given between six months to a year to live. Not letting this medical nightmare derail his plans, Marriot worked feverishly to expand his business operations to include motels. His admirable focus allowed him to accomplish great things despite his diagnosis, and he would eventually outlive the doctors’ predictions by half a century. At the time of his death, the Marriot Company operated an astonishing 1,400 restaurants and 143 hotels.