J Willard Marriott
Success seems to be connected to action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they never quit.
J Willard Marriott
All through the years, I’ve seen bad habits destroy brilliant, talented and fine men and women. So I know that the basis of my success is good habits and good character.
J Willard Marriott
No person can get very far in life working 40 hours a week.
J Willard Marriott
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”.
J Willard Marriott
Only close attention to the fine details of any operation makes the operation first class.
J Willard Marriott
Great companies are built by people who never stop thinking about ways to improve the business.
J Willard Marriott
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. When I started, it was about six and a half days and nights for many years. 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.
J Willard Marriott
Entrepreneurs are never satisfied. They want to do things better. They strive for perfection and use all the ingenuity to their command to achieve it.
J Willard Marriott
In all the years that we have been testing for quality, we have found that there is very little difference between top quality and second and third grade. But I have found this – if you take second- and third-grade quality, even though the difference is hardly discernible, you will end up with a second- and third-rate quality product.
J Willard Marriott
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 Marriott
My father gave me the responsibility of a man. He would tell me what he wanted done, but never said much about how to do it. It was up to me to find out for myself.
J Willard Marriott
Take care of your people and they will take care of your customers.
J Willard Marriott
Employee loyalty is of great importance. That comes by treating employees the way management would like to be treated.
J Willard Marriott
Don’t let your work hurt your family relations.
J Willard Marriott
It’s important to listen to employees, ask questions of them, say ‘Good Morning’ to them, ask about their families, and get to know a little bit about their aspirations, ambitions, home life and work motivations. We have great morale in our restaurants, hotels, and other operations because our employees know we are interested in them and do all we can for them.
J Willard Marriott
When we had six or seven Hot Shoppes, I’d drive to every one of them every day, sometimes twice a day.
J Willard Marriott
There is great opportunity for advancement in a large company. In our business an hourly employee can become a department manager and general manager in a short time.
J Willard Marriott
You can’t have a service business with a lot of employees without having people who know how to manage. So we have been teaching our management how to manage, as well as our employees how to take care of their jobs. Good management and trained personnel are the most important factors in our business.
J Willard Marriott
Change is what puts life in your business and in your life. The customer needs change constantly, and your business and you have to change to meet those needs.
J Willard Marriott
October rolled around and it got cold and rainy in Washington D.C. Nobody wanted ice-cold root beer.
J Willard Marriott
It was a very explosive menu, but it worked, and provided the foundation for one of the largest restaurant chains in the eastern United States.
J Willard Marriott
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.
J Willard Marriott
The first thing I learned in the restaurant business was to get portion control in order to get a decent food cost. I don’t mean, by portion control, that we should cut down below what a customer should get, but in many instances we either give less or a lot too much.
J Willard Marriott
They served a whole platter of mushrooms for each guest who had steak. There must have been nine or ten mushrooms on the plate. No one can eat this many mushrooms and a steak and all the other things that they had. I think better judgment should be used. A couple of mushroom caps on the steak would have been plenty, in all of our places.
J Willard Marriott
We would save ourselves an awful lot of cleaning problems, and money.
J Willard Marriott
We should use carpets in all entrances, with a rubber base and a rubber edge, and have enough of them to keep them clean. This picks up the dirt that will otherwise be carried into the kitchens.
J Willard Marriott
Every airline kitchen should have a perfect setup for cleaning. There should be portable stainless steel sinks, places to hang mops, and drains in the floors throughout the kitchen so that the floors can be washed down.
J Willard Marriott
Fireplaces should be used at all times during the cold weather. It makes so much difference in the atmosphere of our lobbies…There will always be a demand for a hotel with a homey, charming atmosphere.
J Willard Marriott
I have always felt that America is the land of unlimited opportunities for those who will ‘pay the price.’
J Willard Marriott
Good timber does not grow with ease; the stronger the wind, the stronger the trees.
J Willard Marriott
Not one operation of the Marriott Corporation should be substandard. If it is, the company is injured if not corrected immediately and responsible management obtained.
J Willard Marriott
If you don’t hire the right kind of people, we can never make anything out of them.
J Willard Marriott
Cashiers should not be sorting checks during a busy time. I saw one cashier who was terribly busy, holding up a whole line of customers because she was trying to sort her checks. Tills can be done after the busy hour.
J Willard Marriott
There is not enough follow-up by management on service, planning, getting things done when they should be.
J Willard Marriott