From Small Business to Multi-Million Dollar Empire
J. Willard Marriott
The Marriott Corporation is one of the world's most remarkable companies. How did that happen? The credit goes to John Willard Marriott himself, the founder of Marriott Corporation. John Willard Marriott was born on September 17, 1900, at Marriott Settlement, Utah. He was the second of eight children of Hyrum Willard Marriot and Ellen Morris Marriott (Marriott, n.d.). Like many of the 20th century's early entrepreneurs, Marriott was born into poor family and went to work when he was young. He being a son of a poor Mormon sheepherder, at the age of 8, he started tending his father's flocks (Entrepreneur, 2008). At the age of a teenager, he was taking sheep to market by rail from Ogden, Utah, to far away cities such as San Francisco and Omaha (Marriott, n.d.). Through his traveled to east he came out with an idea of selling cold drink in Washington, however, his thought would have to wait due to the economic downturn that caused his father to go bankrupt.
John Willard "Bill" Marriott
English: The J. Willard Marriott Library at the Un...
English: N. Eldon Tanner Building (with addition) ...Marriott had suffered enough of poverty and wanting to have a better life. The first thing that he decided to do was to complete his education that he left behind. He made his way to study in Weber State, a community college then later transferred to University of Utah. In order to earn money to pay for his tuition fees, he took a job selling woolen underwear to lumberjacks in the Pacific Northwest. During his senior year in the university, he purchased A&W franchise (Marriott, n.d.). On May 20, 1927, with all his totaled saving of $1,500 and $1,500 loan, he and with the help of his wife, Allie, opened a nine-stool root beer stand on 14th Street in Washington, D.C.(Entrepreneur, 2008).