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    Dale Van Atta

ISBN: 978-1-62972-600-7

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Bill Marriott: Success is Never Final

by: Dale Van Atta

The tell-all book about Bill Marriott’s family life, his religious life, and the never-before-published stories that made him an international business icon.

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From a family root beer stand to the largest hotel chain in the world, this is the tell-all biography about Bill Marriott’s family life, his religious life, and the never-before-published stories that made him an international business icon.

Bill Marriott, son of J. Williard Marriott who opened a root-beer stand that grew into the Hot Shoppes Restaurant chain and evolved into the Marriott hotel company, grew up in the family business. In his more than fifty years at the company’s helm, Bill Marriott was the driving force behind growing Marriott into the world’s largest global hotel chain. His vision and leadership expanded the family business to more than 6,500 properties across 127 countries and territories.

Bill Marriott: Success Is Never Final gives readers an intimate portrait of the life of a billionaire and business titan and shares his definition of success. Bill shares details about his very structured childhood including the private struggles with his domineering father’s chronic harsh criticism; his time in the United Sates Navy as an officer aboard the U.S.S. Randolph; how he innovated the hotel industry with resort-like facilities; his dogged courtship with Donna, who would eventually say yes to his marriage proposal over a pay phone; and the boundless passion and energy he demonstrated for his work, family, and faith. Bill also shares spiritual experiences that allowed him to recognize God’s guidance in his personal life, helping him bounce back from a life-threatening explosion in a freak boating accident which caused severe burns over his body.

Readers will learn the fascinating details about the successes and failures of Bill’s business ventures and relate to his challenges of balancing roles as a CEO, a husband and father, and a man of faith. From his half-billion-dollar venture and “bet-the-farm” move to build the New York Marriott Marquis hotel, to the heartbreaking loss of an adult son whose body slowly degenerated from Mitochondrial Disease, to the billions of dollars donated to medical research, the biography of Bill Marriott tells the remarkable story of a man who had the vision to create a multi-billion dollar business, who understood the power of giving, and lived the creed that hard work will pay off but success is never final.

Meet the Author
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Dale Van Atta is a New York Times best-selling author and journalist who has been nominated five times for the Pulitzer Prize. For more than a decade, he co-authored the world's most widely syndicated news column appeared in the Washington Post and nearly 1,000 other newspapers, reaching 50 million readers. Van Atta was a longtime Roving Editor for Reader's Digest and has been published in numerous other national publications. He has made appearances on the variety of national television news shows and has reported from all seven continents, including coverage of several wars. He has interviewed a panoply of U.S. presidents, world leaders, business and military leaders, terrorists, and spies. Van Atta's previously published biographies include General Norman Schwarzkopf, Stormin' Norman: An American Hero; former Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird, With Honor; and murderous polygamist cult leader Ervil LeBaron, Prophet of Blood. He lives in Ashburn, Virginia, with his wife of forty-five years, Lynne. They have three children: Tara, Dylan, and Kate.
Books of Dale Van Atta
About This Book
Overview
  • Details the story of Bill Marriott’s first job in his family’s root beer stand to his monumental decisions in building a hotel empire. The Marriott Corporation is the largest global hotel chain in the world, twice as large as the second, Hilton, with double the number of properties.
  • Bill’s father, who lived through the Great Depression, had a great fear of risk and debt and opposed many of the daring business decisions Bill made in building the Marriott empire. While his father was a constant roadblock, his mother had a quite different effect. Without her things would not have turned out as well for the Marriott family: “I certainly was not always right, nor was I ever as wrong as my father believed I was. My mother was a great referee, mediating and softening the blows. And my wife was always beside me to pick me up, dust me off, and send me back into the ring again. I could never have been successful without the love and support of these two great women.”
  • Bill endured hardship as a young husband and father when a boat explosion, just a week after his father died, caused a fire which severely burned his body and damaged his hands so significantly, it was unclear if he would be able to use his fingers.
  • Part of Bill’s management legacy of Marriott includes philanthropic work, educational programs and community outreach, particularly the Marriott Foundation for People with Disabilities which has placed more than 20,000 young adults with disabilities with productive jobs, nationwide. Several hospitals, including the Mayo Clinic, are among the top 20 recipients as are a variety of colleges with important hospitality programs.
  • As a business leader Bill’s life story includes meetings and interactions with other leaders including American presidents, foreign dignitaries, and other business moguls. The biography is filled with newly-told, behind-the-scenes, intimate stories such as “family dinners” with the Eisenhowers and the Marriotts.
Details

ISBN: 978-1-62972-600-7
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Publish Date: 2019
Page Count: 528