When my father was alive, we would often discuss the progress the company was achieving. With each great success, he would tell me to stop patting myself on the back and would remind me of one of his favorite sayings, "Success is never final." (I think he read this in a book by Winston Churchill.) From then on, I realized there are still great hills to climb, new markets to conquer and more guests to satisfy.
I enjoyed watching Bubba Watson in the recent Masters golf tournament. He won by 3 strokes which is huge against all those other outstanding players. As the commentators were talking about Bubba, they said he came in 50th place last year having won it the year before in 2012. A 2013 sports page headline read, "Bubba Watson takes 10 on Number 12 after hitting 3 balls into Ree's Creek." It seems that for Bubba, success was never final. Perhaps his victory in 2012 made him pretty sure he would do well in '13 -- but that was not to be. However, he didn't give up or let up, but came charging back to win the Masters for the second time this year. He learned "the hard way" that success is never final. Maybe the second Masters victory was even sweeter than the first.
So no matter how satisfied we may be with our success, we must keep moving ahead. And like Sisyphus pushing the rock up the hill, we should never rest on our laurels, but continue to race to the top, realizing it is a race that we can never stop running.
I'm Bill Marriott and thanks for helping me keep Marriott on the move.
This post first appeared on MarriottOnTheMove.com.