As a hospitality professional, I am always in search of information that can help me improve and grow in our industry. It has been a few years since I read an article in Selling Power Magazine about a one degree increase and how that related to our careers. This concept has stayed with me throughout my years of working at hotel companies and when I launched my own business.

Here is the brief article:

“Did you ever notice what happens to water at 211 degrees Fahrenheit?

Well, not much, really. Although it gets hot and it may develop some little pinpoint bubbles, for the most part it just lays there in the pot. But add just one more degree, an increase in heat of less than one-half of one percent, and that same water begins to boil. The steam generated by the boiling water can lift the lid of a teakettle or drive a huge turbine engine. One degree of heat makes the difference.

In life, the margin often is just as slender between success and failure, winning and losing, mediocrity and excellence. In the 1988 Olympics, American swimmer Matt Biondi lost the 100-meter butterfly event by one-hundredth of a second. The loser in a 50-mile bicycle race was exactly one inch behind the winner. In those same Olympics, Mary Lou Retton won a gold medal by five one hundredths of a point. And she got a perfect 10 in the vault – a 10 that she had to get in order to win.

What does this teach us about our own lives? Simply that it’s the last little bit of effort that will often make the difference between success and failure. The losers in this world never seem to realize how close they are to winning just before they give up – and the winners never forget that an extra effort at the end is often the slender margin of victory.

When you’re tempted to give up, to settle for less than your best effort, turn on that extra burst of energy, that extra degree of fire that gives you the satisfaction of knowing – win or lose – that you have done your very best.”

Joseph P. Klock

For those of us building your own business in the hospitality industry, this story is a reminder that we need to continue to push ourselves. We need to give the extra degree of effort for our customers and industry partners. If we do this consistently, the growth of our business will take care of itself.

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like “The Road to No Regrets.”