Fortune Favors the Bold Mantra Helped Catapult Jamaican Butch Stewart's Sandals Resorts to Success Despite Global Economic Downturn

Fortune favors the bold mantra helps catapult Gordon "Butch" Stewart's Sandals Resorts to pulling in visitors to its resorts in Caribben despite recession.

Gordon "Butch" Stewart

Fortune favors the bold. That's what Sandals Resorts founder Gordon "Butch" Stewart believes in wholeheartedly. That's how he explained to the Jamaica Observer his company was able to pull visitors to the Caribbean during the global economic downturn. Those are powerful words to live by. You know what, those words have now become my mantra. Here's an excerpt from the fascinating article in the Jamaica Observer:

WHEN the global travel industry plunged in 2009 because of the world financial crisis, the Sandals Resorts chain went into survival mode, and rather than downsizing operations, cutting corners and slashing marketing spend did the complete opposite. But that's the inherent problem-solving strategy of the chain's founder and chairman, Gordon 'Butch' Stewart.

"Our company has always lived by an unsaid mantra that 'Fortune Favours the Bold', and that was the way we approached the situation," said Stewart, who is also chairman of the Observer. "It is the way we have run our company since we first started almost 30 years ago. It has served us well and there was no need to change it."

Throughout the period of the financial crisis going into last year when international tourism started seeing some recovery from a four per cent decline in 2009, a selection of the luxury-included resort chain's properties in Jamaica — Sandals Grande Ocho Rios, since renamed Sandals Grande Riviera; Beaches Boscobel; Beaches Sandy Bay; and Sandals Carlyle — underwent exciting changes and additions, ranging from the introduction of brand new restaurant concepts through to the addition of romantic fire pits on the beach.

"With so much doom and gloom supposedly permeating the industry, the level of investment we undertook and the grand plans we unveiled generated much excitement amongst both our travel partners and team members," said Stewart. "We simply had to look to the future and rather than operating in a holding pattern we've emerged from the period with some of the finest accommodations the world has to offer." The plan was simple, yet brilliant: Take the resort chain's Luxury Included concept to new heights.

This is the Jamaica you rarely hear about in the news. Only the bad stuff makes it to the mainstream media. Despite what some people think about Butch Stewart, particularly the perception that he mishandled operations at Air Jamaica, Sandals Resorts has been a major success and that's worth telling people about. Fortune favors the bold. Powerful words to incorporate in one's life. Don't let fear hold you back from greatness or stepping into your destiny.