Perhaps there are those to whom it would seem trivial to talk about Donne's words in an attempt to apply them to some extended part of commerce, but it seems clear that that intonation in 1624 was meant to be extensive and all encompassing in a way that required consideration not on just a philosophical level, but so too in practical everyday situations.

So, Donne as a philosopher of the hotel industry? All right, let's not get carried away. But we can keep in mind the more contemporary instruction from Clarence the Angel delivered to George Bailey in Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life": "No man is a failure who has friends."

For the hotel franchising industry, friendships are most keenly important not with one's workers or lenders, or even with the employees and executives of one's franchise company. Indeed, the most important bonds are to be formed with other entrepreneurs who have cast their lots with that particular franchise company and figuratively or in reality hoist the same franchise flag every morning in order to properly welcome weary travelers to the inn.

For it is they who know best the struggles and obstacles to success faced 365 days a year by a ...