In 1972, Martha Stewart and her family moved into a two-hundred-year-old farmhouse in Westport, Connecticut. She transformed what began as a project to renovate an old farmhouse and a small catering business run out of its basement into a billion-dollar enterprise.
For insights into how Martha Stewart achieved this, see this 1995 interview with her.
From the interview:
"I live in the same house I've lived in for 25 years. I haven't gone off and bought mansions. Even though my subject is living, living in a mansion wouldn't do for my readers. I have to keep my credibility alive with my readers, so we're in the same place. I just make that place nicer and nicer. And that's a secret. People don't know that. People think, oh, she lives in this fabulous place, but it's the same old place. It started out like a farm, it got to be a farmette, then it got to be an estatelet. I built a wall; it helped a lot. But it's the same place, the same grounded nature."
"My dream now, in retrospect then, was to be an eclectic knowledge-gathering person, in order to be able to learn and then to teach. And I'm still doing that, so I think I am a teacher. Nowadays I'm still reading voraciously. Really as an opportunity to learn, to constantly figure out what I really need to know in homes that my reader will have the same desires and the same need. I'm always on the lookout for those good, simple solutions to everyday problems."
MarthaStewart.com
The best way to grasp Martha Stewart's achievement is to learn from her.
Her website makes that easy; visit marthastewart.com, pull down the "learn" menu, and choose any field from cooking & entertaining, gardening, crafts, holidays, decorating, homekeeping, weddings, and baby & kids. For each field, the website has "101" sections for the novice, tips for the experienced, and "Good Things" for everybody.
Though the website is only the tip of what Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia has to offer, it does provide an excellent range of samples to grasp Martha's achievement.
From Martha Stewart's Biography:
"When America wants to learn how to make the perfect piecrust, plant an herb garden, create a beautiful flower arrangement, or fix a broken window pane, it turns to Martha Stewart.
"Through her award-winning magazine, Martha Stewart Living, her best-selling books, Emmy-award winning television show, website, syndicated newspaper column, national radio show, mail-order catalog, and product lines, Martha Stewart shares the creative principles and practical ideas that have made her America's most trusted guide to stylish living."
— selection and editing by Shrikant Rangnekar
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