Magazine Martha Stewart Living example essay topic

Inspiration and dedication are two key factors in a successful career goal. To achieve more is a rare want that takes a special person to fulfill it. Martha Stewart is that special type of person who has a relentless thirst for knowledge. She wanted to expand her wisdom of what she loved and took the time and effort to do so. At an early age, Martha's parents taught their children that they could achieve anything in life if they worked hard enough. Due to this, they were encouraged to do many tasks for themselves.

Martha painted her own room, sewed her own clothes, cooked for her five brothers and sisters, and helped her mother with the gardening. Her family also entertained and they would do all the preparations, such as the baking and the cooking. Since Martha had a passion for them, and her chores soon became her hobbies. This was the beginning of her "entertaining" career. Martha was a hard working, serious child, who graduated in the top ten of her high school class. Many of her teachers in school inspired her.

It just seemed right to become one herself. On a partial scholarship she attended Bernard College in New York City, while modeling on the side to pay for the extra expenses of tuition and books. Her modeling landed her a job in a TV commercial and on the cover of several magazines. While in college, Martha discovered her love for the world of chemistry and architectural history. Putting her teaching major on hold she decided to explore different careers. In doing just that, the stock market drew her in first.

Martha married Andy Stewart in 1961. Her mother helped her make her wedding dress. Andy and Martha lived in an apartment in New York City, that needed work. Together they renovated and decorated it. This was Martha's first real introduction into home decorating. Once out of college, she decided to work for her father-in-law as a stockbroker, but quit when recession occurred and her daughter Alexis was born.

Now having a family, they needed a larger space; so they moved into a 19th century farmhouse located in Westport, Connecticut. She found she was good at restoring it. During this renovation, Martha decided to try her hand for catering, so a friend and she opened a catering business from the basement of her home. Martha trained herself from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Simply by placing a catering ad in a small local paper, the jobs started coming in. Her first official job was a wedding.

Her business grew as did the publicity for the functions it catered. The catering business became known for its gourmet menus and unique, creative presentation. Martha also opened a retail store in Westport to sell specialty foods and supplies for entertaining. Over a ten-year period, it grew into a million dollar a year operation serving a number of celebrity clients.

Unfortunately, her marriage took a toll due to her newfound fame. Her marriage to Andy Steward ended in 1990, after a bitter three-year separation. On the brighter side of her personal life, she was able to stay busy as a writer. Martha wrote articles on food and entertaining for the New York Times and wrote columns for House Beautiful. While catering a party for her ex-husband's publishing firm, she met many editors and important people. It was during this party that she was offered the opportunity to publish a book on catering.

It was properly titled Entertaining because it was on how to entertain guests at parties and other social events. To her surprise it become a huge success; selling more than a million copies. It was a bestseller and continues to sell today. This book started Martha's fame and she became known as a lifestyle expert.

Martha began to appear regularly on the Today show, which made her a household name. She signed an advertising and consulting contract with K-Mart for a reported $5 million to become their spokesperson. Martha was becoming a wealthy "homemaking" expert. Typically earning $10,000 for a lecture and customers paying $900 a head to attend seminars at her Connecticut farm.

Realizing that teaching people how to cook, display food, and decorate was successful, she began making "how to" videos, appeared on more television shows, and started to write more cooking, restoring homes, and gardening books. Shortly after the books were published, she signed a contract with Time Warner to publish the magazine Martha Stewart Living. It grew from 250,000 to more than two million copies per issue. Martha Stewart Living, the TV show, appeared soon after the magazine. It went on to win three Emmy Awards. Just when you think she couldn't do any more, Martha decided to have a mail-order catalog called Martha by Mail, and she went back to writing columns in newspapers; one titled Ask Martha.

She was named one of "America's Most Influential People of 1996". Martha wanted control of her projects, so in 1997 she created "Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia". Omnimedia includes where her ideas and projects can be found. America's most famous homemaker returned to Wall Street to see her company through its public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. At the end of the day, the price of 72 million shares in Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc., had jumped to more than 95 percent and raised almost $130 million. Stewart, herself, controls 96 percent of the voting shares in her company and is worth 1.2 billion.

She's on the radio, TV, in print, has a Martha By Mail catalogue, and is even online. Martha Stewart's extraordinary chain of enterprises is still growing, but she has already had more influence on how Americans eat, entertain, and decorate their homes and gardens, than any other person in our history. She has a never-ending supply of ideas and energy and will continue to influence women all over the world. Martha Stewart is living the American dreams. Born to a middle class family and now rich and successful. From the early stages of her life, she had such a great amount of determination.

It was inevitable that she would be discovered for her talents. The sky isn't the limit for Martha Stewart, and it will never be. She keeps on reinventing herself whether it is by books, magazines, catalogues, TV shows, videos, or being a spokesperson. Again, Martha Stewart is indeed a very special person that the world embraces.

She shows persistence, which alone is omnipotent.