I never liked Martha Stewart. Her business set unattainable expectations for women who were already running behind if not altogether burnt out. I could never deny the quality of her work or the quantity, butI didn’t like her seeming arrogant assumption that everyone around her (if not everyone, period) should be as indefatigably engaged in Good Things as she was and that if she needed to get mean to inspire others to become indefatigably engaged, well, that was no problem for her.
When she went to jail, though, I wasn’t happy. In my opinion, she wasn’t charged with or convicted of anything that could actually be called a crime (if you’re into that white collar SEC stuff). She was charged with and convicted of being a bitch.
So imagine my surprise when my brother Nick sent me a book by her called The Martha Rules: 10 Essentials for Achieving Success as You Start, Build, or Manage a Business and I read it and I liked it and I learned from it.
I long ago found out that even if I didn’t like a person who gave me good advice, I should still recognize the good advice for what it is. You can learn from anybody; you just have to keep your mouth shut, your eyes and ears open, and your head clear to figure out what the lesson is.
So, with her book in mind, I bought an issue of her magazine (which name I can’t really recall at the moment) and I learned things. I’ve reread her book and I learned more things. I studied that issue some more and I learned more things.
I still won’t watch her show–to my eye, she’s painfully stiff and unrelaxed–but at least now I’m willing to read what she writes because, well, she’s succeeded in a creative field and she’s done it well. I don’t mind picking from her cafeteria offerings.
February 26th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Be careful with Martha — according to an unauthorized biography, back in her catering days, she was always willing to share recipes, but would do things that guaranteed it wouldn’t come out right, such as leaving out a crucial ingredient. Sure enough, when Mom and I read through some of her recipes, we were finding quantities that she and I both thought were way out of whack.
As far as Martha’s “unattainable assumptions”, what she never tells you is that she did not build this with her own two hands. She did not dig up acres of flowerbeds with her own two hands. The employees do the hard work, and then Martha puts the finishing touches on.
She also assumes everyone has limitless supplies of money (or her access to free stuff). One year, she decorated her Christmas tree with cookies for a party (and after the guests ate the cookies, she’d re-decorate with proper ornaments). Each cookie used 18″ of narrow ribbon as a hanger and 18″ of wide ribbon as a decorative bow. Since she mentioned how many cookies she was putting on the tree, it was easy for me to call the local craft shop and work out the cost for this project. I think, between the cookie dough and the ribbon it was $500 for one party (not counting the beverages). How many of us have $500+ to spend on one party? On ribbon that’s now cut too small to re-use in any other project?
February 26th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Oh, yes, indeed. You are absolutely correct. I only take from her the advice I think would be useful to my situation.
I’ve done enough DIY stuff in my life to know pretty much what will work and what won’t. As for recipes, well, I’m an Alton Brown fangurl.