Martha Stewart Interview (page: 2 / 3) Multi-Media Lifestyle Entrepreneur	Print Interview

Where do you get all this "get-up-and-go?"

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Martha Stewart: I have a lot of energy. I have a great desire to absorb information. I'm not a sponge exactly, but I find that something I look at -- just walking around Williamsburg, for example -- is a great opportunity for ideas. I've been here before, I've seen things before, but now my eye gets keener and keener. So I can pick up little things: just the pattern of a brick walk, or the way they've attached a light to a house.

[ Key to Success ] Vision

There are jars in all the apothecary shops here that I've been trying to find all morning. Now I'm running around looking for these jars, they're beautiful. They have leather, which you wet and you draw over the top, and it makes a very beautiful cover, a very inexpensive way to cover a jar. You'll see that in my magazine soon, because I think it's a real good thing, as I call them.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I'm always on the lookout for those good, simple solutions to everyday problems. And it's the energy that enables me to run around and do the things that I like to do. I don't need a lot of sleep. I find that when you have a real interest in life and a curious life, that sleep is not the most important thing. More important is the discovery. And I'm really trying to discover everyday good things.

[ Key to Success ] Passion

That makes me read, in the night. You know, when most people are sleeping it's hard to be up and around, so I read. That's when I get all my reading done. It's a peculiar life, but it's fun. I tell you, my daughter is 28 years old, she has the same lifestyle. And she drives her friends crazy, I drive my friends crazy. But she has the same kind of interests. It's an absorbing kind of curiosity, and it's nice to have.

How do you account for your success?

Martha Stewart: I've tried to figure out why it happens to a person, because I feel that I'm the same person that I've always been. I have grown and become probably smarter in my work, and developed and built a business that's growing, and growing, and growing. But I'm basically the same person. My likes are the same. My tastes may have gotten a little better, or a little bit more educated. But still, I always get up and clean out the kitty litter. You know, I make sure everybody is home, all the animals. I go down through the garden and prune, and pick, and do all those things. I keep grounded, and by keeping grounded you can then see very clearly what's happened to you.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. The subject matter that I am really spending my time on has become an acceptable subject matter. Living, lifestyle, family, is now in the forefront of interest in America, and I've just stuck with it. I mean, I've been doing this for years, and I never got angry. I never said, you know, listen, I'm fighting for this subject. That wasn't my point. My point was to continue working in a subject matter, knowing full well that finally it would be recognized as a viable subject once again.

[ Key to Success ] Perseverance

It was a viable subject. I mean, here in Williamsburg you see how important development was -- development of life, development of belief and it comes and it goes. So I've just stuck to it.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. The big, big turning point was when I wrote my first book. Americans look at you very differently, respect you greatly more when you write a book. It doesn't even matter if it's good, you have become an expert in everyone's viewpoint. Or if you become a television star, a talk show host, or something, then you're the expert. You may not be, but it's the perception. I've written 12 books after that book, and they've all been really well received and good books. I don't do anything unless I think it's going to be good, I'm real picky about that. I have set a standard, and I'm going to stick to the standard. I may have been able to grow faster and maybe my business could have been bigger, but because I really feel very serious about my subject, I really want to be hands-on.

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