Martha Stewart has delivered a blistering verdict on work-life balance, dismissing people who pursue it as “boring” and telling them to get the idea through their “thick skulls.” At 85, the media mogul maintains a demanding daily schedule and rejects [1] the traditional nine-to-five routine.
Stewart made the pointed comments during a live appearance on the Richer Lives by SoFi podcast with financial expert Vivian Tu. Asked how she manages her personal life alongside her sprawling media and business empire, Stewart replied that there is “no such thing.”
“Just get that through your thick skulls. You can’t balance it; it doesn’t balance,” the lifestyle guru said, making her position unmistakably clear.
Stewart continued: “This thing about balance, I don’t know who thought about that, but it just doesn’t work. Maybe infrequently, and I’m jealous of those people, but they’re all so boring.”
She then turned philosophical while discussing the personal developments that can unfold regardless of attempts to create order. “You’re gonna get divorced if you’re going to get divorced. You’re going to get married three times if you’re going to get married three times. It just doesn’t work out,” she said.
Stewart follows a schedule that reflects her uncompromising outlook. She works nearly every day beginning by 7 am, after waking at 4 am to read, exercise, and complete puzzles designed to stimulate her brain, according to Business Insider.
She also travels to her New York City office five days a week while overseeing her media empire, lifestyle brand, and other business ventures. Retirement and a slower pace apparently remain off the agenda as she continues making waves in business.
The Martha Stewart Living founder has previously criticized policies allowing employees to work from home. “You can’t possibly get everything done working three days a week in the office and two days remotely,” she told WWD.
She also took aim at France while arguing against extended time away from work. “Look at the success of France with their stupid… you know, off for August, blah blah blah. That’s not a very thriving country.”
Stewart followed that criticism with a stark question about American working habits. “Should America go down the drain because people don’t want to go back to work?” she asked.
Her own career began early, with Stewart earning money as a teenage model. She appeared in print advertisements and television commercials for Chanel, Lifebuoy Soap, Clairol and other brands before moving into finance after marrying Andrew Stewart.
Stewart worked as an institutional stockbroker on Wall Street before leaving finance and establishing a gourmet catering business from her Connecticut farmhouse. That venture helped lead to the publication of her first bestselling book, Entertaining, in 1982.
Divorced since 1990, Stewart has continued building her career while refusing to retire or ease her workload. She has extensive practical business and entrepreneurial experience, though her professional and financial path has also included severe setbacks.
During an appearance on the MasterClass podcast Other People’s Business, Stewart revealed that she once lost $1 billion during a difficult period. “I fell in a hole, and I lost about $1 billion,” she said, according to People.
Stewart also served five months in prison from October 2004 until March 2005. She had been found guilty of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and making false statements to federal investigators concerning her sale of ImClone Systems stock.
Away from business, Stewart has denied undergoing plastic surgery for facial enhancements, although she has acknowledged using fillers. “I go to Dr Dan Belkin in New York City. He is a very superb dermatologist. And I use a little bit of fillers. I go maybe once every four months for touch-ups,” she told People in August.
“I have not had any plastic surgery at all. I don’t think I need it,” Stewart said. She has also ruled out body enhancements, saying: “I’m not getting boobs done and hips and butts and stuff like that.”
Stewart credited facial exercises, professional facials, and peptides as parts of her routine. “I do facial exercises and have the best facials from Mario Badescu and Georgia Louise. Peptides are very good. I take a few peptides. So that’s what I do. I’m more of a maintenance kind of person.”