My Dinner With Martha Stewart by Nick

My Dinner With Martha Stewart by Nick - February 2016 Scholarship Essay

While dinner with Steph Curry, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton would certainly be interesting and entertaining, I can’t imagine any of them could impart any wisdom to me other than some general advice like “Work Hard”, “Study” and/or “Dream Big”. While those things are, of course, important, they are kind of obvious, and in the end all I’ll have is a great story about having dinner with a famous person.

Thus, if I’m going to get one chance to have dinner with a historical figure, I’m going to need selection criteria. I’ve narrowed it down to two main things. First, since I don’t have the power of reincarnation, my dinner guest is going to have to be alive. Second, in addition to leaning from someone famous, I want to get practical advice that would benefit me in my day-to-day life.

That’s why I’m going to have dinner with Martha Stewart. Yes, that’s correct, Martha Stewart. The first question you might be asking is “Is she a historical figure?”. I would suggest that she is. Along with Oprah Winfrey, she is a trailblazing pioneer in that she is the among the first women to build a global empire on her own. Given the realities of the “glass ceiling”, this is no small feat.

The next question you may be asking is why in the world a 17 year old male would want to have dinner with Martha Stewart. As mentioned earlier, one of my criteria is that I want to come away from this dinner with practical advice that could be useful to me in my everyday life.

In a few months, I’m going to be away from home for the first time ever. While I can manage fend for myself, I have no idea how to do it efficiently, or without making a giant mess of things. Who better to teach me the types of practical things I need to know living on my own that Martha Stewart. Plus, if I’m going to learn how to do something, I’m going to learn from someone who has built a global reputation for knowing how to do it. While Bill Gates also fits the latter part of that description, I’m far more likely to need to know how to cook, entertain, and keep a good household than I am to be trying to learn how to create a computer operating system that is going to change the world.

If all goes according to plan, after college I don’t plan on living at home. Rather, I will be out on my own working in a new job and in my own house or apartment. That will mean I’m a “grown up”, so I don’t want that place to be an extension of my college dorm. This isn’t the 1950’s anymore, and I think I have responsibility to learn how to take care of myself and a house, and make it presentable.

More importantly though, I have the greatest respect for Ms. Stewart as an entrepreneur. She started as a fashion model and is now the head of an empire that includes publications, broadcasting, merchandising, and her own product line. She and her company employ thousands of people who rely on her for their livelihood.

I want to know how she went about doing accomplishing it all. I’m not talking about knowing the specifics of her deals with Kmart or PBS, but the mindset it took for her to get to that point. For example, what strategies does she take into negotiations with the biggest companies in the world? How does she decide which things to delegate, and which to take control of herself? How does she deal with the pressure and responsibility of having so many people depend on her?

And of course I’d want to address the “elephant” in the room with her, that being her conviction for lying to the FBI and subsequent jail sentence. I wouldn’t want to know the salacious details of what it was like in jail, or the specifics of the case. Rather, I’d want to know from her how she managed to overcome that adversity and keep her business going, as well as going forward when so many people viewed her negatively.

I’m sure that experience, as much as any other, has taught her a great deal about overcoming obstacles and going forward successfully. I’m not just referring to what it meant to her business, but rather, her reputation, on which that business is built. From what I have read, at that time, she was as reviled of a public figure as there was at the time. Yet, somehow, she managed to redeem herself, and her brand. I would love to know how she went from an object of scorn that managed to rehabilitate her image to the point where she’s a guest presenter on Comedy Centrals’ “roast” of Justin Bieber.

Not only am I certain that a dinner with Martha Stewart would be the best tasting one I’ve ever had, but also one in which I would learn a great deal.