When Dr. Gene Landrum published his book, Entrepreneurial Genius: The Power of Passion, he profiled a dozen of the greatest entrepreneurs, including Henry Ford, Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos and even the founder of Playboy, Hugh Hefner. Yet, only one of these entrepreneurs has been featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and it wasn’t Hugh.
Hefner revolutionized America’s attitudes toward sex, nudity and feminine pulchritude, featuring nubile young women, at the flower of their fertility. But times are changing and our perception of beauty and sexuality is pushing outward against its previous boundaries. The anorexic-thin standard for models, ushered in by Twiggy in the 1960’s, has expanded to include modern Rubenesque female forms, euphemistically described as the “full-figure” woman. Implants to expand lips, hips and buttocks to extreme proportions are now altering the morphology that supports human mobility.
The most recent metamorphosis in our conception of beauty and sexuality is an expansion in the age at which the flower of beauty begins to wilt. On May 18, 2023, at the age of 81, billionaire entrepreneur, Martha Stewart, previously branded as the “Diva of Domesticity,” will appear on the Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover.
Not many people know that Martha Stewart was a model early in her career, earning enough money to finance her education in art history at Barnard College. In her sophomore year at Barnard, she won Glamour magazines’ Best Dressed College Girl award. (For more information on her early career, see: https://www.intelligence-and-iq.com/martha-stewart/)
In an exclusive interview with People magazine, Martha stated, “It’s important to stand up to challenges, whether they’re beauty challenges or intellectual challenges, even philanthropic challenges…To be able to stand up and do it — to me — is so fun! And this is accomplishing something that not everybody would accomplish.”
In her career, Martha Stewart has pushed against boundaries and scored many victories through her self-efficacy, her personal discipline, and her quest for perfection. Hat’s off to Martha, who has proven over and over again, that anyone with sufficient motivation and discipline can achieve their dreams.
