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85-year-old US entrepreneur Martha Stewart calls work-life balance a myth, says she starts work at 7 am
US entrepreneur Martha Stewart dismissed work-life balance as a myth and revealed that she started working at 7 am.
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At 85, American lifestyle entrepreneur Martha Stewart has little patience for the idea that a successful career and personal life can be kept in perfect balance. The businesswoman, worth an estimated $400 million, calls the pursuit unrealistic.
“There is no such thing as balance—just get that through your thick skulls,” Stewart told financial influencer Vivian Tu, known online as Your Rich BFF. “You can’t balance it. It doesn’t balance,” according to Fortune.
(Also read: ‘We call it work-life balance’: Indian man on Swiss lawyer's ‘very hectic’ 7-hour work days)
Stewart said marriage, divorce and other life changes can upset even carefully made plans. While acknowledging that some people occasionally find equilibrium, she questioned how satisfying it is.
“This thing about balance, I don’t know who thought about that—but it just doesn’t work,” she said. “Maybe infrequently—and I’m jealous of those people—but they’re also boring.”
A 4am start and no time for boredom
Stewart's routine leaves little room for a conventional nine-to-five schedule. She wakes up at 4am and attends Pilates classes or personal training sessions before starting work by 7 am.
Her commitments span her lifestyle business and an artificial intelligence start-up. She also expects her team to begin early, Fortune reported.
(Also read: ServiceNow CFO says leaders who sleep 4 hours and work 14-hour days set 'terrible example' for employees)
After a career in modelling, stockbroking and television, Stewart dislikes describing changes in direction as "pivots". She prefers to view them as transformations, with curiosity driving her next move.
“Why be bored?” she asked. “If you even feel a moment of boredom or you can’t get up for some reason—because you don’t want to face the day—that is not good.”
Stewart served five months in federal prison in a case linked to a stock-sale investigation, before rebuilding her public profile after her release in 2005.
Other prominent figures question the ideal
Stewart is not alone. TIAA chief executive Thasunda Brown Duckett told Fortune this year that balancing work and family left her exhausted during her years at JPMorgan Chase.
“Work-life balance is a lie. It never reconciles … So get rid of that,” Duckett said. She now treats responsibilities as priorities that change over time, rather than demanding equal attention every day.
Former US President Barack Obama made a similar point on The Pivot Podcast, saying periods of extraordinary effort may leave other parts of life temporarily neglected, as reported by Fortune in 2025.
“If you want to be excellent at anything—sports, music, business, politics—there’s going to be times of your life when you’re out of balance, where you’re just working and you’re single-minded,” he said.
