Maria Bailey: Bringing the Unique Voices of Modern Moms

Maria Bailey is a world-renown writer, speaker and talk show host. She has a large following of 11 million modern moms in all parts of the world. Her bestselling books include popular titles as Mom 3.0 and Power Moms. Bailey hosts the radio show, Mom Talk Radio and co-hosts the number seven morning talk show in the US, Good Day with Doug Stephan. Her TV shows include The Balancing Act which is aired over Women’s Entertainment Network (WE) and Lifetime TV.

To help mothers who are working as executives, Bailey founded the website BlueSuitMom.com, an award-winning site. She also co-founded one of the biggest online video resources for mom, the Newbaby.com.

As a professional, Bailey is the Chief Executive Officer of BSM Media, a service media and marketing company whose focus is marketing to mothers.

Nearly half of the world’s top 100 brands have had the chance to hear Bailey speak about her influence among the modern moms.

Brian Tracy: Story of Success through Hard Work

Brian Tracy is well known in the US as a self-development coach and author. He has written over 40 books and has produced over 300 different audios and videos. His live audience is estimated at 250,000+ per year.

Tracy was a Canadian by birth. His family was hard up financially, forcing Tracy to drop out of high school because his family could not pay his school bills. He was exposed to hard labor when he worked as a laborer when he was a teenager.

Tracy left Canada when he was twenty. From North America, he went to England by ship then proceeded to Gibraltar, Spain and France via bicycle. He had to a lot of other countries in the next eight years. He had been to over 80 countries.

Those eight years shaped Tracy. He partnered with Dr. Albert Schweitzer, got training in martial arts where he became a Shotokan Karate black belt.

Tracy earned his master’s in Business at the University of Alberta. He was exposed in diverse capacities of work as a professional: real estate, importation and distribution of automobiles, sales and marketing, consultancy and trainings. Later, he became the COO of a large company with annual sales of $75 million and assets estimated at $265 million.

Among Tracy’s bestsellers are 16 books which include The 21 Success Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires, The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success, Advanced Selling Strategies, and Maximum Achievement. He has appeared in countless of TV and radio shows and is regularly featured in publications in and outside of the US.

He has 300 different audios and videos that cover subjects on human and corporate performance. His works are effective because Tracy has spent 25 long years researching and developing his learning tools.

Tracy resides in San Diego, California with his wife Barbara and four their four children.

George Frederick Baer: An Outstanding Lawyer and President

George Frederick Baer was an American lawyer who became the president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. He also served as the spokesperson for the owners in the Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902.

Baer was born in Somerset, Pennsylvania. He studied at Franklin and Marshall College. During the Civil War, he formed a company of volunteers to help the Union Army. He was the captain of the 133^rd Pennsylvania Volunteers stationed in Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg and Antietam.

After the Civil War, Baer practiced law and became the owner of a local newspaper The Democrat.  J.P. Morgan appointed him as president of Philadelphia and Reading Railroad in 1901. When a strike by the United Mine Workers broke in 1902, he cited Social Darwinism and was treated as an example of arrogance. President Theodore Roosevelt intervened and the strike was settled.

Baer became the president of his alma mater Franklin and Marshall College in 1894 until his death on April 26, 1914.

Ratan Tata: Owner of One of the Most Trusted Brands in India and the World

Ratan Tata is the Chairman of the Tata Group, the biggest conglomerate in India. Tata group is the parent of Indian Hotels, Tata Power, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, and all the other companies under the name of Tata.

Tata was born in Mumbai, India on December 28, 1937. His family was one of the richest in India. Jamsedji Tata, his great grandfather who founded the Tata Group, pass the inheritance of a powerful conglomerate down to Ratan. However, his parents broke up in the 1940s so that he and his brother grew up under the care of his grandma, Lady Navajbai.

He took up structural engineering and architecture at Campion School in Mumbai. He joined the Tata Group when he earned his degrees in 1962. His first job was with the Tata Steel where he shoveled stones and worked with the furnace. Although physically difficult, his first job helped Tata understand better his family’s business. The job prepared him for the huge responsibility of taking over the company later on.

In 1971, Tata worked with the National Radio and Electronics Company Limited (Nelco). He helped this struggling company but has to move out later because of the economic recession in the 1970s. He joined another struggling company, the Empress Mills, in 1977. The Mill shut down in 1986. He moved to another holding company, the Tata Industries.

At Tata Industries, Tata transformed the division’s management and vision. The changes brought significant and large dividends. The success was phenomenal that Tata Group was brought to the New York Stock Exchange and helped Tata Group obtain international popularity, power and prestige.

Tata continued to acquire other companies for the Tata Group. Among the most celebrated acquisitions include the Corus Group, a steel and aluminum producer, and the Rover and Jaguar brands of Ford Company.

In spite of his fortunes and growing popularity, Tata maintains a private and simple life in Mumbai, India.

Karl Baedeker: Guidance for the Traveler

Karl Baedeker was a German publisher who established the publisher company Baedeker which set the standard of authority for guidebooks for travelers and tourists.

Baedeker was born on November 3, 1801. He was exposed early on to publishing since his father was a printer. He established his company in 1827 and acquired Friedrich Röhling, another publishing company, in 1832. At that time, Friedrich Röhling had a published handbook for travelers entitled Rheinreise von Mainz bis Köln (Travelling the Rhine from Mainz to Cologne). The handbook by J. A. Kelin became the basis for the travel guides that Baedeker would produce.

Baedeker’s guide became very popular because they contain detailed and accurate information. His guidebooks included significant information about transportation, accommodations, rates and prices, and other vital information for travelers. In fact, his guidebooks contained the exact number of steps in the staircase leading to the roof of the Milan Cathedral. Baedeker’s guidebooks were published in English, French and German.

Baedeker died on October 4, 1859.

Living with Martha Stewart

Martha Stewart is an international TV and magazine icon. Her TV show and her magazine are both named Martha Stewart Living. She became popular for her ideas that include interior decorating and recipes. She had her own line of decorations, craft supplies and linens.

Stewart was born in New Jersey on August 3, 1941. She was brought up in a very strict home where she learned cooking, sewing and gardening because of the need to help augment the family’s meager income. When she was in high school, she began modeling, which helped her finish schooling until college. She met Andrew Stewart while she was studying art history at Barnard College who eventually became her husband in 1961.

In 1965, Stewart left modeling and moved to Wall Street. Without background, experience or training in trading, Stewart was lucky to be hired by Moness Williams and Sidel, a stock brokerage firm. With sheer energy, drive and keen business acumen, she earned the firm’s respect and was regarded with a good salary. When the crisis in 1973 broke, Stewart left trading and considered a change in career.

The Stewart family moved to Connecticut. While thinking about her change of career, Stewart put her energy in rebuilding, renovating and decorating their old farmhouse on Turkey Hill Road. On her free times, she taught cooking and catering classes. Soon, her cooking and catering business grew. With a following, Stewart established a formal catering business with her friend Norma Collier which they named Uncatered Affair.

When Stewart and Collier parted ways, Stewart continued with her catering business which she named Martha Stewart Inc. She catered for many celebrities and wealthy clients. She started contributing to decorating, cooking and gardening columns in national papers such as Good Housekeeping and House Beautiful.

Together with freelancer writer Elizabeth Hawes, Stewart compiled her decorating ideas and recipes into what became a best seller in 1982. The success of the book published by Crown Publishing earned Stewart a nationwide following that resulted in speaking engagements and book tours.

Stewart started her first TV show, the Holiday Entertainment with Martha Stewart in 1986. Another magazine came in 1987 through Time Warner entitled Martha Stewart Living; after that followed her TV shows and internet.

How Jacob John Astor Made History in the List of the Richest Men in the US

John Jacob Astor was an American businessman who was born in Walldorf, Germany in 1763. He went to Baltimore when he was 21; and he was penniless then. Later, he moved to New York where he traded musical instruments and furs.

Astor was known for ambition, concentration and shrewdness. These characteristics made him take lead in the growing US economy. He was known as New York’s leader in China trade and is best remembered for trading furs.

He established the American Fur Company in 1808, which later became the mother company of several subsidiaries including Pacific Fur Company and South West Company. Astor’s companies virtually created a monopoly of trades in US territories in the 1820s until his retirement in 1834.

When Astor died in 1848, he was the richest man in the US. His fortunes made his family prominent in the world of business. Astor House, his hotel business, became the forerunner of the hospitality industry in the US, which later also included the Waldorf-Astoria and Astor Hotel.

Part of the fortunes he left were used to establish the Astor Library.