Class of 2013: My Recipes for Success

A few years ago, on my TV show, we spotlighted "30 Things Everyone Should Know" – basic things like how to make a bed, iron a shirt and mix a margarita. A word of advice: make the bed and iron the shirt before you mix the margarita. You'll get better results.

People often ask me, "What is your recipe for success?" There is no single recipe, but I can offer some advice from my own experiences that you won’t find on any cooking show.

Omelets and opportunities

An omelet is easy to prepare. It calls for just four ingredients: eggs, butter, salt and pepper – and if you want to get fancy maybe a sprig of parsley. As the French proverb goes, you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs.

To me, those broken eggs mean sacrifice. To create an egg dish – or a business success – you must give up a great deal: time with family and friends, sleep, and episodes of Modern Family. But at the end you have something worthwhile, a degree that will make a difference for you, your family and your future.

Like many graduates today, I had to work hard to realize my dream of earning a college degree. I started modeling as a teenager to pay for college. I was fortunate to get a scholarship to Barnard College, a wonderful opportunity, but my scholarship didn't cover everything. My freshman year, I lived in the apartment of two elderly widows and cooked for them five days a week in return for room and board. As a sophomore I shared housing with five young women: Six small rooms with a kitchen cost $7 a week.

That may not sound like much. But some months, if I didn't have a modeling assignment or a baby-sitting job, I had little to spend on food.

I tell you this because I learned early on the value of hard work, broken eggs, and opportunity.

The chocolate mystique

There are so many things in this world that are intimidating simply because we don’t understand them. For me, working with chocolate was always one of those things. My carefully made candies came out dull. My chocolate and cream ganaches clouded up. The delicate chocolate leaves I created to decorate the tops of my cakes developed an unpleasant white bloom. Convinced that the art of making chocolate was a mystery, I gave up – until I found the right person to demystify it for me.

I brought an experienced chocolate maker to my kitchen to teach me and my staff the proper techniques. She carefully took us through her skills, making sure we understood everything before she moved from one step to another. By the end, we had learned to make leaves, flowers, fruits and other decorations that were silky, smooth, artistically superb, and also delicious. We no longer felt intimidated.

A portion of perseverance

The idea for Martha Stewart Living magazine wasn’t an immediate success. When I proposed a series of beautiful "how-to" lifestyle books, my publisher thought it was an overreaching project. I was frustrated and disappointed until it occurred to me that a magazine about beautiful living was a much better idea. The magazine turned out to be one of my most successful business ventures and opened many other doors.

Life will inevitably throw you some lemons – it doesn’t matter. Whenever that happens, pour 3 cups of fresh lemon juice (from about 20 lemons) through a sieve into a pitcher. Combine 2 cups of superfine sugar, 4 cups of water, some ice, and a generous portion of perseverance.

Stick with it. Don’t give up. Defend your ideas, but be flexible. Success seldom comes in exactly the form you imagine it will.

Finally there is one more thing every newly minted graduate should do: take the time to enjoy your meal, savor your success, and celebrate it with your family and friends. You deserve it.

Photo credit: Robert Gubbins/Shutterstock.com