Martha Stewart Reveals the Advice She Still Follows at 85

After decades of building one of the most recognizable lifestyle brands in America, Martha Stewart says one surprisingly simple piece of financial advice has stayed with her through the highs and lows of her career.

The 85-year-old entrepreneur, television personality and bestselling author recently reflected on the lessons she learned while going from Wall Street stockbroker to the woman behind a sprawling media and merchandising brand.

Despite her enormous success, Stewart said much of what she knows about business did not come from a traditional business-school education.

Instead, she learned by doing.

Stewart studied history and architectural history at Barnard College before entering the financial world as a stockbroker. She also attended the New York Institute of Finance, although she jokingly admitted she probably did not perform particularly well there.

What mattered more, she said, was her ability to watch other people, absorb information and put what she learned into practice.

“I’m a very good learner,” Stewart told PEOPLE.

She compared her approach to learning about finance with the way she has mastered other skills throughout her life. Stewart recalled watching famed chef Nobu Matsuhisa prepare sushi until she learned enough to impress him herself.

She said she applied that same philosophy to money and business.

Stewart’s early experience on Wall Street would eventually prove useful as she moved into catering, publishing, television and retail.

Her breakthrough lifestyle empire grew dramatically during the 1980s and 1990s. Books, magazines, television programs and major retail partnerships turned the Martha Stewart name into a household brand.

Then came one of the defining moments of her business career.

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia went public on the New York Stock Exchange in October 1999, with shares initially priced at $18. The stock soared during its first day of trading, briefly making Stewart a billionaire on paper and widely recognized as America’s first self-made female billionaire.

More than a quarter-century later, Stewart says one financial lesson has remained especially important.

“Every day starts at zero, and you have to go from there,” she said.

Her philosophy is essentially to treat each day as a new financial scorecard rather than assuming yesterday’s success guarantees tomorrow’s results.

At the end of the day, Stewart said people should consider not only what they earned but what they learned from their decisions.

It is an approach that closely mirrors Stewart’s own career, which has included extraordinary successes as well as major setbacks.

Her business interests have ranged from publishing and television to home goods, cooking products and licensing deals. Stewart recently revealed that her enormously successful relationship with Kmart once generated roughly $65 million a year for her in royalties at its peak.

But Stewart has also experienced major financial and professional reversals, making her emphasis on continually rebuilding particularly notable.

The entrepreneur has also tried to pass some of those lessons along to people who worked for her.

Stewart recalled that when Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia went public in 1999, some employees suddenly found themselves with significant amounts of money from their holdings in the company.

Her advice to several of them was straightforward: consider buying real estate.

Some employees purchased homes in the Hamptons, while others bought apartments in Manhattan. Stewart said those properties subsequently increased substantially in value.

Seeing those decisions pay off years later still brings her satisfaction.

“All of that makes me very happy,” she said.

Stewart’s own company has changed considerably since its Wall Street heyday. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia was acquired by Sequential Brands Group in 2015, ending its run as an independently traded public company. The Martha Stewart brand was later acquired by Marquee Brands in 2019 and remains active across media, retail and consumer products.

Yet Stewart herself has remained closely associated with the business philosophy that turned her name into a national brand.

And although she never attended a traditional business school, Stewart joked that she has still threatened to enroll at Harvard.

At 85, however, the lesson she keeps returning to may be considerably simpler than anything taught in an MBA classroom: yesterday’s success does not eliminate the need to perform today.

For Stewart, every morning means starting the scoreboard over again.