How do I make my icons look like yours?

How do I make my icons look like yours? Is there a way to make my icons
look better? I'm asked this a lot, in a variety of ways. Usually with
the person telling me they make crap. So I decided to make this
tutorial. It's not the expected one. I'm not going to tell you to first
get a screen cap and crop it to size and then start duplicating.
Because those tutorials have been done. This tutorial will explain how
I got to the level I'm at currently, and hopefully show you how to get
there and get past me.

(Ready?)