Oprah Winfreys Life Advice Will Change Your Future One of The Most Eye Opening Speeches Ever

my one hope today

is is to is that i can be a source of

some inspiration i’m going to

address my remarks to anybody who’s ever

felt

inferior or felt disadvantaged felt

screwed by life this is

a speech for the quad

well i was on television by the time i

was 19 years old

and in 1986 i launched my own television

show

with a relentless determination to

succeed at first

i was nervous about the competition and

then

i became my own competition raising the

bar

every year pushing pushing pushing

myself as hard as i knew

sound familiar to anybody here

eventually

we did make it to the top and we stayed

there for 25

years

the oprah winfrey show was number one in

our time slot for 21

years and i have to tell you i became

pretty comfortable

with that level of success but a few

years ago

i decided as you will at some point that

it was time to

recalculate find new territory

break new ground so i ended the show

and launched own the oprah winfrey

network one year

later after launching on nearly

every media outlet had proclaimed

that my new venture was a flop not just

a flop but

a big bold flop they call it i can still

remember the day

i opened up usa today and read the

headline

oprah not quite standing on her

own it really was

this time last year the worst period

in my professional life i was stressed

and

i was frustrated and quite frankly i was

i was actually

i was embarrassed it doesn’t matter how

far you might rise

at some point you are bound to stumble

because

if you’re constantly doing what we do

raising the bar if you’re constantly

pushing yourself

higher higher the law of averages

not to mention the myth of icarus uh

predicts

that you will at some point fall

and when you do i want you to know this

remember this

there is no such thing as failure

failure is just

life trying to move us in another

direction now

when you’re down there in a hole it

looks like failure

so this past year i had to spoon feed

those words to myself

and when you’re down in the hole when

that moment comes it’s really okay to

feel

bad for a little while give yourself

time to mourn what you think you may

have lost

but then here’s the key learn

from every mistake because every

experience encounter and particularly

your mistakes

are there to cheat you and force you

into being more of who you are

and then figure out what is the next

right move and the key to life

is to develop an internal moral

emotional gps

that can tell you which way to go

but the challenge of life i have found

is to build a resume that doesn’t simply

tell a story

about what you want to be but it’s a

story about who you want to be

it’s a resume that doesn’t just tell a

story about what you want to accomplish

but why a story that’s not just a

collection of

titles and and positions but a story

that’s really

about your purpose because when you

inevitably stumble and find yourself

stuck in a hole that is the story

that will get you out what is your true

calling

what is your dharma what is your purpose

for me that discovery came in 1994 when

i interviewed a little girl who

who had decided to collect pocket change

in order to help other people

in need she raised a thousand dollars

all by herself and i thought what that

little nine-year-old girl

with a bucket and a big heart could do

that i wonder what i could do

so i asked for our viewers to take up

their own

change collection and in one month

just from pennies and nickels and dimes

we raised more than three million

dollars

that we used to send one student from

every state in the united states to

college

and together we built 55 schools

in 12 different countries and restored

nearly 300 homes

that were devastated by hurricanes rita

and katrina

so the angel network i’ve been on the

air for

a long time but it was the angel network

that actually focused my internal gps

it helped me to decide that i wasn’t

just going to be on tv every day

but that the goal of my shows my

interviews my business my

philanthropy all of it whatever ventures

i might pursue

would be to make clear that

what unites us

is ultimately far more redeeming

and compelling than anything that

separates me

because what it become clear to me and i

want you to know it isn’t always clear

in the beginning because as i said

i’ve been on television since i was 19

years old

but around 94 i got really clear so

don’t expect the clarity to come all at

once to know your purpose right away

but what became clear to me was that i

was here on earth to use television and

not be used by it

to use television to illuminate the

transcendent

power of our better angels

so this angel network it didn’t just

change the lives of those who were held

but the lives

of those who also did the helping

it reminded us that no matter who we are

or what we look

like or what we may believe it is

both possible and more importantly

it becomes powerful to come together

in common purpose and common effort

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in our political system and in the media

we often see

the reflection of a country that is

polarized

that is paralyzed and is self-interest

did and yet i know you know the truth

we all know that we are better than the

cysticism

and the pessimism that is regurgitated

throughout washington and the 24-hour

cable news cycle

we understand that the vast majority of

people in this country believe in

stronger background checks because

they realize that we can uphold the

second amendment and

also reduce the violence that is robbing

us of our children

and we understand that most americans

believe in a clear path to citizenship

for the 12 million

undocumented immigrants who reside in

this country because it’s possible to

both enforce

our laws and at the same time

embrace the words on the statue of

liberty that have welcomed generations

of huddle masses to our shores

we can do both

[Applause]

the point is your generation is

charged with this task of breaking

through

what the body politic has thus far made

impervious to change

each of you has been blessed with this

enormous opportunity

of attending this prestigious school

you now have a chance to better your

life the lives of your neighbors

and also the life of our country when

you do that

let me tell you what i know for sure

that’s when your story gets

really good maya angelou always says

when you learn teach when you get

give that my friends is what gives your

story

purpose and meaning so you all have the

power

in your own way to develop your own

angel network

and in doing so your class will be armed

with more tools of influence

and empowerment than any other

generation

in history i did it in an analog

world i was blessed with a platform that

at its height

reached nearly 20 million viewers a day

now here in a world of twitter and

facebook and youtube and tumblr

you can reach billions in just seconds

i know you all understand better than

most that real progress

requires authentic

an authentic way of being honesty and

above all

empathy i have to say that the single

most

important lesson i learned in 25 years

talking

every single day to people was that

there is a common denominator

in our human experience

most of us i tell you we don’t want to

be divided

what we want the common denominator that

i found

in every single interview is we want to

be validated

we want to be understood i’ve done over

35 000 interviews in my career

and as soon as that camera shuts off

everyone always turns to me and

inevitably in their own way

asks this question was that okay

i heard it from president bush i heard

it from president obama

i’ve heard it from heroes and from

housewives i’ve heard it from

victims and perpetrators of crimes i

even heard it from beyonce and all of

her beyonce ness

she finishes performing hands me the

microphone and says

was that okay

friends and family yours enemies

strangers in every argument

in every encounter every exchange i will

tell you

they all want to know one thing was that

okay

did you hear me do you see me

did what i say mean anything to you

so whether you call it soul or spirit or

higher self intelligence there is

i know this there’s a light inside

each of you all of us

that illuminates your very human

beingness

if you let it no matter what challenges

or setbacks or disappointments you may

encounter along the way

you will find true success and happiness

if you have only one goal there really

is only one and that is this

to fulfill the highest most

truthful expression of yourself

as a human being you want to max

out your humanity by using your energy

to lift yourself up

your family and the people around you

theologian howard thurman said it best

he said

don’t ask yourself what the world needs

ask yourself what makes you come alive

and then go

do that because what the world needs

is people who have come alive

from time to time you may stumble

fall you will for sure count on this

no doubt you will have questions

and you will have doubts about your path

but i know this if you’re willing to

listen

to be guided by that still small voice

that is the gps within yourself

to find out what makes you come alive

you will be more than okay you will be

happy you will be successful

and you will make a difference in the

world

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