Oprah Winfrey Best Ever Motivational Speeches COMPILATION MOST INSPIRATIONAL VIDEO EVER

[Music]

there’s a bigger dream

waiting for you just waiting for you

to step into it

everything you try to do is already done

so when i figured that out oh what i’m

putting

out is what’s coming back let me get

real clear about what it is

i’m putting out real clear

so i read a book about 1989 called seed

of the soul

and in that book gary zukov talked about

the laws

of karma of the laws

of cause and effect the third law of

motion

and in that book he talked about how

intention

your intention is always

one with the law

meaning before you even think about a

thing

you have an intention for the thing and

that the intention

is going to determine the outcome

that’s why the same people can go to the

same church service

and somebody walked down the aisle just

to be seen

to put some money in the

church and somebody else who just goes

and just has a little bit to offer

the intention with which you give

the intention with which you serve

determines the outcome so when i

figured that out i went whoa

i changed everything i did on my show

i called in the producers and i said

from this day

forward i will no longer be speaking to

the kkk

i will no longer be speaking to people

who are fighting each other in a way

that it is damaging to the character of

myself and other people who watch

from this day forward i am only going to

do

intentional television

so it is my intention my

intention to fulfill

the dream of the creator

it is my intention to live to the

highest

calling and be pressed to the mark of

the highest calling

that i have come to do and when you can

ask the creator ask that

which made you you what is your

dream for me i guarantee you

instead of you trying to define the

dream what is your

dream for me if you’re able to lean

into the dream that

the universe and all the forces of of

of of light and love and power

and grace by all the names that we call

god has for you nobody can touch you

every single day i would have a pre-show

meeting

and have the producers come in and state

to me

what is your intention

how do we want to use whoever is on this

show

whatever is happening on this show to

serve the audience in a way that

fulfills the mission of uplifting

enlightening encouraging as well as

entertaining

and if it doesn’t do that then i can’t

do it

there’s a bigger dream waiting for you

just waiting for you to step into it

to step into it your life is big

your life is huge and we spend so much

time

wanting to be in somebody else’s life

and you don’t get honored you don’t get

revered you don’t get

celebrating wanting what somebody else

has

because that which created you divine

intelligence to dreamed you

from before your ancestors ever

knew they would become your ancestors

that which dream the seed of you

wants you to know how special

how wondrous how mysterious how complex

how glorious how phenomenal you are

and you get no credit messing in

somebody else’s territory

or trying to have power

over something you have no control

another one of my favorite teachings

is the wizard of oz when the wicked

which is the west says go away

from here because you don’t have any

power here you have no power

in any territory other than your own

oh but you are the master of that

you get to be the master of your own

fate you get to be the captain of your

own soul and if you

just manage that if you just took care

of your

territory all the glorious glorious

glorious

wondrous wondrous opportunities

and possibilities that are waiting for

you so the question is

what are you resisting what are you

pushing against what are you not

allowing

what are you blocking because you have

this idea

of who and what you’re supposed to be

instead of

leaning into the dream

that’s already been created and waiting

for you it’s waiting for you

and the second i mean it doesn’t it’s an

instant thing

it’s a shift in the way you

see yourself and the power from which

you have come

i went through some tough times after

after i left the oprah show i made a

conscious decision

that when i felt i had said all that i

could say

and the audience had heard it that i

would move on

and that i would not spend my life

regretting or trying to hold on to what

used to be or hold on to what i had

so i dreamed this dream of starting a

network

and in the beginning it was it was a

struggle

it was a struggle because i didn’t

honestly goodness i did not know what i

was doing

i was trying to figure it out i was

trying to figure it out

i thought that the oprah show audience

would follow us to own

then i realized y’all didn’t have cable

and if you had cable you did not have

the own package

so so it took me a minute

and unlike most people who you get to

have your mistakes in private

some don’t go right in your life you get

to soak about it in private

if i make a mistake it’s on the cnn

crawl

or the cnn news so when i was in the

climb and there were so many wonderful

owners i see churro action jackson here

there were so many wonderful owners

people who said oh we’re going to stand

with you we’re going to stand by you

thank you roland martin

there were so many people who said

listen we believe that this can happen

so i dreamed the dream along with tyler

perry who was my friend who came to me

and said tyler

tyler said i’m going to help you out

because tyler can go home and write a

script and

direct it produce it and shoot it

and do it for less money than anybody in

hollywood so we started with the

foundation

of having have not

[Applause]

if loving you is wrong

love thy neighbor mama hattie

and then i started to dream another

dream about

scripted television because in the

beginning i was told you couldn’t do it

you couldn’t do it didn’t have enough

money to do it

and i dreamed the dream

i read proverbs 11 28 that says those

who trust in their riches will fall

but the righteous will rise and thrive

like a green leaf

[Music]

it was very difficult for me to figure

out where my boundaries were

because i’d grown up poor and didn’t

have anything

so it’s easy when you don’t have

anything and people ask you for money

they say i need 500

you say i don’t have it because i’m just

trying to get my rent paid

it’s harder when your multi-billion

dollar salary is now in the paper and

you get a lot of friends and cousins you

didn’t have before

so how do you set boundaries for

yourself i was having trouble setting

boundaries myself

for myself for even strangers people

would just show up at my door in chicago

and say oh bro i left my husband please

help me

and i would because she knows i have it

so what i learned was is that oh the

reason why people keep showing up is

because

my intention is to make them think that

i’m such a nice person

that you can ask me for anything

you can get me to do anything i’m gonna

say yes i’m gonna say

yes so when stevie called me this time

i thought i’d try out my first no on

stevie

let’s start big he wanted me to donate

some money to a charity

and i didn’t want to donate to the

charity because

i have my own charities and i care about

a lot of people but the

the problem is when you you have money

everybody thinks you just want to give

to everything so every letter i ever get

starts with

we know you love the children

yes i do love the children but somebody

else is going to have to help the

children

so i said to stevie uh i said to stevie

no

and um as a person who has that disease

to please i was waiting for him then

just to say

i will never speak to you again

i will never call you i will never sing

a song for you

and he didn’t he just said okay

okay okay it’s okay

he said okay check you later and

what i learned from that is many times

you will have

angst and worry about things and

put yourself in a state when the other

person really isn’t even thinking about

you

so learning that i could

specifically determine for myself

what the boundaries were for me

what i wanted to do give my money

give my time give of my service to who i

wanted to give it to

when i did that i get to make that

decision and just because you get a

hundred requests a week

doesn’t mean you have to try to fulfill

all of that

just because you have all of these

demands on

your time and on you doesn’t mean that

you

have to say yes you get to decide

because you’re the master of your fate

the captain of your soul as william

ernest henley said

in invictus and understanding that

really changed the meaning of my life in

that i was not

no longer driven by what other people

wanted me to do

but took charge of my own destiny making

choices based upon

what do i feel is the next right

move for me quincy jones discovered me

and it’s so interesting to me because

when i was uh working as a television

news woman in baltimore

and really all i wanted to do was be in

actors but i was

doing television and i felt at the time

like i can’t quit this job

because this is what everybody else

wants to do and if i quit this job

what am i going to do um

and i was going to a speech coach at the

time that the station had sent me to

they

you know they have the broadcasting

school they sent everybody the same

woman

and i was telling her you know i really

don’t want to do this what i really want

to do

is act and she says my dear you don’t

want to act because if you wanted to act

you’d be doing it what you want to be my

dear as a star

because if you wanted to act you’d be

waiting tables in new york you’d be and

i thought now why am i going to wait

tables if i’m already working in tv

so i said well what i think is going to

happen

is i will be discovered because i want

it so badly somebody’s going to have to

discover me

and she said you just dream you dream

you’re a dreamer so when it happened

i called her up i said you will not

believe this

i got discovered and it really was a

discovery it’s like one of those lana

turner stories only

um wasn’t a drugstore he was uh in his

hotel room

saw me on tv it was unbelievable the

interesting thing about that is that

i i truly believe that

thoughts are the greatest vehicle to

change

power and success in the world

everything begins with thoughts i mean

the chairs that we’re sitting in

the room that we’re in all started

because somebody thought it

so i thought up the color purple for

myself

i know this is going to sound strange to

you i read the book

i i got so many copies of that book i

passed the book around

everybody i knew if i was on the bus i’d

pass it out to people

and when i heard that there was going to

be a movie i started i started talking

it up for myself

i didn’t know quincy jones or steven

spielberg or how on earth

i would get in this movie i’d never

acted in my life but i

i felt it so intensely that i had to be

a part of that movie i just

i i really do believe i created it for

myself i wanted it more than

anything in the world and would have

done anything to do it

anything to do it turn your wounds

into wisdom you will be wounded many

times in your life

you’ll make mistakes some people will

call them failures but i have learned

that failure

is really god’s way of saying excuse me

you’re moving in the wrong direction

it’s just an experience

[Music]

just an experience i remember being

taken off the air

in baltimore being told that i was no

longer be

being fit for television and that i

could not anchor the news because i used

to go out on the stories

and my own truth was even though i’m not

a weeper

i would cry for the people in the

stories and uh

which really wasn’t very effective as a

news reporter to be covering a fire

and uh crying because the people lost

their house

and it wasn’t until they i was demoted

as a on-air anchor woman and

thrown into the talk show arena to get

rid of me

that i allowed my own truth to come

through and the first day i was on the

air

doing my first talk show back in 1978 it

felt like breathing

which is what your true passion should

feel like it should be so

natural to you and so i took what had

been a mistake

what had been perceived as a failure

with my career

as an anchor woman in the news business

and turned it into a talk show career

that’s

done okay for me what drives you to keep

working so hard you could

you know you and i are in the 60s

category

and so when you’re in your 60s you know

you’ve lived more than you’re going to

live

realistically so when you realize you’ve

lived more than you’re going to live you

can say why not

relax a little bit why not just ease up

why have you decided to even work harder

than you did before

because i think david that everybody you

know the thing that worked for me

all these years whether it was the

magazine or

which i still have or whether it was

the show i could i understood that

there’s a common denominator in the

human experience

and i want the same thing you want which

is the same thing you want and you want

what we all want

is to be able to live out

the truest highest expression of

ourselves

as a human being that doesn’t end until

you take your last breath

what is the truest highest vision that

you hold for yourself

no matter where you are in your life

there’s always the next level there’s

always the next level

to the last breath so i feel that i

always

knew that i would get be done with the

show when i felt like

oh i’ve said as much as i could say here

on this platform and then how will i be

used

i feel that until you have used your

value as a human being you’re not done i

first started as a broadcaster i was 19

very insecure

thrown into television pretending to be

barbara walters

looking nothing like her and still going

to college so i do all my classes in the

morning

from eight to one and then the afternoon

i work from two to ten

and did the six o’clock news and would

stay up and study and all that stuff

you know until one two or three o’clock

in the morning and then just start the

routine all over again

and my classmates were so jealous of me

that i remember like

taking my little 115 paycheck and

um at the time i thought it was really a

lot but

taking 115 and trying to appease them i

would like

oh anytime anybody needing money i was

always offering oh you need 10

or taking them out for pizza ordering

pizza for the class and things like that

trying to that whole disease to please

that’s where it was the worst for me i

think because

i wanted to be accepted by them and

could not be because

first of all i didn’t have the time they

wanted wanted me to pledge and i didn’t

have the time to pledge i was

i didn’t have the time to be a part of

all the other college activities or a

part of that whole

lifestyle and it was very difficult for

me socially really one of the worst

times of my life because i was trying to

fit in

in school and be a part of that culture

but also trying to build a career

in television it’s very difficult for me

to even

see myself as successful because i still

see myself as in the process

of becoming successful to me successful

is getting to the point where you are

absolutely comfortable with yourself

and it does not matter how many things

you have acquired

the ability to learn to say no and not

to feel guilty about it

to me is about the greatest success i

have achieved

the fact that i have you know in the

public side done whatever

is fine it’s all a part of a process for

for growing for me

but to me to have the in the kind of

internal strength

and internal courage it takes to say no

i will not let you treat me this way

is what success is all about it’s the

same thing that prevents

you from being abused as a child that

prevents you from being abused as an

adult

that allows you to build success for

yourself i will not be treated this way

i demand

only the best for myself you were worthy

to say no

you were that it’s okay if you say no

it’s okay if you say no and then people

don’t like you

that’s really okay the important thing

is how you feel about what you’re doing

how you feel about yourself it’s a long

struggle though

it’s a long struggle and i’m just hoping

that you know in the work that i do on

the show

and the speaking that i do around the

country and that

young people who are watching this can

get the lesson sooner than i did

because it’s painful because you keep

repeating it over and over and over

until you get it right and what i found

is that every time you have to repeat

the lesson

it gets worse because it’s you know it’s

i i call it

god trying to get your attention the

universe trying to get your attention so

we didn’t get your attention the first

time so we’re gonna have to hit you a

little harder this time so

i’m still doing it i’m still learning

create the highest grandest

vision possible for your life because

you become what you believe when i was a

little girl

mississippi growing up on the farm only

buckwheat is a role model

watching my grandmother boil clothes in

a big iron pot through the screen door

because

we didn’t have a washing machine and

made everything we had

i watched her and realized somehow

inside myself and the spirit of myself

that although this was segregated

mississippi

and i was colored and

female that my life could be bigger

greater than what i saw i remember being

four or five years old i certainly

couldn’t articulate it but it was a

feeling

and a feeling that i allowed myself to

follow

i allowed myself to follow because if

you were to ask me what is the secret to

my success

it is because i understand that there is

a power greater than myself

that rules my life

and in life in life

if you can be still long enough in

in all of your endeavors the good times

the hard times

to connect yourself to the source

i call it god you can call it whatever

you want to the force nature

allah the power if you can connect

yourself to the source and allow the

energy that is your personality

your life force to be connected to the

greater force

anything is possible for you

i am proof of that i think that my life

the fact that i was

born where i was born in the time that i

was and have been able to do what i’ve

done

speaks to the possibility not that i am

special

but that it could be done

i have paid attention to my life because

i

understand that my life just like your

life

is always speaking to you where you

are in the language with the people

with the circumstances and experiences

that

you can understand and interpret if you

are willing to see that

always life god

is speaking to you now

it took me a while to actually really

get this and to understand it but once i

did

i started paying attention to everything

and one of the reasons why i can now

accept the fact

that i can offer my

gatherings of information and wisdom and

call myself a spiritual teacher

is that every single person whoever came

on my show and i hear there’s like

37 000 guests i’ve talked to

a lot of them came from dysfunction and

a lot of them wouldn’t appear to be

teachers but every one of them had

something to say

that was meaningful and valuable and

that i could use

to grow myself into

the best of myself which is what all of

our jobs are

your number one job is to become more of

yourself

and to grow yourself into the best of

yourself

i remember when i started the school and

i said to my uh beloved uh friend maya

angelou i said maya

i’m so i’m just so proud that i was able

to create this school and i said this is

going to be my greatest legacy

and maya said to me you have no idea

because your legacy

is every life you’ve touched and that

shifted

the way i saw legacy or what you leave

behind

or what you do because maya was

explaining to me that

you know over all the years of watching

your show everybody who decided that

they were going to go back to school or

lose weight

or no longer hit their children or get

out of a bad marriage

all of those people who have seen and

experienced your voice

and the same thing with everybody here

your legacy

is every life that you’ve touched and we

like to think of it i know

you have done amazing things with your

philanthropy

we like to think that these great

philanthropic moments

are the ones that leave the impact or

will make the huge difference in the

world but it’s really what you do

every day it’s how you use your life

to be a light to somebody else’s

you know and it’s how you use your work

as an

expression of your own art whatever that

is

close your eyes for a moment will you

please

and breathe with me just close your eyes

and if you will

put your thumb to your middle finger

and gather your other fingers around and

let’s feel

the vibration and pulse of your personal

energy

as you take three deep breaths with me

inhale

[Music]

and as you exhale just feel

the vibration energy

blood pulsating through

your body through you and another inhale

and another inhale

and keep your eyes closed

and let’s just think about

this day

this day that you have been graced

to breathe

in and out thousands of times

this day where many of those breaths

were taken for granted you just expected

the next one to come

but the truth is there’s no guarantee

that the next one comes

this day how you started your day

what your thoughts were this morning

how you’ve carried yourself through this

day

how you’ve been allowed to have

encounters and experiences

some challenging some more life

enhancing

[Music]

that push you forward another day

of being here on the planet earth

as a human being

let’s just think about that after all

you’ve been through

in this day alone

and the many days and years passed

how you got here to this prestigious

esteemed university

the choices you made that have brought

you to

this day

open your heart

and quietly to yourself

say the only prayer that’s ever needed

[Music]

thank you

thank you

thank you

you’re still here

and you get another chance this day

to do better and be better

another chance to become more of who

you were created

and what you were created to fulfill

thank you

as i’ve grown older i’ve learned to

appreciate

living in the moment and i ask that you

do too

i’ve asked i’m asking this graduating

class those of you here

i’ve asked all of my viewers in america

and across the world

to do this one thing keep a grateful

journal

every night list five things that

happened

this day in days to come

that you are grateful for what it will

begin to do is to change your

perspective

of your day and your life i believe that

if you can learn to focus on what you

have

you will always see that the universe is

abundant

and you will have more if you

concentrate and focus in your life on

what you don’t have

you will never have enough be grateful

keep a journal

you all are all over my journal tonight

your real job in life is to figure out

what it is you are called to do

and you use a job until you can figure

out

what the calling is because a job is

necessary to survive and you live in a

world where you so

in my early days i had a job i had a job

until i could figure out what it was

really

what that gave my life its purpose and

meaning

and i’d gotten demoted in my job

in baltimore as an anchor woman because

as they hired me

and then they decided i was the wrong

color and i was the wrong size and i was

the wrong you know i had lots of

problems and they were trying to take me

off the air

and they they put me on a talk show one

morning because um

they didn’t know what to do with me but

i felt like

this is what i’m supposed to do all

these years have been

misplaced in news so but the moment i

did that talk show i felt like oh

i can be myself and that was august 14th

1978 and that was the beginning of

fulfilling

the calling if you can find what is your

passion if you

find what you love you never get tired

or if you do get tired

you you’re fueled by the energy of your

work

so i know that i’m doing exactly what

i’m supposed to be doing at this time

i also know that what the show can do

in terms of being a voice and changing

the world

it’s just the beginning of what this

show can do it’s fun to do things like

this

but uh and it’s necessary to do things

like this in order to be able to do

the bigger grander things to change what

happens to to the face of children in

africa for example

what happens to education with kids in

this country

so i believe that that what has happened

to me

is really the beginning of the greater

passion

to come but if you find out what you’re

supposed to do

and you know what you’re supposed to do

by how it feels

and so you know what if you’re doing the

right thing if it feels like it’s right

to you and when you hit the thing that

feels right when you

know it’s the right thing you would you

know it’s right

because it gives you your juice and you

know it’s right because you would do it

for nothing

you would do it for nothing and find a

way to be able just to do it

in order to be able to continue that’s

how you know you’re doing what you’re

supposed to be doing

there were many days that i sat in my

chair across from

one or two or five or six or seven

people and i would be

so frustrated because

i just wanted to shake people sometimes

and say why didn’t you pay attention

to your life i said on the show probably

the producers tell me that they counted

33 times but i know i thought it

at least a thousand times i would say

listening to your life

as it whispers to you first so that it

does not have to

knock you upside the head with a brick

or come crashing down on you

as a brick wall is one of the greatest

principles of life

because there are many things that

happen in life

that are beyond our control natural

disasters

death unexplained events

but there are also many many many things

in life which we can control

and become out of control because you’re

just

not paying attention you are

sleepwalking through your life

and i have seen this so many times on

the show

i wanted to take the guests and go juju

pay

attention so this is what i’ve learned

and how

i’ve explained it to myself

life whispers to you all the time

your life is speaking to you all around

from the time you wake up in the morning

and every single experience that’s

coming into

your personal space into your

physical space all of those experiences

are speaking to you they’re telling you

something

about your life and about your

circumstances

it whispers and if you don’t get the

whisper

the whisper gets louder if you don’t

get the whisper when it gets louder it

gets i call it like a little pebble like

a little thump upside your head

when i was a kid if i was doing

something my grandmother didn’t like

she’d just turn around and thump me she

wouldn’t even look at me she’d just give

me a thump and i’d know

that’s that’s my cue to stop it or you

we’re gonna get worse the whisper is the

message

the pebble or the thump upside the head

usually

it’s gone into a problem you don’t pay

attention to the problem

the problem becomes a brick upside your

head

the brick upside your head is a crisis

you don’t pay attention to the brick

upside your head

the crisis turns into a disaster and the

whole

house brick wall comes falling down

many of you as i have been as i am

are where you are in your life based

upon what you believe

and it’s not just what you think you

believe on the surface

it’s also your shadow beliefs that are

holding you back

from moving into the life that you

believe

you deserve what i know is if you’re not

looking at the shadows if you’re not

looking at what is

subconsciously running through the tape

in your mind

telling yourself you’re not good enough

you’re not worthy enough you’re not

smart enough you’re not enough which is

a tape that’s playing for a lot of

people if you’re not conscious of that

then you end up acting out of that

belief system

and not out of what you know to be the

truest

or want to be the truest for yourself

but you don’t become what you want

because so much of wanting is about

living in the space of what you don’t

have so if you start to think about that

really why are you where you are in your

life

the choices that you have made have been

because of what you believe to be true

for yourself

but i have always had the deep

understanding for myself that if

anything was going to move forward in my

life that i was going to have to be

responsible for making that happen

and i know that to be true now and can

articulate it

as you are responsible for your

life and if you’re sitting around

waiting on somebody to save you

to fix you to even help you

you are wasting your time because only

you

have the power to take responsibility

to move your life forward and the sooner

you get that

the sooner your life gets into gear this

is what i know from doing

25 years and thousands and thousands of

interviews on the oprah show

it does not matter where you come from

i have seen people come out of the

desert walk across the desert

being born in the most dire

circumstances doesn’t matter what your

mama

did whether she did or had a phd

or no d what matters is now

this moment and your willingness to see

this moment

for what it is accept it forgive the

past

take responsibility and move forward

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

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 well if 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 gonna 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

helped 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

[Music]

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

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

reach 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

[Music]

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

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 is 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

[Music]

the three things that i want to leave

with you just

these three i could do ten i could do a

whole life class

but just these three things will carry

you

if you let them

first and foremost knowing

who you are

knowing who you are being able to answer

this question

who am i and what do i want

who am i really my answer is i am god’s

child

i am that which is born of all that

is i am as peter chardin said

a spiritual being having a human

experience

come trailing the breath of the

ancestors yet

but trailing the breath of the angels

and understanding

that because i am connected

to the source of all that is

all that is possible is possible for me

that’s who i am and what do i want

i don’t want to just be

successful in the world

i don’t want to just make a mark or

have a legacy the answer to that

question for me is

i want to fulfill the highest

truest expression of myself

as a human being i want to fulfill the

promise

that the creator dreamed when he dreamed

the cells that made up me what do i want

you must have some kind of

vision for your life even if you don’t

know the plan

you have to have a direction in which

you choose to go

what i’ve learned is that’s a great

metaphor for life

you want to be in the driver’s seat of

your own life because if you’re not

life will drive you

so knowing who you

really are in this space and time

that we embody that’s number one

what do you want who are you

number two you must

find a way to serve

[Music]

martin luther king said that not

everybody can be famous but everybody

can be great because greatness is

determined

by service now we live in a world where

everybody wants to be famous

and where we admire people for just

being famous we think being known

brings us value the truth is all of that

will fade in time in three years you

won’t be able to name the housewives

of atlanta the real truth

is that service

and significance

service and the significance that you

bring to your service

is that which is lasting so to be able

to

whatever your occupation or job or

talent or gift is our honorees today

getting doctorate degrees to

[Music]

apparently opposite fields hiv and aids

and the spoken word but what they have

in common

is service using the spoken word

in service to community and the world

using your knowledge and information

about hiv and aids and medicine

in service to the world and if you look

at all the most

successful people in the world whether

they know it or not

they have that paradigm of service

everybody’s talking about mark

zuckerberg and ipo

[Music]

service jay-z rapping

service through the word to people

through song for many years

i was really just happy to be on tv and

people would stop and say oh you on tv

yeah i’m on tv

i like being on tv it’s a nice job

and it was about the time that i

received my

honorary doctorate from spelman around

1993 so i don’t know if that had

something to do with it i thought of

myself as dr winfrey

that i went back and i took a long look

at what it was i was doing on

on tv and made a decision

that i was no longer going to just be on

tv

but i was going to use tv

as a platform as a force for good

and not be used by tv and i will tell

you

my decision to make that

significant change in the way i operated

on television using television as a

service

changed my career exponentially

service through medicine service through

art using whatever it is

you produce your product

as a way of giving back to the world

when you shift the paradigm of whatever

it is you choose to do

to service and you bring significance to

that

success will i promise you

follow you service and significance

equals success that’s number two

number three it’s so simple but so hard

to do

always do the right

thing be excellent

people notice think of how you notice

you go to taco bell somebody gives you

extra napkin and some sauce

you notice you want to go back to that

person

because even at taco bell excellence

shows itself be excellent let

excellence be your brand

everybody talks about building a brand i

never even knew what that was

when people say you’re a brand i would

say no i’m just oprah

what i recognize now is that my choice

to in every way in every example

in every experience to do the right

thing

and the excellent thing is what has

created

the brand and what i know

is that when you are excellent

you become unforgettable

people remember you you stand out

regardless of what it is

you become an unforgettable woman and

that is what we all want

we want to be unforgettable and not

forgettable

so doing the right thing even

when nobody knows you’re doing the right

thing

will always bring the right thing to you

i promise you that why because the third

law of motion is always at work

for every action there’s an equal and

opposite reaction

that is so true in all of our lives

you just have to do the right thing and

the right thing will follow you even

when people

don’t support it i remember

many times on my show there are many

shows y’all never saw

and the reason you didn’t see them is

because i

got the last vote and i remember

2010 my team hardest working team in

television had done this

interview with a woman who turns out she

was a sunday school teacher by day

and a sex addict at night they were like

you won’t believe it we got her going

out

we got her with the men and we get to

show her and she was willing to show us

everything

i sat down with a woman for an interview

that was taped

and during the process of the interview

i said

why are you doing this and she said oh i

want to help

people i want to tell my story and i

want to help people i said do you have

children she says yes

i have a 10 year old son i knew right

then this is never going to see the

light of day

so we got off the air and i said to the

lady we are not going to air that show

and she said why my producer said

why she knew she was being filmed she

knew

what she was saying she knows what i

said because

her son will never get over it

her son will never get over it

and it’s not worth a rating point to me

not worth the rating point to me to know

that there’s a ten-year-old boy

who’s destroyed because his mother went

on the oprah winfrey show

and told all her business you do

the right thing even when other people

think it may not be and oftentimes

when you make a decision to do the right

thing immediately you’re faced with

doubt

was that the right thing was that the

right decision i don’t know was that the

right thing

you always know it’s the right thing

when in the end

there is peace you are rewarded

by peace in knowing that you did the

right thing

[Music]

you