Oprah Winfreys Life Advice Will Leave You SPEECHLESS MUST WATCH

having compassion for other people is at

the top of that list

i would say commitment is at the top of

that list and also a spirit of

constructive engagement and by

compassion i don’t just mean sympathy it

certainly isn’t pity it’s being present

and it’s also

feeling with other beings you know

during the years of the oprah show i

interviewed over 37 000 people

one-on-one

but during all those years of talking to

over 37 000 people one on one

i could feel what they were feeling so

strongly sometimes it made me sick

literally

so i had to learn how to

feel how others were feeling feel with

others which

is which is what it means to be

compassionate to feel with others

without taking in all of their stuff

being compassionate means i feel with

you

it is one of the greatest qualities in

the world to have if you’re going to be

majoring in what it takes to be a great

human being i feel with you

means i not only am willing to walk in

your shoes

it means my heart beats with yours

it means i see myself in you it means

i

may not have shared that circumstance

but i know what heartbreak feels like i

know what pain feels like and all pain

is the same

it means

i can feel your will to want to do

better and be better and i feel and i am

with you in spite of everything that’s

happened to you

i

feel your need to rise i want to help

you rise i want to rise with you

i had a job until i could figure out

what it was really

what that gave my life its purpose and

meaning

and um i had 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 um

i was making 22 000 a year i thought i

was in heaven because i was making my

age

that was as big as my dream was just to

make my age

and then i did this they they put me on

a talk show one morning because they

didn’t know what to do with me

and and i was interviewing the carvel

ice cream man it was a local talk show

and

benny who was mrs

chancellor’s

butler or something on all my children

anyway my soap our opera star who wasn’t

the lead star remember benny

benny and the caraval ice cream men

that’s how i cut my teeth and i finished

that show so it’s not about the

the stars themselves or whoever the

guests were but i felt like this is what

i’m supposed to do

all these years have been misplaced in

news because i couldn’t relate to news i

was a news reporter

and i’d be out on the stories and i’d be

crying with the people

and i felt that i was exploiting the

people with news i couldn’t

you know put a microphone in people’s

face when they were going through

tragedies and stuff i just was so

emotional i was always getting little

notes from my boss about cut that out

you need to stop 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 and so since that time

since that time august 14th 1978 i’ve

never had a problem with energy now when

i was working in news i used to be

exhausted all the time because i just

exhausted all the time because i hated

it

and the reason i didn’t quit is because

i’m not a quitter number one and because

my father was like did not quit that job

you’re making 22 dollars a year

who’s gonna play a black one between two

thousand dollars a year you’re never

gonna make make that kind of money again

you better save half of it so

i i was reluctant to quit and think

about doing something else because i

thought okay everybody wants to be an

anchor woman at the time that was like

supposedly a big deal being an anchor

woman so i thought okay i won’t i’ll

just stay with this until i can figure

out what is the best thing to do

and interestingly enough i was applying

for what i wanted to do i felt like i

needed to be able to talk and at the

time the only thing was available was um

like good morning america orthodoxia so

i called up this agent and i asked if he

would accept my tape because i wanted to

be like a substitute for brian gumbel

and he said to me

there was only going to be one brian

gumbel and so there wasn’t going to be

another one that they weren’t going to

let another black person on that show he

said that to me

and um interestingly enough he called me

last week because somebody else mentions

it to say he never said it but he did

say it and i said to him you know what

if you’re ever told that you never

forget it if somebody ever says to you

if you’re ever rejected in that way you

never ever ever forget it i said but

it’s okay i did okay you did okay

it’s all right but the answer to your

question is if you can find what is your

passion if you find what you love you

never get tired or if you do get tired

if 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 this this 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

you know people wait on the voice of god

to be some the moses in burning bush i

think that was only bible talk

you know because he doesn’t come to

burning bushes for people he comes

through your heart

he speaks through your heart through

your feelings 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

so how do i define success

let me tell you money’s pretty nice

i’m not going to stand up here and tell

you that it’s not about money because

money is very nice

i like money

it’s good for buying things

but having a lot of money does not

automatically

make you a successful person

what you want

is money

and meaning

you want your work to be meaningful

because meaning is what brings the real

richness to your life

what you really want

is to be surrounded by people you trust

and treasure and by people who cherish

you

that’s when you’re really rich

for me colored girl negro child

growing up in mississippi

that one of the greatest gifts i was

ever afforded was not to have been put

in a segregated school system

had i been put in a segregated school

and taught in a segregated school system

that said you’re less than because

you’re a woman and you’re less than

because you’re a colored woman

i probably wouldn’t be here today i

would have had to then overcome that

belief that conditioning of a belief but

because

i was raised by a grandmother

who

raised me in the church

and

i went to church

sunday school

lived in the church

and i would sit there

second pew

on the right

third row

every sunday

just

taking it all in and i would listen to

the stories listen to the bible stories

and i would hear

that through god all things are possible

i would hear the story of jesus talking

about

if you have the faith of a mustard seed

and you know as many years later that i

actually

saw a mustard seed i could not believe

what a mustard seed actually looked like

have you ever seen a mustard seed

now jesus said if you had the faith of a

mustard seed you could move mountains

and anything was possible now i heard

this as a kid and i really believed it

and so the question is what do you

believe

do you believe that you are worthy

of happiness

do you believe that happiness success

abundance

comfort fulfillment peace

joy

love

is a part of your birthright

is that what you believe

or do you believe something else because

you will

manifest

the life that you believe

i’ve always known that no matter what my

belief is i’m going to be all right why

because i have that faith of a mustard

seed

i have always known this about celebrity

the real

power of being

somebody that somebody knows and i

really think that the only difference

between being famous and not is that

more people know your name

so the only difference

between understanding that

is understanding that what selma has

done what susan has done what anna has

done rebecca has done what jim has done

what i’ve done

you too can do

because true philanthropy comes from

living from the heart of yourself

and giving what you have been given

how will you do that

how will you use

your personality

the energy of your personality to serve

that which is your soul’s calling

i know this for sure

any life

no matter how fantastic it is

how glorious it seems how much attention

you receive how much square footage you

have

any life and every life is enhanced by

the sharing and the giving and the

opening up of the heart space

your life gets better when you can find

a way to share it with someone else

so what we’ve done you can do the real

empowerment comes when every person

leaves this room

and makes a decision

makes a decision

maybe that decision is that you will

write a check and support some of the

wonderful organizations you’ve heard

here today

but the true decision is

how will you use yourself

how will you use everything that you

have been given

to serve that which is greater than

yourself

how will you use that to become

truly

authentically empowered

now

it is a beautiful thing to receive an

award and to be on the cover of variety

thank you very much

it’s a beautiful thing

but the true reward is in the lives that

you are able to touch and the people who

you know you have impacted

i think some people think that are under

the impression that i was born empowered

that i was born

coming out of the womb ready to

interview a klansman

then cut to commercial we’ll be right

back

but the truth is

i know very well what it’s like to be

marginalized to be told either

subtly or quite directly that my

contribution

isn’t or wasn’t welcome

that my face was invisible and that my

needs were an affront so back when i was

doing the news in baltimore i asked to

be paid the same as my co-anchor who did

exactly the same job as i was doing and

i

expected that i would be compensated so

i went in and i asked that i would get

the same amount of money so he was doing

the same job i was doing except that he

called me babe all the time

anyway i was told by my news director

and by the general manager because first

i went to the news director then i was

general manager and i was told that

because i was a single woman

who didn’t have a mortgage and i didn’t

have kids that i was not entitled to

earn the same kind of money as the man

who was sitting next to me

doing the same thing

and i realized in that moment that my

employers did not get it they did not

understand my value

but you know what i did

so cut to am chicago the team’s hard at

work and they had been working for a

long time

and after a year or so

we were asked to be syndicated that work

began to pay off and before long we were

now no longer called am chicago or the

national oprah winfrey show i got a

raise this is before i own myself

but my producers did not so i went into

the boss at the time

and i asked that my producers who

incidentally were all female

i asked that they would be given a pay

raise increase and my boss this is in

1986 said why

they’re only girls

what do they need more money for

girls

uh i’ve used the word affectionately

sometimes referring to women as girls

and

there was no affection in his tone it

was absolutely condescending so

you know it takes a while to develop a

voice

but once you have it you damn sure

better use it on stuff that matters

so i took a deep breath in that moment

and said

either they’re going to get raises

or i’m going to sit down

i’m not going to work if they don’t get

paid more

i would like to believe that i could

have spoken that kind of truth to

misogyny even if i’d been all by myself

but here i was on the brink of finally

getting what i really wanted and had

been working uh many years for a

national show

i mean i might have been too intimidated

to stand my own ground against this guy

if i were actually alone but here’s the

thing you’re never alone

you’re never alone

the sovereign sound of maya angelou’s

voice

was pushing me forward that day

whispering

i come as one

but i stand as ten thousand

so when i was faced with the opportunity

to advocate for my producers

i silently called on some of the ten

thousand

and walked into my boss’s office

hand in spirit

with the women who had come before me

i could feel bessie smith

and billy holliday and ella fitzgerald

and pearl bailey and sharavon and lena

horn clutching their green books looking

for a place to eat while they sang in

supper clubs for whites only and i could

feel

reese taylor and rosa parks refusing to

relinquish their dignity in the face of

death threats all these women were with

me that day walking into the office in

chicago

as was diana carroll and petula clark

and joan baez and mary tyler moore and

mom’s maybelli and barbara walters and

all of the astonishing women whose names

none of us will ever even know despite

their sacrifice

and i’m pretty sure

i even heard shirley chisholm

urging me on with this thought

if they don’t give you a seat at the

table

bring a folding chair

and i understood

i understood that there were so many

times that many women from my mother’s

generation and god knows my

grandmother’s generation who were forced

to grit their teeth and just take it

because standing up for themselves

wasn’t even an option

the risk was too great

and they knew it but they also knew in

their bones what my dear friend maya

put so eloquently into words when she

says you may not control all the events

that happened to you

but you can decide not to be reduced by

them

because these women and so many others

like them made the decision not to allow

themselves to be reduced by the many

injustices they were subjected to

i found the strength to act if not just

for myself

not just for my producers but for all

the women who in their ingenious ways

subverted the rules

laid the foundation and pushed the

envelope just a little bit further for

me

if i leave you with nothing else it’s

just know this for sure

there is not one

thing

that has ever happened to you

not one experience

not one encounter not one crisis not one

joyful thing that hasn’t

happened

just to make you better and help you

rise

every single thing you’re calling in

whether you know it or not when you

figure out that you are calling it in

you actually start meditating or praying

or doing or having a spiritual practice

which is the number one thing you need

if you want to be successful in the

world you need something that gives back

and nourishes you

regardless of what you call that you

need to you need to fill your cup so

that you can be so full your cup run is

over and you have enough to give to

other people if you don’t fill your cup

you end up dried up

you end up tired exhausted and don’t

have enough to give to other people you

end up resentful every time somebody

asks you because your cup is empty and

now they want some of yours

so your number one job your number one

job is to fill

your cup

and make yourself whole

that’s your job

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