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
[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
[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
[Music]
you