ENGLISH SPEECH OPRAH WINFREY Learn From Every Mistake English Subtitles
Oh my goodness!
I’m at Harvard!
Wow!
To President Faust, my fellow honorans, Carl
[Muller] that was so beautiful, thank you
so much, and James Rothenberg, Stephanie Wilson,
Harvard faculty, with a special bow to my
friend Dr. Henry Lewis Gates.
All of you alumni, with a special bow to the
Class of ’88, your hundred fifteen million
dollars.
And to you, members of the Harvard class of
2013!
Hello!
I thank you for allowing me to be a part of
the conclusion of this chapter of your lives
and the commencement of your next chapter.
To say that I’m honored doesn’t even begin
to quantify the depth of gratitude that really
accompanies an honorary doctorate from Harvard.
Not too many little girls from rural Mississippi
have made it all the way here to Cambridge.
And I can tell you that I consider today as
I sat on the stage this morning getting teary
for you all and then teary for myself, I consider
today a defining milestone in a very long
and a blessed journey.
My one hope today is that I can be a source
of some inspiration.
I’m going to address my remarks to anybody
who has ever felt inferior or felt disadvantaged,
felt screwed by life, this is a speech for
the Quad.
Actually I was so honored I wanted to do something
really special for you.
I wanted to be able to have you look under
your seats and there would be free master
and doctor degrees but I see you got that
covered already.
I will be honest with you.
I felt a lot of pressure over the past few
weeks to come up with something that I could
share with you that you hadn’t heard before
because after all you all went to Harvard,
I did not.
But then I realized that you don’t have
to necessarily go to Harvard to have a driven
obsessive Type A personality.
But it helps.
And while I may not have graduated from here
I admit that my personality is about as Harvard
as they come.
You know my television career began unexpectedly.
As you heard this morning I was in the Miss
Fire Prevention contest.
That was when I was 16 years old in Nashville,
Tennessee, and you had the requirement of
having to have red hair in order to win up
until the year that I entered.
So they were doing the question and answer
period because I knew I wasn’t going to
win under the swimsuit competition.
So during the question and answer period the
question came “Why, young lady, what would
you like to be when you grow up?”
And by the time they got to me all the good
answers were gone.
So I had seen Barbara Walters on the “Today
Show” that morning so I answered, “I would
like to be a journalist.
I would like to tell other people’s stories
in a way that makes a difference in their
lives and the world.”
And as those words were coming out of my mouth
I went whoa!
This is pretty good!
I would like to be a journalist.
I want to make a difference.
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.
The initials just worked out for me.
So one year later after launching OWN, 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.”
I mean really, USA Today?
Now that’s the nice newspaper!
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 actually I was embarrassed.
It was right around that time that President
Faust called and asked me to speak here and
I thought you want me to speak to Harvard
graduates?
What could I possibly say to Harvard graduates,
some of the most successful graduates in the
world in the very moment when I had stopped
succeeding?
So I got off the phone with President Faust
and I went to the shower.
It was either that or a bag of Oreos.
So I chose the shower.
And I was in the shower a long time and as
I was in the shower the words of an old hymn
came to me.
You may not know it.
It’s “By and by, when the morning comes.”
And I started thinking about when the morning
might come because at the time I thought I
was stuck in a hole.
And the words came to me “Trouble don’t
last always” from that hymn, “this too
shall pass.”
And I thought as I got out of the shower I
am going to turn this thing around and I will
be better for it.
And when I do, I’m going to go to Harvard
and I’m going to speak the truth of it!
So I’m here today to tell you I have turned
that network around!
So, 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 teach you and force you into
being more 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 G.P.S. that can tell you
which way to go.
Because now and forever more when you Google
yourself your search results will read “Harvard,
2013”.
And in a very competitive world that really
is a calling card because I can tell you as
one who employs a lot of people when I see
“Harvard” I sit up a little straighter
and say, “Where is he or she?
Bring them in.”
It’s an impressive calling card that can
lead to even more impressive bullets in the
years ahead: lawyer, senator, C.E.O., scientist,
physicist, winners of Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes
or late night talk show host.
But the challenge of life I have found is
to build a résumé 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 résumé 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 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 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 9-year-old
girl with a bucket and 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.
That was the beginning of the Angel Network.
And so what I did was I simply asked our viewers,
“Do what you can wherever you are, from
wherever you sit in life.
Give me your time or your talent your money
if you have it.”
And they did.
Extend yourself in kindness to other human
beings wherever you can.
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 have been on the
air for a long time — but it was the Angel
Network that actually focused my internal
G.P.S.
It helped me to decide that I wasn’t going
to just 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 had become clear to me, and I
want you to know, it isn’t always clear
in the beginning because as I said I had 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.
I saw something on the “Bill Moore Show”
recently that so reminded me of this point.
It was an interview with David and Francine
Wheeler.
They lost their 7-year-old son, Ben, in the
Sandy Hook tragedy.
And even though gun safety legislation to
strengthen background checks had just been
voted down in Congress at the time that they
were doing this interview they talked about
how they refused to be discouraged.
Francine said this, she said, “Our hearts
are broken but our spirits are not.
I’m going to tell them what it’s like
to find a conversation about change that is
love, and I’m going to do that without fighting
them.”
And then her husband David added this, “You
simply cannot demonize or vilify someone who
doesn’t agree with you, because the minute
you do that, your discussion is over.
And we cannot do that any longer.
The problem is too enormous.
There has to be some way that this darkness
can be banished with light.”
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-interested.
And yet, I know you know the truth.
We all know that we are better than the cynicism
and the pessimism that is regurgitated throughout
Washington and the 24-hour cable news cycle.
Not my channel, by the way.
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.
They don’t have to be incompatible.
And we understand that most Americans believe
in a clear path to citizenship for the 12,000,000
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 huddled masses to our shores.
We can do both.
And we understand.
I know you do because you went to Harvard.
There are people from both parties, and no
party, [who] believe that indigent mothers
and families should have access to healthy
food and a roof over their heads and a strong
public education because here in the richest
nation on Earth, we can afford a basic level
of security and opportunity.
So the question is, what are we going to do
about it?
Really, what are you going to do about it?
Maybe you agree with these beliefs.
Maybe you don’t.
Maybe you care about these issues and maybe
there are other challenges that you, Class
of 2013, are passionate about.
Maybe you want to make a difference by serving
in government.
Maybe you want to launch your own television
show.
Or maybe you simply want to collect some change.
Your parents would appreciate that about now.
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 20,000,000 viewers a
day.
Now here in a world of Twitter and Facebook
and YouTube and Tumblr, you can reach billions
in just seconds.
You’re the generation that rejected predictions
about your detachment and your disengagement
by showing up to vote in record numbers in
2008.
And when the pundits said, they said they
talked about you, they said you’d be too
disappointed, you’d be too dejected to repeat
that same kind of turnout in 2012 election
and you proved them wrong by showing up in
even greater numbers.
That’s who you are.
This generation, your generation I know, has
developed a finely honed radar for B.S.
Can you say “B.S.” at Harvard?
The spin and phoniness and artificial nastiness
that saturates so much of our national debate.
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 have 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
Beyonceness.
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?
And even though this is a college where Facebook
was born my hope is that you would try to
go out and have more face-to-face conversations
with people you may disagree with.
That you’ll have the courage to look them
in the eye and hear their point of view and
help make sure that the speed and distance
and anonymity of our world doesn’t cause
us to lose our ability to stand in somebody
else’s shoes and recognize all that we share
as a people.
This is imperative, for you as an individual,
and for our success as a nation.
“There has to be some way that this darkness
can be banished with light,” says the man
whose little boy was massacred on just an
ordinary Friday in December.
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.
And as a young girl from rural Mississippi
I learned long ago that being myself was much
easier than pretending to be Barbara Walters.
Although when I first started because I had
Barbara in my head I would try to sit like
Barbara, talk like Barbara, move like Barbara
and then one night I was on the news reading
the news and I called Canada “Can-a-da,”
and that was the end of me being Barbara.
I cracked myself up on TV.
Couldn’t start laughing and my real personality
came through and I figured out, oh gee, I
can be a much better Oprah than I could be
a pretend Barbara.
I know
that you all might have a little anxiety now
and hesitation about leaving the comfort of
college and putting those Harvard credentials
to the test.
But 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.”
The world needs … People like Michael Stolzenberg
from Fort Lauderdale.
When Michael was just 8 years old Michael
nearly died from a bacterial infection that
cost him both of his hands and both of his
feet.
And in an instant, this vibrant little boy
became a quadruple amputee and his life was
changed forever.
But in losing who he once was Michael discovered
who he wanted to be.
He refused to sit in that wheelchair all day
and feel sorry for himself so with prosthetics
he learned to walk and run and play again.
He joined his middle school lacrosse team
and last month when he learned that so many
victims of the Boston Marathon bombing would
become new amputees, Michael decided to banish
that darkness with light.
Michael and his brother, Harris, created Mikeysrun.com
to raise $1 million for other amputees — by
the time Harris runs the 2014 Boston Marathon.
More than 1,000 miles away from here these
two young brothers are bringing people together
to support this Boston community the way their
community came together to support Michael.
And when this 13-year-old man was asked about
his fellow amputees he said this, “First
they will be sad.
They’re losing something they will never
get back and that’s scary.
I was scared.
But they’ll be okay.
They just don’t know that yet.”
We might not always know it.
We might not always see it, or hear it on
the news or even feel it in our daily lives,
but I have faith that no matter what, Class
of 2013, you will be okay and you will make
sure our country is okay.
I have faith because of that 9-year-old girl
who went out and collected the change.
I have faith because of David and Francine
Wheeler, I have faith because of Michael and
Harris Stolzenberg, and I have faith because
of you, the network of angels sitting here
today.
One of them Khadijah Williams, who came to
Harvard four years ago.
Khadijah had attended 12 schools in 12 years,
living out of garbage bags amongst pimps and
prostitutes and drug dealers; homeless, going
in to department stores, Wal-Mart in the morning
to bathe herself so that she wouldn’t smell
in front of her classmates, and today she
graduates as a member of the Harvard Class
of 2013.
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 G.P.S. 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.
Congratulations Class of 2013.
Congratulations to your family and friends.
Good luck, and thank you for listening.