The television personality, philanthropist, producer, actress, and all-around inspiration to millions was born in poverty to a single teenage mother in Mississippi, she was taught to read by the age of 3 by her grandmother Hattie Mae. Oprah credits her grandmother for giving her a “positive sense of [herself]” and encouraging her. Her grandmother once said that as soon as she could speak, Oprah was on stage and “interviewing” her dolls and animals!
She had a rough childhood, but as a teenager moved to live with Vernon Winfrey, whom she calls her father, and became an honour student, joined the speech team, and won the superlative “most popular.” She won the Miss Black Tennessee pageant at the age of 17, and was invited to do part-time news coverage locally. This was all Oprah needed to capture the hearts and minds of many, and start to work her way up the ladder.
After nationally launching The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1986, the mega-mogul has continued to blow us away, year after year. Oprah’s show is the highest-rated program of its kind in history (no big deal), and has created its own genre of intimate confessional conversations.
The media proprietor owns her own production company (Harpo), co-founded Oxygen Media, created O, The Oprah Magazine in one of the most successful magazine launches in recent history, shares her opinions with her book club, which is the largest in the world, and has formed her own channel, OWN. She has starred in and done voice-overs for movies, co-authored five books. To say she’s kind of a big deal is the understatement of the century. This woman has almost literally taken over the world.
Thismost influential woman in the world is an inspiration to many people, and there's no other television host who can move people to action like she can. Below are some of the tips she has passed on that can turn your life around.
Believe in Yourself
"If you're not looking at the shadows, at what is subconsciously running through that tape in your mind. Telling yourself that you're not good enough, you're not worthy enough . . . 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 of yourself."
Be Brave
"The only courage you ever need is the courage to fulfill the dreams of your own life."
You Become What You Believe
"Your life is a reflection of the way you think . . . you are creating your own reality show every day, in every experience and every encounter . . . what you believe is what you become, and one person can make a difference and that person is you."
Respect Money
"If you disrespect money, it slips through your fingers."
Success Takes Work
"It doesn’t just happen. There is a process [for success]. . . . It’s up to each individual to figure out . . . what that process is in their life."
It Is Never Too Late
"It's never too late to achieve [what] you believe. . . . It's never too late to have a wake-up call. All life is about growing to be who you are most meant to be, the best version of yourself and that even if it takes a disaster in your life, there's always time until you take your last breath, to recognize that you have the power."
Let Go of the Past
"Forgiveness is giving up the hope that the past can be any different. . . . And I know many of you, you think forgiving means accepting what has happened to you. Well, it is accepting that it has happened to you. Not accepting that it was OK for it to happen; it is accepting that it has happened and now what do I do about it. Forgiving is giving up the hope. Not holding on, hoping, wishing that it could’ve been any other way than it actually was. Giving up the hope that the past could be any different. And when I got that, I think it took me to the next level of being a better person, because I don't hold grudges for anything, any situation, and neither should you. It's letting go, so that the past does not hold you prisoner, so that it does not hold you hostage
If you allow the past to define your present, then you never actually really get to live the life that you were meant to live, because you're always holding on to what was and always holding and defining yourself by what was or what should've been or what could've been."
What Goes Around, Comes Around
"The energy you're putting out is coming back all the time. . . . For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."
When You Know Better
"When you know better, you do better . . . you know how freeing those words are? How freeing they can be for you? What it means is, you don't have to hold yourself hostage to who you used to be or anything you ever used to do. Because who has lived and hasn't made mistakes?"
Slow Down
"Slow down, because the only moment we can really live is now. Being in the present moment, if you can learn to do that, begins to change your whole life. Just staying focused on what is happening now. . . . When we're truly present, we recognize that the ordinary moments are life's greatest gifts."
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