i know that to be true for myself that i stand where i stand because somebody prayed for me
and dreamed for me and i come trailing the breath of the ancestors
and what i want to share with you is what two of my favorite mentor teachers tony morrison
and maya angelou have said to me that i want to add to the prayers and the dreams your crown
has been paid for put it on your head and wear it
you're gonna walk out of here with a crown today
that has been paid for not just by you and your four years but paid for by the blood
from the lynchings the tears and the sweat from the toil and the trials and the sorrows
from the burdens and the weariness
paid for by the sit-ins and by the setbacks and paid for by those who in the words of
sterling brown strong men kept the coming on coming on stronger strong men getting stronger
paid for in the words of langston hughes by those who knew that life wasn't going to be no crystal
staired was going to have tax in it and places on the floor ban all the time they would keep
climbing on and reaching landings and going in the dark where there wasn't no light
because even though they hadn't experienced it or tasted freedom
they knew they were planting seeds of the free that would bear the fruit that is now you
this is their day as well never forget that you did not do this by yourself you come here today
trailing the breath of the ancestors and the breath of the angels 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
you know many times when i go out of the country i'm baffled by that question
to explain what is your occupation i've stood there for 10 minutes well am i talk show host
well i'm more than a talk show host am i business woman i'm a businessman i'm more a businesswoman
i'm an entrepreneur i'm an entrepreneur so i just leave it blank or self-employed
so i'm not asking for the roles that you play as daughters i'm not asking
that question what are the roles that you play as a daughter as a friend as a sister
you're going to be a lawyer you're going to teach you're going to be a pharmacist
i'm asking the bigger question of who am i who am i really my answer is i am god's child
i am i am that which is born of all that is
i am as pier de 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 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
i never was the kind of woman who liked to get in a car and just go for a ride
i had a boyfriend would say let's just go for a ride i want to know where are we going
do we have a destination is there a plan are we just riding
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
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
doctor degrees to 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 service jay-z rapid
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're 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 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
would say your 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 years ago i did an ad for revlon for uh for an ad
they were doing called unforgettable women 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
that's what newton said celia in the color purple said it everything you even try to do to me
already done to you
everything you even try to do to me already done to you so you don't have to worry about
revenge or getting back at somebody making sure they pay you just have to do the right thing
and the right thing will follow you even when people don't support it 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
the most important thing i have come to know in doing the right thing and making the right choices
is understanding all of you leaving here have the potential for enormous success
there's a price that comes with that
people don't always like you and they're not always happy for you and if you surround yourself
with people who are not accustomed to your success they become fearful they become scared
because you are reflecting back something to them that they don't recognize now they're not going
to say you know i'm very fearful because you're reflecting back to me something i don't recognize
they're going to say you know what they're going to say they're gonna say who she thinks she is
who she thinks she is that only happens when you are around people who do not mean and want
and aspire to the best for you people who want the best for you want you to be your best
so my greatest advice to you is to surround yourself
with people who are going to fill your cup until your cup runneth over so when people
say you're so full of yourself you can say yeah yes i'm full i'm so full my cup runneth over
and to know that once your cup runneth over you cannot spend your life
with your gallon size offerings offering them to pint-sized people you your internal big questions
who do i want to be in the world my relationship to source energy to all that is god i'm not
talking about what you believe in god i'm talking about your experience of that which is all life
which is divine and universal i'm talking about the big deal being connected and aligned with that
when you are tuned in and charged into that whenever you feel empty you go inside
yourself and you connect to the source and you know that all things are possible
you