- She's a media producer, actress, talk show host,
and philanthropist.
- She's best known for her talk show.
- She is worth three billion dollars.
- She's Oprah and here are her top 10 rules for success.
- The way through the challenge is to get still
and ask yourself, what is the next right move?
Not think about oh I got all of this to do.
What is the next right move?
And then from that space, make the next right move
and the next right move.
And not to be overwhelmed by it
because you know your life is bigger
than that one moment.
You know you're not defined by
what somebody says is a failure for you
because failure is just there to point you
in a different direction.
Nothing about my life is lucky, nothing.
A lot of grace, a lot of blessings,
a lot of divine order,
but I don't believe in luck.
For me luck is preparation
meeting the moment of opportunity.
There is no luck
without you being prepared to handle
that moment of opportunity
and so what I would say for myself is that
because of my hand in a hand
and a force greater than my own,
I had been prepared in ways
that I didn't even know I was being prepared for.
And the truth is,
for me and for every person,
every single thing that has ever happened in your life
is preparing you for the moment that is to come.
You don't have to hold yourself hostage
to who you used to be
or anything you ever used to do
'cause who has lived and hasn't made mistakes?
When I think about my 20s
and what a foolish girl I was
and how I would give over my power
to men who really didn't mean me well,
but now I hold no grudges against them either
because I realized, I'm the one who gave over the power
because I didn't know any better.
And now that I know better,
I know I don't have to do that again.
It's one of the most powerful lessons
any of us can ever know.
I say to my girls all of the time
that your real work
is to figure out
where your power base is
and to work on the alignment of your
personality, your gifts that you have to give,
with the real reason why you're here.
That's the number one thing you have to do.
Is to work on yourself and to fill yourself up
and keep your cup full, keep yourself full.
Now I used to be afraid of that,
I used to be afraid.
Particularly from people who say,
"Oh she's so full of herself, she's so full."
(crowd laughs)
And now I embrace it,
I consider it a compliment that I am full of myself
because only when you're full,
I'm full, I'm overflowing,
my cup runneth over,
I have so much to offer and so much to give
and I am not afraid of honoring myself.
It's miraculous when you think about it.
I would say to my team,
"Welp, doesn't matter."
'Cause every season somebody else was coming out.
One talk show, two talk shows, three talk shows,
there'd been over a 100 talk shows since we started,
but every time,
I would feel like alright,
got to step up our game, got to step up our game.
The way you step up your game is not
to worry about the other guy in any situation
'cause you can't control the other guy.
You cannot control the other guy,
you only have control over yourself.
So it's like running a race,
the energy that it takes to look back
and see where the other guys are,
takes energy away from you
and if they're too close
it scares you.
So that's what I would say to my team all the time.
Don't waste your time in the race looking back to see
where the other guy is or what the other guy is doing.
It's not about the other guy,
it's about what can you do?
You just need to run that race as hard as you can.
You need to give it everything you've got
all the time for yourself.
My grandmother was a maid,
that's all she ever knew.
The only real expectation she held for me
was that I would one day become a maid
and in her words,
"Have some good white folks,"
meaning people who would not speak negatively about me,
who would allow me to take food home,
who would be good to me.
Would treat me with some level of dignity and respect,
that was my grandmother's dream for me,
but I had another dream for myself.
Another, more than a dream, I had a belief for myself.
And I remember watching her hang out clothes on a line
one day and say to me,
"You have to watch me Oprah Gail
"'cause one day you'll have to do this for yourself,"
and knowing inside myself that
that was not going to be my life.
Don't know how I knew it other than
that thing that we all have,
intuition or instinct,
that said no this will not be my life.
But because I sense that
and was connected to that,
and I remember it was a very still moment.
It was quiet and I was still and I was watching her,
I could see her right now with the clothespins in her mouth
and putting them on the line
and seeing the breath,
because it was cold, the moisture coming from her lips,
and I knew that that would not be my life.
I knew that I would not be hanging clothes on a line
in a backyard in Mississippi.
So I was either four or five years old
and that belief that that would not be my life
is what I held onto for the longest of times.
I just, no matter what,
believed that there was something
bigger, greater, more for me.
I always understood that there
really was no difference between me and the audience.
At times, I might have had better shoes,
but at the core of
what really matters,
that we are the same.
And you know how I know that?
'Cause all of us are seeking the same thing.
You're here at this fabulous school
and will go out into the world
and each pursue,
based upon what you believe your talents are,
what your skills are, maybe your gifts are.
But you're seeking the same thing.
Everybody wants to fulfill the highest truest expression
of yourself as a human being.
That's what you're looking for,
the highest truest expression of yourself
as a human being.
And because I understand that,
I understand that if you're working in a bakery,
and that's where you want to be,
and that may be what you always wanted to do,
is to bake pies for people or bake cakes for people
or to offer your gift,
then that's for you and there's no difference
between you and me except that's your platform,
that's your show every day.
So my understanding of that has allowed me to--
- [Host] Reach everyone.
- To reach everyone and there's no way that you wouldn't
because that's what I truly feel.
A lot of people don't know their purpose
and if you don't know your purpose,
your immediate goal is to figure that out
'cause other wise you're just wondering around here.
So the moment you can figure out
what it is you're supposed to be doing,
the sooner you're able to get
about the business of doing that.
My life is fueled by my being
and the being fuels the doing
so I come from a centered place,
I come from a focused place.
I come from compassion,
it's just my nature,
I come from a willingness to understand
and to be understood
and I come from wanting to connect.
The secret of that show for 25 years is that
people could seem themselves in me all over the world,
they could see themselves in me.
And even as I became
more and more financially successful,
which was a big surprise to me,
it was like oh my God,
this is so exciting. (crowd laughs)
- [Host] You mean you got more than that 30 thousand.
- I got more than 30 thousand by the time I was 30.
But what I realized is through the whole process
because I'm grounded in my own self,
that although I could have more shoes,
my feet stayed on the ground,
although I was wearing better shoes.
These are kind of cute today, too.
(crowd laughs)
So I could keep my feet on the ground even
though I could get more shoes
and I could understand that it really was
because I was grounded.
I was doing, and continue to this day,
to do the consciousness work.
I work at staying awake.
Dear beautiful brown-skinned girl.
And I use the word beautiful
because I know that's never a word you would call yourself.
I look into your eyes and I see the light
and hope of myself.
In this photo,
you're just about to turn 20,
posing outside the television station
where you were recently hired as a reporter.
You look calm, you look happy,
but I know how scared you are.
If I could say anything to you it would be,
relax, it's going to be okay girl.
- Thank you guys so much for watching.
I made this video because Valerie Brown asked me to
so if there's a famous entrepreneur
that you want me to pull from next,
leave it in the comments below.
I'll see what I can do.
I'd also love to know which of Oprah's top 10 rules
you connected with the most,
leave it in the comments
and we're going to join the discussion.
Thank you so much for watching.
Continue to believe and I'll see you soon.