hello believe nation I started the
mentor me series with the goal to try to
hang around people who’ve done a lot
more than us and I hopefully spending a
little more time with them some of their
mindset motivation inspiration way of
thinking belief system seeps into us to
help us become the best version of
ourselves so today we’re going to learn
from Oprah Winfrey on staying motivated
mentor me Oprah and as always guys if
Oprah says something that really really
resonates with you please leave it in
the comments below and put quotes around
it so other people can be inspired as
well enjoy
[Music]
when I was about eight years old I was I
grew up in the church and I was going to
one of those women’s day you know how we
we had that we have a church all day
long I’ve been to Sunday school and then
we’re going to and then afternoon they
were having a women’s tea from the
women’s board they were having a tea and
the little girl that was supposed to be
there to do a recitation had gotten ill
and so they said to my stepmother we
need some little girl can Oprah come
back and do a recitation this afternoon
my stepmother said yeah I’ll have her
back here this afternoon so this you
know church ain’t over to 1:30
so by 4 o’clock I had gone home and
learned to recite Invictus by William
Ernest Henley now it starts out out of
the night that covers me black as a pit
from pole to pole I thank whatever God’s
may be for my unconquerable soul I was
reciting it and doing the pit from pole
to pole I didn’t know what I was saying
but at the end of the poem there is the
stanza that says it matters not how
Strait the gate how charged with
punishment the scroll I am the master of
my fate I am the captain of my soul
now my little eight-year-old brain
didn’t really fully understand the power
and depth of those words but they
sounded good enough for me to write them
down and put them on my mirror and those
words I am the master of my fate I am
the captain of my soul
became a mantra for me what it said is I
am responsible for the choices that I
make in my life I am responsible I am
responsible so obviously I grew up and
was better able to articulate what those
words really mean
and I discovered in physics class those
of you who remember physics the third
law of motion you remember what that is
the third law of motion in physics says
for every action it’s called Newton’s
law and it says for every action there
is an equal and opposite reaction so
what does that mean that means
everything that you are putting out into
the world
every action BAM there is an equal and
opposite reaction it means no matter
what you do the energy of what you do
what you say and most important the
energy of who you are is going out into
the world into your home into your
relationships and that energy is always
coming back to you you are responsible
for the energy that you are pulling out
into the world because that very energy
BAM is coming right back to you every
single time whether you believe it or
not because it is law it is law it is
law that what you put out into the world
is coming back and I was hired in
television not knowing anything about it
having in mind Barbara Walters but
thinking okay I can do that not knowing
how to write or film or anything and I
think it was because it was the it was
the time and I literally had somebody
who was willing to work with me that I
managed to to find my way but I had to
find my way because the reporting never
really fit me and what did work for me
I’m this hole I’m so old that when I
started that it was a year of live
action cam and so it’s like video
cameras live until the news stations
would do a live a live shot they would
throw to somebody live even if nothing
was going on just so they could say live
action cam
and what I found is I wasn’t so good at
the writing part but if I was just
standing up and talking about what it
just happened it was really good and
then I started to feel so I started in
nineteen working in television became an
anchor immediately afterwards my father
still had an eleven o’clock curfew can
you believe such a thing that I am I am
the ten o’clock anchor in Nashville
Tennessee I am the woman on the newscast
reading the news and my father would say
be home by 11:00 and I take Eadie the
news is on at 10:00 he goes in it’s off
at 10:30 so be honest so I had a very
strict very strict father so anyway I
I could feel inside myself that
reporting was not the right thing for me
even though I was happy to have the job
right I got an offer to go to Atlanta I
was making ten thousand dollars a year
in 1971 but still in college I was
thinking I was doing pretty good I got
an offer to go to Atlanta for 40,000
which I thought it’s over I’m gonna make
$40,000 and my boss at the time said to
me you do not know what you don’t know
and you need to stay here until you can
learn to write better until you can
perfect your craft as as a journalist
and so I said and we can’t give you 40
but we can give you 12 so so I stayed
and you know the reason why I stayed is
because I could feel inside myself that
even though the forty was alluring at
the time that he was absolutely right so
to make a long story short because I’d
be here all day just talking about how
it all came about I started listening to
what felt like the truth for me a couple
of years later I moved to Baltimore I
could feel that as a reporter and by
this time 22 I’m making twenty two
thousand I met my best friend Gail there
who said oh my god can you imagine if
you 13 you’re making 30 Volvo
and then you’re 40 in its 40,000 we
actually had that conversation in the
bathroom
so this is I started to feel that
reporting wasn’t for me but I had my
father I had my friends everybody was
saying oh my god you’re an anchorwoman
you’re on TV I mean you can’t give up
that job and when I was by the time I
was making twenty five my father goes
well you just hit the jackpot you’re not
gonna make more money than that that’s
just it
so I was torn between what the world was
saying to me and what I felt to be the
truth for myself
it felt like an unnatural act for me
reporting although I knew that a lot of
people it was glamorous and I started to
just inside myself think what do I
really want to do what I really want to
do and I will say this knowing what you
don’t want to do is the best possible
place to be if you don’t know what to do
because knowing what you don’t want to
do leads you to figure out what is it
you you really do want to do so you
discovered talk then right around that
time I didn’t discover talk I was being
I got demoted they wanted to fire me but
I was I was under contract for didn’t
they didn’t want to give up the 25000 so
they were trying to keep me on to the
end of the year so they put me on this
talk this is way life works they put me
on a talk show to try to avoid having to
pay me the contract out and the moment I
sat on the talk show interviewing the
Carvel ice cream man and his multiple
flavors I knew that I had found home for
myself because when I was a news
reporter
it was so unnatural for me I you know to
cover somebody’s tragedies and
difficulties and then to not to have
feel anything for it and I would go back
after a fire and I would take them
blankets and then I would get a note
from my boss saying what the hell are
you doing you’re just supposed to be you
can’t be that can’t cannot be that
empathetic and it felt unnatural for me
so if I were to put it in business terms
it or or to leave you with the message
that the truth is I have from the very
beginning listened to my instinct all of
my
best decisions in life have come because
I was attuned to what really felt like
the next right move for me and so it
didn’t feel right I knew that I wouldn’t
be there forever I never even learned
the streets in Baltimore because I
thought I was there longer than I
thought I was there eight years I should
have learned the street but I kept
saying myself I can be hey I’m gonna be
good you’re not gonna be here so I’m not
I’m not gonna learn the street so when I
got the call to come to Chicago hmm
after you know starting with a with a
co-anchor and and working and talked for
several years I knew that it was the
right thing to do and I knew that if I’d
even if I didn’t succeed because at the
time there was a there was a guy named
Phil Donahue yeah was the king of talk
and was on in Chicago and every single
person except my best friend Gail said
you’re going to fail every single person
when I love it my boss is by this time
thought I was terrific and said you’re
gonna you’re walking into a land mile
you’re going to fail you’re going to
fail Chicago’s a racist City you’re
black you’re not going to make
everything to keep me saying they then
offered me a car and an apartment and
all this stuff and I said no if I fail
then I will find out what is the next
thing for me what is the next true thing
for me it felt right to you see was it I
felt like this is now the move I need to
make and I was not one of those people
you know all of my the people who worked
with me in News it would have their
tapes and they’d have their stories and
they’d have you know resumes ready I
didn’t have any of that because I knew
that the time would come where I would
wear what I needed would show up for me
okay and when that showed up I was ready
because my definition of luck is
preparation meeting the moment of
opportunity and I was prepared to be
able to step into that that world of
talk in a way that I knew I could do it
people refer to me as a brand now out
there with the oprah brand I never knew
what a brand was when I start when I
when I first started out
even know what that was I became a brand
by making every decision flow from the
truth of myself every choice I made for
every show that was going to be on the
air I made based upon does this feel
right does this feel right does this
feel right is this going to help
somebody is this going to help somebody
that’s not going to help somebody and I
learned my biggest teachers were were
were people like the Ku Klux Klan and
skinheads because I was sitting on
television one day doing an interview
with the KKK and I realized in that
moment that the energy that I was
broadcasting throughout the world was
energy that I did not want to be a part
of and so I literally in the middle of a
commercial break I just thought I will
never do this again I will only allow my
platform to be used for as a force for
good and that there are many forms of
the KKK even if it’s not called that so
I really made a conscious decision to
use myself and to use the platform for
that which I thought was going to
enhance enlighten people in a way so
that’s the difference in that moment I
stopped being used by television and
made a decision to use television I
started out I wanted a million dollars
so I could buy my dad a house on a hill
or something you know I didn’t I didn’t
see the possibility for a long time
until I was in it and then I saw it and
then I said oh this is more than what I
thought it was this isn’t just the
vision too you know because when you’re
in television as I was starting out the
big vision is oh gee can I get a network
job and I had this idea I literally had
said to my agent when I was in Baltimore
I said could you get me the substitute
job for Joan Lunden on Good Morning
America I was just like – when Joan
Lunden doesn’t want to be there when
she’s on vacation could I just have
yeah villain and he said this was 1982
he said mmm you’re not gonna get that
job because they already have a black
person oh they don’t have a black person
as a bryant gumbel already has that job
well ABC doesn’t have a person because
you’re not gonna get that job
not even as a substitute no not even
substitute so I let that at that agent
go but that was my thing oh gee if I
could just get to the network if I could
just get to the network if you can get
to a larger market if you could get to
and the top three were you know New York
Chicago no New York LA Chicago I knew it
wasn’t going to work I wasn’t going to
be accepted in LA in 1982 because I
wasn’t the right minority and that’s why
Chicago and I’d literally chose Chicago
because of that and then I happened to
be I thought well Chicago and then I was
on someone else’s tape and I got a call
from Chicago oh that’s a sign but when
you wanted when you envisioned yourself
being a backup what was the greater call
that was it that was a step in the right
direction so that somehow cookie said my
goal was is that I would be the backup
for Joan Lunden and they would see how
good I was
and then they’d want me to back up more
and then when Joan left for a vacation
or Joan you know decided that she no
longer wanted to do it they’d say what
about that girl that stood in for Joan
yeah that was my goal and then you’d be
on air yeah be a personality but again
to what end
yes because I didn’t have a vision
beyond being successful on network
television it wasn’t until I was
literally on television had my own show
made the decision that I was going to
own the show meaning I would take the
risk if it worked or didn’t work that I
thought about what does this really mean
and actually I guess the vision was
inspired by I used to speak in high
schools all the time and I remember
speaking of school and a kid said to me
you’re that lady oh you’re the one
you’re the one that plays on TV and I
said no I don’t play on TV it’s actually
my work
can I use TV as my work and when I you
know Journal every night and was
thinking about that yeah a lot of people
think I think and for a long time I
thought it was just a job
were you going to play on TV you’re
gonna act on TV you’re gonna have this
job but it was around probably two or
two-and-a-half years into it around 88
89 that I started to see oh this is
bigger than the platform yeah television
that it’s actually a platform I changed
how I viewed power about 1989 there was
a book I read by a man named Gary Zhukov
called Sita the soul and in Cu the soul
he defined what is true power what is
authentic power and and his definition
of authentic power meaning the kind of
power that can never be taken from you
not your looks
not your fame not your money not your
square footage but authentic power is
when the personality your personality
comes to serve the energy of your soul
when you are able to align who you are
who you’ve become in the world with
really what you’ve come to do in the
world when your personality serves the
soul so I thought a lot about that that
book was actually life-changing for me
and I was building a home in Santa
Barbara and as anybody who’s ever built
a bathroom or a home or anything nothing
ever happens on time and it was 2002 and
we’re supposed to be finished and it
wasn’t finished and I was like I can’t
wait to get in my house and I’m finally
going to have a great Christmas and I’m
going to do the kind of Christmas that I
dreamed of from the Currier and Ives
you know cards so I’m going to have the
reads on the door and but I didn’t have
a floor so it’s a little difficult to do
that
so I started to think if I can’t do that
Christmas well what am I going to do for
Christmas my house isn’t even ready and
what can I do so I started as I was
walking around through the tree sitting
under that tree because my favorite time
is to be alone with my thoughts and as I
was alone with my thoughts I was
thinking what would be the next best
possible Christmas for myself and I
thought of the best Christmas I ever had
the best Christmas I ever had was when I
was 12 years old my mother was on
welfare I was living with my mother and
a half-brother and sister in Milwaukee
and my mother called me the oldest to
say into a room to say we won’t be
having Christmas this year I said we
won’t be having Christmas what about
Santa Claus there is no Santa Claus
I had already figured that out but okay
I was embarrassed and I was ashamed
because for the first time I had to face
the reality that yeah what I’ve been
suspecting that we’re not like the other
kids that we really are poor is true so
we’re not going to have Christmas and
there is no Santa Claus
my first thought after being embarrassed
at ashame was what will my story be what
am I going to tell everybody when we go
back to school and they’re showing their
toys and I don’t have anything to talk
about what am I going to do I’m not
going to go outside tomorrow when
everybody is out in the yards in their
yards showing the toys they got for
Christmas I’m going to stay inside am I
going to pretend I’m sick what is my
story going to be well late that night
some nuns showed up at our house and
they brought a basket of food and they
brought toys for my my brother and my
sister and I was overwhelmed with joy
that those nuns showed up not because
they brought me a Tammy doll when I
really wanted a Barbie though
I was overwhelmed because somebody
remembered that we existed and somebody
cared enough in the middle of the night
to come to our house with food and toys
and also I would now have a story so as
I was contemplating what is the that was
the best Christmas I ever had I thought
how could I make that possible for
somebody else what could I do to create
the same kind of experience for other
children so I took 50 members of my team
at Harpo Harriett one of them sharing
the table and hired another 50 people in
South Africa and we went to South Africa
with the idea of creating something that
we ended up doing a documentary about
called Christmas kindness Christmas
kindness using my personality to serve
the energy of my soul so we went from
village to village offering toys and
clothes food soccer boy soccer balls to
children who never experienced Christmas
before and early in the morning you
could see them lining up by the
thousands to come and we actually went
to 10 or 12 villages to do this and
people said to me at the time oh that’s
so frivolous and the kids won’t remember
it and why don’t you use your money to
do something else more substantial Oprah
and I said they may not remember the toy
they may not remember the clothes
although they were most excited the
children to open boxes containing
clothes because as their caretaker said
to us having new clothes made them not
feel poor and for so many of these kids
was the first time they’d ever
experienced having something that was
new for them they may not remember what
they got in the box but they will
remember that somebody remembered them
they will remember the experience so
during this entire experience Nelson
Mandela had invited Steadman and I to
stay at his home
so when Nelson mendelian by true you
stay
and I was so nervous I was like oh my
god what am I going to talk to because
it’s 10 days it’s 10 days is not just a
dinner it’s not alleged to 10 days it’s
10 days breakfast lunch and dinner with
Nelson Mandela what am I going to say
Stedman said why don’t you try listening
so I did I had 29 meals with Nelson
Mandela at first really really really I
was very you know like oh my god it’s
Nelson Mandela and by the third or
fourth day he and I were to sit together
in his living room sharing the paper at
the end of the day talking about events
in the world and one of the things we
came to talk about the most was the
power of Education to overcome poverty
so in one of those lucid moments I said
to him well you know I’ve always wanted
to build a school he said you want to
build a school Oh brah you want to build
a school he got up and made a phone call
to the Ministry of Education I wasn’t
planning on building it then but all
right the Minister of Education comes
over later in the day and we start the
process of building a school the reason
why I wanted to build a school because I
tried different things because I always
knew even before I could articulate that
my personality needs to serve my soul
this is what people don’t know because
you can’t tell everybody I am Who I am
one black woman my hand in God and
trusting in that word cuz that word
never failed me and I got to where I am
and I stand as I am as Maya Angelou
often says and often said and says in
her poem to our grandmothers every time
you see me I come as one but I stand
10,000 every time you see me I come as
one but I stand as 10,000 so it’s just
not me standing up here it’s every it’s
my mother my grandmother her mother the
mother before her her grandfather every
uncle who prayed every sister who cried
every on to sacrifice those whose names
made the history books those whose names
never could make the history books who
allowed me to come as one and stand as
10,000 so oftentimes when I walk into a
room just as cool as you please and I
can’t see another black face in a 50
mile radius
I stand and sit at the board’s as one
but I’m bringing the 10,000 behind me
because I not only know who I am but I
also know who’s I am and so anything you
hear about me that feels good sounds
good you think about what Oprah’s doing
has she done I I am living the dream and
I want you to live the dream because I’m
not living the dream because I’m special
I’m living the dream because I was
obedient to the call of the dream so I
want you to leave here today thinking
about what is the dream for you what is
God’s dream for you what does the
creator’s dream hold for you so often we
spend our lives wishing and hoping and
hoping and wishing and desiring things
this is what I know for sure you don’t
get what you wish for
you don’t even get what you hope for you
get what you believe so what is it you
believe and know to be God’s dream for
you so I live in the dream I’m living in
the space of the dream and dreams good
dreams good
the dream is greater than anything that
I could have imagined you know when I
was a little girl my father on Sunday
mornings after church he was a deacon so
he thought he had to say goodbye to
every single person we were the last car
leaving the parking lot in the green
Oldsmobile and we would drive through
the white people’s neighborhoods and I
used to dream the dream driving through
the white people’s neighborhood we drive
through white people’s neighborhoods and
you see their fancy houses some of them
had gates but all of them had trees and
I remember when I first came to
Baltimore I met a friend hello Baltimore
in the house when I first came to
Baltimore I I made friends with a
wonderful woman named Arlene Weiner she
was a wealthiest person I’d ever met and
I went to her house and parked at the
driveway there was a Corvette and there
was a BMW and there’s a Mercedes away
whoa Arlene’s rich and at Arlene’s house
once I got inside I could see from her
kitchen window six trees in the front
yard I thought oh rich people have trees
when I get rich I’m gonna get me some
trees I’m not just gonna get me
everybody want to get cars and
pocketbooks and shoes I want me some
trees so as life would have it I was
standing in my kitchen window about
three years ago in California making
coffee in the morning and I was looking
out the window and I saw the six trees
but listen to me I was making making
making the coffee
I saw the six trees I went out on the
porch to actually count the six trees
and this is what I noticed that I could
dream the six but beyond the six trees
in my kitchen window or 3687 trees how
do I know because I had them counted
I hadn’t counted as I said I wonder how
many trees out there I dreamed the six
that’s as much as my my small mind and
my imagination could hold for myself I
dream the six but God can see beyond the
six can see beyond the six because there
was a bigger dream for me and I’m here
to tell you there is a bigger dream for
you essence there’s a bigger dream and
so the key the secret the magic is to
surrender to God’s dream for you to quit
fighting against and pushing against and
disallowing against and resisting
against and trying to tell the Creator
the universal forces divine intelligence
what you were supposed to do and get
still and know for sure what his dream
the dream is for you thank you guys so
much for watching I hope you enjoyed I’d
love to know what did you think of the
video were you inspired are you
motivated what was your favorite message
from Oprah please leave it in the
comments below and I’m gonna join in the
discussion I also want to give a quick
shout out to Renee Montague Renee thank
you so much for picking up a copy of my
book it really really really means a lot
to me so thank you guys again for
watching I believe in you I hope we
continue to believe in yourself and
whatever your one word is much love I’ll
see you soon
mentor me series with the goal to try to
hang around people who’ve done a lot
more than us and I hopefully spending a
little more time with them some of their
mindset motivation inspiration way of
thinking belief system seeps into us to
help us become the best version of
ourselves so today we’re going to learn
from Oprah Winfrey on staying motivated
mentor me Oprah and as always guys if
Oprah says something that really really
resonates with you please leave it in
the comments below and put quotes around
it so other people can be inspired as
well enjoy
[Music]
when I was about eight years old I was I
grew up in the church and I was going to
one of those women’s day you know how we
we had that we have a church all day
long I’ve been to Sunday school and then
we’re going to and then afternoon they
were having a women’s tea from the
women’s board they were having a tea and
the little girl that was supposed to be
there to do a recitation had gotten ill
and so they said to my stepmother we
need some little girl can Oprah come
back and do a recitation this afternoon
my stepmother said yeah I’ll have her
back here this afternoon so this you
know church ain’t over to 1:30
so by 4 o’clock I had gone home and
learned to recite Invictus by William
Ernest Henley now it starts out out of
the night that covers me black as a pit
from pole to pole I thank whatever God’s
may be for my unconquerable soul I was
reciting it and doing the pit from pole
to pole I didn’t know what I was saying
but at the end of the poem there is the
stanza that says it matters not how
Strait the gate how charged with
punishment the scroll I am the master of
my fate I am the captain of my soul
now my little eight-year-old brain
didn’t really fully understand the power
and depth of those words but they
sounded good enough for me to write them
down and put them on my mirror and those
words I am the master of my fate I am
the captain of my soul
became a mantra for me what it said is I
am responsible for the choices that I
make in my life I am responsible I am
responsible so obviously I grew up and
was better able to articulate what those
words really mean
and I discovered in physics class those
of you who remember physics the third
law of motion you remember what that is
the third law of motion in physics says
for every action it’s called Newton’s
law and it says for every action there
is an equal and opposite reaction so
what does that mean that means
everything that you are putting out into
the world
every action BAM there is an equal and
opposite reaction it means no matter
what you do the energy of what you do
what you say and most important the
energy of who you are is going out into
the world into your home into your
relationships and that energy is always
coming back to you you are responsible
for the energy that you are pulling out
into the world because that very energy
BAM is coming right back to you every
single time whether you believe it or
not because it is law it is law it is
law that what you put out into the world
is coming back and I was hired in
television not knowing anything about it
having in mind Barbara Walters but
thinking okay I can do that not knowing
how to write or film or anything and I
think it was because it was the it was
the time and I literally had somebody
who was willing to work with me that I
managed to to find my way but I had to
find my way because the reporting never
really fit me and what did work for me
I’m this hole I’m so old that when I
started that it was a year of live
action cam and so it’s like video
cameras live until the news stations
would do a live a live shot they would
throw to somebody live even if nothing
was going on just so they could say live
action cam
and what I found is I wasn’t so good at
the writing part but if I was just
standing up and talking about what it
just happened it was really good and
then I started to feel so I started in
nineteen working in television became an
anchor immediately afterwards my father
still had an eleven o’clock curfew can
you believe such a thing that I am I am
the ten o’clock anchor in Nashville
Tennessee I am the woman on the newscast
reading the news and my father would say
be home by 11:00 and I take Eadie the
news is on at 10:00 he goes in it’s off
at 10:30 so be honest so I had a very
strict very strict father so anyway I
I could feel inside myself that
reporting was not the right thing for me
even though I was happy to have the job
right I got an offer to go to Atlanta I
was making ten thousand dollars a year
in 1971 but still in college I was
thinking I was doing pretty good I got
an offer to go to Atlanta for 40,000
which I thought it’s over I’m gonna make
$40,000 and my boss at the time said to
me you do not know what you don’t know
and you need to stay here until you can
learn to write better until you can
perfect your craft as as a journalist
and so I said and we can’t give you 40
but we can give you 12 so so I stayed
and you know the reason why I stayed is
because I could feel inside myself that
even though the forty was alluring at
the time that he was absolutely right so
to make a long story short because I’d
be here all day just talking about how
it all came about I started listening to
what felt like the truth for me a couple
of years later I moved to Baltimore I
could feel that as a reporter and by
this time 22 I’m making twenty two
thousand I met my best friend Gail there
who said oh my god can you imagine if
you 13 you’re making 30 Volvo
and then you’re 40 in its 40,000 we
actually had that conversation in the
bathroom
so this is I started to feel that
reporting wasn’t for me but I had my
father I had my friends everybody was
saying oh my god you’re an anchorwoman
you’re on TV I mean you can’t give up
that job and when I was by the time I
was making twenty five my father goes
well you just hit the jackpot you’re not
gonna make more money than that that’s
just it
so I was torn between what the world was
saying to me and what I felt to be the
truth for myself
it felt like an unnatural act for me
reporting although I knew that a lot of
people it was glamorous and I started to
just inside myself think what do I
really want to do what I really want to
do and I will say this knowing what you
don’t want to do is the best possible
place to be if you don’t know what to do
because knowing what you don’t want to
do leads you to figure out what is it
you you really do want to do so you
discovered talk then right around that
time I didn’t discover talk I was being
I got demoted they wanted to fire me but
I was I was under contract for didn’t
they didn’t want to give up the 25000 so
they were trying to keep me on to the
end of the year so they put me on this
talk this is way life works they put me
on a talk show to try to avoid having to
pay me the contract out and the moment I
sat on the talk show interviewing the
Carvel ice cream man and his multiple
flavors I knew that I had found home for
myself because when I was a news
reporter
it was so unnatural for me I you know to
cover somebody’s tragedies and
difficulties and then to not to have
feel anything for it and I would go back
after a fire and I would take them
blankets and then I would get a note
from my boss saying what the hell are
you doing you’re just supposed to be you
can’t be that can’t cannot be that
empathetic and it felt unnatural for me
so if I were to put it in business terms
it or or to leave you with the message
that the truth is I have from the very
beginning listened to my instinct all of
my
best decisions in life have come because
I was attuned to what really felt like
the next right move for me and so it
didn’t feel right I knew that I wouldn’t
be there forever I never even learned
the streets in Baltimore because I
thought I was there longer than I
thought I was there eight years I should
have learned the street but I kept
saying myself I can be hey I’m gonna be
good you’re not gonna be here so I’m not
I’m not gonna learn the street so when I
got the call to come to Chicago hmm
after you know starting with a with a
co-anchor and and working and talked for
several years I knew that it was the
right thing to do and I knew that if I’d
even if I didn’t succeed because at the
time there was a there was a guy named
Phil Donahue yeah was the king of talk
and was on in Chicago and every single
person except my best friend Gail said
you’re going to fail every single person
when I love it my boss is by this time
thought I was terrific and said you’re
gonna you’re walking into a land mile
you’re going to fail you’re going to
fail Chicago’s a racist City you’re
black you’re not going to make
everything to keep me saying they then
offered me a car and an apartment and
all this stuff and I said no if I fail
then I will find out what is the next
thing for me what is the next true thing
for me it felt right to you see was it I
felt like this is now the move I need to
make and I was not one of those people
you know all of my the people who worked
with me in News it would have their
tapes and they’d have their stories and
they’d have you know resumes ready I
didn’t have any of that because I knew
that the time would come where I would
wear what I needed would show up for me
okay and when that showed up I was ready
because my definition of luck is
preparation meeting the moment of
opportunity and I was prepared to be
able to step into that that world of
talk in a way that I knew I could do it
people refer to me as a brand now out
there with the oprah brand I never knew
what a brand was when I start when I
when I first started out
even know what that was I became a brand
by making every decision flow from the
truth of myself every choice I made for
every show that was going to be on the
air I made based upon does this feel
right does this feel right does this
feel right is this going to help
somebody is this going to help somebody
that’s not going to help somebody and I
learned my biggest teachers were were
were people like the Ku Klux Klan and
skinheads because I was sitting on
television one day doing an interview
with the KKK and I realized in that
moment that the energy that I was
broadcasting throughout the world was
energy that I did not want to be a part
of and so I literally in the middle of a
commercial break I just thought I will
never do this again I will only allow my
platform to be used for as a force for
good and that there are many forms of
the KKK even if it’s not called that so
I really made a conscious decision to
use myself and to use the platform for
that which I thought was going to
enhance enlighten people in a way so
that’s the difference in that moment I
stopped being used by television and
made a decision to use television I
started out I wanted a million dollars
so I could buy my dad a house on a hill
or something you know I didn’t I didn’t
see the possibility for a long time
until I was in it and then I saw it and
then I said oh this is more than what I
thought it was this isn’t just the
vision too you know because when you’re
in television as I was starting out the
big vision is oh gee can I get a network
job and I had this idea I literally had
said to my agent when I was in Baltimore
I said could you get me the substitute
job for Joan Lunden on Good Morning
America I was just like – when Joan
Lunden doesn’t want to be there when
she’s on vacation could I just have
yeah villain and he said this was 1982
he said mmm you’re not gonna get that
job because they already have a black
person oh they don’t have a black person
as a bryant gumbel already has that job
well ABC doesn’t have a person because
you’re not gonna get that job
not even as a substitute no not even
substitute so I let that at that agent
go but that was my thing oh gee if I
could just get to the network if I could
just get to the network if you can get
to a larger market if you could get to
and the top three were you know New York
Chicago no New York LA Chicago I knew it
wasn’t going to work I wasn’t going to
be accepted in LA in 1982 because I
wasn’t the right minority and that’s why
Chicago and I’d literally chose Chicago
because of that and then I happened to
be I thought well Chicago and then I was
on someone else’s tape and I got a call
from Chicago oh that’s a sign but when
you wanted when you envisioned yourself
being a backup what was the greater call
that was it that was a step in the right
direction so that somehow cookie said my
goal was is that I would be the backup
for Joan Lunden and they would see how
good I was
and then they’d want me to back up more
and then when Joan left for a vacation
or Joan you know decided that she no
longer wanted to do it they’d say what
about that girl that stood in for Joan
yeah that was my goal and then you’d be
on air yeah be a personality but again
to what end
yes because I didn’t have a vision
beyond being successful on network
television it wasn’t until I was
literally on television had my own show
made the decision that I was going to
own the show meaning I would take the
risk if it worked or didn’t work that I
thought about what does this really mean
and actually I guess the vision was
inspired by I used to speak in high
schools all the time and I remember
speaking of school and a kid said to me
you’re that lady oh you’re the one
you’re the one that plays on TV and I
said no I don’t play on TV it’s actually
my work
can I use TV as my work and when I you
know Journal every night and was
thinking about that yeah a lot of people
think I think and for a long time I
thought it was just a job
were you going to play on TV you’re
gonna act on TV you’re gonna have this
job but it was around probably two or
two-and-a-half years into it around 88
89 that I started to see oh this is
bigger than the platform yeah television
that it’s actually a platform I changed
how I viewed power about 1989 there was
a book I read by a man named Gary Zhukov
called Sita the soul and in Cu the soul
he defined what is true power what is
authentic power and and his definition
of authentic power meaning the kind of
power that can never be taken from you
not your looks
not your fame not your money not your
square footage but authentic power is
when the personality your personality
comes to serve the energy of your soul
when you are able to align who you are
who you’ve become in the world with
really what you’ve come to do in the
world when your personality serves the
soul so I thought a lot about that that
book was actually life-changing for me
and I was building a home in Santa
Barbara and as anybody who’s ever built
a bathroom or a home or anything nothing
ever happens on time and it was 2002 and
we’re supposed to be finished and it
wasn’t finished and I was like I can’t
wait to get in my house and I’m finally
going to have a great Christmas and I’m
going to do the kind of Christmas that I
dreamed of from the Currier and Ives
you know cards so I’m going to have the
reads on the door and but I didn’t have
a floor so it’s a little difficult to do
that
so I started to think if I can’t do that
Christmas well what am I going to do for
Christmas my house isn’t even ready and
what can I do so I started as I was
walking around through the tree sitting
under that tree because my favorite time
is to be alone with my thoughts and as I
was alone with my thoughts I was
thinking what would be the next best
possible Christmas for myself and I
thought of the best Christmas I ever had
the best Christmas I ever had was when I
was 12 years old my mother was on
welfare I was living with my mother and
a half-brother and sister in Milwaukee
and my mother called me the oldest to
say into a room to say we won’t be
having Christmas this year I said we
won’t be having Christmas what about
Santa Claus there is no Santa Claus
I had already figured that out but okay
I was embarrassed and I was ashamed
because for the first time I had to face
the reality that yeah what I’ve been
suspecting that we’re not like the other
kids that we really are poor is true so
we’re not going to have Christmas and
there is no Santa Claus
my first thought after being embarrassed
at ashame was what will my story be what
am I going to tell everybody when we go
back to school and they’re showing their
toys and I don’t have anything to talk
about what am I going to do I’m not
going to go outside tomorrow when
everybody is out in the yards in their
yards showing the toys they got for
Christmas I’m going to stay inside am I
going to pretend I’m sick what is my
story going to be well late that night
some nuns showed up at our house and
they brought a basket of food and they
brought toys for my my brother and my
sister and I was overwhelmed with joy
that those nuns showed up not because
they brought me a Tammy doll when I
really wanted a Barbie though
I was overwhelmed because somebody
remembered that we existed and somebody
cared enough in the middle of the night
to come to our house with food and toys
and also I would now have a story so as
I was contemplating what is the that was
the best Christmas I ever had I thought
how could I make that possible for
somebody else what could I do to create
the same kind of experience for other
children so I took 50 members of my team
at Harpo Harriett one of them sharing
the table and hired another 50 people in
South Africa and we went to South Africa
with the idea of creating something that
we ended up doing a documentary about
called Christmas kindness Christmas
kindness using my personality to serve
the energy of my soul so we went from
village to village offering toys and
clothes food soccer boy soccer balls to
children who never experienced Christmas
before and early in the morning you
could see them lining up by the
thousands to come and we actually went
to 10 or 12 villages to do this and
people said to me at the time oh that’s
so frivolous and the kids won’t remember
it and why don’t you use your money to
do something else more substantial Oprah
and I said they may not remember the toy
they may not remember the clothes
although they were most excited the
children to open boxes containing
clothes because as their caretaker said
to us having new clothes made them not
feel poor and for so many of these kids
was the first time they’d ever
experienced having something that was
new for them they may not remember what
they got in the box but they will
remember that somebody remembered them
they will remember the experience so
during this entire experience Nelson
Mandela had invited Steadman and I to
stay at his home
so when Nelson mendelian by true you
stay
and I was so nervous I was like oh my
god what am I going to talk to because
it’s 10 days it’s 10 days is not just a
dinner it’s not alleged to 10 days it’s
10 days breakfast lunch and dinner with
Nelson Mandela what am I going to say
Stedman said why don’t you try listening
so I did I had 29 meals with Nelson
Mandela at first really really really I
was very you know like oh my god it’s
Nelson Mandela and by the third or
fourth day he and I were to sit together
in his living room sharing the paper at
the end of the day talking about events
in the world and one of the things we
came to talk about the most was the
power of Education to overcome poverty
so in one of those lucid moments I said
to him well you know I’ve always wanted
to build a school he said you want to
build a school Oh brah you want to build
a school he got up and made a phone call
to the Ministry of Education I wasn’t
planning on building it then but all
right the Minister of Education comes
over later in the day and we start the
process of building a school the reason
why I wanted to build a school because I
tried different things because I always
knew even before I could articulate that
my personality needs to serve my soul
this is what people don’t know because
you can’t tell everybody I am Who I am
one black woman my hand in God and
trusting in that word cuz that word
never failed me and I got to where I am
and I stand as I am as Maya Angelou
often says and often said and says in
her poem to our grandmothers every time
you see me I come as one but I stand
10,000 every time you see me I come as
one but I stand as 10,000 so it’s just
not me standing up here it’s every it’s
my mother my grandmother her mother the
mother before her her grandfather every
uncle who prayed every sister who cried
every on to sacrifice those whose names
made the history books those whose names
never could make the history books who
allowed me to come as one and stand as
10,000 so oftentimes when I walk into a
room just as cool as you please and I
can’t see another black face in a 50
mile radius
I stand and sit at the board’s as one
but I’m bringing the 10,000 behind me
because I not only know who I am but I
also know who’s I am and so anything you
hear about me that feels good sounds
good you think about what Oprah’s doing
has she done I I am living the dream and
I want you to live the dream because I’m
not living the dream because I’m special
I’m living the dream because I was
obedient to the call of the dream so I
want you to leave here today thinking
about what is the dream for you what is
God’s dream for you what does the
creator’s dream hold for you so often we
spend our lives wishing and hoping and
hoping and wishing and desiring things
this is what I know for sure you don’t
get what you wish for
you don’t even get what you hope for you
get what you believe so what is it you
believe and know to be God’s dream for
you so I live in the dream I’m living in
the space of the dream and dreams good
dreams good
the dream is greater than anything that
I could have imagined you know when I
was a little girl my father on Sunday
mornings after church he was a deacon so
he thought he had to say goodbye to
every single person we were the last car
leaving the parking lot in the green
Oldsmobile and we would drive through
the white people’s neighborhoods and I
used to dream the dream driving through
the white people’s neighborhood we drive
through white people’s neighborhoods and
you see their fancy houses some of them
had gates but all of them had trees and
I remember when I first came to
Baltimore I met a friend hello Baltimore
in the house when I first came to
Baltimore I I made friends with a
wonderful woman named Arlene Weiner she
was a wealthiest person I’d ever met and
I went to her house and parked at the
driveway there was a Corvette and there
was a BMW and there’s a Mercedes away
whoa Arlene’s rich and at Arlene’s house
once I got inside I could see from her
kitchen window six trees in the front
yard I thought oh rich people have trees
when I get rich I’m gonna get me some
trees I’m not just gonna get me
everybody want to get cars and
pocketbooks and shoes I want me some
trees so as life would have it I was
standing in my kitchen window about
three years ago in California making
coffee in the morning and I was looking
out the window and I saw the six trees
but listen to me I was making making
making the coffee
I saw the six trees I went out on the
porch to actually count the six trees
and this is what I noticed that I could
dream the six but beyond the six trees
in my kitchen window or 3687 trees how
do I know because I had them counted
I hadn’t counted as I said I wonder how
many trees out there I dreamed the six
that’s as much as my my small mind and
my imagination could hold for myself I
dream the six but God can see beyond the
six can see beyond the six because there
was a bigger dream for me and I’m here
to tell you there is a bigger dream for
you essence there’s a bigger dream and
so the key the secret the magic is to
surrender to God’s dream for you to quit
fighting against and pushing against and
disallowing against and resisting
against and trying to tell the Creator
the universal forces divine intelligence
what you were supposed to do and get
still and know for sure what his dream
the dream is for you thank you guys so
much for watching I hope you enjoyed I’d
love to know what did you think of the
video were you inspired are you
motivated what was your favorite message
from Oprah please leave it in the
comments below and I’m gonna join in the
discussion I also want to give a quick
shout out to Renee Montague Renee thank
you so much for picking up a copy of my
book it really really really means a lot
to me so thank you guys again for
watching I believe in you I hope we
continue to believe in yourself and
whatever your one word is much love I’ll
see you soon
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