moment you can figure out what it is
you’re supposed to be doing the sooner
you are able to get about the business
of doing that the way through the
challenge is to get still and ask
yourself what is the next right move not
think about it oh I got all of this 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
I’ve learned to appreciate living in the
moment and I ask that you do – I’ve
asked I’m asking this graduating class
those of you here I’ve asked all of my
viewers in America and across the world
to do this one thing keep a grateful
Journal every night list five things
that happened this day in days to come
that you are grateful for what it will
begin to do is to change your
perspective of your day and your life I
believe that if you can learn to focus
on what you have you will always see
that the universe is abundant and you
will have more if you concentrate and
focus in your life on what you don’t
have you will never have enough be
grateful keep a journal you all are all
over my journal tonight 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 the core of what really
matters that we are the same you know
how I know that because all of us are
seeking the same thing you’re here at
this fabulous school and we’ll 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 that may be what
you’ve always wanted to do is to bake
pies for people or bake cakes for people
or to offer your gift then then that’s
that’s for you and there’s no difference
between you and me except that’s how
that’s your platform that’s your show
every day so my understanding of that
has allowed me to everyone to reach
everyone and and there’s no way that you
wouldn’t because that’s that’s what I
truly feel it’s your eyes for a moment
will you please and breathe with me just
close your eyes and if you will put your
thumb to your middle finger and gather
your other fingers around and let’s feel
the vibration and pulse of your personal
energy as you take three deep breaths
with me inhale and as you exhale just
feel the vibration energy blood
pulsating through your body through you
and keep your eyes closed and let’s just
this day that you have been graced to
this day where many of those breasts
were taken for granted you just expected
the next one to come but the truth is
there’s no guarantee that the next one
comes this day how you started your day
what your thoughts were this morning how
how you’ve been allowed to have
encounters and experiences some
challenging some more life enhancing
that pushed you forward another day of
being here on the planet Earth as a
human being I just think about that
after all you’ve been through and this
day alone and the many days and years
past how you got here to this
prestigious esteemed university the
choices you made that have brought you
and quietly to yourself say the only
you’re still here and you get another
chance
this day to do better and be better
another chance to become more of who you
were created and what you were created
to fulfill thank you I say to the 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 that’s the number one
thing you have to do is to work on
yourself and to fill your self 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 said she’s so full of
herself she’s so close or so and now I
embrace it I considered a compliment
that I am full of myself because you
only when you’re full I’m full I’m
overflowing my cup runneth over
I have so much I have so much to offer
and so much to give and I am not afraid
of honoring myself you know it’s
miraculous when you think about it
because when I first started making
money
and it was you know my salary or my
earnings were published all over the
place I mean the first year I was like
really did I make that much money oh my
god it was very difficult for me to
figure out where my boundaries were
because I’d grown up poor and didn’t
have anything so it’s easy when you
don’t have anything and people ask you
for money and they say I need five
hundred
I don’t have it because I’m just trying
to get my rent paid it’s harder when
you’re multi billion dollar salary is
now into paper and you get a lot of
friends and cousins you didn’t have
before so how do you set boundaries for
yourself I was having trouble setting
boundaries myself for myself for even
strangers people would just show up at
my door in Chicago and say Oprah I left
my husband please help me and I would
because she knows I haven’t so don’t try
that now though okay don’t try that now
I figured it out so what I learned was
is that oh the reason why people keep
showing up is because my intention is to
make them think that I’m such a nice
person
that you can ask me for anything you can
get me to do anything I’m gonna say yes
I’m gonna say yes so when Stevie called
me this time I thought I try out my
first no on Stevie let’s start big he
wanted me to donate some money to a
charity and I didn’t want to donate to
the charity because I have my own
charities and I care about a lot of
people but the problem is when you you
have money everybody thinks you just
want to give to everything so every
letter I ever get starts with we know
you love the children
yes I do love the children but somebody
else is gonna have to help the children
so I said to Stevie I said to Stevie no
and as a person who has that disease to
please I was waiting for him then just
to say I will never speak to you again I
will never call you I will never sing a
song for you and he didn’t he just said
okay okay okay it’s okay he said okay
check you later and what I learned from
that is many times you will have angst
and worry about things and put yourself
in a state like someone said this
morning because her phone went off they
were mortified over a phone I said
really you will put yourself in a state
when the other person really isn’t even
thinking about you so learning that I
could specifically determine for myself
what the boundaries were for me what I
wanted to do give my money give my time
give of my service to who I wanted to
give it to when I did that I get to make
that decision and just because you get a
hundred requests a week doesn’t mean you
have to try to fulfill all of that just
because you have all of these demands on
your time and on you doesn’t mean that
you have to say yes you get to decide
because you’re the master of your fate
the captain of your soul is William
Ernest Henley said in Invictus and
understanding that really change the
meaning of my life and that I was not no
longer driven by what other people
wanted me to do but took charge of my
own destiny making choices based upon
what do I feel is the next right move
for me my life is fueled by my being and
the being fuels to doing so I come from
a centered place
focus 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 to to connect I
mean the secret of that show for 25
years is that people could see
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 I was like oh you mean you got more
than that thirty thousand more than
thirty thousand thirty so so my 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 cute
today generally so I could keep my feet
on the ground even though I could get
more shoes and I could understand I
could understand that it really was
because I was grounded I’ve done the was
doing and continue to this day to do the
consciousness work I work at staying
awake I would not even say an important
role I would say the role in my acting
career Quincy Jones discovered me and
it’s so interesting to me because when I
was working as a television news woman
in Baltimore and really all I wanted to
do was be an actress but I was doing
television and I felt at the time well I
I can’t quit this job because this is
what everybody else wants to do and if I
quit this job what am I going to do and
I was going to a speech coach at the
time that the station had sent me to
they you know they ever the broadcasting
school they sent everybody the same
woman and I was telling her you know I
really don’t want to do this what I
really want to do is act and she says my
dear you don’t want to act because if
you wanted to act you’d be doing it what
you want to be my dear as a star because
if you wanted to actually be waiting
tables in New York you been I thought
now why am I gonna wait tables of are
any working in TV so I said well what I
think is going to happen is I will be
discovered because I wanted so badly
somebody’s going to have to discover me
and she said you just dream your dream
your dream ur so when it happened I
called her up I said you will not but
with this discovered and it really was a
discovery it’s like one of those Lana
Turner stories only I wasn’t a drugstore
he was uh in his hotel room
saw me on TV it was unbelievable the
interesting thing about that is that I
I truly believe that thoughts are the
greatest vehicle to change power and
success in the world everything begins
with thoughts I mean the chairs that
were sitting in the room that we’re in
all started because somebody thought it
so I thought up the color purple for
myself I know this is gonna sound
strange to you I read the book I got so
many copies of that book
I passed the book around everybody I
knew if I was on the bus I’d pass it out
to people and when I heard that there
was going to be a movie I started I
started talking it up for myself I did
know Quincy Jones or Steven Spielberg or
how on earth I would get in this movie
I’ve never acted in my life but I I felt
it so intensely that I had to be a part
of that movie I just I really do believe
I created it for myself I wanted it more
than anything in the world
and would have done anything to do it
anything to do it because I think David
that everybody you know the thing that
works for me all these years whether it
was the magazine or which I still have
or whether it was the show I could I
understood that there’s a common
denominator in the human experience and
I want the same thing you want
which is the same thing you want and you
want what we all want is to be able to
live out the truest highest expression
of ourselves as a human being that
doesn’t end until you take your last
breath
what is the truest highest vision that
you hold for yourself now
where you are in your life there’s
always the next level there’s always the
next level to the last breath so I feel
that I always knew that I would get be
done with the show when I felt like oh
I’ve said as much as I could say here on
this platform and then how will I be
used if they were if there were a theme
song to my life
Amazing Grace would be one of them and
keep on using me to use me up would be
another one you know that bill with
their song so I feel that until you have
used your value as a human being you’re
not done I first started as a
broadcaster I was 19 very insecure
thrown into television pretending to be
Barbara Walters looking nothing like her
and still going to college so I do all
my classes in the morning from 8:00 to
1:00 and then the afternoon I work from
2:00 to 10:00 and did the six o’clock
news and would stay up and study and all
that stuff that you know until 1 2 or 3
o’clock in the morning and then just
start the routine all over again and my
classmates were so jealous of me that I
remember like taking my little hundred
and fifteen dollar paycheck and at the
time I thought was really a lot but
taking 150 dollars and trying to appease
them I would like all wait any time
anybody needed money I was always
offering oh you need ten dollars or
taking them out for pizza ordering pizza
for the class and things like that
trying to that whole disease – please
that’s where it was the worst for me I
think because I wanted to be accepted by
them and could not be because first of
all I didn’t have the time they wanted
me to pledge and I didn’t have the time
to pledge I was I didn’t have the time
to be a part of all the other college
activities or a part of that whole
lifestyle and it was very difficult for
me socially really one of the worst
times of my life because I was trying to
fit in in school and be a part of that
culture but also trying to build a
career in television it’s very difficult
for me to even see myself as successful
because I still see myself as in the
process of becoming successful to me
successful is getting to the point where
you are absolutely comfortable with
yourself and it does not matter how many
things you have acquired the ability to
learn to say no and not to feel guilty
about it to me is about the greatest
success I have achieved the fact that I
have you know in the public side done
whatever is fine it’s all a part of a
process for growing for me but to me to
have the in the kind of internal
strength and internal courage it takes
to say no I will not let you treat me
this way is what success is all about
it’s the same thing that prevents you
from being abused as a child that
prevents you from being abused as an
adult that allows you to build success
for yourself I will not be treated this
way I demand only the best for myself
you are worthy to say no you work that
it’s okay if you say no it’s okay if you
say no and then people don’t like you
that’s really okay the important thing
is how you feel about what you’re doing
how you feel about yourself it’s a long
struggle though it’s a long struggle and
I’m just hoping that you know in the
work that I do on the show and the
speaking that I do around the country
and that young people who are watching
this can get the lesson sooner than I
did because it’s painful because you
keep repeating it over and over and over
until you get it right and what I found
is that every time you have to repeat
the lesson it gets worse because it’s
you know it’s I call it God trying to
get your attention the universe trying
to get your attention so we didn’t get
your attention the first time so we’re
gonna have to hit you a little harder
this time so I’m still doing it I’m
still learning create the highest
grandest vision possible for your life
because you become what you believe when
I was a little girl
Mississippi growing up on the farm only
buckwheat is a role model
watching my grandmother boil clothes in
a big iron pot through the screen door
because we didn’t have a washing machine
and made everything we had
I watched her and realized somehow
inside myself and the spirit of myself
that although this was segregated
Mississippi and I was colored and female
that my life could be bigger greater
than what I saw I remember being 4 or 5
years old I certainly couldn’t
articulate it but it was a feeling and a
feeling that I allowed myself to follow
I loud myself to follow because if you
were to ask me what is the secret to my
success it is because I understand that
there is a Power greater than myself
that rules my life and in life in life
if you can be still long enough in all
of your endeavors the good times the
hard times to connect yourself to the
source I call it God you can call it
whatever you want to the force nature
Allah the power if you can connect
yourself to the source and allow the
energy that it is your personality your
lifeforce to be connected to the greater
force in the thing is possible for you I
am proof of that I think that my life
the fact that I was born where I was
born and the time that I was and have
been able to do what I’ve done
speaks to the possibility not that I am
special but that it could be done
started the school that I said to my
beloved friend Maya Angelou said Maya
I’m so I’m just so proud that I was able
to create the school I said this is
going to be my greatest legacy and Maya
you have no idea whether your legacy
will be she said to me because your
legacy is every life you’ve touched and
that shifted the way I saw legacy or
what you leave behind or what you do
because Maya was explaining to me that
you know over all the years of watching
your show everybody who decided that
they were gonna go back to school or
lose weight or no longer hit their
children or get out of a bad marriage
all of those people who have seen and
experienced your voice and the same
thing with everybody here you have no
idea what your legacy will be your
legacy is every life that you’ve touched
and we like to think of it I know you
have done amazing things with your
philanthropy we like to think that these
great philanthropic moments are the ones
that leave the impact or will make the
huge difference in the world
but it’s really what you do every day
it’s how you use your life to be a light
to somebody else’s you know and it’s how
you use your work as an expression of
your own art whatever that is
recognizing that I had the instinct that
the inner voice that told me that you
need to try to find a way to answer to
your own truth was the voice I needed to
be still and listen to get this this is
just remember this because this will
happen many times you know when people
show you who they are believe them the
first time I have paid attention to my
life because I understand that my life
just like your life is always speaking
to you where you are in the language
with the people with the circumstances
and experiences that you can understand
and interpret if you are willing to see
that always life God is speaking to you
now it took me a while to actually
really get this and to understand it but
once I did I started paying attention to
everything
and one of the reasons why I can now
accept the fact that I can offer my
gatherings of information and wisdom and
call myself a spiritual teacher is that
every single person who ever came on my
show and I hear there was like 37,000
guests I’ve talked to a lot of them came
from dysfunction and a lot of them
wouldn’t appear to be teachers but every
one of them had something to say that
was meaningful and valuable and that I
could use to grow myself into the best
of myself which is what all of our jobs
are your number one job is to become
more of yourself and to grow yourself
into the best of yourself earn your
wounds into wisdom you will be wounded
many times in your life you’ll make
mistakes some people will call them
failures but I have learned that failure
is really God’s Way of saying excuse me
you’re moving in the wrong direction
it’s just an experience
doesn’t experience just an experience I
remember being taken off the air in
Baltimore being told that I was no
longer being fit for television and that
I could not anchor the news because I
used to go out on the stories and my own
truth was even though I’m not a weeper I
would cry for the people in the stories
and which really wasn’t very effective
as a news reporter to be covering a fire
and crying because the people lost us
and it wasn’t until they I was demoted
as a on-air anchorwoman and thrown into
the talk-show arena to get rid of me
that I allowed my own truth to come
through and the first day I was on the
air doing my first talk show back in
1978 it felt like breathing which is
what your true passion should feel like
it should be so natural to you and so I
took what had been a mistake what had
been perceived as a failure with my
career as an anchorwoman in the news
business and turned it into a talk-show
career that’s done ok for me I think
every year you’re trying to reinvent
yourself and you stay in touch with what
other people are doing thinking feeling
I have always felt that my instinct and
ability to connect with the audience was
what carried us every day after the show
now I do something called after the show
which airs on oxygen
I have spent for the past 16 years a
half an hour an hour just talking to
people so my audience comes from a
cross-section around the country so I
get I stay connected to what people real
people are thinking and doing and want
and really when you see someone who
shows you a lack of integrity or
dishonesty the first time know that that
will be followed by many many many other
times that will at some point in life
come back to haunt or hurt you when
people show you who they are believe
them the first time live your life from
a point of view of truth
you will live your life from truth and
you will survive everything everything I believe even death
you’re supposed to be doing the sooner
you are able to get about the business
of doing that the way through the
challenge is to get still and ask
yourself what is the next right move not
think about it oh I got all of this 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
I’ve learned to appreciate living in the
moment and I ask that you do – I’ve
asked I’m asking this graduating class
those of you here I’ve asked all of my
viewers in America and across the world
to do this one thing keep a grateful
Journal every night list five things
that happened this day in days to come
that you are grateful for what it will
begin to do is to change your
perspective of your day and your life I
believe that if you can learn to focus
on what you have you will always see
that the universe is abundant and you
will have more if you concentrate and
focus in your life on what you don’t
have you will never have enough be
grateful keep a journal you all are all
over my journal tonight 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 the core of what really
matters that we are the same you know
how I know that because all of us are
seeking the same thing you’re here at
this fabulous school and we’ll 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 that may be what
you’ve always wanted to do is to bake
pies for people or bake cakes for people
or to offer your gift then then that’s
that’s for you and there’s no difference
between you and me except that’s how
that’s your platform that’s your show
every day so my understanding of that
has allowed me to everyone to reach
everyone and and there’s no way that you
wouldn’t because that’s that’s what I
truly feel it’s your eyes for a moment
will you please and breathe with me just
close your eyes and if you will put your
thumb to your middle finger and gather
your other fingers around and let’s feel
the vibration and pulse of your personal
energy as you take three deep breaths
with me inhale and as you exhale just
feel the vibration energy blood
pulsating through your body through you
and keep your eyes closed and let’s just
this day that you have been graced to
this day where many of those breasts
were taken for granted you just expected
the next one to come but the truth is
there’s no guarantee that the next one
comes this day how you started your day
what your thoughts were this morning how
how you’ve been allowed to have
encounters and experiences some
challenging some more life enhancing
that pushed you forward another day of
being here on the planet Earth as a
human being I just think about that
after all you’ve been through and this
day alone and the many days and years
past how you got here to this
prestigious esteemed university the
choices you made that have brought you
and quietly to yourself say the only
you’re still here and you get another
chance
this day to do better and be better
another chance to become more of who you
were created and what you were created
to fulfill thank you I say to the 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 that’s the number one
thing you have to do is to work on
yourself and to fill your self 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 said she’s so full of
herself she’s so close or so and now I
embrace it I considered a compliment
that I am full of myself because you
only when you’re full I’m full I’m
overflowing my cup runneth over
I have so much I have so much to offer
and so much to give and I am not afraid
of honoring myself you know it’s
miraculous when you think about it
because when I first started making
money
and it was you know my salary or my
earnings were published all over the
place I mean the first year I was like
really did I make that much money oh my
god it was very difficult for me to
figure out where my boundaries were
because I’d grown up poor and didn’t
have anything so it’s easy when you
don’t have anything and people ask you
for money and they say I need five
hundred
I don’t have it because I’m just trying
to get my rent paid it’s harder when
you’re multi billion dollar salary is
now into paper and you get a lot of
friends and cousins you didn’t have
before so how do you set boundaries for
yourself I was having trouble setting
boundaries myself for myself for even
strangers people would just show up at
my door in Chicago and say Oprah I left
my husband please help me and I would
because she knows I haven’t so don’t try
that now though okay don’t try that now
I figured it out so what I learned was
is that oh the reason why people keep
showing up is because my intention is to
make them think that I’m such a nice
person
that you can ask me for anything you can
get me to do anything I’m gonna say yes
I’m gonna say yes so when Stevie called
me this time I thought I try out my
first no on Stevie let’s start big he
wanted me to donate some money to a
charity and I didn’t want to donate to
the charity because I have my own
charities and I care about a lot of
people but the problem is when you you
have money everybody thinks you just
want to give to everything so every
letter I ever get starts with we know
you love the children
yes I do love the children but somebody
else is gonna have to help the children
so I said to Stevie I said to Stevie no
and as a person who has that disease to
please I was waiting for him then just
to say I will never speak to you again I
will never call you I will never sing a
song for you and he didn’t he just said
okay okay okay it’s okay he said okay
check you later and what I learned from
that is many times you will have angst
and worry about things and put yourself
in a state like someone said this
morning because her phone went off they
were mortified over a phone I said
really you will put yourself in a state
when the other person really isn’t even
thinking about you so learning that I
could specifically determine for myself
what the boundaries were for me what I
wanted to do give my money give my time
give of my service to who I wanted to
give it to when I did that I get to make
that decision and just because you get a
hundred requests a week doesn’t mean you
have to try to fulfill all of that just
because you have all of these demands on
your time and on you doesn’t mean that
you have to say yes you get to decide
because you’re the master of your fate
the captain of your soul is William
Ernest Henley said in Invictus and
understanding that really change the
meaning of my life and that I was not no
longer driven by what other people
wanted me to do but took charge of my
own destiny making choices based upon
what do I feel is the next right move
for me my life is fueled by my being and
the being fuels to doing so I come from
a centered place
focus 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 to to connect I
mean the secret of that show for 25
years is that people could see
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 I was like oh you mean you got more
than that thirty thousand more than
thirty thousand thirty so so my 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 cute
today generally so I could keep my feet
on the ground even though I could get
more shoes and I could understand I
could understand that it really was
because I was grounded I’ve done the was
doing and continue to this day to do the
consciousness work I work at staying
awake I would not even say an important
role I would say the role in my acting
career Quincy Jones discovered me and
it’s so interesting to me because when I
was working as a television news woman
in Baltimore and really all I wanted to
do was be an actress but I was doing
television and I felt at the time well I
I can’t quit this job because this is
what everybody else wants to do and if I
quit this job what am I going to do and
I was going to a speech coach at the
time that the station had sent me to
they you know they ever the broadcasting
school they sent everybody the same
woman and I was telling her you know I
really don’t want to do this what I
really want to do is act and she says my
dear you don’t want to act because if
you wanted to act you’d be doing it what
you want to be my dear as a star because
if you wanted to actually be waiting
tables in New York you been I thought
now why am I gonna wait tables of are
any working in TV so I said well what I
think is going to happen is I will be
discovered because I wanted so badly
somebody’s going to have to discover me
and she said you just dream your dream
your dream ur so when it happened I
called her up I said you will not but
with this discovered and it really was a
discovery it’s like one of those Lana
Turner stories only I wasn’t a drugstore
he was uh in his hotel room
saw me on TV it was unbelievable the
interesting thing about that is that I
I truly believe that thoughts are the
greatest vehicle to change power and
success in the world everything begins
with thoughts I mean the chairs that
were sitting in the room that we’re in
all started because somebody thought it
so I thought up the color purple for
myself I know this is gonna sound
strange to you I read the book I got so
many copies of that book
I passed the book around everybody I
knew if I was on the bus I’d pass it out
to people and when I heard that there
was going to be a movie I started I
started talking it up for myself I did
know Quincy Jones or Steven Spielberg or
how on earth I would get in this movie
I’ve never acted in my life but I I felt
it so intensely that I had to be a part
of that movie I just I really do believe
I created it for myself I wanted it more
than anything in the world
and would have done anything to do it
anything to do it because I think David
that everybody you know the thing that
works for me all these years whether it
was the magazine or which I still have
or whether it was the show I could I
understood that there’s a common
denominator in the human experience and
I want the same thing you want
which is the same thing you want and you
want what we all want is to be able to
live out the truest highest expression
of ourselves as a human being that
doesn’t end until you take your last
breath
what is the truest highest vision that
you hold for yourself now
where you are in your life there’s
always the next level there’s always the
next level to the last breath so I feel
that I always knew that I would get be
done with the show when I felt like oh
I’ve said as much as I could say here on
this platform and then how will I be
used if they were if there were a theme
song to my life
Amazing Grace would be one of them and
keep on using me to use me up would be
another one you know that bill with
their song so I feel that until you have
used your value as a human being you’re
not done I first started as a
broadcaster I was 19 very insecure
thrown into television pretending to be
Barbara Walters looking nothing like her
and still going to college so I do all
my classes in the morning from 8:00 to
1:00 and then the afternoon I work from
2:00 to 10:00 and did the six o’clock
news and would stay up and study and all
that stuff that you know until 1 2 or 3
o’clock in the morning and then just
start the routine all over again and my
classmates were so jealous of me that I
remember like taking my little hundred
and fifteen dollar paycheck and at the
time I thought was really a lot but
taking 150 dollars and trying to appease
them I would like all wait any time
anybody needed money I was always
offering oh you need ten dollars or
taking them out for pizza ordering pizza
for the class and things like that
trying to that whole disease – please
that’s where it was the worst for me I
think because I wanted to be accepted by
them and could not be because first of
all I didn’t have the time they wanted
me to pledge and I didn’t have the time
to pledge I was I didn’t have the time
to be a part of all the other college
activities or a part of that whole
lifestyle and it was very difficult for
me socially really one of the worst
times of my life because I was trying to
fit in in school and be a part of that
culture but also trying to build a
career in television it’s very difficult
for me to even see myself as successful
because I still see myself as in the
process of becoming successful to me
successful is getting to the point where
you are absolutely comfortable with
yourself and it does not matter how many
things you have acquired the ability to
learn to say no and not to feel guilty
about it to me is about the greatest
success I have achieved the fact that I
have you know in the public side done
whatever is fine it’s all a part of a
process for growing for me but to me to
have the in the kind of internal
strength and internal courage it takes
to say no I will not let you treat me
this way is what success is all about
it’s the same thing that prevents you
from being abused as a child that
prevents you from being abused as an
adult that allows you to build success
for yourself I will not be treated this
way I demand only the best for myself
you are worthy to say no you work that
it’s okay if you say no it’s okay if you
say no and then people don’t like you
that’s really okay the important thing
is how you feel about what you’re doing
how you feel about yourself it’s a long
struggle though it’s a long struggle and
I’m just hoping that you know in the
work that I do on the show and the
speaking that I do around the country
and that young people who are watching
this can get the lesson sooner than I
did because it’s painful because you
keep repeating it over and over and over
until you get it right and what I found
is that every time you have to repeat
the lesson it gets worse because it’s
you know it’s I call it God trying to
get your attention the universe trying
to get your attention so we didn’t get
your attention the first time so we’re
gonna have to hit you a little harder
this time so I’m still doing it I’m
still learning create the highest
grandest vision possible for your life
because you become what you believe when
I was a little girl
Mississippi growing up on the farm only
buckwheat is a role model
watching my grandmother boil clothes in
a big iron pot through the screen door
because we didn’t have a washing machine
and made everything we had
I watched her and realized somehow
inside myself and the spirit of myself
that although this was segregated
Mississippi and I was colored and female
that my life could be bigger greater
than what I saw I remember being 4 or 5
years old I certainly couldn’t
articulate it but it was a feeling and a
feeling that I allowed myself to follow
I loud myself to follow because if you
were to ask me what is the secret to my
success it is because I understand that
there is a Power greater than myself
that rules my life and in life in life
if you can be still long enough in all
of your endeavors the good times the
hard times to connect yourself to the
source I call it God you can call it
whatever you want to the force nature
Allah the power if you can connect
yourself to the source and allow the
energy that it is your personality your
lifeforce to be connected to the greater
force in the thing is possible for you I
am proof of that I think that my life
the fact that I was born where I was
born and the time that I was and have
been able to do what I’ve done
speaks to the possibility not that I am
special but that it could be done
started the school that I said to my
beloved friend Maya Angelou said Maya
I’m so I’m just so proud that I was able
to create the school I said this is
going to be my greatest legacy and Maya
you have no idea whether your legacy
will be she said to me because your
legacy is every life you’ve touched and
that shifted the way I saw legacy or
what you leave behind or what you do
because Maya was explaining to me that
you know over all the years of watching
your show everybody who decided that
they were gonna go back to school or
lose weight or no longer hit their
children or get out of a bad marriage
all of those people who have seen and
experienced your voice and the same
thing with everybody here you have no
idea what your legacy will be your
legacy is every life that you’ve touched
and we like to think of it I know you
have done amazing things with your
philanthropy we like to think that these
great philanthropic moments are the ones
that leave the impact or will make the
huge difference in the world
but it’s really what you do every day
it’s how you use your life to be a light
to somebody else’s you know and it’s how
you use your work as an expression of
your own art whatever that is
recognizing that I had the instinct that
the inner voice that told me that you
need to try to find a way to answer to
your own truth was the voice I needed to
be still and listen to get this this is
just remember this because this will
happen many times you know when people
show you who they are believe them the
first time I have paid attention to my
life because I understand that my life
just like your life is always speaking
to you where you are in the language
with the people with the circumstances
and experiences that you can understand
and interpret if you are willing to see
that always life God is speaking to you
now it took me a while to actually
really get this and to understand it but
once I did I started paying attention to
everything
and one of the reasons why I can now
accept the fact that I can offer my
gatherings of information and wisdom and
call myself a spiritual teacher is that
every single person who ever came on my
show and I hear there was like 37,000
guests I’ve talked to a lot of them came
from dysfunction and a lot of them
wouldn’t appear to be teachers but every
one of them had something to say that
was meaningful and valuable and that I
could use to grow myself into the best
of myself which is what all of our jobs
are your number one job is to become
more of yourself and to grow yourself
into the best of yourself earn your
wounds into wisdom you will be wounded
many times in your life you’ll make
mistakes some people will call them
failures but I have learned that failure
is really God’s Way of saying excuse me
you’re moving in the wrong direction
it’s just an experience
doesn’t experience just an experience I
remember being taken off the air in
Baltimore being told that I was no
longer being fit for television and that
I could not anchor the news because I
used to go out on the stories and my own
truth was even though I’m not a weeper I
would cry for the people in the stories
and which really wasn’t very effective
as a news reporter to be covering a fire
and crying because the people lost us
and it wasn’t until they I was demoted
as a on-air anchorwoman and thrown into
the talk-show arena to get rid of me
that I allowed my own truth to come
through and the first day I was on the
air doing my first talk show back in
1978 it felt like breathing which is
what your true passion should feel like
it should be so natural to you and so I
took what had been a mistake what had
been perceived as a failure with my
career as an anchorwoman in the news
business and turned it into a talk-show
career that’s done ok for me I think
every year you’re trying to reinvent
yourself and you stay in touch with what
other people are doing thinking feeling
I have always felt that my instinct and
ability to connect with the audience was
what carried us every day after the show
now I do something called after the show
which airs on oxygen
I have spent for the past 16 years a
half an hour an hour just talking to
people so my audience comes from a
cross-section around the country so I
get I stay connected to what people real
people are thinking and doing and want
and really when you see someone who
shows you a lack of integrity or
dishonesty the first time know that that
will be followed by many many many other
times that will at some point in life
come back to haunt or hurt you when
people show you who they are believe
them the first time live your life from
a point of view of truth
you will live your life from truth and
you will survive everything everything I believe even death
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