Oprah Winfrey's Life Advice Will Change Your Future | One of The Most Eye Opening Speeches Ever

my one hope today is is to is that i can be a source of some inspiration i'm going to address my remarks to anybody who's ever felt inferior or felt disadvantaged felt screwed by life this is a speech for the quad well i was on television by the time i was 19 years old and in 1986 i launched my own television show with a relentless determination to succeed at first i was nervous about the competition and then i became my own competition raising the bar every year pushing pushing pushing myself as hard as i knew sound familiar to anybody here eventually we did make it to the top and we stayed there for 25 years the oprah winfrey show was number one in our time slot for 21 years and i have to tell you i became pretty comfortable with that level of success but a few years ago i decided as you will at some point that it was time to recalculate find new territory break new ground so i ended the show and launched own the oprah winfrey network one year later after launching on nearly every media outlet had proclaimed that my new venture was a flop not just a flop but a big bold flop they call it i can still remember the day i opened up usa today and read the headline oprah not quite standing on her own it really was this time last year the worst period in my professional life i was stressed and i was frustrated and quite frankly i was i was actually i was embarrassed it doesn't matter how far you might rise at some point you are bound to stumble because if you're constantly doing what we do raising the bar if you're constantly pushing yourself higher higher the law of averages not to mention the myth of icarus uh predicts that you will at some point fall and when you do i want you to know this remember this there is no such thing as failure failure is just life trying to move us in another direction now when you're down there in a hole it looks like failure so this past year i had to spoon feed those words to myself and when you're down in the hole when that moment comes it's really okay to feel bad for a little while give yourself time to mourn what you think you may have lost but then here's the key learn from every mistake because every experience encounter and particularly your mistakes are there to cheat you and force you into being more of who you are and then figure out what is the next right move and the key to life is to develop an internal moral emotional gps that can tell you which way to go but the challenge of life i have found is to build a resume that doesn't simply tell a story about what you want to be but it's a story about who you want to be it's a resume that doesn't just tell a story about what you want to accomplish but why a story that's not just a collection of titles and and positions but a story that's really about your purpose because when you inevitably stumble and find yourself stuck in a hole that is the story that will get you out what is your true calling what is your dharma what is your purpose for me that discovery came in 1994 when i interviewed a little girl who who had decided to collect pocket change in order to help other people in need she raised a thousand dollars all by herself and i thought what that little nine-year-old girl with a bucket and a big heart could do that i wonder what i could do so i asked for our viewers to take up their own change collection and in one month just from pennies and nickels and dimes we raised more than three million dollars that we used to send one student from every state in the united states to college and together we built 55 schools in 12 different countries and restored nearly 300 homes that were devastated by hurricanes rita and katrina so the angel network i've been on the air for a long time but it was the angel network that actually focused my internal gps it helped me to decide that i wasn't just going to be on tv every day but that the goal of my shows my interviews my business my philanthropy all of it whatever ventures i might pursue would be to make clear that what unites us is ultimately far more redeeming and compelling than anything that separates me because what it become clear to me and i want you to know it isn't always clear in the beginning because as i said i've been on television since i was 19 years old but around 94 i got really clear so don't expect the clarity to come all at once to know your purpose right away but what became clear to me was that i was here on earth to use television and not be used by it to use television to illuminate the transcendent power of our better angels so this angel network it didn't just change the lives of those who were held but the lives of those who also did the helping it reminded us that no matter who we are or what we look like or what we may believe it is both possible and more importantly it becomes powerful to come together in common purpose and common effort [Music] in our political system and in the media we often see the reflection of a country that is polarized that is paralyzed and is self-interest did and yet i know you know the truth we all know that we are better than the cysticism and the pessimism that is regurgitated throughout washington and the 24-hour cable news cycle we understand that the vast majority of people in this country believe in stronger background checks because they realize that we can uphold the second amendment and also reduce the violence that is robbing us of our children and we understand that most americans believe in a clear path to citizenship for the 12 million undocumented immigrants who reside in this country because it's possible to both enforce our laws and at the same time embrace the words on the statue of liberty that have welcomed generations of huddle masses to our shores we can do both [Applause] the point is your generation is charged with this task of breaking through what the body politic has thus far made impervious to change each of you has been blessed with this enormous opportunity of attending this prestigious school you now have a chance to better your life the lives of your neighbors and also the life of our country when you do that let me tell you what i know for sure that's when your story gets really good maya angelou always says when you learn teach when you get give that my friends is what gives your story purpose and meaning so you all have the power in your own way to develop your own angel network and in doing so your class will be armed with more tools of influence and empowerment than any other generation in history i did it in an analog world i was blessed with a platform that at its height reached nearly 20 million viewers a day now here in a world of twitter and facebook and youtube and tumblr you can reach billions in just seconds i know you all understand better than most that real progress requires authentic an authentic way of being honesty and above all empathy i have to say that the single most important lesson i learned in 25 years talking every single day to people was that there is a common denominator in our human experience most of us i tell you we don't want to be divided what we want the common denominator that i found in every single interview is we want to be validated we want to be understood i've done over 35 000 interviews in my career and as soon as that camera shuts off everyone always turns to me and inevitably in their own way asks this question was that okay i heard it from president bush i heard it from president obama i've heard it from heroes and from housewives i've heard it from victims and perpetrators of crimes i even heard it from beyonce and all of her beyonce ness she finishes performing hands me the microphone and says was that okay friends and family yours enemies strangers in every argument in every encounter every exchange i will tell you they all want to know one thing was that okay did you hear me do you see me did what i say mean anything to you so whether you call it soul or spirit or higher self intelligence there is i know this there's a light inside each of you all of us that illuminates your very human beingness if you let it no matter what challenges or setbacks or disappointments you may encounter along the way you will find true success and happiness if you have only one goal there really is only one and that is this to fulfill the highest most truthful expression of yourself as a human being you want to max out your humanity by using your energy to lift yourself up your family and the people around you theologian howard thurman said it best he said don't ask yourself what the world needs ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that because what the world needs is people who have come alive from time to time you may stumble fall you will for sure count on this no doubt you will have questions and you will have doubts about your path but i know this if you're willing to listen to be guided by that still small voice that is the gps within yourself to find out what makes you come alive you will be more than okay you will be happy you will be successful and you will make a difference in the world [Music] you

Channel: Motivation Ark

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Id: hKkWjGisBIo

Length: 13min 9sec (789 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 14 2021