When You UNDERVALUE What You DO, the WORLD Will UNDERVALUE Who You Are! | Oprah Winfrey MOTIVATION

Oprah Winfrey went from being born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a teenage single mother to becoming the most influential woman in the world she was the richest african-american of the 20th century and North America's first black multi-billionaire she's currently worth three billion dollars and takes a salary of 75 million per year need motivation watch the top 10 with Billy Wilson what's that belief nation it's Evan I believe in you and this channel is designed to be a part of your daily success routine so let's get your motivation to attend and have you believing in you here's my take on Oprah Winfrey's top 50 rules for success also if you want to know what Oprah Winfrey and other successful entrepreneurs have to say about building unstoppable confidence check out my 250 for confidence series where every day for the next 254 days I will send you a morning video for free to help you build your confidence the link to join is in the description below key to success is what you believe is true for yourself your number one job is to become more of yourself figure out where your power base is okay let's kick it off with rule number one understand the right next move the way through the challenge is to get still and ask yourself what is the next right move not think about oh I got all of this stuff 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 rule number two seize your opportunity nothing about my life is lucky nothing a lot of grace a lot of blessings a lot of divine order but I don't believe in luck for me luck is preparation meeting the moment of opportunity there is no luck without you being prepared to handle that moment of opportunity and so what I would say for myself is is that because of my hand in a hand and a force greater than my own I had been prepared in ways that I didn't even know I was being prepared for and the truth is for me and for every person every single thing that has ever happened in your life is preparing you for the moment that is to come rule number three everyone makes mistakes you don't have to hold yourself hostage to who you used to be or anything you ever used to do coz who has lived and hasn't made mistakes when I think about my 20s and what a foolish girl I was and how I would give over my power to men who really didn't mean me well but now I hold no grudges against them either because I realized I'm the one who gave over the power because I didn't know any better and now that I know better I know I don't have to do that again it's one of the most powerful lessons any of us can ever know rule number four worked on yourself 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 herself and now I embrace it III 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 rule number five run the race as hard as you can I would say to my team well it doesn't matter cuz every season somebody else was coming out one talk shop to shop to talk shows three structures there have been over a hundred talk shows since we started but every time I would feel like alright got to step up our game got to step up our game the way you step up your game is not to worry about the other guy in any situation because you can't control the other guy you cannot control the other guy you only have control over yourself so it's like running a race the energy that it takes to look back and see where the other guys are takes energy away from you and if they're too close it scares you so that's what I would say to my team all the time don't waste your time in the race looking back to see where the other guy is or what the other guy is doing it's not about the other guy it's about what can you do you just need to run that race as hard as you can you need to give it everything you've got all the time for yourself rule number six believe that grandmother was made that's all she ever knew the only real expectation she held for me was that I would one day become a maid and in her words have some good white folks meaning people who would not speak negatively about me who would allow me to take food home who would be good to me would treat me with some level of dignity and respect that was my grandmother's dream for me but I had another dream for myself another more than a dream I had a belief for myself and I remember watching her hang out clothes on a line one day and say to me you have to watch me Oprah Gayle cuz one day you'll have to do this for yourself and knowing inside myself that that was not going to be my life don't know how I knew it other than that thing that we all have intuition or an instinct that said no this will not be my life but because I sensed that and was connected to that and I remember was a very still moment it was quiet and I was still and I was watching her I could see her right now with the clothes pins in her mouth and putting them on the line and seeing the breath because it was cold the moisture coming from her lips and I knew that that would not be my life I knew that I will not be hanging clothes on a line in a back yard in Mississippi so I was either four or five years old and that belief that that would not be my life is what I held onto for the longest of times I just no matter what believed that there was something bigger greater more for me rule number seven we are all seeking the same thing 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 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 rule number eight find your purpose a lot of people don't know their purpose and if you don't know your purpose your immediate goal is to figure that out because otherwise you just wandering around here so the 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 rule number nine stay grounded my life is fueled by my being and the being fuels to doing so I come from a centered place I come from a focused place I come from compassion it's just 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 my you mean you got more than that thirty thousand more than thirty thousand by the time I was thirty so so my but what 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 he's kind of cute today too 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 rule number ten relax it's gonna be okay dear beautiful brown skin girl [Music] and I use the word beautiful because I know that's never a word you would call yourself I look into your eyes and I see the light and hope of myself in this photo you're just about to turn 20 posing outside the television station where you were recently hired as a reporter you look calm you look happy but I know how scared you are if I could say anything to you it would be relax it's gonna be okay girl rule number 11 be authentic I think that success is a process and I believe that my first Easter speech and the Kosciusko Baptist Church at the age of three and a half was was the beginning and that every other speech every other book I read every other time I spoke in public was was a building block so that by the time I first sat down to audition in front of a television camera and somebody says read this what allows me to read it so comfortably and be so at ease with myself at that time was the fact that I'd been doing in a while if I'd never read a book like never spoken in public before I would have been traumatized by it so the fact that we went on the air with The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1986 nationally and people say oh but you should call you're so comfortable in from the camera you can be yourself well it's because I've been being myself since I was 19 and I would not have I would not have been able to be as comfortable with myself had I not made mistakes on the air and been allowed to make mistakes on the air and understand that it doesn't matter you know I there's no such thing to me as an embarrassing moment no such thing if I tripped and fell if my bra strap showed if my slip fell off if I fell flat on my face there's no such thing as an embarrassing moment because I know that there is not a moment that I could possibly experience on the air that somebody else hasn't already experience so when it happens you say oh my slip fell off and it's it's no big deal I mean like I was on TV the other day and somebody says Oh over you have a run have you not seen a run before in your life well I get them to let me tell you so I mean this guy I can't be embarrassed I can't be embarrassed now when I first started out that was not true because I was under think I was pretending to be somebody I was not I was pretending to be Barbara Walters so I'd go to a news conference and I was more interested in how I phrased the question and how eloquent the question sounded as opposed to listening to the answer I saw well which always happens when you're interested in in impressing people instead of doing what you're supposed to be doing and it took me a while it took me messing up on the air on during a live newscast I was doing a list of foreign countries and I there was all these foreign names and then Canada was thrown in and I call Canada Canada and I got so tickled that I called Kenna I got that wasn't come on now that was Canada excuse me that wasn't kind of that was that wasn't Kannada that was Canada and then I started laughing well it was it was it became a monk became the first real moment I ever had and the news director later said to me well if you do that then you should just keep going you shouldn't correct yourself and let people know I know well who's ever heard of Canada so that was for me the beginning of realizing that oh you can laugh at yourself and you can make a mistake and it's not the end of the world you don't have to be perfect and biggest lesson for me for television because then it didn't matter didn't matter oh sorry bra strap showing rule number 12 do it all what inspired me was and is continues to be what continues to inspire me is a primal and fundamental desire to fulfill the highest expression of myself as a human being I don't want to die not having completely burn out every single possibility of my humanity I just I just want to when I leave this planet I want everybody said did that used it all up not another thing I could do there was an another person I could have given of myself to there wasn't another deed I could have done there wasn't anything that you just want it you want to say I want to fill it up you want to take this whole human existence which when you think about it Godfrey is really pretty damn miraculous but is it is when you think about what it means to be a human being on the planet Earth right now that's pretty awesome so I just want to I want to I want to take that to the max I want to say no need to come back as a human angel status rule number 13 love more I know you hate this phrase but what is your brand do you think oh I'm the love brand oh we all darling no the love love brand you like to shower love around and yeah it's really that's what it is I am the love and love brand that's why I a bit like Barry White was the love god you're the love brand I'm the love brand because ultimately everything that I'm saying whether it's in my magazine whether it's Gale on the radio whether it's the Oprah Winfrey Show and now everything about the channel own it's about opening your space your heart space so that you can love more you know that's really all money is for money's worth nothing if it can't buy you the opportunity to love more rule number 14 always give your best you can't call in sick you can't ever give less than 100% and if you are sick which I have been a couple of times that's when you got to pull up to 110 120 because people have come from all over the country and this is their moment they've saved their money they bought the airline tickets they got new outfits they call their sisters or cousins their aunts their mother-in-law's their mothers and that is why they're there to see you so I feel a sense of responsibility a sense of obligation a sense of respect reverence honor for those people rule number 50 you are what you believe first day I went to school I was in a classroom by the time I was uh you know 6 years old didn't go to school - I was 6 years old because I lived my grandmother at that time sure but she had taught me how to read read the Bible Bible stories so I went into the classroom knowing Nicodemus Shadrach Meshach and Abednego I could spell all of those words I thought I was you know I was preaching to the to my kindergarten teacher goba she was like who is this girl so I was never placed in an environment where I was ever made to feel inferior I always felt like I'm smartest kid in this room and because I was never placed in it but never put in a position where I was made to feel less than I didn't grow up feeling less than you know and there is that this day is history and the rest is history and it's all about what you believe you know I say this too when I do something on my network now call life class the fundamental key to success is what you believe is true for yourself not what you want not what you desire is what do you believe you know you can say I wanted I want to be the most successful person in the world but if you believe that there's a glass ceiling and you're gonna have a hard time kicking through that glass ceiling curiosity will be defined by the glass ceiling and the great beauty and gift of my life is that I was never defined by the box that other people tried to put me in rule number 16 find your core self fame comes with the mission and purpose you know you cannot define me or try to put me in a box and you can't look at my life unless you look at the whole life so I am a Negro formerly born in 1954 in Mississippi at a time when it was an apartheid state and to be sitting here with you as your first guest in 2011 is a miracle that is beyond anything I could actually do for myself so there's something greater at work here and the thing that's greater at work the force that has and forces that have made this happen in my life along with me working as hard as I have is it's bigger than it's bigger than I am and Fame is is the vehicle from which I get to have this platform so do I like that I appreciate it if I had been what I thought I was going to be and that is a great fourth grade teacher I would have also like that because at the core of me I am a teacher and I am happiest when I feel that people are getting something learning something enhancing themselves in a way that they never thought of before that's really truly one of my favorite moments on television or in any experience when I'm just one-on-one with a friend or somebody I don't even know being able to share something with them and they think I never thought of it she rule number 17 provide value Steadman and I were in a hotel watching some bad television and I was complaining about the state of television talk shows in particular and he said why don't you change it why don't you just get your own network and I thought that that was a ridiculous idea and then he started to talk about it and he wrote some things down and I saw the word own at that Oh Oh W oh that's my those are my initials and I said wouldn't it be something if I could create a network that was really about mindful and I underlined the word mindful television fifteen years later those scribblings came closer to reality when she was approached by David zasloff the president of the Discovery Network my view was if we want to do this you have to be all in she paused and then she said to me it's meant to be and we shook hands and that's how our journey began at first I thought great and network all geez this is the dream I had and I actually showed him the piece of paper where I had written it down in Steadman's and as that started to settle in with me I thought whoa what is this I've gotten myself into this is a lot more work than I ever imagined are you scared very scared I was very scared and I would wake up in the middle of the night literally go like clutching my chest like what have I done what have I done what if you fail hmm that's what I was afraid of that's what I was afraid of the reason why I made the decision to go forward is because I believe that people deserve to have value centered inspirational programming for themselves I believe that television has become in many ways banal it has become insipid and not ever not all of it but I think that I have something to offer rule number 18 don't give up I did this at the end of my show I did my favorite guest of all times that's hard to do out of literally thousands and thousands they I think they're supposedly estimated that there's like 35,000 people I interviewed over the years but there was one woman out of all the celebrities out of all of the famous non famous infamous people one woman who was she her name is Tara Trent listen to the story I'm gonna try to shorten it for you got to it okay Tara right read born and raised in a village in Zimbabwe 11 years old she's doing her brother's homework she wants to go to school her father says no yes yeah you have to educate the boys yes that's right what's the tradition that's right the boy has to go to school you can't go to school so she starts doing her brother's homework she does his brothers homework he goes to school he gets all A's on his homework yet he doesn't know the answer to the question the teacher comes to the village to say what is going on here this boy doesn't know the answers but his homeworks perfect she finds out that Tara his younger sister he's doing his homework she begs the father to let Tara go to stroke school the father says no she can't go to school finally he marries her off she marries at 11 and a half years old she gets married she has three children by the time she's 18 years old a woman comes to the village from an NGO heifer international and asked what are your dreams this is gonna make me cry finally so what are your dreams this child has never thought about what her dreams were she says write down your dreams she writes down her dreams on a piece of paper and she folds him in a tin can and she buries them under a rock the first dream was to be able to go to the school and you go to a school in the United States of America and get a college degree she ends up through some miracle of the NGO going to the United States she gets a college degree Wow yes she gets a four-year degree in three years Tara right Trent she goes back to the rock in Zimbabwe she writes her next goal on the piece of paper she buries it under the rock she writes I want to get a master's degree she goes back to here is 8 she got the master's degree by this time she now has five children she's married to a man who stood incredible she goes back here and said she gets her master's degree after the master's degree she goes back to the rock in Zimbabwe she writes down her final goal is to get a doctorate degree and last year she became dr. Tara Trent where did you find it where did I find it I found her in the in the Nicholas Kristof's book called something the sky underneath the sky or the sky a nickel I found her a Nicholas Kristof's about heretical mm-hmm and I was reading the story I had Nicholas Kristof on the show Nicholas Kristof the famous New York Times writer and she wasn't there she wasn't a part of the time reading the star I can't believe this book the story of this woman as I'm reading the story so when we go to do the show the producers have Nicholas Kristof on they bring on other guests but this woman isn't there I go how could you not have her there so we tape another show with Nicholas stop we go back I'd go fine we're gonna find that woman Tara right Trent this time by this time she's living in the United States we followed her back to Zimbabwe to the rock we pulled the tin can from underneath the rock and that is my favorite guest of all time and the worst um I don't have a worst I don't have a worse but the reason why she and as I said this on my show the reason why Tara ride Trent is my favorite guest of all time is because she represents in that one story of the little girl in a village in Zimbabwe who had a dream and the heart and depth and discipline to pursue it she represents everything I tried to say in every show in 25 years she literally through her life story sums up the message that I was trying to give to every single one of my viewers you can you can keep trying don't give up you have to believe you have to believe rule number 19 live in the now the thing that I do best piers you didn't ask me that question Oprah what is it you do best Oprah what is it you do best thing that I that I I strive to do best is be here be now right here right now with you the reason why we've had such a good time is cuz I'm not thinking about somebody else is but I'm not thinking about how much time do we have left and how many questions you have and what are you gonna ask me just be here be now so that I can enjoy this experience and so I don't have a lot of I don't live in the past I don't carry the past into this moment cuz I do the Oprah show I learned how not to do that that's what all of those years of non therapy but paying attention to the guests on the show the way they live their lives what the experts had to say what I've learned from paying attention rule number 20 have fun does she look like Oprah Winfrey to you back yes choose a look like yourself yeah thank you beanie on and really staying in the TV TV one but don't tell anyone we're here you'd be the PS nobody has ever said that to me I've been talking to people and nobody has ever said you be the penis is a letter I wrote to Anthony OD I was such a geek he says on today June 22nd 1971 I've decided to voice my thoughts on paper to prevent my brain from becoming disrupted [Applause] that was in high school that was in high school June 22nd okay mmm she's always been very dramatic don't you know today is my ninth anniversary with Anthony nine months today never thought I'd make it this far my father says oh there we were there's me with the flip there was the Marlo Thomas that girl flip my father says stay at home and rest doesn't he know that love knows no rest nice best dance that for those who love time is not I love Anthony I really truly truly love him truly truly truly and I don't give a blank I use the blanks in case if my father ever found the letters I wouldn't be cursing whether or not people think it's proper or whether I'm too aggressive or flipped for him because I don't think God will mine there's some there's so much hatred in the world I should think God would be happy to see a little love flowing everywhere rule number 21 set boundaries you know cuz 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 he said 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 too 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 rule number 22 create the life you want Quincy Jones had 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 day as a star because if you wanted to actually be waiting tables in New York you didn't I thought now why am I gonna wait tables of already 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 you dream your dream er so when it happened I called her up I said you will not believe 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 Huli 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 gonna 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 room at 23 turn your wounds into wisdom turn 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 just an 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 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 okay for me rule number 24 live your life to the fullest what drives you to keep working so hard you could you know you and I are in the 60s category and so when you're in your 60s you know you've lived more than you're going to live yeah Mystikal e so when you realize you've lived more than you're going to live you can say why not relax a little bit why not just ease up why have you decided to even work harder than you did before 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 no matter 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 rule number 25 demand respect when 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 6 o'clock news and would stay up and study and all that stuff at 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 want to 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 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 ok if you say no it's ok if you say no and then people don't like you that's really ok 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 Rumour 26 you become what you believe 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 Bukka with his role model watching my grandmother boil clothes and 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 allowed 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 rule number 27 touch lives every day I remember when I 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 said to me you have no idea you have no idea what 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 going to 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 rule number 28 all in your life my intention in creating masterclass came from the understanding that everybody's story is the same all stories are connected and there is nothing that anyone who's living on earth has ever felt unknown or experienced on a soul level that hasn't been felt or known or experienced by someone else one of the most difficult things in life is feeling that you are the only one you are the only one who's travelled this path who's felt this way I nowhere to go I was homeless at the time I lost my family next thing I know I'm in this car for three years but I'm struggling who's experienced such a devastation or joy or triumph or victory so for me I define a master as someone who has fully stepped in and owned the full progress and trajectory of their life four sisters pays off that's lesson one but hearing stories told from the mouths of people who know how to live how to course-correct how to keep going how to never quit how to rejoice in the good times and have faith in the bagged those people are masters anyone who can do that is a master and their ability to share their stories only helps the trajectory of others who listen rule number 29 live a truthful life what I learned going to beauty salon and asking them after the news director had told me that my hair was too thick and my eyes were too far apart and I needed a makeover and sitting in a beauty salon in a French beauty salon allowing them to put a French perm on my black hair and having the perm burn through my cerebral cortex and not being the woman that I am now so not having the courage to say this is burning me and coming out a week later bald and having to go on the air you learn a lot about yourself when you're black and a woman involved and trying to be an anchorwoman you learn you not Diana Ross and that you're not Barbara Walters trying to be I was at the time I had a lot of lessons I remember going on the air many times and not reading my copy ahead of time and I was on the air one night and ran across the word be a RB [ __ ] that maybe barbatus to you but it was Barbados to me that night and telling the story as an anchorwoman about a vote in absentia California I thought it was located near San Francisco and one of the worst one of the worst this is when I broke out of my barber shell because I'm sitting there crossing my legs trying to talk like Barbara be like Barbara and I was reading a story about someone with a blaze attitude which if I had gone to Wellesley I would have known it was blase and I started to laugh at myself on the air and broke through my Barbara shell and had decided on that day that laughing was okay even though Barbara hadn't at that time and it was through my series of mistakes that I learned that I could be a better Oprah than I could be a better Barbara and I allowed Barbara to be the mentor for me as she always has been and I decided then to try to pursue the idea of being myself and I am just thrilled that I get paid so much every day for just just being myself but it was a lesson long in coming 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 not the 29th time that's particularly good when it comes to men situations because when he doesn't call back the first time when you're mistreated the first time 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 and you will live your life from truth and you will survive everything everything I believe even death you will survive everything if you can live your life from a point of view of truth rule number 30 say thank you close 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 another inhale and another inhale and keep your eyes closed and let's just think about this day this day that you have been graced to breathe in and out thousands of times this day where many of those breaths 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 you've carried yourself through this day 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 let's just think about that after all you've been through and this day alone and the many days and years passed how you got here to this prestigious esteemed University the choices you made that have brought you to this day open your heart and quietly to yourself say the only prayer that's ever needed thank you thank you thank you 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 rule number 31 master your craft and the number one lesson I could offer you where your work is concerned as this becomes so skilled so vigilant so flat-out fantastic at what you do that your talent cannot be dismissed stop comparing yourself to other people [Applause] you're only on this planet to be you not someone else's imitation of you I had to learn that the hard way on the air live anchoring the news one night in my 20s when I first started broadcasting I was 19 moved to an anchor by the time I was 20 and I was just pretending to be Barbara Walker Walters I was just trying to talk like Barbara act like Bravo Barbara hold my legs like Barbara and I was on the air and I hadn't read the copy fully and I called Canada Canada and I did that on the air I crack myself up because I thought Barbara would never call Canada Canada and that little break through that little crack that little moment that I stopped pretending allowed the real me to come through your life journey is about learning to become more of who you are and fulfilling the highest truest expression of yourself as a human being that's why you're here rule number 32 find a way to serve number two you must find a way to serve Martin Luther King said that not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great because greatness is determined by service now we live in a world where everybody wants to be famous and where we admire people for just being famous we think being known brings us value the truth is all of that will fade in time in three years you won't be able to name the Housewives a banana the real truth is that service and significance service and the significance that you bring to your service is that which is lasting so to be able to whatever your occupation or job or talent or gift is our honorees today getting Doctorate degrees - apparently opposite fields HIV and AIDS and the spoken word but what they have in common is service using the spoken word in service to community in the world using your knowledge and information about HIV and AIDS and medicine in service to the world and if you look at all the most successful people in the world whether they know it or not they have that paradigm of service everybody's talking about Mark Zuckerberg and I appeal service JZ rapid service through the word to people through song for many years I was really just happy to be on TV and people would stop and say oh you on TV oh yeah I'm on TV I like being on TV it's a nice job and it was about the time that I received my honorary Doctorate from Spelman around 1993 so I don't know if that had something to do with it I thought of myself as dr. Winfrey that I went back and I took the long look at what it was I was doing on on TV and made a decision that I was no longer going to just be on TV but I was going to use TV as a platform as a force for good and not be used by TV and I will tell you my decision to make that significant change in the way I operated on television using television as a service changed my career exponentially service through medicines service through art using whatever it is you produce your product as a way of giving back to the world when you shift the paradigm of whatever it is you choose to do to service and you bring significance to that success will I promise you follow you service and significance equals success that's number two rule number 33 take responsibility you are responsible for your life and if you're sitting around waiting on somebody to save you to fix you to even help you you are wasting your time because only you have the power to take responsibility to move your life forward and the sooner you get that the sooner your life gets into gear what matters is now this moment and your willingness to see this moment for what it is accept it forgive the past take responsibility and move forward rule number 34 solve problems you build the legacy not from one thing but from everything I remember when I just opened my school in 2007 I came back and I had the great joy of sitting in Maya Angelou's table she hadn't been able to attend the opening in South Africa and I said to her Oh Maya the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy that's gonna be my greatest legacy I remember she was standing at the counter making biscuits and she turned she put the dough down and she looked at me and she said you have no idea what your legacy will be this excuse me I just opened this school and these girls and it's gonna be and she said you have no idea what your legacy will be because your legacy is every life you touch every life you touch that changed me and it's true you can't personally stop anybody from walking into a school with an assault rifle nor can you single-handedly ensure that the rights that your mothers and your grandmother's fought so hard for will be preserved for the daughters that you may someday have and it'll take more than you alone to pull 40 million Americans out of poverty but who will you be if you don't care enough to try and what mountains could we move I think what gridlock could we eradicate if we were to join forces and work together in service of something greater than ourselves you know my deepest satisfaction and my biggest rewards have come from exactly that pick a problem any problem and do something about it because to somebody who's hurting something is everything rule number 35 always do the right thing always do the right thing always [Music] be excellent people notice think of how you notice you go to Taco Bell somebody gives you extra napkin and some sauce you notice you want to go back to that person cuz even at Taco Bell excellence shows itself be excellent let excellence be your brand everybody talks about building a brand I never even knew what that was when people say you're a brand I would say no I'm just Oprah what I recognized now is that my choice to it every way in every example in every experience to do the right thing and the excellent thing is what has created the brand years ago I did an ad for Revlon for for an ad they were doing called unforgettable women and what I know is that when you are excellent you become unforgettable people remember you you stand out regardless of what it is you become an unforgettable woman and that is what we all want we want to be unforgettable and not forgettable so doing the right thing even when nobody knows you're doing the right thing we'll always bring the right thing to you I promise you that why because the third law of motion is always at work for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction that is so true in all of our lives rule number 36 listen to the universe the universe speaks to us always first in whispers [Music] and a whisper usually in your life feels like hmm that's act or hmm that doesn't make any sense or hmm is that right it just really feels like that it's that it's that kind of subtle and if you don't pay attention to the whisper it gets louder and louder and louder and I say it's like getting thumped upside the head you don't pay attention to that it's like getting a brick upside your head you don't pay attention to that the brick wall falls down that is the pattern that I see in my life and so many other people's lives and so I ask people what are the whispers what's whispering to you now and can you catch it in the whisper rule number 37 become the-best-version-of-yourself 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 rule number 38 surround yourself with great people people don't always like you and they're not always happy for you and if you surround yourself with people who are not accustomed to your success they become fearful they become scared because you are reflecting back something to them but they don't recognize now they're not going to say you know I'm very fearful because you're reflecting back to me something I don't recognize they're going to say you know what they're gonna say they don't say who she thinks she is who she thinks she is that only happens when you are around people who do not mean and want and aspire to the best for you people who want the best for you want you to be your best so my greatest advice to you is to surround yourself with people who are going to fill your cup until your cup runneth over so when people say you're so full of yourself you can say yeah yes I'm full I'm so full my cup runneth over and to know that once your cup runneth over you cannot spend your life with your gallon-sized offerings offering them to pipes eyes people [Music] [Applause] [Music] you have got to surround yourself with gallon-sized people who can hang in the same company with you so that you're not offering your gallons to those little pipes out there who can't hold it anyway rule number 39 find your true passion if you can find what is your passion if you find what you love you never get tired or if you do get tired if you you're fueled by the energy of your work and you know what you're supposed to do by how it feels and so you know if you're doing the right thing if it feels like it's right to you and when you hit the thing that feels right you know it's right because it gives you your juice and you know it's right because you would do it for nothing you would do it for nothing and find a way to be able just to do it in order to be able to continue that's how you know you're doing what you're supposed to be doing rule number 40 have fun Aubry you're so recognizable you ever able to sneak out like disguise oh do you ever come help him oh no I well the last time I had on a hat and glasses somebody said to me well you trying to be incognito but do I have time for this really funny story sure so I'm walking my dogs in Chicago and I have my hair this is during this summer several years ago my hair's cornrowed and I'm walking and so there's this kind of like homeless guy and I'm going past the park and the guy goes how you doing baby [Applause] what's your name so I ignored him ignored him you know keep walking he goes you know what you can't tell about your name so I turned around and I said Oprah Winfrey he goes you wish rumor 41 know who you are for me the foundational base of empowerment of entrepreneurship of any kind of engagement the foundational base of my success of my well-being my wholeness my everything is knowing who I am and where I come from in my living room right now is a painting that I've owned now for thirty years you can google it it's called to the highest bidder and it's at the center of my house and it's at the center of my house because it actually is symbolic of the foundation of not the house but the foundation for my life the painting is by Harry Rosen who was a genre painter painter in the early 20th nineteenth century and the painting is over six feet tall and it shows a slave woman on the auction block holding her daughter's hand and I cannot come in the door my front door or I cannot leave without passing that painting I am reminded of where I come from every day of my life and I am reminded because I never want to forget it and in my library I have a frame list of enslaved African American people remember I showed you who were held in bondage on various plantations listed in the ledgers alongside the cows and the horses and the buggies and the other property and I passed this list every day and often I stopped in front of it and just speak their names out loud and their ages Jonah's eleven years old five hundred dollars Sarah forty-one years old nine hundred dollars Elizabeth 57 $800 and I force myself to consider the absurdity and the obscenity of prices being affixed to each one should they be placed up for sale and I sometimes just pause before them with a prayer particularly before I have to make a big decision about one of my companies or whether I booth forward or whether I stay still it reminds me speaking those names out loud not only of where I've come from but how far I have to go because of them and it reminds me that I am never alone it reminds me of what I've come through to get through rule number 42 be a warrior of the light everybody is feeding yourself on the hysteria and the negativity you've gotta stay in the light but one of the reasons why I was so excited is about a wrinkle in time because the message is that the darkness is spreading so fast these days you must become a warrior of the light and the reason that's so meaningful to me is because that's how I've led my whole life and every moment in that film I just felt like I'm just saying what I normally say and and for these times the darkness is there to show you your light look at what has happened so if you put the focus on look at what happened with the darkness it showed up in parkland and the darkness it showed up on the streets of Ferguson then the darkness that showed up in many many many many many many homes in Chicago with shootings and senseless murders it brings out the best in people it brings out the best and so that's what it's there we live on a planet where there is darkness and light what I deeply believe is not that do unto others as you would have them do unto you what you do is already done that moment in the color purple' where she says everything you ever tried to do to me where Whoopi says that silly every everything you even try to do to me already done to you so the law the third law of motion and physics says that what you're putting out is coming back all the time regardless of whether you know it or acknowledge it or not so you got to stay as a warrior white rule number 43 know your strengths I've done magazines you've done movies you've done television have you ever wanted to release a CD of music oh honey please no I you know what I think one of the things I learned growing up watching other people like Johnny Carson for example was was a mentor in a way because he always understood what he could and could not do and I truly understand that that is not something I could do I mean I attempted it just as a fun thing a couple years ago run on run on I got stuck here myself that's why we that's why we cut it off I wished I could it's the one thing I wish I could do but I think it's a gift to be able to sing and that's not what I was given but since I was given so many other rule number 44 earned success my biggest frustration is not just with young women my biggest frustration is also with young men young people who think that and I have a lot of this with my girls in college they think that success is supposed to happen like the Attucks yeah they think that there isn't a process to it they think that they're supposed to come out of college and have their brand and I recognize now that I am a brand but I was resistant to being called a brand for many years because I was like I'm brand I'm not a brand I'm a person but how I got to be a brand was not trying to be a brand how I had to be a brand was every day making choices that felt like this is the right move now that's the right move and now that's the next right move the next right move and so my frustration with young women and young is that they think it's supposed to happen like this and they don't understand that there's a process to it social media social media you did not get to be editor of Vogue magazine by not working and working and working and working and working to get here I love the theory of that there's 10,000 hours behind anybody who ever gets to be successful rule number 45 have good instincts I was interviewing a woman on one of the shows of so impressive for me to see all the shows that we've done Lord make me tired looking at it but I was interviewing a woman it was a show called the mistress the wives meet the mistresses or some crazy thing and this woman was on and it was a live show and in the middle of it her husband tells the wife and our entire audience and the world that his mistress was pregnant yes to this day makes my eyes water because I saw his wife's face and I felt her humiliation and I said I will quit TV if I have to do this I won't do this anymore and my producers like what are we gonna do this is what everybody's doing and then that same during that same time period so I said I'm not gonna do anything like that anymore I'm not gonna I'm not gonna bring people on TV where's the wall but we didn't know that moment was gonna happen they were like we didn't know it was gonna happen but that should not happen on television and I do not want to be a part of the energy that caused somebody to feel that because that's now gonna come back to me I got to pay for that then I was interviewing the KKK on stage that was the day the one guy called me a monkey in the audience and during commercial break I could see them signaling each other and just watching them and their behavior I thought oh they get it I don't get it they are using me they're using this platform because they understand because I'm thinking oh I'm gonna tell you all about the KKK they were using it to recruit members for themselves they were using it to recruit their base and I then went to the brewery sister said I'm not doing a show like that so they said you're not gonna do the mistress's you know you know KK what we gonna do so I said we are going to create a baseline for ourselves that's based on intention this was around 1989 when I'd read Gary Zhukov's book called the seat of the soul and that book was life-changing for me because in it he talked about the power of intention and that cause and effect what goes out comes back is determined by your intention the energy of your intention is what determines your life most people don't think about their intention they just think about what they wanted to most people don't think about why they want to do it but what's going to come back to you the energy that's going to come back to you is the real why of why you did it and so I then said to my producers we're not gonna do any shows that are not intentional so don't bring me an idea unless you have an intention for the show that you want the outcome to be and we're gonna strive to see if we can live up to our intentions and so around the late 80s we started a pre-show to talk about what the intention was and then a post show after every single show to say did we fulfill that intention and that's about the time I realize this is bigger than me rule number 46 love your audience I actually miss I miss you guys yeah I don't because where I got fed every day was the audience and I did not miss a day in 25 years because of the audience I don't care how badly I felt I don't care what kind of coal what kind of I would come because I knew that our URI rod in our audience every day were a couple hundred 350 people every day who have literally told their aunts their cousins they came with their mothers they came with their friends and I know that the preparation to get there you've been coming from Iowa been coming from Tennessee for days so it's not just a oh I'm just going to Oprah Show Utah girl I'm going to open okay so rule number 47 just be yourself the beauty of my life Edward is that from might say 30 to 33 on I figured out how to be myself completely on television and all these years I have made a fortune really being myself this huh so I'm never not me I'm never not the person that you see you know there are days when I am more open and warm than others and one of the things that actually caused me in 1991 to get my own plane I was in the airport and I was just minding my own business and a woman came up and she said you're not acting like you do on TV and I said what's that she says well on TV you're hugging everybody you just sitting here you're not hugging away I'm just sitting here man I'm just waiting on the plane so if I'm in an airport I'm not necessarily walking around hugging people okay but I am I am just always just myself rule number 48 align yourself with your dream life has dreamed a dream for you and your your goal your number one job is to figure out what that dream is and align yourself with the dream because the dream cannot come to you unless you're willing to meet it energetically in the same place so if your energy is off which I say to my girls all the time they could teach this class right now being in flow if you are not in flow with God's dream for you with life's dream for you if you are out of order if you are out of sync it cannot come to you it will not come because the whole purpose of your life is to line yourself up with the purpose and so if you are operating in fear if you are operating in jealousy jealousy will kill you when you are synched up with life life just gives to you it opens doors it creates experiences it allows you to meet people things show up you never thought we're gonna show up and you are doing what is the purpose of your soul being here rule number 49 create a meaningful life you know I believe that the common thread that flows between and through and around every person is that we all have this deep desire within us to create a meaningful life it's like a yearning that we all have to be more alive and to express ourselves and as you think of what lasting fulfillment looks like for you remember that this force whatever name you may call it is that work within you and all of us and it has a bigger dream for you then you could ever imagine for yourself and rule number 50 the last one before a very special bonus clip is have fun I'm really interested in my class is seeing this now somebody's cell phone it is like playing a little melody let's hear it bring it over come on come on come right go go down who are you calling I'm Elaine is it Elaine we just called you yes you know Ike and I actually called her just know she wanted another son mr. day to return my coffee but she's calling now if you answer I know Elaine Elaine this is not a good time to hit coffee Elaine Elaine this is Oprah Winfrey and you call your friend while she's sitting in the middle of an Oprah Winfrey Show no well this if she's sitting here right now and she cannot believe that you called her at this time where were you were you Elaine did you know honest she tried to call you earlier girl to come to help Michelle and you did not call her back and so now you callin her while she's sitting up here on the show you know but no we're not on the TV now weird weird weird we take the show to shows go what time is it this is true of course it is it sounds like me of course it is no I wouldn't I wouldn't kid you with something like that but anyway sorry you missed today we were given away so much stuff now I've got a really special bonus clip from Oprah on how to rise that I think you're gonna really enjoy but before that it's time for the three-point landing questions time to move from just watching another video to actually taking an action in your life or your business and if you're feeling bold answer the questions in the comments below here we go question number one what's the best way that you can serve others number two what do you need to take responsibility for in your life and number three who are you going to say thank you to today you could use your gifts that's what you're really here to do to illuminate the darkness in our world so this is what I also know that this this this moment in time this is your time to rise it is even though you can't go anywhere you can't stand in line at Starbucks you can't go to a party you can't go to any place without everywhere you turn people are talking about how bad things are how terrible it is and this is what I know the problem is everybody is meeting hysteria with more hysteria and then we just are all becoming hysterical and it's getting worse what I've learned all these years is that we're not supposed to match it or even get locked in to resisting or pushing against it we're supposed to see this moment in time for what it is we're supposed to see through it and then transcend it that is how you overcome a stereo and that is how you overcome the sniping at one another the trolling the mean-spirited partisanship on both sides of the aisle the divisive fitness the in justices and the out-and-out hatred you use it use this moment to encourage you to embolden you and to literally push you into the rising of your life and to borrow a phrase from my beloved mentor Maya Angelou just like moons and like Suns with the certainty of tides just like the hope springing high you will rise raise your standard apple at the core is core value is that movie that people have passion and not one drop of myself work depends on your it's suppose to mean if you want more Oprah check out the video I did on her on her six pieces of life-changing advice the link is right there next to me I think you'll enjoy it continue to believe and I'll see you there not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great because greatness is determined by service

Channel: Evan Carmichael

Views: 2,227,356

Rating: 4.8418307 out of 5

Keywords: entrepreneur, oprah winfrey success, oprah winfrey advice, oprah winfrey motivation, success, success motivation, oprah winfrey interview, oprah winfrey speech, oprah winfrey inspiring speech, motivation for greatness, believe in greatness, become greatness, how to succeed in life, entrepreneurship, entrepreneur advice, entrepreneur motivation, oprah winfrey top 50 rules for success

Id: RWC54NLngGk

Length: 91min 44sec (5504 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 19 2018