Last Updated on March 8, 2021
“Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.” – Oprah Winfrey.
Amen, sister.
As we celebrate International Women’s Day, we would be remiss not to acknowledge the power and the wisdom of Oprah Winfrey, now 67. She is a rock star in every sense.
Her interview with Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan is yet another notch on her impressive resume. Winfrey is one of the world’s best as a broadcaster and an interviewer. As she mentioned in a follow-up interview, one of the things she does with everyone is ask them what their intentions are in doing a sit-down with her. And she, in turns, does the same.
It’s amazing how things can go when everyone is on the same page, and the revelations from Harry and Meghan reflect the scope of her professionalism and insight into people.
But it’s much more than her ability to snag the “big get” that defines her scope of influence.
Winfrey is the Queen of Empowerment. Not just women, but men, and runs the gamut of generations. Her words read like a road map of self-help.
“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.”
We can all relate to what she has to say. We all face unexpected challenges in our lives. Some of them can be traumatic. The dish about the dysfunctionality in the royal family prove that money, power and fame are not great inoculators. Sometimes, they simply add to the toxicity that life can bring.
For Winfrey, the price of fame has including fat shaming, as she has very publicly and candidly struggled with weight over the years. She has flipped the switch on that topic, using it as a platform to express her own personal issues of dealing with a void of unconditional love growing up.
“When I was a girl, there wasn’t always enough of that to go around,” she once said. “As an adult, though, I came to realize that even when people have the time and strength to care for you, the deepest care must ultimately come from your own self-acceptance, self-respect, and hard-earned truth.”
Her activism has a long reach, which includes causes in treating HIV and AIDS, fighting climate change, and her involvement in Project Cuddle, which rescues hundreds of babies from abandonment and abuse.
You don’t have to change the world to feel empowered. But if anything, Winfrey has taught us that we can start within, and take it from there.
We will let her have the last word.
“It doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from. The ability to triumph begins with you – always.”
