You know someone is influential when you stress out about what photos to use for a blog that not too many people will even see!
Oprah Winfrey was one of the biggest stars in the world at one point. After attending high school and college in Nashville, she was a news anchor in Nashville before relocating to Chicago. She took over a lowly-rated morning show and took it to number one in Chicago. This show went into national syndication as The Oprah Winfrey Show, which ran from 1986 to 2011. I can remember one of my friends was a Nielson home, so their TV was used to determine the rankings of all the television programs. Her show was always on at their house, whether anyone was watching or not. Her show did become the top daytime talk show in the country.
She is one of the richest African Americans of the 20th Century and, at one time, was the only black billionaire. People think of her as one of the most influential people in the world. She has had a prolific career, from her talk show to acting and receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the movie, The Color Purple to producing television shows and movies to helping to launch the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama. She also does these amazing celebrity interviews. People like Michael Jackson, Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and others will talk to Oprah, but nobody else. She also published a magazine titled, O The Oprah Magazine and has co-authored five books. She also releases a ‘My Favorite Things’ list regularly that has changed the lives of many small business owners.
But for all these amazing accomplishments, I always think about two quotes from Oprah when trying to figure things out. I will paraphrase one of them, but the second is pretty easy to remember:
The first is that sometimes you will have to say no to people. And if those people really love you and care about you, they will understand. Recently, I needed to say ‘No’ to an opportunity that seemed good on paper for professional development. It was additional study in my workplace. While I initially enrolled, I needed to say ‘No,’ as it was going to take me away from my family and my work and keep me away from what I really wanted. This leads me to the second quote.
The second is, ‘What do you want?’ This may seem so simple, but ask yourself that, and see what you come up with in your mind. There may be different things we want from different aspects of our life. But there is also likely something bigger that we want that we haven’t received or accomplished yet. And without identifying this thing as the thing we truly want, we will never take the necessary steps to achieve it.
So, WHAT DO YOU WANT?
· I want to have a happy family and a healthy life.
· I want to continue to write the songs that I am inspired to write.
· I want to make high-quality audio and video recordings of my original music.
· I want to perform my original music live in public.
· I want to collaborate with other artists on music and video projects.
· I want to write scripts for short and long films and television shows.
· I want to manage other artists and creatives and help them achieve their career goals.
· I want to write a musical.
I didn’t know I was going to do this list when I started this blog, but these just flew out of me. I like that none of them are dependent on followers, likes, money or sales. All these things seem in my control, and I have done the top 3 ½ already. But I want to keep doing them throughout the rest of my life to the best of my ability and do the last 4 ½ as well. And by admitting these things, I can be aware and take the necessary steps to achieve them. Let’s see how we go! And thanks, Oprah! You are an inspiration!
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