This blog post tells you the success story of Oprah Winfrey. Oprah Gail Winfrey is an American talk show host and a producer. She rose to fame with her talk show "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and became the richest African American woman of the 20th century.
Oprah Winfrey at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on February 5, 2014
Born to a single teenage mother in poverty and being molested, Oprah had a rough childhood. Growing up, she worked various odd jobs before landing a job to anchor the local news at a small radio network. She then went on to work in a TV station, where she started her own talk show. Her emotional delivery in that show made her the favorite of the masses. As a result, her TV show became one of the highest-rated shows ever.
When she was a kid, Oprah suffered a lot due to poverty. So, when she became famous, she tried to make the world a better place to live by donating money to the needy. Today, she is known as one of the greatest black philanthropists and one of the most influential women in the world.
Read this success story of Oprah Winfrey to get a glimpse into her journey and find out how she transformed her life completely using sheer hard work and empathy towards her community.
Childhood
Birth
Oprah Winfrey was born on 29th January 1954 in Mississippi to a single teenage mother. She was named Orpah Gail Winfrey. Her father, Vernon Winfrey, left her mother soon after her birth. At that time, her mother was 18 years old and did not have a job. She knew that she couldn't take care of young Oprah without a job. So, she left Oprah to stay with Oprah's maternal grandmother and moved to Milwaukee to find a job.
Oprah Winfrey when she was 2 years old. Picture credits - Oprah.com
So, Oprah lived with her maternal grandmother for the first six years of her life, where she saw extreme poverty. They were so poor that Oprah had to wear dresses made out of potato sacks.
The gifted child
Even though she was born into a poor family, Oprah was a gifted child. As a kid, she developed a desire for learning, a passion for speaking, and even envisioned her future.
Her grandmother realized her skills and wanted Oprah to have a promising future. So, she taught Oprah to read when she was just two and a half years old. Soon, Oprah developed a desire for reading, and by the age of three, could recite Bible verses for the church. Astonished by Oprah's ability to read the Bible, the people who came to the church nicknamed her, 'The Preacher.'
It is during this time that Oprah's passion for speaking also started taking shape. As a kid, she used to interview her dolls and the birds around her house. Imagining that she was on a stage and the farm animals were her audience, she used to enact in front of them. Looking at this, her grandmother realized her innate talent for speaking and acting and always encouraged her. In her later years, this encouragement she got from her grandmother when she was a kid, would motivate Oprah to speak in public.
When she was just four years old, Oprah had a feeling that she would be a great personality when she grows up. Even though she was a kid and did not know what she would do when she grew up, she was sure of one thing - that she wouldn't be poor all her life. Even as a kid, she envisioned her future, something that many successful people often do.
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“Whenever I look into the future, it is so bright it burns my eyes” – Oprah Winfrey
Oprah skips kindergarten
One year later, when she was five years old, Oprah was sent to a kindergarten. On the very first day, she wrote a note to her teacher saying that she belonged in the first grade and skipped kindergarten. Since her grandmother had taught her at home, she was skilled at school. So, she was allowed to start first grade.
Oprah develops her speaking skills
In the following year, her grandmother fell ill. So, Oprah's mother took Oprah with her to Milwaukee. By this time, Oprah had a younger half-sister. Since Oprah's mother worked as a housemaid, she did not have much spare time to spend with her children. The little spare time she had was spent taking care of her half-sister. So, when she was 7 years old, her mother sent Oprah to live with her father in Tennessee since she couldn't take care of her properly.
Oprah's father and stepmother were excited to take Oprah since they did not have any children of their own. They cared about her education and took her to libraries, where she read a lot. As a result, she became skilled at school. So, she skipped a grade again and started third grade.
The family also took her to church regularly. So, Oprah found more opportunities to improve her oratory skills by speaking at social gatherings and churches. Soon, she became so good at speaking in front of live audiences that she was paid $500 for a speech once. It was then that Oprah understood the power of her skill and decided that she wanted to be paid to talk. Thus, she had a lot of opportunities to develop her skills while living with her father. Yet, she lived there for only one year. After that year, when her father took Oprah to visit her mother, she decided to stay with her mother and continue her education.
Teenage
Sexual abuse
While she was living with her mother, her mother did not have sufficient time to take care of her children. So, she asked Oprah's cousin to babysit them. Oprah's cousin, who was 19 years old and came to babysit and protect her, raped her instead. He then bought her ice cream and asked her to keep it a secret. Oprah was just nine years old at that time.
For Oprah, the sexual abuse did not end there. In the years that followed, she was also raped by a family friend and her uncle. Yet, she couldn't talk about her sexual abuse to her mother because they did not have such a good parent-child relationship. So, when she was 13 years old, unable to suffer sexual abuse anymore, Oprah ran away from home.
During this time, Oprah was studying in Lincoln high school. There, she did well in her studies. Therefore, she was transferred to a more affluent school. Since she was in an affluent school, she wanted to keep up with her wealthy schoolmates, who spent a lot of money. So, to impress her classmates, Oprah began stealing money from her mother. It was also Oprah's way of rebelling since she couldn't talk to her mother about the sexual abuse she suffered. But her mother eventually found out that Oprah was stealing money from her and became furious.
Teenage mother
So, since she couldn't put up with her anymore, Oprah's mother sent her to live with her father. After Oprah started living with her father, she became pregnant due to the sexual abuse she underwent while living with her mother. But her son was born prematurely and died soon after.
Oprah's father
Oprah's father was very strict. But he helped her forget about her son and focus on her studies instead. He provided Oprah with the guidance, support, rules, and books so that she could improve. He made her learn five new vocabulary words each day before dinner and submit book reports every week. So, Oprah became very intelligent. As a result, she became a top student in her school and came to be known for her brilliant oratory skills.
Oprah was also a member of various clubs like the debate club, the drama club, and the student council. Participating in these clubs improved her oratory skills further. As a result, she became so skilled in speaking that she secured a full scholarship to study at Tennessee State University by winning a speaking contest.
Becoming a radio news anchor
When she was 16 years old, Oprah participated in a beauty contest conducted by Nashville's local radio station. Despite heavy competition, Oprah won the contest and was crowned Miss Fire Prevention. When she went to the local radio station to collect the prize, people working at the radio station asked her if she would like to hear her voice on the radio.
Excited, Oprah agreed and read a script. Listening to her speak, everyone at the radio station was impressed. So, they offered her a job as a news anchor. Oprah accepted the job and started working part-time at the Nashville radio station when she was still in high school.
Becoming a TV news anchor
Two years later, with the scholarship she had won, Oprah started studying her Bachelor's degree in Speech Communications and Performing Arts at Tennesse State University. During her first year there, Oprah won two more beauty contests, becoming Miss Black Nashville and Miss Tennessee. Oprah was 18 years old at that time.
After she won these beauty contests, she got a call from a TV station called the Nashville Columbia Broadcasting System (also known as CBS in short), who wanted to offer Oprah a job. But Oprah was concerned that the job might affect her studies. So, she declined the job offer twice.
But her professor, who found out that she had rejected the job offer, reminded Oprah that the main reason why people go to college is to get such jobs. This advice from her professor opened her eyes. So, when CBS called her the third time, she took the job. Thus, when she was 19 years old, she became the first African American female co-anchor of the CBS evening news.
Career
Baltimore TV news anchor
Three years later, she moved to Baltimore to co-anchor the Six 0'Clock news. She was 22 years old at that time and was getting a salary of $22,000.
Oprah was a person who was deeply empathetic to people. But as a reporter, she often had to report tragic incidents like fire accidents without displaying her emotions. This was not only unnatural but also very difficult for Oprah. So, even though she was making $22,000 at that time as a reporter, she often felt that it was not the right job for her, because she couldn't display her emotions.
Since Oprah was caring and emotional, she couldn't be unsympathetic to people who were suffering. So, after reporting fire accidents, she would go to the fire victims and give them blankets. Once, she was reporting a funeral, and she had to ask the family of the dead child to comment on the issue. But she couldn't bring herself to do that, because she understood the pain the family was going through.
However, when these incidents came to the attention of her boss, he understood that Oprah was unfit to be a news reporter because she gets too emotionally invested in her stories. So, he wanted to fire her. But Oprah was on a job contract for a year. So, if he fired her before the contract ended, the company had to give her the full salary even though she had worked for only half the period.
Therefore, he demoted her to be a co-anchor on a new local talk show called 'People are Talking.'
Oprah's first talk show
Initially, Oprah thought that this talk show would devastate her career. So, she begged the General Manager to not put her on this show. But he told her that if the talk show succeeded, she could impact the community much more than a news reporter. So, Oprah started to co-anchor the talk show.
In this show, Oprah and her co-anchor Richard Sher interviewed people from all walks of life. In the very first episode of the talk show, Oprah and Richard interviewed an ice-cream man and a character from an American soap opera.
Once she started the interview, she felt a connection to what she was doing. She realized immediately that this is what she really wanted to do. She asked the right questions and was not shy about revealing secrets about herself. So, she connected with the female audience easily. As a result, Oprah and Richard's talk show became famous.
The Oprah Winfrey show
After serving seven years on the talk show, Oprah was hired by another TV broadcasting company called the American Broadcasting Company to improve the ratings of its morning talk show. Before Oprah joined the company, its talk show was consistently last in the ratings. It was aired for half an hour and focused mostly on traditional women's issues. Oprah immediately changed the focus of the talk show to current controversial issues.
Within months, Oprah's talk show became one of the highest-rated talk shows of America. It overtook Phil Donahue's talk show, which was considered the best talk show in Chicago. People said that while Oprah might not be a match for Donahue in journalism, she made up for it with her empathy. Due to her empathy, people revealed much more about their personality than they would normally reveal on a talk show. As a result, the talk show was named the Oprah Winfrey Show and was extended to one hour.
In the early years of the show, it was known as a general chat show. But it later transformed into a show that addressed social issues and the views of the celebrities associated with these issues. The show aired for 25 glorious years from 1986 to 2011 and was a huge success barring a few controversies. It received 47 Daytime Emmy awards.
Her own production company
Due to her talk show's success, Oprah started her own production company, Harpo Productions, Inc., in 1986. Within two years of starting her own production company, she acquired the production rights and ownership for The Oprah Winfrey Show from the American Broadcasting Company. Thus, Oprah Winfrey became the first woman in history to produce and own her own talk show.
Oprah has co-starred in a few films under her production banner. She was nominated for an Oscar for the best supporting role for her role as Sofia in Steven Spielberg's movie, 'The Color Purple.' In her next film, Beloved, she played the role of a former slave. To get an idea of how a slave feels, she asked her team to tie her up, blindfold her and leave her in the woods for 24 hours.
One of the most powerful woman in the world
Oprah is a self-made woman who rose from extreme poverty and climbed the heights of success because of her own merit. She was the world's only black billionaire from 2004 to 2006, and the highest-paid television entertainer in the USA. Her net worth in 2014 was more than 2.9 billion dollars and has only risen since.
“Where there is no struggle, there is no strength” – Oprah Winfrey
CNN and Time magazine called her the "World's most powerful woman" and one of the most influential people of the 20th century. She was also voted the greatest woman in America's history in 2005.
Contribution to the world
Oprah believes that god resides inside us and goes with us wherever we go. This belief has helped her influence people with her warmth, affable talks, kind philosophies, and heal them.
Oprah is one of the biggest philanthropists in America. She has given more than $ 400 Million to educational causes to date and donated about $ 12 million dollars to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. She treats her staff really well. In 2006, she took about a thousand people, including her staff and their families, to Hawaii for a well-deserved vacation.
Oprah supports LGBT rights and is against gun usage. She donated about $ 500,000 to a student body in 2018 for their campaign for gun control. She has co-authored five books, including a book on weight issues and her memoir.
Awards and honors
Oprah was awarded the first Bob Hope Humanitarian award in 2002 for her service to the film and television industry.
She was named as "Person of the year" in 2008 by PETA for using her influence to create a better world for animals and the less fortunate people.
President Barack Obama conferred on her the "Presidential Medal of Freedom" in the year 2013.
Oprah receiving the presidential medal of freedom
Influence
In 2007, she used her influence for the first time to support a candidate running for President. Oprah endorsed the presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2007 and helped raise funds for his campaigns. This endorsement attracted about 1,600,000 votes for Obama. She was offered Obama's vacant senate seat after the elections, but she politely declined to take it.
In 1996, Oprah started an on-air reading club. Every month, she would announce the name of a book and ask her fans to buy the book. They would then discuss the book together the following month. One of the first books she read on-air was 'The Deep End of the Ocean,' which was a first time novel that sold around 750,000 copies mainly because of Oprah. The book then went on to become a best seller. Soon, Oprah became the most powerful book marketer in the USA. Her show drove more book sales than magazines, news shows, radio shows, and print reviews combined.
Romantic relationships
Oprah has been in a series of romantic relationships. The most profound and deep one out of those was with William Taylor, whom she met at Tennessee University.
The couple had an intense relationship. However, they broke up when Winfrey moved to Baltimore, and William decided to stay in Nashville despite Winfrey getting him a job in the radio network she was working at.
Another man that Oprah deeply cared for and called her "Most fun romantic relationship" was Lloyd Kramer. The couple broke when Oprah had an affair with a married man while Lloyd was away on an assignment.
The affair with the married man broke her and drove her to think about committing suicide. She allegedly even wrote a suicide note but later rubbished the idea saying, "she could never kill herself."
All these broken relationships took a toll on her emotional and physical well-being, and Oprah battled with weight issues and drug usage.
In 1986, she met American author Stedman Graham. She finally found love and solace in Stedman. Since then, she has been in a steady relationship with him. Her relationship with Stedman Graham has successfully continued for 33 years, with each partner supporting the other.
Facts you probably didn't know
- Oprah does not like people chewing gum! She hates it when people chew gum around her. It is one of her pet peeves.
- She has a phobia of balloons.
- Her multimedia production company, named Harpo, is just "Oprah" spelled backward.
- Oprah was close to Maya Angelou and called Maya her mother/sister/friend.
- She grows her own avocados at her house and always travels with fresh bread and avocados while touring different parts of the world.
- She has her favorite muffins flown in from Napa Valley!
The Success story of Oprah Winfrey
We hope that this success story of Oprah Winfrey helped you understand how Oprah Winfrey became what she is today. She was born in extreme poverty and suffered sexual abuse when she was a kid. Yet, she never gave up. She never stopped believing in herself or improving her skills. She even suffered from drug abuse, but came out of it and succeeded in her life. Today, she is one of the most powerful women in the world (ranked Number 20 in 2020).
So, whenever life gets tough, don't give up. Trust in yourself, and keep tuning your skills. Read this success story of Oprah Winfrey to motivate you. Always believe in yourself and envision your future.
“You don’t become what you want, you become what you believe.” – Oprah Winfrey
