Oprah Winfrey Interview (page: 8 / 8) Entertainment Executive	Print Interview

You've become the most successful woman in entertainment today. I want to talk a little bit about your role as business woman.

Oprah Winfrey: That's so interesting to me. I read that, too. I read that! And I think, "Well what does this mean?" Like, one day, I was on the Forbes list, and someone says, "Oh, I saw you on the Forbes List." And it was like, just another thing that had happened. It wasn't like, "Oh, my God! I'm on the Forbes List!" What I find though, is once you make it, there is a competitive streak in you. Because now I go, "Where was I on the list?" At first I didn't care about making it.

I remember calling up Bill Cosby saying, "Could you lend me some money so I could be number five, because I got beat out by New Kids on the Block. " But other than that, it doesn't register. It is very difficult for me to see myself as other people see me. Very difficult. I don't know what that means. I don't know what being Oprah Winfrey means to other people, from the outside. Because I still feel the same. I really do. I feel the same as I did when I was 22 and struggling. Because the struggle has taken on a different form for me. The struggle is more of an inner self struggle, trying to find the truth for myself, than it is trying to get enough money to pay my light bill.

Actually, it was easier trying to find enough money to pay my light bill than discovering what the truth of your life is all about. What other people view as successful is not what my idea of success is. And I don't mean to belittle it at all. It's really nice to be able to have nice things. What material success does is provide you with the ability to concentrate on other things that really matter. And that is being able to make a difference, not only in your own life, but in other people's lives. That's really all it's good for because you no longer have to focus your attention on how you going to pay your car note, and whether or not you are going to sign your last name so that when the check gets there, they can send it back to you, and you can say, "Oh! Forgot to sign it!" You don't have to play those games anymore, so you really have the time and the attention to focus on other things. And the big question for me in my life is now that I have achieved some material success, is, what do I do with it? How do I use this to make a difference?

For me, education is about the most important thing because that is what liberated me. Education is what liberated me. The ability to read saved my life. I would have been an entirely different person had I not been taught to read when I was at an early age. My entire life experience, my ability to believe in myself, and even in my darkest moments of sexual abuse and being physically abused and so forth, I knew there was another way. I knew there was a way out. I knew there was another kind of life because I'd read about it. I'd read about it. I knew there were other places and there was another way of being. And so, it saved my life, so that's why I now focus my attention on trying to do the same thing for other people - education.
[ Video ] Low High    [ Audio ] Quicktime

You've given a lot back.

Oprah Winfrey: But not enough, not enough. I don't think you ever stop giving. I really don't. I think it's an on-going process. And it's not just about being able to write a check. It's being able to touch somebody's life in such a way that Mrs. Duncan touched mine. It's being able to make a child see the light in him or herself. Making someone else see that for themselves.

It's moving to hear someone as financially successful as you, discounting the importance of the money. It's what you do with your life.

Oprah Winfrey: I know that if I didn't have the money, listening to somebody who had it, I'd probably not believe them. Because you can't believe it. Because if you don't have money, and you are just trying to make ends meet, you think that if you could just make ends meet that would make everything all right for you.

What I know is, is that if you do work that you love and work the fulfills you, the rest will come. And that, I truly believe that the reason I've been able to be so financially successful is because my focus has never, ever for one minute been money. And the fact that the money has come has really surprised me. I've been just really surprised and delighted and very pleased, and at many times overwhelmed by it. But the money has never been the focus. You know you are on the road to success if you would do your job, and not be paid for it. And I would do this job, and take on a second job to make ends meet if nobody paid me. Just for the opportunity to do it. That's how you know you are doing the right thing.
[ Video ] Low High    [ Audio ] Quicktime	[ Key to Success ] Passion

You have people very close to you in this business that you trust, and they have also made a difference in your career.

Oprah Winfrey: I have people that I trust. I also try to surround myself with people who are smarter than I am. I think that the ability to be as good as you can be comes from understanding who you are, and what you can and cannot do. And what you can't do is far more important than what you can do, if what you can't do is going to keep you from flying as high as you can.

When my lawyer first came to me and said, "You can own your own show," it literally took the ceiling off my brain because I had never even thought that high before. I never even thought that was possible. And everybody needs somebody in their life to say, "Yes, you can do it!"

I have a niece who is 15. Several years ago, I told her the same thing that my father said to me. I said, "You are too smart to get Cs." I heard my father speaking. We were crossing the street one day, and she was talking about her grades. I said, "You are too smart to do that. You could be an A student." And she said, "Do you really think I can?" "Oh, of course. You are such a bright person." And she started getting As. A year later, she said, "Nobody ever told me I could." I think that one of the most important lessons to learn is that we are all responsible for our lives. But nobody gets through this life alone. Everybody needs somebody to show them a way out, or a way up. Everybody does.

I feel best in surroundings where other people are smarter than I am because I feel like I can always learn something from it. One of the other big lessons that I've learned, particularly in business, is that you have a responsibility to yourself to learn as much about your business as you can. I sign every check. Although it is now tedious because the bills that come in from running and maintaining a studio -- everything from Federal Express to Xerox, to every tape that needs to be repaired, and so forth -- it gets to be a lot.

I have stacks and piles of checks to do, and I know that there are a lot of successful people who don't do that. I still have a tenement mentality. I've been very poor in my life, and so the idea of having money and not being responsible and knowing how much money you have and keeping control of it, is not something that I personally can accept. I know that there are other people who can, but it's just not a possibility for me. I need to know where it is. There are times when I think I want to go to the bank and say, "Show it to me." Because just seeing it on a piece of paper -- anybody can print out a piece of paper. So I watch it very carefully and try to maintain responsibility for it.

When I first started being a "business woman," I worried about "How do you do this?" And I realized that you do this the same way as you do anything else. You be fair. You try to be honest with other people, and be fair.

You told us you sign all your own checks. You also work long hours. What kind of hours do you put in?

Oprah Winfrey: Thirteen-hour days, 15, 12. A 12-hour day is a short day for me. I feel like, after a 12-hour day, "What am I going to do with the rest of my day?" I get home, and I don't know what to do with myself because I have all of this time left over. I don't know what to do. So I really feel most comfortable working 14 to 16 hours because then, at least, I can go home.

Usually, I take a bubble bath. I love bubbles. Now that's the one big luxury I have given myself. Now that I have attained some material success, I will use an entire half a bottle of bubble bath at one time. Really extravagant. And I am really particular about the kind of bubbles, too. I don't want the kind that drip down off of your arm. Poor quality bubbles. I want the kind that cover your arm, and the bubbles stay. So I'll go home and take a bubble bath, and usually get in bed with a pile of books. A pile of books, papers, magazines. I have to read a lot for the show.

Most of the questions come from my own natural curiosity about a particular subject. And I find I'm best in situations where I just go right off the top of my head. Right off. I ask what I want to know. And that's what being in television for a long time -- and also getting comfortable with yourself -- allows you to do. If you make a mistake, you make a mistake. It's OK to make a mistake.

It sounds like you love your work, and so in some ways it's not really work.

Oprah Winfrey: It's not work. Steve Martin has a joke about how some people go to the drugstore, and they sell Flair pens. And he says, in a silly voice, "And I get paid for doing this!" I feel the same way. I feel like I would do this if I didn't get a dime for it, and that's why you know you are doing the right thing -- because it doesn't even feel like work.

Oprah Winfrey Interview, Page: 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8