Who Is Oprah Winfrey's Formula For Success?

While living with her dad she learned discipline and learned how to use her great intelligence, from potential to kinetic use. At school she was know for her intelligent speaking and she received a scholarship at Tennessee University. She majored in broadcast communication and she scored a job as a reporter at a Nashville TV station. “Oprah left school at the age of 19 years old to become the first Afro-American woman broadcaster in Nashville (Best Inpirational Stories, 2009)”. She made various amount of mistakes at her new job, she felt exhausted all the time. The Nashville station management team didn’t like her attitude towards the camera; too, on top of that, they didn’t like her “appearance”. “They complained about her hair style, her big nose and the distance between her eyes. Tempted to glamourize her appearance, they sent her to a good salon in New York which did a disastrous remodeling that made her hair fall off (Best Inpirational Stories, 2009).

Oprah Winfrey is an African American woman who made it big through her daytime talk show. While being famously known for her large-scale giveaways and interviews with celebrities, Oprah is also a philanthropist and plays a role in American history. Oprah Winfrey is important to American history because she established the ‘Oprah Effect’ (1), has started many charitable organizations (4), broke down barriers supporting gay rights as a Christian (8), and having her own hit TV talk show (2). In doing this, she has helped people learn to accept others who are different (2).

Success is a concept that is constantly altered and has a different meaning from person to person. The stereotypical definition of success would be someone who has a high-paying job or is in the upper-class. Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Outliers: The Story of Success, approaches the concept of success in a different and unique way. Gladwell discusses how opportunities, cultural legacy, and hard work all coincide with each other to produce real success. He uses mostly logic and multiple unrelated anecdotes to support and provide evidence for his statements. Gladwell's main argument is that although hard work and talent are essential for success, one’s given opportunities and cultural legacy is what really

Oprah Gail Winfrey born January 29, 1954 is well-known for one the best talk shows called “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and is renowned for her supporting to charities and creating her own “Angels Network” aimed at inspiring people around the world to make differences in others lives for those who are less privileged. The reasons that I have selected Oprah Winfrey are because she is the best in her field, has over come personal obstacles, contributed greatly to society and has inspired others to achieve.

By definition, success is a person or thing that achieves desired aims or attains prosperity. How an individual reaches the point of success is “not exceptional or mysterious. It is grounded in a web of advantages and inheritances, some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky- but all critical to making them who they are” (285). Throughout the book, Outliers by Malcom Gladwell, the pieces of the secret to success are put together. Three parts of success include pure luck, the amount of time and effort put into working to achieve your goal and where you come from.

She channels her prosperity into helping others and has become a widely recognized philanthropist, initially via with her talk show then in establishing philanthropic projects that have touched millions around the world. Oprah’s success is undeniable, but what makes her so influential, so remarkable? According to Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Outliers: The Story of Success, there are certain factors that contribute to or thwart the success of an individual; but does Oprah fit the archetype that defines a successful person, or was she simply lucky?

Oprah was a pioneer of successful women in the entertainment industry. “Oprah created a TV network called Oxygen that was geared towards women”(Harmon).Oprah created successful companies and channels that employed many and became well known in American society. She represented a strong, black, female leader who had wild success, inspiring women everywhere.  I was and still am often the only woman in a room full of white men, but this drives me to prove I am capable of anything (Oprah Winfrey on Career,Life and Leadership).Oprah has become a role model and a reminder to women and girls everywhere that you can achieve anything, even if it had only been achieved by men in the past.She also proved that you don’t need money or a prestigious upbringing to have success. ”Being black, and being brought up in the South, that’s sometimes considered a handicap”(Waldron 60).Oprah used her sheer talent and skill to overcome obstacles no one else had to hurdle in her industry, making her an instillment of motivation for those who thought they could never have prosperity because of their

In Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, his central premise is that success is not obtained the way most people think it is. We are often told that success come from sheer luck, or a triumphant rags-to-riches story. In Outliers Malcolm Gladwell tells the story of many successful outliers such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, The Beatles, and many more. He breaks down each story and points out what actually made that persona successful. While breaking down the story her also introduces the reader to what he believe are the actual keys to success. In the book he talks about The Matthew Theory, The 10,000 hour Rule, Practical Intelligence vs Analytical Intelligence, and Demographic Luck.

There are tons of people in our world today who have become very successful and these people find success in different ways. Some people work hard their whole life to achieve success and others just seem to be born talented in

Being successful in life is not always easy, because of different ways that success can be achieved. With many theories out there on success, it is hard to figure out what is needed to be done to gain success. In everyone’s lives there are many different beliefs out there that can lead to it. In the book “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell, there are numerous theories that are covered with examples of successful people. They clearly show how success can be done in not just one way but in many others. The most known people that are considered to be successful are billionaires and celebrities. They all have gained success in their lives in their own diverse ways. A good set of successful people in the world today to talk about are Mark Zuckerberg, Whitney Houston, and Nicholas Sparks. These people all come from different backgrounds before gaining their success. Malcolm Gladwell discussed many theories in the book “Outliers” that can relate to the success of the people mentioned above. The true knowledge behind success can be achieved in numerous ways.

Transition: Oprah’s charities and foundations are such a success because of the life she had. Her past added to her drive to help others to give them the best life possible. This all leads back to why Oprah Winfrey is so successful to this day.

But of the people who do achieve success, I say it is luck far more than anything else that drives it.

Have you ever met someone who has made his or her struggles the key to his or her success? Omie Ashford has overcome her struggles to become successful and gone above and beyond in helping others reach their full potential. As a middle-¬aged woman who grew up poor in a small town, she can relate to the struggles that many people around her face. Without any financial support, she worked hard to get a degree to become a social worker and teacher administrator. She also became a minister at her church. Omie Ashford maybe a small woman but because of her huge heart, full of hope, she has managed to sponsor young children, engage in charity work, and impact the lives of people around her all while saving the day as superwoman of her family.

So, how has Oprah continued to succeed and grow while others fizzle and fade away after a few years? In past interviews, most of her advice for a successful career are based around not attempting to be successful, but simply finding your passion and what you love to do. Throughout her years on television, this is what she has done. Oprah originally had no end game, she was just pursuing what she loved to do and what she was good at. If situations were different, and certain opportunities had never come around, she would never be where she is today, but the hard work she put in everyday allowed her to grow

“The harder I work, the luckier I get.” We’ve all heard stories about people who seemed to be the recipients (deserving or not) of incredible luck. They were at a party and heard cocktail chatter about a fantastic job opportunity. They fortuitously knew a guy who knew a guy, etc.