Oprah Winfrey - Success and inspiration
She is an Emmy Award winning talk show host and publisher of two magazines. She is currently ranked as one of the most powerful celebrities (according to Forbes magazine) as well as the ninth most powerful woman in the world. As of early 2006, her net worth was $1.4 billion and she is the first African American woman to ever become a billionaire. Who is this woman? Oprah Winfrey.
Oprah Winfrey was born in Mississippi on January 29, 1954. As a child, she began showing obvious signs of extraordinary intelligence such as learning to read at the age of two. She worked in media as a young woman and became a news anchor until she discovered a talk-show when she was recruited. Oprah Winfrey moved to Chicago in 1983 where she moved on to the entertainment industry and was hired to host a morning radio talk show. Her first show made its debut on January 2, 1984 and after it became successful, she claimed the rights and was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show. It was nationally broadcast in 1986.
She has also co-starred in many films since 1985 such as The Color Purple, Beloved, Charlotte’s Web, Throw Momma From the Train, and Native Son. Her production company, Harpo Productions (which is her first name spelled backwards) has released successful films as well.
Oprah Winfrey also has a website which is a premiere women’s lifestyle website that offers advice related to women’s issues along with resources related to her television show. Visitors to the website can also choose to join her book club, which offers free in-depth reading guides for books and online discussion groups. This book club is one of the largest book clubs in the world, focusing on new books and classics. It’s almost guaranteed that when an author or a book is recognized by Oprah Winfrey, that they will have an additional one million sales.
The Oprah Winfrey Show has been nationally broadcast since September 8, 1986. It became the number one talk show in less than a year from it’s original airing date. In June 1987, which was the first year it was eligible, it received three Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Hose, Outstanding Talk/Science Program and Outstanding Direction. In June 1988, the show received another Daytime Emmy Award and Oprah Winfrey herself became the youngest person and only the fifth woman ever to receive the “Broadcaster of the Year” Award.
Oprah Winfrey has a direct vision and brings out spirituality in women. She seems to trigger a light bulb in people’s heads… such as when they have an “A-HA!” moment. She is inspiring and enlightening and many people would agree that Oprah Winfrey said it best when she said “It doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from. The ability to triumph begins with you. Always.”