Category: 
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
I decided my first post in this “Passion for Excellence” category will be a post about Oprah Winfrey
The first time I saw Oprah Winfrey was when she appeared in her first interview with Barbara Walters. It was shortly after she had made her acting debut in The Color Purple. Her daily talk show was just starting to be syndicated nationally, and I had not yet seen it or the film. As Barbara interviewed her, I was impressed with both her demeanor and her answers. I was aldready starting to like her when Barbara asked her a question that set up what I believe was the defining moment of the interview. Oprah’s answer made me want to reach into the television set and give her the kind of hug I give my kids when they say or do something that makes my heart soar with pride.
Barbara’s question went something like this: “Oprah, what was it like growing up as a little girl in the Deep South? It must have been terrible feeling the devastating pangs of discrimination.”
With her one-sentence answer, Oprah not only stunned and baffled Barbara Walters, she won my respect and admiration for life. “Barbara, I discovered very early in my life that there is no discrimination against excellence!” Wow! I jumped to my feet and applauded. Barbara seemed so surprised, she didn’t know what to say next. I’m sure she had prepared a line of follow-up questions, but Oprah’s answer gave her no place to go.
I have to believe that Oprah did experience discrimination and the hurt that goes along with it both in her childhood and at other times in her life. And if I’m right, it makes her answer all the more powerful and revealing about her and her character. It tells me that she has taken full responsibility for who she is, her attitude, and how she has responded to life. It says that she refuses to assign blame to those who have hurt her. It says that she has wisely and lovingly responded to the negative actions of others, so that any hurts inflicted upon her have produced compassion rather than bitterness.
There are two other ways to interpret her answer. If she truly never felt the pangs of any discrimination, it means that she was so focused on her pursuit of excellence that she was virtually impervious to any such darts that had been hurled at her. Or, if you take her statement at face value, and no darts were in fact hurled, it says that her pursuit and achievement of excellence were so encouraging and inspiring that it totally disarmed her would-be detractors. So no matter how I interpret her answer, Oprah deserves my respect and admiration.
Because Oprah captured my respect in that first interview and has so reinforced it in the years that have followed, I have paid special attention to her personal and professional success. Several of my close friends, including Gary Smalley, have been guests on her show, and I have always been impressed at how quickly and passionately she catches their vision and communicates it in a way that enables millions of her viewers to understand and embrace it. And my friends have told me that she is very caring and gracious host. But the quality that has driven her phenomenal success, is her passion: her passion for life, her passion for her work, her passion for others and her passion for excellence.
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Horaayy..there are 2 comment(s) for me so far ;)
The book “Simple Steps to Impossible Dreams” by Steven K. Scott is the first motivational book I have read and I love it the most.
One day, my friend was moving house and she gave away some old books, magazines, toys, etc. While other friends of mine took toys, I chose this book. Today, I’m so glad that I did it.
This book is amazing. No wonder it is rated 4.5/5 stars on Amazon website.
I chanced upon this page in a random search on Google, and I’m glad to have come across it. As a Chinese Singaporean man who moved to Melbourne, Australia, two years ago, I’ve been experiencing the so-called ethnic discrimination which has indeed made things challenging. It has been frankly really hard in the beginning, but things have begun to change, not because of my environment, but because of my perception of it.
It goes to show - the things that we can control, and the things we can’t. That Oprah quote is indeed inspiring.
Now, it’s me living it out.