"Building a Dream" in Oprah Magazine Quotes
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Source: "Building a Dream" in Oprah Magazine
Speaker: Oprah Winfrey
"You are your possibilities. If you know that, you can do anything."
What lessons does Oprah want these girls to know for sure when they walk through the doors of her academy into the world? Her answer leaps from her own experience. She wants them to know that they are not defined by their circumstances. "What I learned at a very early age was that I was responsible for my life. And as I became more spiritually conscious, I learned that we all are responsible for ourselves, that you create your own reality by the way you think and therefore act. You cannot blame apartheid, your parents, your circumstances, because you are not your circumstances. You are your possibilities. If you know that, you can do anything." That lesson is Oprah's own credo: "Trust your instincts. Honor your own truth. Discern it, know it, and follow it. Is it right for me? That's my great business lesson." She'll be teaching the girls by satellite from Chicago, and sometimes in person, joining a staff of the finest teachers she can gather.
Context
This line was spoken by Oprah Winfrey for an article titled "Building a Dream" in Oprah Magazine (January 2007).
In 2007, Oprah opened the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa and because she's Oprah she covered the opening with a huge spread in Oprah Magazine with details about how she had hand-picked students and spent $40 million to build a state-of-the-art academy for these impoverished girls.
Of course, not everyone was impressed with Oprah's attention to detail (did the girls really need high-thread count sheets and a beauty salon to learn?), but that didn't stop Oprah from offering all kinds of advice to her new students. In this section of the article she tells the girls some of her secrets to success from her own difficult upbringing. First rule: the only person who can help you is you.
Yup, that's right. No matter what's happened to you in your life, you are the only one who can rise above your circumstances and change your situation. Keep in mind that some of these girls are orphans or have been raped or come from extreme poverty. That shouldn't stop them. The only thing that matters is what's possible. Oprah knows they can do anything. Do they?
To be fair to Oprah, her school has been pretty successful. There have been some issues along the way (including some allegations of sexual abuse), but Oprah has swooped in and done what's needed to be done to help her students thrive. She didn't give up on her students in South Africa, and today the school is still going strong. Maybe Oprah is right—we can do anything, if only we believe it's possible.
Where you've heard it
Like lots of things Oprah says, this is a pretty great, feel-good quote. You'll probably hear people saying it when they're encouraging people to reach for their dreams. Not many people would have the chutzpah to say it to South African orphans though, but not many people are Oprah.
Pretentious Factor
If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.
This is pretty low on the pretentiousness scale in our view. Feel free to drop this one at your next get-together along with any other Oprah wisdom you have on hand.