We cannot determine the length of life, but we can change the breadth of life.
This familiar philosophy of life is not from a philosopher, it comes from a black woman, The Queen of American Talk Show Oprah.
In that country where speeches were prevalent, good eloquence was often a stepping stone to the class leap.
Born into a low-class black family, Oprah was sexually assaulted at the age of 10 and had children at the age of 14, but she seized her talents and became the richest black woman in the United States.
01, loveless mother, the root of the nightmare
Oprah was born in 1954 to a young, chaotic mother who gave birth to her at the age of 18.
Little Oprah almost had no father, because the mother who was involved with three men at the same time did not know who the child's biological father was. In order to ease the burden of parenting, Oprah's mother chose the most upright and kind soldier of the three to be the father of the child.
Mother, father, grandmother, these three relatives have the greatest influence on Oprah.
Before the age of 6, Oprah grew up with her grandmother. Grandma's personality was very harsh and a devout religious believer, and Oprah's childhood was full of harsh punishment (even corporal punishment and flogging) and a strict religious life.
But Oprah was born with an optimistic and tenacious personality, and she did not reject her grandmother's discipline, believing that life before the age of 6 had shaped her brave character.
Instead, her depraved, casual mother was the source of Oprah's greatest disaster.
Oprah's mother, who was unable to make a living, left home after her birth to work as a washerwoman.
At the age of 6, Oprah came to her mother, Fenita, whose financial situation did not improve, and she worked as a cleaning maid while receiving welfare benefits.
Poor women tend to find emotional sustenance, but Fernita is just an uncultured and angry woman, she always easily enters a relationship and cannot maintain a stable intimate relationship.
When Oprah was 6 years old, Fernitha gave birth to a second illegitimate child; when Oprah was 9, the family had a third child without a father.
Of the three children, Oprah was the least favored, she obviously had relatives, but she lived like an abandoned child for three years, and could only sleep on the porch for a long night.
At the age of ten, Oprah's life went into hell mode when she was sexually assaulted by a cousin. Her mother's chaotic private life brought many boyfriends and messy relatives, many of whom had violated her.
02, salvation from the father
Oprah was sent to Nashville at the age of 14, where Oprah's father and stepmother lived.
Oprah's father, Vernon Winfrey, was an upright and kind black male. Vernon knew from the beginning that Oprah was not his biological daughter, but was still willing to provide for maintenance after all these years.
Oprah, 14, has become a problem girl entirely, drunk and promiscuous, and she was even pregnant when she came to Nashville.
Vernon was a devout believer who, after much deliberation, gave birth to oprah. Unfortunately, the child lived only two weeks before he died.
Vernon did not want Oprah to continue to fall and customized a busy schedule for his daughter.
He asked Oprah to read a lot and give a reading report for each book. There are 20 word memory tasks every week, and if you can't do it, you have to go hungry.
Vernon constantly encouraged Oprah to look ahead and leave the past behind to create the future he wanted, and learning is the way to have power.
In a planned life, Oprah's life gradually returned to the right track, and even relied on his strong learning ability to become a full eugenics.
03, strong language talent, born speaker
If everyone has a talent that can change their destiny by grasping it, then Oprah's talent is a strong ability to speak.
As a devout believer, Grandma often took Oprah in and out of church, and the religious scriptures in the priest's mouth were the beginning of Oprah's enlightenment.
Oprah was bold, and after a few times she asked the priest to tell her stories, and she compared the stories with the Bible, and learned to read and write herself, driven by interest.
People who love to listen to stories usually also love to tell stories. While other children were chasing and playing, Oprah was more keen to be a storyteller, and the neighbors around him had the experience of being "caught" by Oprah to listen to stories.
A young girl who could recite religious scriptures in large sections at a young age soon became a "well-known" little genius, and Oprah was even given the opportunity to speak in church.
At the age of two, Oprah gave his first welcome speech at church, telling the story of Jesus' resurrection. The ability to speak from an early age has also become the basis for her future soaring.
Although Oprah's speech ability was wasted for 8 years at her mother's side, her innate ability to learn was not lost.
Oprah's father, Vernon, not only had his own small business, but was also passionate about religious affairs and asked Oprah to attend various church events.
Returning to the familiar religious environment, Oprah's childhood memories are awakened, and a strong desire for expression once again leads Oprah to the path of the expressor.
Oprah became increasingly active in the school, not only chairing the high school student council, but also participating in drama clubs.
At the age of sixteen, Oprah competed in a club speech competition. In this large competition of 100,000 participants, Oprah braved the thorns and directly won a $1,000 scholarship.
The scholarship is offered by Tennessee State University, where Oprah enrolled in speech and language arts after graduating from high school.
After entering college, Oprah's speech skills became more open-ended, helping her to become the president of the student council, the president of the drama club, and the president of the National Debate.
The golden resume set off the girl so confidently, and the dark past of unmarried pregnancy could no longer stop Oprah from spreading her wings and flying high.
04, from newscaster to black idol
From the perspective of public aesthetics, Oprah's appearance is very ordinary, his mouth is large and his nose is collapsed, and his eyes are large but too scattered.
But it was Oprah who had won the "Black Miss Firefight Contest", and it seems that some beauty contests in the United States still value talent more.
This time, the winner brought Oprah a special job opportunity to work as a broadcaster on WVOL Radio.
As a news broadcaster, Oprah didn't satisfy the audience. She is far from the image of a dignified and beautiful, calm and self-sustaining announcer in people's minds.
Oprah is emotional, and her strong empathy makes her newscast emotional. Her sharp dialogue style even offended the TV station's executives.
As a result, the job lasted only nine months before Oprah was transferred.
What really made Oprah famous in the United States were two types of shows, one was a character interview, and the other was a talk show.
After bidding farewell to the newscast, Oprah's emotional reporting style was appreciated by Valdimo TV, and the TV station manager asked her to host a talk show "The People Are Talking", and Oprah finally found her own style of program.
At the age of 30, Oprah came to Chicago and officially joined WLS Television.
The tv station tailored a talk show for her, "Chicago Morning", which was initially sluggish, but just a few months later, Oprah beat the local ratings champion with the show.
With a fixed viewing group, the TV station decided to go one step further and directly use Oprah as a signboard to create an ace program.
This is the popular 25-year-old and famous "Oprah Talk Show". This show focuses on the social field, explores social hotspots from a delicate female perspective, and accumulates a huge social reputation for Oprah and becomes a spokesperson for women's positions.
With this show, Oprah became the queen of talk shows in the United States, but her heart has always been shrouded in a haze, that is, the black history of her unmarried pregnancy.
This scandal in her youth was exposed by the media, and the source was her half-sister.
Due to her mother's eccentricity, the sisters' relationship has always been bad, and the sister is jealous of Oprah's success, and because of the need for drug money, she betrays Oprah's privacy for $19,000.
Oprah broke through the boat and took the initiative to confess her experience as a child on the show, and this bold and sincere expression of truth received a lot of support.
Since then, the painful experience has become a secret weapon in her interviews, and she has revealed her pain to narrow the distance with the interviewees, and everyone has cried and laughed together, and always get secret stories that others can't ask.
Since then, Oprah has had a smooth ride, running his own company, making movies, starting magazines, and constantly exerting his influence.
As an opinion leader with a large following, she pushed for the creation of the National Child Protection Act and helped elect Barack Obama, who is also black, to the presidency of the United States.
She won the Lifetime Achievement Award for Television at the age of 44 and pushed her personal wealth to the top of the list of black women.
Oprah was born intelligent, but was still dragged into the quagmire when he was around his mother, living a desperate and depraved life, which shows that the environment has a great impact on people.
In addition, if a person wants to achieve something, he must recognize himself and accept himself and find his own talent, which is the magic weapon of life reversal.