Oprah Says Failure Is Inevitable on The Road to Success

On Thursday, in Cambridge Massachusetts Oprah Winfrey was given an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the prestigious Harvard University. During her speech, she spoke on the element of failure, and how it is inevitable at some point on the road to success. When someone of Oprah's status tells you something on success, you can't question it. I think people need to know this about failure, because this knowledge separates those who go on and make it after multiple failures, and those who give up after the first failure-

I am even prouder to share a fundamental truth you might not have learned even as graduates of Harvard. It doesn’t matter how far you might rise, at some point you are bound to stumble. If you are constantly doing what we do, raising the bar, If you are constantly pushing yourself higher, the law of average predicts that you will at some point fall. When you do, remember this: there is no such thing as failure. Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction. When you are down there in the hole, it looks like failure.

So this past year, I had to spoon feed those words to myself. When you are down in the hole, it’s really okay to feel bad for a little while. Give yourself time to mourn what you think you may have lost, but then learn from every mistake. Every encounter and particularly your mistakes are there to teach you and force you to be more of who you are.

Then, figure out what is the next right move. The key to life is to develop an internal moral emotional GPS that can tell you which way to go.