How Did Oprah Know She Would Do Big Things?

Have you ever wondered why some people strive to do great things, others settle for the best thing that comes along, and still others have no ambition at all?

If you think of it logically, you’ll probably conclude that it mostly has to do with your upbringing.  If people close to you do big things and encourage you to do the same, you will at least try to meet their high expectations of you.

But if that were true, almost all successful people would have successful children. And children from poor families with little to no support would rarely strive to do better. But we’ve seen both of those instances disproven time and time again.

In their recent interview with Oprah Winfrey, she told the Tom Joyner Morning Show that when she was a little girl, she thought she would grow up to be “something like Dr. Martin Luther King.”  She wasn’t sure what that entailed, but saw herself speaking in front of large crowds of people. Winfrey said when her grandmother chided her about not hanging clothes on the line properly, because she would need to know how to do it later, she said to herself, “No, I won’t.”

How does a seven-year-old living in a rural community surrounded with people who look like her in subservient positions become so assured that her future will be better?   

Congresswoman Barbara Jordan lived in a very segregated area of Houston, was forced to live in substandard housing and attended substandard public schools. Despite those obstacles, she said she knew as a young child, that she had no intention to become a run-in-the-mill person. She became a civil rights leader and the first African-American elected to the Texas Senate.

Actor Tobey Maguire of Spider-Man and The Great Gatsby fame grew up poor, sometimes sleeping in shelters. He says success for him was about “having the ability to imagine a different future for yourself.”

So, yeah, there’s something to believing you’ll make it, but then again, don’t most children have aspirations of being successful?

I’ve never heard a kid say he wants to grow up to be incarcerated, drug-addicted, homeless or unemployed.

Whether you believe it’s destiny, prayer from the ancestors, good old fashioned grit or all three, there is a formula for having goals, pushing through obstacles and not turning back no matter what.

An article called 7 Reasons Why People Succeed  says they usually share the following traits:

1.They have desire

2. They have a plan

3. They have a winning attitude

4. They show enthusiasm

5. They are always learning

6. They are efficient

7. They give themselves time

As parents or anyone who influence young people’s lives, I think it’s important to begin helping them not only outline their goals and desires but encouraging the values that lead to success. Values like perseverance, doing their best, and allowing them to fail so that they will know how to bounce back when they have challenges help create a successful adult.

If you’ve been able to stay on track with achieving your accomplishments, what do you credit it to? And if you’ve had problems, what’s gotten you off track?

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