Winfrey: Failure is just movement
It may have seemed odd that one of the world’s most successful women would counsel Harvard’s 2013 graduating class about failure, but media leader Oprah Winfrey told her audience in Tercentenary Theatre Thursday afternoon that no matter how far you rise, at some point “you are bound to stumble. Her story was personal. A year ago, after spending 25 years atop the talk show circuit, Winfrey was struggling to get her Oprah Winfrey Network off the ground. She also was trying to ignore negative media reports that called her new venture “a flop.” “It was the worst period of my professional life,” she said. It also proved to be one of the most enlightening. One day during this temporary turmoil, the phone rang and Harvard President Drew Faust asked Winfrey to deliver Harvard’s Commencement address. Given her recent difficulties, a disheartened Winfrey hesitated, but then rebounded after she recalled the words of...