What It Takes is a podcast series featuring intimate, revealing conversations with towering figures in almost every field: music, science, sports, politics, film, technology, literature, the military and social justice. These rare interviews have been recorded over the past 25 years by The Academy of Achievement. They offer the life stories and reflections of people who have had a huge impact on the world, and insights you can apply to your own life. Subscribe to the What It Takes podcast series at iTunes.com/WhatItTakes

Oprah Winfrey

What It Takes

Oprah Winfrey's public speaking career began in 1957. At three, she was speaking in church, by her teens she was touring the churches of Nashville, reciting the sermons of James Weldon Johnson. Other children sang, Oprah talked. And she's still talking -- but to much larger audiences. The path that led from her grandmother's farm in Kosciusko, Mississippi to becoming the first African-American woman billionaire is a story of unwavering focus and unrelenting determination. Taught to read by her grandmother at an age when most children are only learning to talk, Oprah became a voracious reader -- a habit she retains to this day. Books became her outlet to the world and the basis of her passionate belief in education. An actress of uncommon talent, her first feature film, The Color Purple, brought her an Oscar nomination. Some call her lucky, but Oprah Winfrey doesn't believe in luck. She believes "luck is preparation meeting opportunity." Her rise from reading the news on a small radio station to being the first woman in history to own and produce her own television talk show proves her point. A seeker of truth in herself and in others, her empathy, honesty, and love of people have made her one of the most beloved women in America; a teacher who educates a devoted audience about subjects as varied as sexual abuse, divorce, children's issues, and countless other important subjects; a close friend who visits over 20 million homes a day.

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Oprah Winfrey

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