How to always do the right thing | Oprah Winfrey

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Transcript:

A Sunday school teacher by day and a sex addict at night. Ooh. And they were like, you won’t believe it. We’ve got her going out, we’ve got her with the men, and we get to show her and she was willing to show us everything. I sat down with the woman for an interview that was taped, and during the process of the interview I said, “Why are you doing this?” And she said, “Oh, I want to help people. I want to tell my story and I want to help people.” I said, “Do you have children?” She says, “Yes, I have a 10 year old son.” I knew right then this is never gonna see the light of day. So we got off the air and I said to the lady, “We are not going to air that show,” and she said, “Why?” My producer said, “Why?” She knew she was being filmed, she knew what she was saying, she knows what you’re … I said, “Because her son will never get over it.” You always know it’s the right thing when in the end there is peace. You are rewarded by peace in knowing that you did the right thing. The three things that I want to leave with you will carry you if you let them. First and foremost, knowing who you are. Being able to answer this question, “Who am I and what do I want?” I’m not asking for the roles that you play, as a daughter, as a friend, as a sister, you’re gonna be a lawyer, you’re gonna teach. I’m asking the bigger question of who am I. And what do I want? I don’t want to just be successful in the world, I want to fulfill the highest, truest expression of myself as a human being. I want to fulfill the promise that the Creator dreamed when he dreamed the cells that made up me. You must have some kind of vision for your life, even if you don’t know the plan, you have to have a direction in which I choose to go. You want to be in the driver’s seat of your own life because if you’re not, life will drive you. Number two, you must find a way to serve. Martin Luther King said that not everybody can be famous, but everybody can be great because greatness is determined by service. When you shift the paradigm of whatever you choose to do to service and you bring significance to that, success will, I promise you, follow you. That’s number two. Number three, it’s so simple but so hard to do. Always do the right thing.