"The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams"

-Oprah Winfrey

Motivational Story: Oprah Winfrey

As a child, Oprah Winfrey wore potato sacks because clothing did not always fit into the budget of her poverty-stricken family. That’s astonishing considering today, Forbes estimates Winfrey's net worth is $3 billion. Aside from this, she is the only black woman on the publication's list of the 400 richest people in America. Before she became a media powerhouse and the undisputed queen of daytime television, Winfrey suffered a harsh childhood.

She never knew a solid home. She was shuffled between family members, spending her first few years on her grandmother's farm in rural Mississippi while her single teenage mom looking for work. It wasn’t long after this that her grandmother fell ill. The then 6-year-old Winfrey was sent to live with her mother in a Milwaukee boarding house. Within these walls, she would not only grow up around extreme poverty but also endure years of sexual and physical abuse.

At age 14, Winfrey broke free and went to live with her dad in Nashville, Tennessee, where her success would start to take its course. Her dad was her source of a solid foundation. He provided direction, discipline, and a sense of structure that Winfrey had never known. The stable and education-centered environment he created allowed her to thrive academically and socially at East Nashville High School, where she became an honor roll student and was voted the most popular girl in her class. It was in this thriving environment that Winfrey discovered her passion for media. She joined the speech team and worked for a local black radio station after school. By her senior year, she had earned a full scholarship to Tennessee State University. However, at the age of 19, she left college early to She left college early to pursue a career in media.

Her gamble paid off big time!

While in Nashville Winfrey became the first black female news anchor before the age of 20. She began this chapter with a few gigs as a local anchor before landing a co-anchor position in Baltimore. She was sexually harassed and humiliated at her job in Baltimore, but didn't need to quit — she was fired seven and a half months after joining.

This could not keep Oprah Winfrey down. Soon after this rough patch, she landed a gig hosting the then-stagnant morning talk show, "AM Chicago.”

The rest is history.

Now, Now 61, Winfrey has a lifestyle that she could only have dreamed of during her traumatic childhood.

She flies in her own $42 million, custom-designed Global Express XRS jet.

Aside from various estates and her ability to generously give to her television audience, Winfrey also has given millions of dollars to charity, mostly directed towards three foundations: The Angel Network, The Oprah Winfrey Foundation, and The Oprah Winfrey Operating Foundation.

She's come a long way from the girl who wore potato-sack overalls.