3 Inspiring Business Lessons From Billionaire Media Mogul Oprah Winfrey

KIM LACHANCE SHANDROW

ENTREPRENEUR STAFF

Like many seasoned entrepreneurs, Oprah Winfrey views “failure as a stepping stone to greatness.” For her, it has been, and then some.

In 1977, decades before she became a billionaire media mogul, she was fired from her job as a reporter at Baltimore’s WJZ-TV. Her boss said she was “unfit for television news.” She was “devastated,” but she didn’t quit.

The “queen of all media” quickly rose from rejection and found her calling in daytime TV. Then came her eponymous talk show and 25 internationally syndicated seasons of success. The Mississippi native later launched her book club, magazine and TV network. Today, she sits at the helm of a multi-billion-dollar media empire.

“Lady O” is best known as an outspoken TV host, actress and philanthropist, but she’s also an incredibly accomplished founder. The chairman and CEO of Harpo, Inc., Winfrey made history when she became the first first woman to own and produce her own talk show. She’s now one of the wealthiest and most successful business leaders in the world.

There are many inspiring lessons entrepreneurs can learn from her remarkable journey from a “poor, deprived ghetto girl” to self-made billionaire. Here are three:

1. Trust your instincts.

Winfrey is a known to be a big believer in listening to her instincts and honoring them, a skill that she credits much of her success to. Trusting her gut has helped her steer clear of trouble in her personal and professional life, she claims. “I know for sure whenever your gut is out of kilter, trouble awaits,” she wrote in O Magazine. “Your gut is your inner compass. Whenever you have to consult with other people for an answer, you’re headed in the wrong direction.”

During a 2011 OWN Network Lifeclass session, she expanded on why she feels it’s important to mind to your inner voice: “Listening to your life as it whispers to you first, so that it does not have to knock you upside the head with a brick or come crashing down on you as a brick wall, is one of the greatest principles of life.”

Lesson: Pay close attention to your instinctual reactions whenever you’re faced with a considerable business decision. Hearing -- and heeding -- even the slightest bit of hesitancy from within could potentially stop you from making poor choices that could impact your bottom line, now and in the years to come. In other words, as Winfrey says, "Follow your instincts. That's where true wisdom manifests itself."