Read the story: At the age of 6, she was sent to a very poor and dangerous neighborhood in Milwaukee, where she lived with her mother and two half-brothers. There, she was repeatedly raped by her cousin, her uncle and her mother’s friend. And her mother, because she worked odd jobs during odd hours, and because of their massively disadvantaged background, could frustratingly do nothing. The girl’s sufferings did not end there. She disintegrated into a habit of repeatedly skipping school, stealing money, and running away from home. Fed up, her mother then decided to put her into a detention home. As luck would have it, there were no openings in the home – and so she was sent to live with her father in Nashville. She became pregnant when she was 14, and gave birth to a dead baby. Raped, humiliated, without any future, she was devastated, but she swore to herself that she would never give. Her father somehow aided her financially, and through sheer gut-wrenching effort, she became an excellent student at school and participated in the drama and debate clubs. The following year, she won a full scholarship to Tennessee State University (TSU) – and the following year, she was invited to a White House Conference on Youth. Subsequently, she was later given a job to read afternoon newscasts by a local Nashville radio station. When she became Miss Black Nashville and Miss Tennessee during her freshman year at TSU, Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) offered her a job. And all this while she was still nineteen. She worked at various TV channels and got her biggest break in January 1984, when she became the anchor on a morning talk show called A.M. Chicago. Given the popularity of the show, 20 months later, it was renamed to ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’. The black, poor, loser had been noticed and was already on her way to becoming a global celebrity. Today, she runs a production house (Harpo Inc.), is the richest black billionaire in the world (worth $2.7 billion) and most importantly, the second most powerful celebrity (behind Lady Gaga) in the world (as per Forbes 2011 ranking). And all because she never gave up!
Posted on: Tue, 09 Jul 2013 10:24:24 +0000
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