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Oprah! Oprah Winfrey and her media empire are now household name. Time Magazine ranked her as one of the most influential women in the world, while Forbes credited her as the richest self-made African American woman ever lived.

I first bumped into Winfrey in the fall of 2004. At that time, I was casually browsing through my TV channels and the title of the show, “Wildest Dreams Come True” caught my attention. I was intrigued when I witnessed how Winfrey extended a helping hand to deserving individuals that had been overlooked by society.

Winfrey rescued a 21 year old Alexandra Molina from a vicious cycle of self-doubt and failure. Molina, who had been in and out of foster care and homeless shelter, was given a new lease of life. Through Winfrey’s assistance, Molina regained her ability to fulfill her childhood dream of becoming a model. Molina was awarded a full four-year scholarship to the university of her choice, $10,000 EXPRESS wardrobe and a make-over opportunity with a former Victoria’s Secret model, Tyra Banks.

On another occasion, Winfrey went an extra mile to thank another extraordinary individual, Bernadette Robinson. Robinson was hailed by her Starbucks colleagues as a selfless woman who never failed to take care for her love ones in spite of her own struggle. Robinson and her husband volunteered to become foster parents of their nieces and nephews whose parents were serving time in jail. As an appreciation of Robinson’s sacrifice, Winfrey granted her with a very big surprise. Overnight, Robinson was upgraded from being a renter to a homeowner of a fully-equipped designer home. And, just in time for Christmas, her children were also showered with toys from Toys “R” Us that no child could ever imagine.

The pinnacle of the series was the flabbergasted $7 million General Motors Pontiac G6 Giveaway. Everybody in attendance received a car! Winfrey carefully selected attendees had been recommended by their community-at-large for their extraordinary service. If you have not seen it, check it out! In fact, it was Winfrey’s most successful season ever.

It may seem that Winfrey and her media empire had limitless fortune to give away, but things weren’t always easy for her. Born to an unwed teenage mother and raised by her grandmother in rural Mississippi, Winfrey grew up in poverty. She often had to resort to using potato sacks as dresses. At the age of 9, she was raped; at 13, she was sent to a juvenile detention home; at 14, she gave birth to a baby boy who died at infancy. With a series of disastrous setbacks, one would expect her to become a bitter woman.

Thanks to her dad, Vernon Winfrey, Winfrey was saved from destruction and hopelessness. Her father, who was strict and encouraging, made her education a priority; and her life was transformed by 180 degrees. In no time, Winfrey was heading towards a new direction. She not only won the Miss Black Tennessee Black Pageant, but she also secured a full-scholarship to Tennessee State University, a traditionally black institution. That early success ignited her momentum and jumpstarted her broadcasting career.

With more than two decades running, Winfrey never failed to connect with her viewers. Instead of succumbing to bleak past, she used her past experiences and insights to relate to their daily challenges. She instilled her supporters the feeling of self-worth and empowered them to see their very best. Her devoted audience regarded her as a teacher who can continuously inspire and motivate them to see the light of possibilities in the midst of darkness. At present, “The Oprah Winfrey Show” attracts more than 7 million viewership daily and “The ‘O’ Magazine” has a subscription base of more than 2.5 million subscribers. They cover topics from home decorations to financial planning, relationship issues to celebrity interviews, health check to environmental issues, just to name a few. To top it all off, her endorsement engine has a Midas touch. Anything that she recommends becomes instant hits, whether they are for books, movies or even presidential candidates. Recently, her nod of approval to Senator Barack Obama as Democratic presidential nominee boosted Obama’s election coverage; and that is how powerful the Oprah brand is.

I feel that Winfrey’s life story and her media influence echo two very subtle yet vital aspects of life. That is when new opportunities and positive thinking intersect, your past is no longer a reliable predictor of your future. Anything can happen. Winfrey is a living proof of it.

Everyday we are given a new chance to make a difference in our life. We are presented with two daily choices: positive vs. negative actions. As long as you are willing to look at a glass half-full instead of half-empty, you have given yourself another chance of change. And when opportunity comes knocking and you are prepared for it, abundant blessings are waiting for you to unlock. For Winfrey, it is choosing between using her past bad experiences to haunt her life or turning them into catalysts for her future success. She chose the latter. Consequently, she emerged from being a destitute child to become an Emmy award-winning talk-show host and a billionaire media mogul. And now she is paying it forward through her Oprah’s Angel Network and Harpo Studio. (Harpo is O-p-r-a-h spelled backwards.)

Let me conclude with one of my favorite quotes by Oprah Winfrey.

“It doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from. The ability to triumph begins with you — always.” – Oprah Winfrey

More about Oprah Winfrey

• Oprah Official Site
• Oprah Bookclub
• The 2008 Time 100 - Oprah Winfrey
• Surprise! Oprah gives entire audience new cars
• Oprah Winfrey’s 2008 Stanford Commencement Address

Yesterday, the world cried. It has lost one of the wisest teachers in modern times. Randy Pausch, a computer science professor from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) gave his final goodbye to family, friends and well-wishers.

Pausch rose to stardom in September 2007 through a hypothetical lecture series that CMU encourages its professors to share their wisdom if they have only one last lecture to give. Sadly, for Pausch, it was a real encounter. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Many of you outside the United States may not have heard about him, but in the last year or so, Pausch has inspired millions of people to rethink about their purpose in life. In his “The Last Lecture” talk, he shared about his childhood dreams, how he tackled them and what lessons he had learned along the way. His speech challenged his audience to recollect their childhood dreams; dreams that were once held so dearly, but for one reason or another, they have been shelved. He reiterated his point by saying that “it is not the things we do in life that we regret on our deathbed, but it is the things we do NOT do that we regret.” He also encouraged parents to allow their children to build dreams and ambitions even if that meant having creative graffiti drawn on their bedroom walls.

Every man dies. Not every man really lives. Pausch certainly live his life to the fullest by achieving all his childhood dreams. He fulfilled his desire to be in zero-gravity. He authored an article in the World Book Encyclopedia. He won many big stuffed animals in amusement parks. He became an Imagineer at The Walt Disney Company. In his final days, he managed to accomplish his remaining “impossible” goals. He practiced with Pittsburgh Steelers and he became “Captain Kirk”. It is widely believed that Pausch is going to be in an upcoming “Star Trek” movie that is to be released in 2009. And as an added bonus, his testimony to congress about a push for cancer research earned him a U.S. congressional record just few weeks before his departure. Time Magazine named him as the Top 100 most influential people in 2008.

All in all, Pausch epitomized a person of relentless pursuit of his dreams. He demonstrated that no obstacle is too impossible to overcome. As he had famously quoted, “the brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough.”

As a tribute to his legacy, let me share two of his most viral videos:

• The Last Lecture at Carnegie Mellon University
• Time Management at University of Virginia

I am convinced that Pausch’s speeches would motivate you to introspect yourselves with an old-age question, “How would you live differently if you know you are in your last chapter of your life?”

Please enjoy and pass it along with your love ones.

The Last Lecture at Carnegie Mellon University

Time Management at University of Virginia

Related Links to Professor Randy Pausch

• An Enduring Legacy - Carnegie Mellon University
• The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch
• ABC News - Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
• The Last Lecture Video Expanded into a Bestselling Book
• Create a cure: The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network
• Support Carnegie Mellon’s Randy Pausch Memorial Fund

Here’s a story about a man who came into existence from a very humble beginning to become one of the most respected individuals in the history of mankind. About 70 years ago, Li Ka Shing migrated to Hong Kong, at that time it was still a British territory. Even though there are countless reasons why people migrate to a foreign land, the common denominator of all is to look for a better opportunity. And for Li and his family, their reason was to avoid the turmoil caused by the Sino-Japanese war.

Unfortunately, when life just started to become better after settling down, Li’s father was diagnosed with Tuberculosis. Due to their limited financial means, Li’s father passed away as they could not afford treatment. Consequently, at the age of 12, Li was forced to quit school to take care of his family even though he had excelled academically.

Despite of all the setbacks he experienced as a child, Li kept an optimistic view of life. He made a vow to put his family back in order. As every cloud has a silver lining, his unfavorable early start ignited his fighting spirit. With unstoppable curiosity and steadfast learning spirit, Li took on all kind of jobs. He started from the bottom up and went through many different levels of career advancement. True to his belief as he had quoted, “the most important thing is to improve yourself and give it your best. Then many things previously thought to be impossible will become possible”. His determination, hard work and prudence eventually enabled him to start his own company, Cheung Kong Industries in 1950. This initial ownership empowered him to build a global empire that cover almost every facet of human life from electricity to telecommunication, retail to real estate and shipping to internet. Li exemplifies the possibility of taking control of your own life and transforming it to have a better future.

Fast forward to 2008, half a century later, Li glided up the prosperity scale from the extreme left to the extreme right. Once a poor immigrant, now he is one of Asia’s richest men with a net worth of US$26 billion. Once a high school dropout, now he is an honorary doctorate from many prestigious universities, such as Cambridge University in United Kingdom, Beijing University in China, just to name a few. Once an ordinary citizen, now he is a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire and a recipient of France’s Commander Légion d’honneur award.

While most consumers outside Hong Kong might not have heard his name, as chairman of Cheung Kong Holdings Limited and Hutchison Whampoa Limited, he leads a global empire with operations in 57 countries and a combined market capitalization of more than US$120 billion. Li is also a renowned philanthropist whose foundation, Li Ka Shing Foundation is one of the biggest charitable organizations in the world with a funding of more than US$10 billion. The Times in the United Kingdom and Ernst & Young UK jointly named Dr. Li as the Entrepreneur of the Millennium, while Forbes Inc. made him the first recipient of the Malcolm S. Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award.

Despite of his abundance, Li never flaunts his wealth or status. In fact, he uses his influence to help benefit society at large, especially in education and medical projects. He not only epitomizes entrepreneurial excellence but he is also a pioneer to the culture of giving in a region where wealth is usually passed on as inheritance to your next generation. There are many things one can learn from Li but one trait to be reckoned with is how to be humble and grounded in the face of mounting wealth. Today, he still wears an inexpensive Seiko watch and drives a modest car.

With Li’s many successes, there are lots of knowledge impartation and experiences one can learn from him and it would probably take a book or two to write his autobiography. Nonetheless, the power behind Li’s success seems to lie on one principle, “I never forget to maintain stability while advancing, and I never forget to advance while maintaining stability. Stability and advancement must always be in balance.” His rags-to-riches background speaks volumes about how a man’s drive, intellect and tenacity can not only release a person out of poverty, but also empower an ordinary man to become a vessel of blessings that releases poverty out of others.

More about Dr. Li Ka Shing

• Breaking the Mould
• The Families that Own Asia - Li Ka Shing
• Thoughts of Li Ka Shing
• Thoughts of Chairman Li
• Biography of Li Ka Shing
• Letter from U.S. Congressmen for Li’s 80th Birthday

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