What Oprah Winfrey Teaches Us about Mindset

Breakthroughs come from changing your thinking, not just focusing on goals.

Reviewed by Hara Estroff Marano

Key points

• At the core of your mindset is knowing who you really are and what gives you joy.
• Your vision emerges as you look to the future through the filter of your passion.
• Once you are clear about your passion and vision, you can move to action and find your mission.
• Ambition comes from the drive for growth and mastery and needs to be coupled with finding your lane.

The power of mindset has been known for thousands of years. Great teachers, philosophers, and scientists alike agree that our mindset matters a lot. “Our life is the creation of our mind,” said the Buddha. “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so,” according to Shakespeare.

Though there seems to be a strong consensus about the significance of mindset, there are many questions about how to define it. According to Meier & Kropp, “A mindset is a mental attitude. It shapes our actions and our thoughts. Social psychologist Gregory Maio defines “… attitude as an overall evaluation of an object that is based on cognitive, affective, and behavioral information.”

The extraordinary success of talk show diva and media mogul Oprah Winfrey provides a compelling illustration of how mindset matters most. Claiming that “The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change their future by merely changing their attitude.” Winfrey advises, “If you want your life to be more rewarding, you have to change the way you think.”

She was born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a teenage single mother and later grew up in an inner-city neighborhood in Milwaukee. During her childhood and early teens, she experienced sexual abuse. At 14, she became pregnant, but her child was born prematurely and did not survive infancy. After being dismissed from her first broadcasting position for being "unfit for TV," Winfrey persisted and transformed a third-place local talk show into a top-rated program.

She eventually founded her own production company, becoming a millionaire by the age of 32 and the first Black woman billionaire in world history. By 2022, her net worth had surpassed $3.5 billion. Beyond her financial achievements, Winfrey has earned 18 Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and two Academy Award nominations. She has also been honored with multiple humanitarian accolades for her philanthropic efforts.

Winfrey’s remarkable journey to success is a testament to the power of mindset. As she points out, “With every experience, you alone are painting your own canvas, thought by thought, choice by choice.” She goes on to explain, “Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.” This is the way that you build a path to a successful future, step-by-step.

Key to this mindset is understanding the power of purpose. As Winfrey puts it, “I’ve come to believe that each of us has a personal calling that’s as unique as a fingerprint and that the best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, working hard and allowing the energy of the universe to lead you.”

Interestingly, Winfrey’s description is precisely what we call a purpose-driven leader, someone committed to living their dreams and making a better world through their business. It involves building a strong mindset.

According to research my group has conducted with Robert Dilts, a key foundational level of mindset is what we call Meta Mindset, consisting of our passion, vision, mission, ambition, and role. Not surprisingly, Winfrey’s statement about the best way to succeed contains them all, “to discover what you love (passion) and then find a way to offer it to others (vision) in the form of service (mission), working hard (ambition), and allowing the energy of the universe to lead you (role).”

Let’s look more deeply at what Oprah Winfrey’s journey can teach us about developing the characteristics of our mindset to optimize our impact in every area of life.

At the core of a strong mindset is identity and passion. If these foundations are vague or uncertain, building a sustainable meta mindset is not possible. In the words of Oprah Winfrey, “As you become more clear about who you really are, you'll be better able to decide what is best for you—the first time around.” According to our findings, at the center of the mindset of successfull people is the way they connect their purpose and motivation. In the words of Oprah Winfrey, “As you become more clear about who you really are, you'll be better able to decide what is best for you—the first time around."

Vision then involves creating a mental image of what the future could or will be like. It is especially focused on what you want to see improved in the world in the long term. The Meta Mindset characteristic of vision is knowing what you want to help create in the longer-term future and being clear about your direction, regardless of whether you know the ultimate destination. Your vision emerges as you look to the future through the filter of your passion. As Winfrey asserts, “You have to know what sparks the light in you so that you, in your own way, can illuminate the world.”

Once you are clear about your passion and vision, you move to your mission. Your mission is about service. What is your unique contribution to achieving your vision? As Winfrey says, “The key to realizing a dream is to focus not on success but significance—and then even the small steps and little victories along your path will take on greater meaning.” She goes on to add, “What I know is that if you do work that you love, and the work fulfills you, the rest will come.”

The next key characteristic of a success mindset is ambition. Ambition comes from the drive for growth and mastery. As Winfrey puts it, “The choice to be excellent begins with aligning your thoughts and words with the intention to require more from yourself.”

You achieve your ambitions, fulfill your missions, reach your visions, and express your passions through your roles. Role relates to both the professional position you occupy with respect to others and the expected capabilities and behaviors attached to that position.

Finding the right role for yourself and others is one of the most crucial and sometimes most challenging aspects of becoming successful in the pursuit of our goals. Even if you have a clear sense of passion, vision, mission, and ambition, if you are in a role that is not aligned with them, you struggle. Winfrey was fired from her first broadcasting job. As she describes it, “Up until then, I’d been a news anchor and reporter. I knew I was not being my authentic self. And my bosses certainly made no secret of their feelings. They told me I was the wrong color and the wrong size and that I showed too much emotion.”

As you achieve through your role, it will evolve and expand. Who you are in the world and the potential that you have will get bigger. You become something more. You have more possibilities and more influence. Seeking the right role requires the proper mindset. Your success in finding the proper role is further enhanced by identifying your “area of excellence.”

However, as Winfrey points out, “Often, we don’t even realize who we’re meant to be because we’re so busy trying to live out someone else’s ideas. But other people and their opinions hold no power in defining our destiny.” Instead, Winfrey advises, “Find your lane. Make space for the flow to show itself. Follow the natural rhythm of your life, and you will discover a force far greater than your own.”