21 Life Lessons That Shaped The Life & Career of Oprah Winfrey, Richard Branson and Elon Musk
Raza Naqvi
Professional Branding Consultant | Ex-journalist | Ex-Book Editor | I can help you become a visible and valuable professional brand | Get Professional Branding checklist for beginners?? | #bylineraza @bylineraza
Life teaches each of us many lessons regularly. Celebrities and the influential community are no different. Let’s take the example of celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Richard Branson and Elon Musk who took note of their life lessons for personal and professional growth.
By Raza Hasnain Naqvi
You and I are ordinary. Let’s just assume this for argument’s sake.?
This may not be the truth as you may be extraordinary in your personal and professional life. But, apologies from my side as I don’t know you as an extraordinary personality as you are not a celebrity…yet.
But we keep coming across many celebrities on social media and TV channels who share their life stories and lessons that they learned that opened their eyes.
Here, allow me to talk about Oprah Winfrey (American TV talk show host), Richard Branson (Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson, a British billionaire entrepreneur) and Elon Musk (CEO of Twitter, Tesla & SpaceX).
7 Life Lessons To Take From Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey has often been tagged as one of the most successful women in history. She is a cultural icon, media mogul, philanthropist, and actress widely recognized as one of the most influential women in the world. She is known for her award-winning talk show ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ and her television network ‘OWN’.?
Not only that, she has been nominated for an Oscar and also been recognized as the first Black female billionaire in the United States. Beyond her work in media, Oprah is also a generous philanthropist and has donated millions of dollars to various charitable causes, particularly in the areas of education and women's empowerment.?
Take note of the life lessons that Oprah talks about clearly in her statements.
1 → “Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life because you become what you believe.”
How many of us create a high, grand vision for our life? We are mostly busy building and maintaining a regular, almost ordinary life. Thoughts of a grand vision are just thoughts that we think about when we come across something inspiring. The next step we take within the next two hours or two days is going back to our uninspiring, common thoughts that play on loop 24/7.?
2 → “You are responsible for your life. You can’t keep blaming somebody else for your dysfunction. Life is really about moving on.”
Challenges are there in each person’s life, irrespective of gender identity and wealth distribution. Now what do we do? Do we let them drag us down or do we use our inner will power and get up and move on with life? It’s easy to blame the next person for your hurt, however earnest and true your argument may be. But ultimately, the choice of a decision to take and a resultant action to implement is always in your control.?
3 → “The reason I've been able to be so financially successful is, my focus has never, ever for one minute been money.”
We are focused on money. At least, the majority of people you and I know are keen on the money factor and how much that is lacking or not enough in our life. But we have to always remember what is money and why someone pays us money. You and I earn money as we solve some problem and add some value to a person’s life or the life of some business. The more you and I can improve the life of a number of people, the more wealth and abundance follows in the process.
4 → “Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.”
It is a fact that when you become a successful person, a number of people want to connect with you, engage with you and get you in their personal network. But observe, how many people stand by you when you feel down and your life seems to be sliding down the success path. Those who are there for you at that challenging time are your true friends and well-wishers.
5 → “Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.”
What is the one fear that each of us has? Fear of failure. What do we do to tackle this fear? We take the easy path and stay in our comfort zone. Those who do step outside beyond their quiet comfort zone, they come back to it quickly at the first sign of failure. However, I know that you are smart and intelligent. Today’s info-heavy digital age keeps serving us many success stories of individuals who finally achieved success despite stepping from one failure to the next.?
6 →? In order to make meaningful changes, you have to transform the way people think."
Are you keen to make a change in someone’s life and make their life so much better? I feel you may even be taking steps in that direction. However, what is the one result that maybe you keep coming across? The person’s life is not changing despite all your best efforts and intention. I think you now understand what could be the reason. The person is not mentally ready to accept the change that you have thought for him or her. Until that person desires a better life, a more positive change himself, that transformation won’t happen.
7 → "What I know for sure is that if you want to have success, you can't make success your goal…the key is not to worry about being successful but to instead work toward being significant—and the success will naturally follow."
This goes against so many professional development strategies that we have come to understand and accept, doesn’t it? You and I want success in what we do after our planning and effort. But, now, you have a new paradigm. Don’t allow the pressure of ‘success’ affect your ongoing effort. Focus on creating effort that brings significant value to that project you want to succeed. What follows next is obviously ‘success’. More value in a project for an individual or organization automatically attracts success.
7 Life Lessons To Take From Richard Branson
Sir Richard Branson is an accomplished entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist known for his charismatic personality and adventurous spirit. As the founder of Virgin Group, he has built an empire spanning multiple industries, from music and entertainment to airlines, healthcare, and space travel.?
Sir Richard is widely regarded as one of the most successful and influential business leaders of our time, and a reputation for pushing boundaries and challenging the status quo. Beyond his business ventures, Branson is also a dedicated environmentalist and social activist, using his platform to champion causes such as climate change and human rights.
Take note of the life lessons that Sir Richard talks about clearly in his statements.
1 → “Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.”
Most of us have read that famous quote: “Opportunity knocks only once”. Now, after reading what Sir Richard has said, you know what to think. If some business of yours is not doing well, relax. You can expect the next opportunity coming your way. Be prepared for it with your great products and service.?
2 → “You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.”
There are so many written or unsaid rules of life that you and I may mentally accept. But then, if you don’t break rules, then how do you break the limiting barriers. You need to do something, fall, get back, do it again differently, fall and then get up again. Time to do it again in some new way that ultimately gets you the success you desire.
3 → “The brave may not live forever, but the cautious do not live at all!”
You need to be brave and courageous to live the kind of life you dare to imagine sometime. If you remain cautious and unwilling to take some risks, you have to ask yourself again, “Are you living a life or just existing?”?
4 → “I think I’m reasonably good at dealing with failure and not letting it get me down for more than an hour or two as long as I put everything I can into avoiding it.”?
Failure is something that happens when you undertake some project. You will feel disappointed and down, unable to function. But then you can’t remain at that mental state for long. The next step has to be taken. You can try to avoid failure by using all the worst-case scenarios you can think. It can help you bounce back quicker than most on the growth path.
5 → “To me, business isn’t about wearing suits or pleasing stockholders. It’s about being true to yourself, your ideas and focusing on the essentials.”
Your thoughts, values, ethics, ideas and the very basics of why you started a business is crucial. If your focus stays on them, then failure and challenges don’t drag you down as much. You are able to weather that storm and come back with renewed enthusiasm for business success.
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6 → “The best way of learning about anything is by doing.”
You & I do understand that if we want to learn something, we learn it well when we check out the books, the courses and the webinars. In fact, we learn best, by teaching the next person, what we have learnt by doing.?
7 → “Don’t become a slave to technology – manage your phone, don’t let it manage you.”
Allow me to say something here: “Our smartphone has now become our third hand that is managing multiple things for us in our life.” How we use this third hand and not allow it to steal away our most productive minutes and hours is the biggest challenge that we have to master.?
7 Life Lessons To Take From Elon Musk
Elon Musk is a visionary entrepreneur, engineer, and inventor widely recognized as one of the most innovative minds of our time. As the founder and CEO of several pioneering companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, and The Boring Company, Elon has revolutionized the automotive, space, and transportation industries with his cutting-edge technologies and bold ideas.?
His visionary thinking has led to groundbreaking achievements such as the first privately-funded spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station and the development of the world's first fully-electric car for the mass market. Elon is also a vocal advocate for sustainable energy and a strong proponent of colonizing Mars to ensure the survival of humanity.?
Take note of the life lessons that Elon talks about clearly in his statements.
1 → “If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it.”
If you have tagged some work or project as important to you, then it becomes your responsibility to get it done. You don’t do it, you give a chance to your inner self to nag you and take away your creative energy. Challenges may be staring right at you, but the way forward has to be completion of your project.
2. “Going from PayPal, I thought: ‘Well, what are some of the other problems that are likely to most affect the future of humanity?’ Not from the perspective, ‘What’s the best way to make money?”
After selling Paypal, Elon earned millions of dollars. He could have led the ideal retired beach life that most of us maybe dream about when having a pizza or burger alone. But being the doer that he is, he was looking to solve the next big challenge in a visionary manner. He could have taken the money route and set his mind to work on projects that earn him even more wealth. But, now you understand what he was and is mentally after. That his wealth continues to grow while he actively seeks solutions to challenges is just a natural result.
3. “The first step is to establish that something is possible; then probability will occur.”
When you and I start something, we are not sure whether it will be possible in the first place. We are hopeful, of course but not really sure whether it will work out. Elon on the other hand wants you and me to start working on a project with the vision that it is possible. His experience says that the power of probability then steps in to assist you in reaching that vision.
4. “Persistence is very important. You should not give up unless you are forced to give up.”
We need to be persistent in whatever we do. You and I know this, but honestly how many of us follow up on it. The first or second wave of failure is enough to get us to row our boat back quickly to shore. We want to step back into our warm cabin on the sea shore.
5. “My biggest mistake is probably weighing too much on someone’s talent and not someone’s personality. I think it matters whether someone has a good heart.”
There are many talented people out there. You are one of them. Now the only thing that matters is that you continue to be a good person as you keep stepping up on the stairs of success with your talent. Continue to nurture your positive, morals and ethics-driven personality along the way so that everyone understands that you are a good person with a good heart. We do have talented people with a wrong moral compass, and my feeling is that their mind is not at peace with who they are.?
6. “I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better. I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.”
I saw a video of a travel YouTuber who does videos of eateries and food establishments recently. This YouTuber was talking to the owner of a popular restaurant who asserted with pride that customer feedback drives his business success. He even showed a board on the wall that requested customers to give feedback on the food they ate and the service they experienced. So, keep questioning yourself on how you can do something better and keep getting feedback from concerned persons.
7. On his favorite book when he was a teen, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy": It taught me that the tough thing is figuring out what questions to ask, but that once you do that, the rest is really easy."
Anything that you start, a great way to do it, would be to ask “Why”. One of Ayn Rand’s popular characters in her famous novel ‘Atlas Shrugged’ is Francisco d'Anconia, who is always asking, “Why do it?” The answers that begin to flow in the mind help him to say a “No” or “Yes” to any project.?
In the end, I can only hope that the thoughts and life lessons of Oprah, Sir Richard and Elon filled your mind with some new thoughts or added more power to your way of thinking.?
May health and happiness follow you everywhere. Amen.?
My next article will be on Local Online Marketing. See you there.
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