Looking at Oprah Winfrey, now you see a confident, empowered, successful woman. But Oprah Winfrey did not always sit at the top of a media empire. She has much more humble roots, and she was denied things and failed at things for many years before she reached the success she enjoys now.

This lady is someone who worked her way up from beginning with nothing. In addition, she is someone who has had to reinvent herself more than once along the way. Thus, Oprah Winfrey knows a thing or two about what it takes to achieve success. Here are lessons we can learn based on quotes she has given about finding a path to your dreams in business, relationships, and life.

15 Quotes About Success from Oprah Winfrey

1  – “The key to realizing a dream is to focus not on success but on significance — and then even the small steps and little victories along your path will take on greater meaning.”

There is so much more to being successful than just reaching your main goal in your life. There are small things that will happen along the way to making that big dream possible. Take the time to acknowledge those small things, celebrate them as they happen, and remind yourself that every step forward is a step closer to that final goal. Little victories will mean a lot to you as they keep you positive and motivated along the way.

2 – “Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life because you become what you believe.”

It isn’t egotistical to believe you can succeed in life. By holding onto the belief that you will reach your goals and fulfill your dreams, you are keeping your mind positive. You will find that your heart opens to everything along your path. If you don’t believe you can achieve happiness, you won’t be able to push yourself to reach your goals. Don’t let yourself fall into that kind of negative mindset. Let yourself picture your life with all of the prosperity that you could want.

3 – “You know you are on the road to success if you would do your job and not be paid for it.”

No one is saying you should do your job for free. However, if you see it as a vocation instead of just a job, a lifetime career instead of something to get you through right now, you are succeeding. If the opposite is accurate, and you find yourself dreading each day at your job, you need to move onto a different path.

4 – “The choice to be excellent begins with aligning your thoughts and words with the intention to require more from yourself.”

Never stop asking yourself for more. Don’t become complacent just because you’ve achieved a certain level of accomplishment. If you could reach one goal, you could undoubtedly reach another. Once you stop pushing yourself, you start losing the momentum you’ve gained in life. There are always more things to dream about in life, even once you’ve reached some of your goals. Keep pushing yourself, keep expecting more from your life, and keep reaching for new things.

5 – “If you are still breathing, you have a second chance.”

Humans fail. They fail at classes. And they fail at relationships, they fail at jobs. It’s important to realize that, while humans fail, they also win. Just because something hasn’t worked out the way you want it to, doesn’t mean you should give up entirely. Instead, it means you should learn from your mistakes, figure out a new plan, and continue on your quest to fulfill your dreams.

6 – “So go ahead. Fall down. The world looks different from the ground.”

While it would be great to get from point A to point B in life along a smooth and straight path, that never really happens. There will always be times where things don’t go as planned. There will be times that you feel depressed and ready to give up. The important thing is to not fall prey to those kinds of thoughts. Take a bit of time to mourn what didn’t work out, then figure out a new way to achieve your goals.

7 – “What material success does is provide you with the ability to concentrate on other things that really matter. And that is being able to make a difference, not only in your own life but in other people’s lives.”

What do you do once you’ve become successful? Do you celebrate reaching your goals by closing yourself away in an ivory tower? Or do you take your achievement and use it to help others? Plenty of people will most likely help you along your way. You should do the same for others when you get the chance. Give back to your community. Donate your time, money, and resources to worthy causes. Spend time mentoring others and making sure that they achieve their goals just like you did.

8 – “Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it.”

Failure happens. Not just once. Not just twice. Throughout your life and your pursuit of your goals you will fail. But you can’t let your failure stop you from achieving your success. You have to get yourself together and try again until you make success happen. As much as failure can disappoint you, you have to be willing to move past it. Figure out why it happened and how to keep it from happening the next time. And then try again and again and again until you succeed.

9 – “The big secret in life is there is no secret. Whatever your goal. You can get there if you’re willing to work.”

Successful people like Oprah Winfrey may make everything look easy, but the truth is it took hard work to get where they are. They had to make plans and follow through with tough tasks and constantly make tough decisions. If you want to live a successful life as she does, you need to be willing to work hard for it. You can’t just wait for good things to happen to you. So you have to go out and make them happen for yourself. You need to push yourself and take chances and never stop figuring out how to get where you want to be.

10 – “Don’t worry about being successful but work toward being significant and the success will naturally follow.”

What kind of impact do you want to make in the world? How do you want to be remembered? What kind of significance do you want to have? People like Oprah Winfrey figure that out and shape their life goals around it. Becoming successful can be a great by-product of becoming significant. Being significant does not necessarily mean famous. It means that you create an impact on the world around you, in a small, impactful way or a large one.

11 – “The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change their future by merely changing their attitude.”

Take an honest, deep, hard look at yourself. Do you feel entitled to happiness? Do you feel afraid of success? Or, do you feel like victory will never be yours? If you don’t have the right attitude you will make things much tougher on yourself in the long run. You need to adjust your feelings to work with your goals. And don’t just work on them once and expect that to be it. Reassess your attitude on a regular basis to make sure you are where you need to be in that regard.

12 – “You can have it all. Just not at once.”

If you think being successful means running a company, being a great full-time parent, going on lots of vacations, and having tons of money in the bank, you may be leading yourself toward disappointment. If you focus your life on one thing, it will be hard to be as successful in other things. That doesn’t mean you can’t have other things. It just means you may need to focus on one main goal at a time and be okay with not doing quite as well with the other goals you have.

13 – “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.”

If you spend all of your time worrying about how others perceive you, you won’t have time to fulfill your dreams. You can’t let the judgments of others slow you down in your path or stop you from doing what you need to do to reach your goals. The only person whose opinion matters is your own.

14 – “I was once afraid of people saying, ‘Who does she think she is?’ Now I have the courage to stand and say, ‘This is who I am.’”

Again, you can’t let others define who you think you are or stop you from being the person you want to be. If you’ve taken stock of your strengths and weaknesses and not found yourself wanting, you should be proud of yourself and your self-acceptance. Many people spend their lives so busy trying to live up to other people’s standards that they don’t ever reach their own. Don’t be like those people. Embrace yourself for who you are, and use that self-confidence to reach your dreams.

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

Your path always begins and ends in the same place – with you. You determine your goals. You work to achieve them. And even if you come from a humble background that makes it harder to seek a successful path, push yourself and find a road. It can still happen. Others may help you in big or small ways along your path, but ultimately the only person that can get you to the endpoint is you.

Final Thoughts on Oprah Winfrey’s Mindset of Success

Undoubtedly, Oprah Winfrey started with only a dream and determination. Her unparalleled work ethic and drive for success earned her a status unrivaled by most businesspeople. Not known to rest on her laurels, she’s reputed to be the first one to arrive at her office and the last one to leave–to this day! If you are working towards a specific goal, tear a page out of Oprah’s playbook and blaze your own trail.