2. Identify what’s truly important to you. Put your best efforts into the tasks that really matter to you, whether they are personally important or critical to your work team’s success. Director Lee Daniels said this about Oprah on the film set of The Butler: “She disconnected from the business world and her company that she was running.

She didn’t come with a posse. She was committed to the character, and she was committed to the work.”

Oprah Winfrey is a genuine media phenomenon. For 25 years she hosted and produced her own TV talk show, the highest rated in U.S. history, produced by her own company, Harpo Productions. She founded a popular magazine called O, The Oprah Magazine. She has written several best-selling books and starred in or produced many TV and theatrical movie productions, winning an Oscar nomination for her role in The Color Purple. She is now joint owner of the cable channel OWN (for “Oprah Winfrey Network”), which runs top-rated soap operas, miniseries, and interview shows and earns $125 million in ad revenue a year. With major roles in two upcoming films, Oprah also recently joined the CBS news show 60 Minutes as a special commentator and is teaming up with Heinz Foods to produce nutritious packaged foods, with 10 percent of the profits earmarked for charities fighting hunger. One of the most influential women in the world, she is worth $3 billion; she and Michael Jordan are the only two black billionaires in the United States.