| 1. We receive: | | | | convention centers. Even flushing the toilet meant that |
| We came into this world with nothing. We didn't even | | | | somebody was on a trip to a different country called |
| ask to be born, yet we were granted the wonderful | | | | Charla Puor. From those early days, however, I've |
| gift of life. And without asking for anything else, we | | | | moved on to imagine better shoes, better jewelry, |
| continue to receive. We receive encouragement and | | | | better toys, better house appliances, different |
| comfort and kisses and hugs and nourishment and | | | | architectural structures, different banking methods, |
| attention and validation. But we also receive pain and | | | | better educational systems, different movie story lines, |
| discomfort and disappointment and envy and jealousy | | | | different marketing approaches, different retail stores, |
| and abuse and humiliation and embarrassment. | | | | better traveling luggage and I could go on and on. |
| Things come at us and to us from so many different | | | | For years I've found pleasure in creativity and |
| sources that it is sometimes hard at first to distinguish | | | | innovation. I can see just about anything and imagine an |
| which ones are welcomed and which ones are not. | | | | improvement for it. Through the years, the ideas |
| But the fact remains, we start out in life at the | | | | became more structured. Not only would I imagine |
| receiving end. | | | | new stuff, I'd also try to find out what kind of |
| It's funny how becoming so engulfed in our consumer's | | | | technology or combination of technologies were |
| society, blinds us to the fact that to live life always | | | | available to bring the new idea to life, as well as the |
| from the receiving end, would keep us continually in a | | | | right way to market it. There is nothing that gives me |
| powerless and vulnerable, even primitive position. | | | | greater satisfaction than to put a new idea together. |
| My relationship with you Oprah began where | | | | The only thing in my mind that could offer a greater |
| everything else does, at the receiving end. It was in the | | | | experience would be to actually bring one of these |
| late eighties, I was still a teenager and you had a new | | | | ideas to life. But I've come up with probably a couple |
| TV show that would soon make History. I couldn't | | | | hundred ideas only to see them one by one being |
| exactly place my finger on what I was receiving, but I | | | | carried out by someone else. Surprising as it may |
| kept coming back for more. And through the years I | | | | seem, this has not discourage me, but quite the |
| received so many gifts from you that now I wish I had | | | | contrary. To me it's a sign that I am on the right track. |
| written them all down the moment I was receiving | | | | Through years of frustrating unrewarding jobs as well |
| them. | | | | as nice-not-so-frustrating-but still unrewarding jobs, I |
| Those gifts came mainly in the form of insights, | | | | finally believe my childhood circumstances and young |
| wisdom bits and different views of life. Some of them | | | | adult experiences have lead me to find a way to |
| came directly from you, others came from various | | | | channel my innovation and change my used space for |
| guests of yours but were highlighted and customized | | | | the better. |
| by you. | | | | 4. We give: |
| Here are a few from the top of my head:o "People | | | | All that we receive, and assimilate and innovate |
| think you must have, in order to do, in order to be, | | | | prepares us to be able to give of ourselves. It is not |
| when it's the other way around. You need to be, in | | | | only selfish but absurd to think that we came to this |
| order to do, in order to have." This came from | | | | world only to have a good time and erect huge |
| motivational speaker Iyanla Vazant.o "Hope is not a | | | | monuments to our greatness. After all, what makes us |
| plan" -quoting from Anderson Cooper's new booko | | | | great is our ability to help others become great. But |
| "Now that you've heard it, you can no longer pretend | | | | who knows and lives by this principle better than you |
| that you didn't know." -Oprah's originalo "You only | | | | Oprah? |
| accomplish what you believe. Not what you want, not | | | | I have been blessed to have wonderful parents that |
| even what you work for but only what you believe." | | | | motivated me and gave me their blessing at an early |
| -Oprah's original (my personal favorite) | | | | age. First my mom looked at me in the eye and told |
| I've cherished these gifts for years. Of course not only | | | | me that I would do something great someday. Second: |
| have you shared sayings but inspiration as well. I have | | | | when I was 3 or four years old, I had a strange dream. |
| found self-improvement stories and those of people | | | | I was playing with some other little friends in my |
| going from rags to riches, most inspirational while | | | | grandmother's backyard. My friends went on running |
| building my own foundation for success. Shows in the | | | | but I stopped to notice a pale pinkish liquid with sods |
| likes of:o A millionaire a minute (1998) (my | | | | running through a PVC tube that was in one of the |
| all-time-favorite)o My passion, my fortune (1999)o How | | | | walls of the building. I stood there staring in amazement. |
| to empower little girls to succeed (one of my all-time | | | | When I told my dad about the dream the following day, |
| favorites)o Quirky ways people have become rich | | | | he got all excited; he grabbed me and hugged me and |
| (2005)o Ways women just like you have made their | | | | then he said: "this is great Jull, that was champagne; it |
| wildest dreams come through (2005) Just to mention a | | | | means success." |
| few | | | | To both my mom's pronouncing of greatness and to |
| You have been such an inspiration with your voice and | | | | my dad's success anointing with champagne, I didn't |
| with your life, the way you keep giving of yourself, the | | | | really know how to react or what exactly they meant |
| way you don't cease to amaze us. For all that I have | | | | at the time. But through the years I have held myself |
| received from you and continue to receive, thank you. | | | | accountable and have always wanted to live up to |
| 2. We assimilate: | | | | those expectations. My parents keep repeating that |
| Once we've been here on earth for a while, we start | | | | they are already proud of me and that I'm already |
| to associate concepts and reach to conclusions. We | | | | great. This is good to hear, but it's really just fuel to do |
| take all that we've received and put it together in our | | | | even more. |
| own way. Whether our experiences have been | | | | After countless trials and errors and trying to figure out |
| wonderful, good, so-so, not so good or down-right | | | | what and how to do in order to give back to life, the |
| terrible, we assimilate it all and interpret it however we | | | | world and the people who live in it, I decided to put all |
| choose to. At the end of the day, it will all contribute to | | | | my great and even crazy-sounding-ideas in a book for |
| our successes or failures. But it will not be because of | | | | young women to go ahead and bring them to life. The |
| what we received, but rather because of the way we | | | | book contains over 120 ideas in 15 different categories. |
| chose to assimilate it. | | | | I believe this would give me even more satisfaction |
| The earliest a-ha moment that I can recall was a few | | | | than pursuing each one of them myself. To walk down |
| years before the first Oprah Winfrey Show, so I didn't | | | | a certain town and see a building that I helped inspire, |
| call it an a-ha moment back then. It took place during | | | | read a book with a central topic that I threw out there, |
| the early eighties when I was still a girl living in my | | | | step into a mall and see a store that I suggested. All of |
| native country -Panama. My parents are strong | | | | this is really cool, but greater than this would be to |
| believers of Education being the great equalizer. They | | | | know that someone's life was changed for the better |
| would constantly seek ways to motivate us and get | | | | because she found an outrageous idea and thought to |
| us excited about school. From very early on I received | | | | herself: "hey I could do that". The thought that I had |
| the not-so-subtle message from my parents that going | | | | something to do with that brain-wave, like a pebble in a |
| to College really wasn't a decision for me to make, it | | | | pond that creates a ripple which goes on to make a |
| was a must. I only had the privilege of deciding which | | | | great wave in the sea, gives me goose bumps. |
| one I'd rather attend. | | | | That is life worth living. And there's no doubt in my |
| It was a tradition of ours that almost every Saturday | | | | mind that you helped inspire that bigger dream Oprah. |
| or Sunday night we'd ride around in the city to see | | | | Perhaps my plan began selfish and childish almost 16 |
| elegant neighborhoods with beautiful houses where | | | | years ago, when I structured my first idea in a |
| rich people lived. And our parents would say things | | | | commercial format. But as you always say: "God can |
| such as: "that is why you must study, so that you can | | | | dream a better dream for you than you could dream |
| get a good job and be able to afford this lifestyle." I | | | | for yourself " |
| tried to assimilate this information the best way I could | | | | To materialize one idea after another would be great |
| but somehow there was always something missing. I | | | | and could have perhaps lead me to live the Fabulous |
| mean, my parents had what a lot of people | | | | life I've always wanted, but most likely it wouldn't have |
| considered "good jobs", they both worked at what | | | | given me the "what-a-feeling" effect I was really |
| used to be known as The Panama Canal Zone, with | | | | looking for, or at leas not a lasting one. The book was |
| the Southern Command. And although we were not | | | | first written with the intention of inspiring students in |
| considered poor, we weren't living in those elegant | | | | Colleges and Universities to become more creative, |
| neighborhoods in one of the beautiful houses either. | | | | but I realized most of the ideas would appeal more to |
| A Sunday night as we were coming back from our | | | | women. I've just finished reading The BAP handbook. |
| ride a bit earlier than usual, my dad said to us: "look | | | | The official Guide to the Black American Princess. It's a |
| behind you" so all for of us -my two sisters, my | | | | fun reading book. And as much as I enjoyed it and the |
| brother and I- looked back. "you see those elegant | | | | sitcom Girlfriends that was most likely inspired by it, I |
| cars going towards the city?" I could see beautiful | | | | cannot help but think: what if we could inspire young |
| Mercedes, Jaguars, BMWs and such, all brand new | | | | girls not only to be little princesses expecting to be |
| and polished, almost racing towards the city lights while | | | | pampered, and look cute, but to actually create some |
| we were going in the opposite direction. My dad | | | | of the things and products they enjoy so much? What |
| continued: "They are just going out now, their night of | | | | if we could inspire them to create more make up, |
| fun is just starting. While we need to get home to go | | | | shoes, design better Jaguars, write more books, |
| to bed for your mother and I to get up early for work | | | | produce more movies, design new software or a new |
| tomorrow. But they don't have to get up early or even | | | | building? I can hardly wait to see who is going to |
| go to work tomorrow any at all" -why- I asked curious. | | | | create The Shoe Factory or produce the series Bad |
| "because they are the owners and bosses, the ones | | | | Attitude (some ideas suggested in the book). |
| who provide the jobs for others to go to." This has | | | | It saddens me to listen to little girls and watch them |
| been by far my biggest a-ha moment ever. It helped | | | | trying to imitate celebrities that believe all their value is |
| me assimilate important information in a very | | | | locked into their looks and bodies. Why not inspire |
| convenient metaphor. For starters, I didn't want to have | | | | them to use their brains? And not only to become a |
| a job; I wanted to provide them for others. I looked | | | | doctor, lawyer or scientist, which would be great, but |
| back at the elegant cars going towards the city lights | | | | also to create, create, create! Maybe I am being bias |
| for the last time. And for the first time, I knew exactly | | | | because it's just my thing, but I'd love to see more |
| in what direction I wanted to go. | | | | women creators and innovators. And between you |
| 3. We innovate: | | | | and me, it would make me even happier to see a lot |
| Once we have assimilated the things we've been | | | | more women of color become creators (again being |
| receiving, they suffer slight or drastic changes before | | | | bias). |
| we pass them on. We never leave the space we've | | | | We have the ability to do great things. And we can call |
| used the same way we found it regardless of what | | | | on a great power that is more than willing to assist us |
| we do. Hopefully our goal is to change that space for | | | | once we are ready to walk in our destiny. I know that |
| the better. We have the power to turn our | | | | everything happens for a reason and nothing takes |
| experiences into something uniquely beautiful to be | | | | place a minute before it should. Now I am sure that if |
| spread amongst others, leaving behind a sweet and | | | | God had given me what I asked for when I asked for |
| fresh aroma as we go through life. Or we could turn | | | | it, He would have been unable to give me what I really |
| our life experience into something selfish that will leave | | | | wanted. |
| behind an ugly and putrid stench of stagnant water. | | | | I didn't know of a book that was especially dedicated |
| However we want to do it, the lives we have lived will | | | | to boost young women's creativity, but I had written a |
| result into a new and unique product; something only | | | | book, and all I needed to do was redesign the cover |
| one particular individual could have produced. | | | | that it could appear more feminine, the rest was |
| Something will be different just because you were | | | | already done. I hope you are proud of me. |
| born. But then something else will be different because | | | | So there you have it, I have received and assimilated |
| of the innovation that resulted from the assimilated | | | | and innovated and now I am ready to give back. I am |
| information you received. The world is different | | | | ready to get out of the vulnerable position and place |
| because of you; it will be different because of me. We | | | | myself in the empowering seat. Oprah thank you for |
| were all born to make a difference. | | | | letting God use you, thank you for giving of yourself, |
| As a child I've always had a very vivid imagination. I | | | | thanks for making us see you vulnerable because that |
| loved to imagine that the floors in my house were | | | | way we knew that we too could do great things once |
| streets and avenues. That shoes were cars, | | | | we overcame. Thanks for all that you have given and |
| chandeliers and lamps were restaurants and | | | | continue to give. I am forever grateful. Thank you. |